Safeguarding Your Skin

Sensitivity

The skin is the largest organ in the human body and it gets damaged easily. Women's skin is more sensitive and prone to damage than men's, warranting more care. Too much exposure to the sun, (use a moisturiser with a sun protection factor of at least 30), dust or cold weather can damage your skin. Not getting enough quality sleep or not drinking enough water results in the same.

Adequate water consumption is important for the body's functions, including the skin. Water helps expel harmful toxins, including the skin. Using the wrong moisturisers and cleansers, using strong soaps, (if the pH level of the soap is between 8 and 10, it can dry your skin due to the alkaline effect as the pH level of our skin is 5.5). For this reason, using a face wash or cleanser is best.

Going to sleep without removing your makeup has adverse effects as well. Your skin renews itself while you sleep. With makeup clogging your pores, it makes the skin unable to breathe, which causes fatigue and damages your skin, causing breakouts of acne and blackheads. Do not use the same moisturiser that you use on your body on your face as well. Your face skin is thinner than the skin on your body. Use a non-comedogenic moisturiser to prevent clogging your skin.

You being unclean or too clean (excessive washing and exfoliating) can damage your skin, making it dry. This, in turn, causes wrinkles. Using very hot water to shower, frequent long showers, exposing your hands to water for a long time when doing the dishes, positioning your skin close to a strong heat source for long hours, or using whitening creams can seriously damage the skin, causing even skin irritations that can disfigure you.

Purchasing Products

It's best to select creams that nourish your skin rather than whitening it. When purchasing cosmetics of any kind, make sure to check the label for the ingredients and expiry date. Purchase products that don't contain mercury. When you use a new brand, if you feel an itching or tingling sensation, discontinue use right away; even if the cost of the cream was high, you shoudnt use it; think of the cost of your skin instead.

Select face washes and other products according to your skin type and age—yes, age matters too. If you are over 25 years, it's time to start using an anti-ageing cream because regular creams don't do much for your skin as it starts to age. Use a moisturiser with retinol at bedtime; it helps speed up skin cell turnover (the shedding of dead skin cells and birth of new skin cells which occur between 28 to 40 days). Everyone has a different skin type, causing the need for different types of moisturisers and face washes. For example, dry skin, normal skin, combination skin, oily skin, and sensitive skin. If you have sensitive skin, you could be allergic to lanolin.

Dry skin needs a rich moisturiser, and if you have combination skin, use a light moisturiser on your face, but use a heavier cream on dry spots. During summer, use a lighter lotion and during winter, use a cream or ointment. If you have oily skin, it's best to use an oil-free moisturiser. Even if you have oily skin, it's no reason to overwash, because that will strip your skin of natural oils, which will cause the skin to dry and in return, overproduce more oil. Any skin type needs to be cleansed and moisturised according to its needs.

• Dry skin: When you have dry skin, you need to use cleansers and moisturisers rich in emollients such as coconut oil, jojoba oil, olive oil, almond oil, or sesame oil. Beeswax, shea butter, cocoa butter, Petroleum jelly, lanolin, squalene, paraffin, cetyl alcohol, and triethyexanoin which will prevent your skin from drying, keeping your skin soft and smooth, as well as making it look and feel better.

• Normal skin: normal skin cleansers and moisturisers should contain emollients such as camphor or grapefruit.

• Combination skin: combination skin cleansers and moisturisers should contain emollients such as aloe vera, white tea, vitamin c, and lemon bioflavonoids. 

• Oily skin: oily skin cleansers and moisturisers should contain emollients such as retinol, glycolic acid, hyaluronic acid, salicylic acid, niacinamide, dimethicone, and clay.

Some people have sensitive skin, which means certain ingredients such as lanolin can cause an allergic reaction. Products containing petroleum jelly, glycerine, beeswax, vegetable waxes (plant-based), and hydrogenated oils should be used instead. Opt for moisturisers that are labelled 'hypoallergenic'.

Although people with sensitive skin may be allergic to lanolin, it's a good ingredient which locks in moisture, keeping the skin hydrated and smooth for people who aren't allergic to it. Lanolin is used widely in cosmetic products due to its rich, fatty content. Even though dry skin is one of the types of skin, certain health conditions can aggravate it. They are as follows: eczema, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, hypothyroidism, kidney disease, and diabetes.

Ageing skin

As you age, your skin ages too. Skin ageing can start early as 25, but it won't be very noticeable until around 40. It may not be noticeable at first, but with time, you will develop age spots, fine lines, and wrinkles.

To keep our skin from ageing fast, you need to opt for anti-ageing moisturisers. It is best to use a day cream during the day and a night cream when you go to bed. The latter will help with cell regeneration as you sleep. Always check the ingredients and expiry date. Make sure it's the right kind for your skin type.

When you use anti-ageing creams, the skin will feel smooth, contours will feel firmer, and the fine lines will be reduced. Using it continuously will help slow the ageing process. A person with oily skin can start using anti-ageing moisturisers and eye cream at age of 30. If you have dry skin, it's best to start early as your 20's.

• Ingredients in anti-ageing products: retinol, resveratrol, glycolic acid, hyaluronic acid, and plant-based stem cells. 

But it's best to use different formulas for different times of the day. Your skin doesn't know the time, so it's logical to use day cream during the day, which is when you go out in the sun and use makeup. At night, all you need to do is sleep after you put the night cream and let it correct the damages and heal your skin. It can be a thicker formula than the day cream, which is lighter with less corrective properties.

Dynamics of Anxiety

Anxiety is a complex condition with psychological, biological and environmental factors causing predisposition to stress.

Psychological Factors

psychodynamic theories

Anxiety is a central concept in psychoanalytic conceptions of abnormal behaviour. According to Sigmund Freud, anxiety-based disorders, or neurotic disorders, are called neuroses. Psychodynamic Theory is a concept that explains a person's personality in terms of conscious and unconscious ways such as unconscious desires and beliefs.

Freud said our personality develops from the interactions of three fundamental structures of the human mind: the id, ego, and superego. Our efforts to find balance among the conflicts and desires of these structures determine our behaviour and approach of the world. The way we balance any situation determines our manner of resolving a conflict between two overreaching behavioural tendencies: our biological aggressive and pleasure-seeking drives vs. our socialised internal control over those drives.

Psychoanalysts believe obsessions and compulsions as ways of handling anxiety. According to Freud, obsessions are symbolically related to, but not as terrifying, as the underlying impulses. A compulsion is a way of taking back or undoing one's unacceptable urges, as with obsessive thoughts of dirt and compulsive handwashing are used to deal with one's dirty sexual impulses. Generalized anxiety and panic attacks are believed to occur when one's defences are too weak to control or contain neurotic anxiety, but strong enough to hide the underlying conflict.

The Id

The id is the most primitive form of the three structures; its only concern is of instant gratifications of its physical urges and needs. Its behaviour is entirely unconscious; outside of unconscious thought, for example; if it saw someone having something it likes, it would grab it for itself without knowing or caring that it's being rude. Its only concern would be of itself.

The Superego

The superego cares about social rules and morals, similar to what some people call a moral compass or conscience. This develops as a child considers right and wrong according to its cultural background. For this reason, unlike the id, the superego wouldn't take what's not belonging to it even if it needs it as it would be rude.

On the other hand, if both the id and the superego were involved and the id was strong enough to override the super ego's moral compass, it would take what it wants with no knowledge or concern about being rude but would feel shame and regret in the aftermath.

The Ego

The ego; in contrast to the id, who is all instinctual and superego, who is all about morals; is the rational pragmatic part of our personality. It's less primitive than the id and is partly conscious and unconscious. This is what Freud considered to be the 'Self'.

The ego's job is to balance the superego's and id's demands in a practical sense of reality. In the sense of the conflict between taking or not taking another person's thing, the ego would decide to buy what he needs instead. While this takes more time, the ego decides to make the sacrifice as an effort of compromise, which is satisfying your need for the thing you desire without taking part in an unpleasant social situation that could make you feel regret and shame in the aftermath.

Freud believed that the ego, superego, and id were constantly in conflict, resulting in adult personality and behaviour being rooted as a result of these internal struggles throughout childhood. Freud believed that a person with a strong ego has a healthy personality—and that imbalances in this system can cause neurosis (now thought as anxiety and depression, as well as certain unhealthy behaviours).

Cognitive Factors

Cognitive theorists stress that maladaptive thought patterns and beliefs associated with anxiety tend to magnify a situation worse than it is, causing people with anxiety to anticipate the worst outcome and making them powerless to cope effectively. Invasive thoughts about previous traumatic events are the main feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The presence of these thoughts after a traumatic event predicts later development of PTSD.

Cognitive processes play an important role in panic disorders. According to David Barlow, panic attacks are triggered by exaggerated normal misinterpretations of normal anxiety symptoms such as dizziness, heart palpitations, and breathlessness. A person misinterprets these as signs as a pending heart attack or psychological loss of control, creating more anxiety which spirals out of control, causing a full-blown panic attack. Helping panic-attack patients realize that it's just a bit of anxiety and not a heart attack can reduce the patient's anxiety and in turn, reduce panic-attacks.

The Role of Learning

From a behavioural perspective, classical conditioning observational learning or operant conditioning can contribute to the development of an anxiety disorder. Some fears are associated with traumatic experiences, which is a classical fear of response for a person who has had a traumatic experience like a fall from a height or almost drowning, which could cause fear of heights, or getting into a pool or other source of water.

However, classical conditioning cannot be the only case; there are people who have never been in a plane crash that are afraid of flying and people who have never had a bad fall, but fear heights (observational phobia). Seeing a random plane crash could trigger a fear in some people like some are afraid of spiders although they have never been bitten or there aren't any poisonous spiders in their counties. 

Yet, most people don't develop phobias through observation. It could be a biological and cognitive fact that causes some to develop phobias from observing or hearing while others don't. Once anxiety is learnt classically or vicariously, it could be triggered by cues from the environment or internal cues such as thoughts and images. In phobic reactions, the cues tend to be external, relating to feared objects or situations; whereas in panic disorders, the cues to the arousal of anxiety are internal bodily sensations such as one's heart rate, mental images of collapsing, and having a seizure in a public place.

In addition to classical conditioning and learning, operant conditions also play a role in motivating people with anxiety to avoid or escape it due to the unpleasant emotional state behaviour successful in reducing anxiety such as compulsions, or phobic avoidance responses become stronger through negative reinforcement.

Sociocultural Factors

Social and cultural factors can play a role in anxiety disorder development. The role of culture is not shown in culture-bound disorders that only occur in certain locales. One such phobia is found in Japan called 'Tianjin Kyofushu'. People affected by this disorder are pathologically frightened of offending others by emitting offensive odours, staring inappropriately, blushing or having a blemish, or improper facial expressions. This condition has been attributed to the Japanese cultural value of extreme interpersonal sensitivity and cultural prohibitions against expressing negative emotions or causing discomfort in others.

Another culture-bound disorder is 'koro'; a South-east Asian anxiety disorder in which a man thinks that his penis will retract into his abdomen and kill him. Western culture has culture-specific anxiety reactions too. Formally classified as an eating disorder, anorexia nervosa has a strong phobic component (fear of weight gain) and so also obsessive-compulsive elements. 

This eating disorder is mostly found in Western countries due to the cultural obsession of being thin. Causes of anxiety are complex and often interact with each other. These conditions can be viewed at biological, psychological, and environmental levels.

Thyroid Disease Overview

When you don't have a thyroid gland, you will feel symptoms of hypothyroidism. Reasons for not having a thyroid gland are being born without one, or surgical removal of the gland (thyroidectomy) due to thyroid cancer, goitre or destruction of the thyroid gland's ability to produce thyroxine due to radiation for thyroid cancer.

Hypothyroidism and RAI

When you don’t have a thyroid gland, you can suffer the same symptoms as hypothyroidism and you may need the same medical treatments; but you need to consider a proper diet, as well as your thyroid hormone levels. There are other situations that can cause the functioning of the thyroid gland to be severely underactive, even if the gland isn’t absent; Radioactive Iodine treatment (RAI) for Grave's disease is one of them. RAI therapy is a form of ablation therapy where radioactive Iodine is circulated throughout the body in the bloodstream, causing it to become concentrated in your thyroid gland and destroy its cells.

Radioactive Iodine is mainly absorbed by thyroid cells and hence, has little effect on other cells. RAI is used to treat follicular and papillary thyroid cancer, as well as hyperthyroidism. Before RAI treatment, you will need to prepare yourself by going on a low-iodine diet for two weeks, discontinue thyroid medication, or get a thyrogen injection to raise (Thyroid-stimulating Hormone) TSH levels without stopping thyroid medicine. Depending on age, short-term side effects of RAI include swelling and inflammation of salivary glands, swelling in the neck, nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, and dry mouth. Long-term side effects may include irregular menstrual cycles for women, low sperm count in men, reduced levels of blood cells, future leukaemia risk, dry eyes, nausea, as well as changes in taste or smell.

Hashimoto's Disease

Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune condition in which antibodies gradually destroy the thyroid gland's ability to produce hormones. Medications such as lithium used to treat bipolar disorder may affect your ability to produce the thyroid hormone.

Hypothyroidism is a low thyroid hormone-level condition when you have a low-functioning thyroid gland, or when you are born without one. Symptoms are fatigue, weight gain, cold intolerance, sleep disorders, difficulty concentrating (brain fog), depression, dry skin, muscle cramps, etc.

Hypothyroidism can be treated with adequate thyroid medication, but symptoms cannot be managed by medicine alone. Lifestyle changes such as an adequate amount of sleep, use of moisturizers, and wearing heavy clothes help keep your thyroid in better function. Taking higher doses of medicine than needed may cause more harm than good; when you take high doses of thyroid medicine, it can cause hyperthyroid symptoms such as heat intolerance, nervousness, manic or hyper/hypomanic.

Grave's Disease

A small percentage are born without a thyroid gland, or with a malformed thyroid (congenital hypothyroidism)—and some people have a condition called toxic nodule goitre, also known as Grave's disease. Grave's disease is a common cause of hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism is when too much thyroid hormone is produced by the thyroid gland. Treatment for this is usually removal of the thyroid gland and thyroid nodules. A goitre is an enlarged thyroid gland; it can cause swelling in the neck, difficulty swallowing or breathing, warranting removal of the gland. Removal of the thyroid gland due to cosmetic reasons are very rare.

Thyroid cancer is one of the least deadly cancers with a higher survival rate than most cancers. It's more prevalent among younger people than with other cancers, which appear during the ages of 45 and 54. Women are more susceptible to thyroid cancer than men. Thyroid cancer can come with or without warning signs; some have no symptoms, while others tend to cause pain or an enlarged lymph node. A diagnosis is usually made when a lump or swelling appears on the neck with or without pain, a nodule found during a routine physical examination, or during an ultrasound (US) scan.

Surgery and hormone-replacement medicine are some of the options for thyroid cancer. Increased use of ultrasound has made it easier to detect thyroid nodules than it was possible in the past, making even the smallest nodules visible, causing overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis tends to be a problem at times resulting in unnecessary thyroid hormone treatment such as hormone medicine or thyroid gland removal, even when there aren't any obvious symptoms.

Thyroid Cancers

There are four main thyroid types of thyroid cancer. Papillary or Mixed Papillary-follicular Thyroid Cancer is the most common cancer caused by exposure to radiation and affects 80% of all cases, while cases of Follicular or Hurthle Cell Thyroid Cancer amount to 13%, Medullary Thyroid Cancer about 4% cases, and Anaplastic thyroid cancer only 2%.

The less-common thyroid cancers are thyroid tumours, thyroid lymphoma, and thyroid sarcoma. Thyroid cancer symptoms are as follows: thyroid nodules, enlarged lymph nodes, swelling, pain in the neck, and a hoarse voice. If you have a family history of thyroid cancer, checking for thyroid nodules may be precautionary. The older you get, the higher the chances are of you getting thyroid nodules. Keeping in mind that only a few nodules are cancerous, if you notice a lump in the area of the of your thyroid, get it evaluated.

There is no known reason for thyroid cancer other than the fact that some cases are inherited by our genes. They are Familial Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma, Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, Cowden Disease, Carney Complex Type 1, and Non-familial Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma. Other cases occur due to mutations in genes. That happens over time for reasons such as low iodine levels and radiation exposure. You can check your thyroid nodules and lumps at home, but many are too small to be felt or seen. Thyroid cancer is diagnosed through a series of tests, and labs can help rule out other thyroid conditions too.

Cancer Treatment

Depending on your condition, the doctor may do blood tests; fine needle aspiration biopsy, Genetic testing for certain types of imaging like ultrasound, Computed Tomography (CT) scan, Radioiodine scan or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan to evaluate your condition. These tests can indicate the stage of your thyroid cancer. Over 98% of thyroid patients have a survival rate of five years, but the older you are, the chances of the cancer being aggressive are higher.

Treatment for thyroid cancer depends on the kind of cancer; how large it is if it has spread, as well as your overall health. Surgery to remove the thyroid gland or a part of it is common, as is thyroid hormone-replacement medication afterwards to keep the gland functioning. Radioactive iodine therapy, radiation, chemo, alcohol ablation, active surveillance or targetted drug therapy may be done too. Coping with a thyroid cancer diagnosis can cause changes in emotional, physical and social aspects. You may want to think about lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise. Educating yourself about thyroid cancer can be fruitful, thus making you able to help yourself and others with thyroid cancer.

Thyroid cancer can cause cardiovascular diseases (CV) such as Encompassing Heart Disease, Aortic Aneurysms and stroke. Even with proper treatment for thyroid cancer, CV can develop. Several therapeutic methods used for thyroid cancer can also cause (CV). Sometimes thyroid cancer can manifest with an overactive thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism), causing ill cardiovascular health. By limiting processed food and red meats while eating fruits and vegetables—especially antioxidant-rich food—you may ward off cancer risk and heart disease. 

Risk of atrial fibrillations is increased with hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer. If you are diagnosed with Medullary or Anaplastic Thyroid while pregnant, putting off having a Thyroidectomy until the baby is born can have a negative effect. It may be necessary to have the surgery during the first 24 to 26 weeks of your pregnancy if your thyroid cancer has grown by 50% in volume and 20% in diameter. Surgery may also be necessary if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes.

Anxiety Disorders

The anxious mind

Anxiety is a psychological disorder. We all tend to get anxious at some point in our lives; waiting for a test result of an underlying health condition, results from a college examination or job interview; any number of things can make us anxious, which is normal in stressful situations.
However, people with anxiety disorders tend to worry about everything. The slightest issue makes them anxious. People who do not understand this condition may ridicule the person who suffers from the disorder, causing them even more anguish.

For a person with anxiety, the frequency and intensity of response to problems are magnified. A person with anxiety gets emotional and tense easily. They tend to have worrying thoughts which make them unable to cope with life. It results in increased heart rate, the rise of blood pressure, rapid breathing, muscle tension, nausea, dry mouth, frequent urination and diarrhoea. There are behavioural changes too; they tend to avoid certain situations and lack task performance. Anxiety disorders come in so many different forms, and they are as follows:

• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Panic Disorder
• Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
• Phobic disorders

The most common psychological disorder is GAD. People with anxiety disorders are affected throughout their life, while women are more likely to develop anxiety disorders than men. In many cases, anxiety disorders are considered clinically significant, which means that they interfere in a person's life, or cause them to seek medical or psychological treatment. Phobias are also a part of anxiety disorders.

What's a phobia?

phobias are irrational fears; be it a fear of an object or situation. People with phobias understand that their fears aren't natural, but their condition still makes them helpless, making it impossible for them to do anything about it. It's like knowing what to do yet being forced to do the opposite. All they can do is try their best to avoid the said object or situation.

The most common phobia is agoraphobia, which is the fear of public places where escape is improbable. Social phobia, which is a fear of being evaluated and embarrassed by others.
Specific phobias are fear of spiders, snakes, dogs, enclosed spaces, water, germs, injections, and heights. Phobias are mostly developed during childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, but there is a chance of phobias arising later in life as well. According to the situation experienced, phobias rarely subside.

GAD

In most cases of phobia, they intensify with time. With frequent encounters of the said situation or object, the phobia tends to intensify, which is the reason they avoid such situations and objects. GAD is a chronic state of anxiety not attached to a specific situation or object. This anxiety can continue from weeks to months without any symptoms present. When affected by this disorder, it makes the person unable to concentrate, as well as make decisions and commitments.

Panic Disorder

Panic Disorder is unpredictable. Even when there is no identifiable danger, the patients can have panic attacks. This makes it terrifying as it can make them feel that they are on the verge of death. A panic attack can occur when the said person is asleep or wide awake. When it happens when the person is asleep, he or she can wake up, but find themselves unable to move or even speak. This is called sleep paralysis; the person is not actually paralysed but feels so. They fear that death has come to take them. This can be infuriating to the sufferer.

The fear of such panic attacks occurring keep them from leaving familiar surroundings; they often isolate themselves at home. Panic Disorder is diagnosed when recurrent attacks are not tied to any stimuli followed by psychological or behavioural issues caused by a persistent fear of future attacks or agoraphobic response. Panic Disorder emerges during adolescence or early adulthood, which may or may not accompany agoraphobia.

OCD

Obsessions, or unwelcome thoughts, images or impulses, often invade a person's consciousness and are hard to dismiss or control. This could make a person compulsive. As a result, this person will often repeat the same things; such as washing and cleaning, rechecking if the door was locked, or the stove was switched off over and over.
This helps relieve the anxiety caused by the obsessive-compulsion for a while, but not indefinitely. Being unable to perform this compulsive act can aggravate the person's anxiety, which can result in a panic attack. Therefore, it's best not to interfere and let this person carry on with their rituals. The onset of OCD starts when a person is in their 20's.

PTSD

PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder which occurs when a person is exposed to severe trauma. The symptoms are anxiety, distress and arousal that wasn't present before being exposed to trauma. This person tends to relive the trauma recurrently as dreams and flashbacks. The victim tries to avoid situations that stimulate anxiety by numbing themselves to the world.

This person tends to suffer from survivor's guilt, where he survived while others were killed. PTSD was first diagnosed in soldiers who survived the horrors of war; who had either been injured and or had lost their comrades. Civilians who had been subjected to war could be affected by PTSD as well. Compared to men, women's levels of PTSD is higher when exposed to traumatic events. The psychological issues caused by PTSD can result in other psychological disorders as well. Women have a higher chance than men to develop depressive disorders and alcoholism when suffering from PTSD.