Iron Dog Fitness by Orozco

Do You Have Brown Spots on Your Face?

by Raquel Sanchez, Lic. Esthetician

Hyperpigmentation is one the largest concerns in the beauty industry today. It’s a skin condition which affects many people. It is also the most difficult to educate

people on because they do not understand how important it is to protect their skin with the daily use of sunscreen.

The question frequently asked from my clients, friends and family is “What are these brown spots, why am I getting them and how can I get rid of them”? My question to them is “do you use sunscreen?”  More often the not, the answer is, No. Sunscreen is very important for healthy skin; it is a simple way to help prevent hyperpigmentation and skin cancer.

Hyperpigmentation appears more commonly on your face, neck, arms and hands. Hyperpigmentation may be caused by sun damage, acne, medication and hormonal imbalances. Hyperpigmentation is an over production of melanin, which is responsible for the color in our skin, eyes and hair. Melanin protects our skin against the harmful effects of the sun. In other words if you are out in the sun for a long period without sunscreen, the sun triggers melanin production to increase. When it increases, the cells containing melanin are damaged or over stimulated which causes darker spots or patches to appear.

Sun exposure is the biggest cause of hyperpigmentation and it can make existing hyperpigmentation worse. Aside from hyperpigmentations, sun exposure leads to skin cancer, pre-mature aging, capillary damage, free radical damage, and collagen and elastin to worsen. Daily sunscreen can be found in the form of moisturizer or regular sun block. There is a large selection to fit your skin type and life style. The best sunscreens to use are considered “broad spectrum” because they block both UVA (aging rays) and UVB (burning rays) rays. It is important to understand how SPF (sun protection factor) works and how much protection you are getting by understanding the number level. For example, an SPF2 it is blocking 50% of UVB, so you can stay in the sun twice as long as you would be able to without protection. An SPF8 blocks 87.5% of UVB rays, leaving 12.5% to penetrate and burn your skin. An SPF15 blocks 93.33% of UVB rays. The most common and recommended is an SPF30 blocks 96.6% of UVB rays.

I have mentioned that medication can also cause hyperpigmentation. Birth control has been known to cause hyperpigmentation around the mouth. Always ask your doctor for any side effects on whatever medication you are taking.

As an esthetician, it is my job to guide my clients on how to take care of their skin. During a facial, I analyze their skin, explaining to them what I see; I ask many questions for example: How often do wash your face? Do you exfoliate and if so how many times a week?  Most important do you use sunscreen? Most people unfortunately do not know about exfoliating.  I have clients that exfoliate every day or don’t exfoliate at all.  Over exfoliation can make hyperpigmentation worse.  It is important to learn how to and how often to exfoliate your face.  Another question I ask is: How much water do you consume? Nutrition plays an important factor in maintaining a healthy skin, along with exercise. Healthy skin involves a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, some women go on diets to low in fat.   Their body fat drops too low causing hormonal imbalances that can cause skin problems including hyperpigmentation and acne.

Hyperpigmentation can be treated by chemical peels, laser treatments, microdermabrasion, and at home kits. Peels improve the texture and smooth the texture of the skin by removing its damaged outer layers, and increase hydration, intercellular lipids, barrier function moisture retention, elastin and collagen production. Peels also reduce fine lines, wrinkles and pigmentation. Peels are used to control skin conditions such as acne, hyperpigmentation, clogged pores, eczema and dry skin.  Hyperpigmentation can be caused by peels and lightening agents, so caution is needed in using these products and treatments. Always ask a professional skin therapist licensed by the California State Board for any concerns regarding your skin.

We need to make it a habit everyday after we wash our face to apply a moisturizer with SPF on our face, neck and ears. 

For more infomation you may contact Raquel at:

Raquel Sanchez

Han's Beauty Supply

(323) 614-3022

e-mail: laestetica@live.com

( January Issue of Women's Corner )

Soy Protein: Good for Women or Not Good for Women?

by Damien (a.k.a. Adrian Orozco)

Today you will find thousands of articles on Soy Protein with many conflicting statements on its benefits and the contrary.  Many products geared toward women and weight loss push the idea that consuming Soy products will help with weight loss and can replace a animal protein based diet. Some of the publications claim to alleviate various women's issues such as menopause and cancer.  The research that comes out at times shows in favor of digesting these products and at other times it will contradict everything that has been put out there. 

Many issues such as osteoporosis, anemia and breast cancer concern women in particular and more specifically anorexia in atheltes and models.  The menstrual cycle plays a huge role in these risk factors associated with women.  Blood loss during this natural cycle means loss of many nutrients essential nutrients such as iron and calcium which can lead to anemia and weakened bones. 

Soybean or Soybean based products such as Tofu are well known in today's market.  Products as such are known to contain both Iron and Calcium .  Tofu has about 10%DV of Calcium and approx 33%DV of Iron which are both key nutrients important more specifically to women.  Some research has come out to show that soy containing products do not specifically address symptoms of menopause in women but instead contain the isoflavones genistein and daidzein of which they are the primary food source.

Isoflavones such as daidzein and genistein are know to protect against free-radical cell damage.  Even though it might not be true that soy alleviates symptoms of menopause as shown in 2006 by AHA ( American Heart Association ) the following benefits I mentioned should be enough to encourage intake of soy-based products.  Some research shows that Soy-based products are not a complete source of protein but other tests show that they are.  One method showed it wasn't a complete source of protein in a non-animal source diet.

The test which until 1990 showing that Soy-based products were not a complete source of protein was the (PER) but this was shown to be an ineffective method of determining.  Instead today the method used and universally accepted to test the bio-availability of protein from different sources is the ( PDCAAS ) Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score.  Egg Whites having a high score of 1.0 while soy-based products such as soy-protein has a 0.92 score which is the same for beef.  Soy Concentrate has a higher score, that being 0.99.   Another common method know to show the availability of a protein source and its completenes is the BV (Biological Value) score in which a whole egg score being 100, beef 74.3 and Soy a 74.  Whey Protein Concentrate scores the highest which is 104. Here are some other scores: Cow Milk 90, Human Milk 95, and Tofu 64.   

Soy Protein is also well know for its benefits on the Heart.  Research shows that Soy-based products reduce LDL also known as bad cholesterol.  The study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (Vol 333. No 5) confirmed that although it reduced LDL and cholestrol profiles in general it did not raise HDL.  No problem.  HDL which is the good cholestrerol can be raised by exercise.  Tofu also has Omega-3 which is well known for its anti-inflammatory effects.

The conclusion to all this is that although there might not be significant research to support that it will reduce any risks of cancer it will provide essential nutrients required by women such as iron, calcium and iron.  Soy will benefit your heart by reducing LDL and due to its low saturated fat and higher unsaturated fats it will naturally help you lose weight and maintain a healthy body weight. 

( December Issue of Women's Corner )

Women and Strength Training

by Damien (Adrian Orozco)

Why is it that everytime I see pictures on women's magazines they show them lifting a 3lb or 5lb weight.  Are we to believe that 5lbs is the maximum weight that women can lift?

I think not.  I know I've seen some women lifting some serious weight inside the gym back when I used to work for Bally Total Fitness and later Gold's Gym.  Problem was that most of the time I actually saw women lifting those light dumbells. 

For the most part I'd see both young and older women lifting those cute little 3lb and 5lb dumbells. So the fact was that most of the women in the gym were actually fullfilling that image.  I'd ask myself, "Are they lifting those light dumbells because that is what the magazines show that women could lift or was it because they are afraid they might get very muscular?"

What ever it may be, the fact is women are much stronger than what the media portrays and unless they are using testosterone based steriods, chances are they won't look like the Gov. Arnold of California back in his bodybuilding days. 

If your women and lifting light weights, please continue to read this article and soon you will learn why you might not be seeing much progress in your workouts.

I've trained alot of women in my life and to this day I have yet to see a woman trying to tone up and lose weight put on so much muscle she looks like she could lift me. What I have seen is women that got really strong and yet look as feminine as they wanted to look.  Famous women like Jessica Alba and Britney Spears train to look fit but if you pay careful attention they never have these huge bulging biceps or bodybuilder thighs.  What about Angelina Jolie?  Do you think she has tones of musculature.  I'll bet you she is very strong and lifts heavier dumbells like 20 and up instead of a 3lb weight.  These actressess look fit and healthy and very womanly as opposed to manly.  The fear of lifting heavy weights and then getting overly muscular is just not realistic for most women unless you have the genetics.  That is another story. 

Check out this link by Shape magazine and you will see what I mean about women featured lifting light dumbells.  I am confident that this lady can lift weights much heavier than that.  Sure she looks lean and toned but that doesn't mean she should only lift light weight for the exercise demos. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1475282701/bclid1475279191/bctid1475273757

If you start to get to muscular is it reversible?  Absolutely.  Step it back a notch on your strength training and focus maybe more on endurance training and before you know it the muscle is gone.  The reason for this is that in order to build muscle you must lift heavy weights and keep your reps low to encourage muscle hypertrohy.  To improve strength and endurance keep your rep range at 12 and up and this will simply encourage slow muscle strength but higher muscle endurance.  Doing so will keep your red slow twitch muscles doing most of the work as opposed to your white fast twitch fibers.  The fast twitch muscle fibers are the ones involved in muscle growth and power and if you don't keep your reps at 1 to 10 range, for the most part, they won't really respond to growth. 

One of the things I like to do with women is to focus on getting them more powerful while improving their endurance.  How is that possible you might ask.  Lifting very heavy weight can actually be performed without gaining to much unwanted muscle.  Don't be afraid to add 5- 10lbs of muscle.  Adding these few pounds will actually help you get off that unwanted fat much faster.  Did you know that every pound of muscle will add a spike to your metabolism making you a fat burning melting pot as you walk about your daily activities.                                                                   

I like to use light weight in the beginning and then suddenly step it up a notch.  I tell my women clients that I am going to pick up the pace but because I seriously believe they can lift more than they believe, I let them know I am confident they will lift the weight.  I teach them the mechanics of using the body more effectively to get them to lift the weight and ensure them I will be there every step of the way.  Before they know it they realize I was right and realize how much more stronger they are.  I shouldn't have to tell them because if you think of it, women carry the single heaviest burden that men don't have to be concerned with.  You probably guest it. Pregnancy lasts 9 months if all goes according to schedule.  That is a long time.  These time in their lives requires 9 months of endurance and pain.  The guys got lucky on this one because we don't have to go through this.  They also carry around the kids most of the time in the early ages of childhood.  So why is it that all the magazines focus on showing that women can only lift light weights. 

I love to see the smile of my women clients when they find out how much stronger they are.  I also love hearing the stories about how they moved the refrigerator by themselves to clean up behind the back or how they talked to their girlfriends about how much weight they are lifting.  These are the things that make my life so rewarding.  Hearing how great they feel is the only trophies I need to have. 

I also teach my women clients to not worry so much about the weight on the scale but instead to focus on the bodyfat measurements and girth measurements.  These two are the single most important factors which show what is really happening.  Try taking some before and after photos so that you can see the changes you are making. 

So ladies, pick up those heavy weights and start pumping some serious iron and soon you will see losses in inches and millimeters and gains in results and powers.  You'll notice faster changes in 30 minutes to 1 hour of serious iron lifting workout in comparison to the equivalent done and wasted on 2 hours of cardio and lifting with light 3 and 5 pound weights. Get yourself a good pair of Kettlebells and you'll see the Diva deep within reveal itself from without.  The new physique you acquire from grinding out those heavy weights will reap you the reward you'd been seeking the entire year or longer on the treadmill.

( October Issue of Women's Corner )

Is It Possible That There Is A Connection Between Breast Cancer and Obesity?

Here is what the study showed:  Of 606 women whom were studied with existing locally advanced breast cancer, The 5 year survival rate was 56.8% amongst obese women, 56.3% for overweight women but for the normal weight women it was 67.4%.  That means that the normal weight women had atleast an 11.1% better rate of survival in 5 years compared to the other women whom were not normal weight.  Now referring to the 10 year survival rate, it was 42.7% for the obese, 41.8% for the overweight and 56.5% for the normal weight women.  Looking back at the 5 year rate, you can see that had the obese women and overweight women returned to their normal weight they might be able to add another 5 years.  In terms of the risk for re-occurance, again the statistics favored the normal weight whom only had a 38.5% chance in comparison to the obese who had a whopping 56.8% which is increase risk of 18.3%.  In 10 years the risk increased to 58% for the obese while it stood at a 45.4% chance in the normal weight women. 

Cristofanilli was further quoted as having said, "Obesity goes far beyond just how a person looks or any physical strain from carrying around extra weight".  Obesity for both sexes is obviously a burden and the emotional strain is also a factor to consider.  Those whom are overweight usually have a low self-esteem or consider exercise to be to much of a burden. 

I ask this question: "Is the daily burden of having to suffer the consequences not a burden enough to make exercise a benefit instead of a burden?"  One of the varsity teams parent whom I see almost daily as I leave the school considers that exercise is just to much.  Even after recently acquiring diabetes due to his lifestyle, he concidered it much easier to be on a pill and let the disease take its course instead of listening to his doctor's advice of taking up an exercise program.  Although his son is playing for the Varsity football team, I can already begin to see the upbringing of his fathers decisions taken affect on him.  He told me that he wanted to lose weight and look fitter but that his challenge was not having the choice of a healthy diet when he sits at the dinner table.  It puzzled me but I encouraged him to make an effort to get his family to make a change and to not lose his desire toward a healthier lifestyle.  I explained to him that he would have to try and make the change and in the future pass that new change to his own family in order to break the cycle.  As I've said before, I myself faced this challenge with my family and made the transition successfully by reading alot on nutrition and obviously taking action by applying the neccessary steps to make it happen for me. 

Moisturizers with Vitamins for Soft and Healthy Skin, Hmmmm?

by Damien ( a.k.a. Adrian Orozco )

Than on the cover label you find claims like: "High in Anti-Oxidants", "With Vitamin E", and so on.  You are expected to believe that by applying this moisturizer you will get Vitamin E which will help moisturize your skin.  Can this really work?  In a publication written by Harvard Medical School, they wrote this: "Lists of vitamins are supposed to get us thinking that moisturizers can nourish skin or stoke it full of antioxidants. Yet in most cases vitamins in moisturizers probably don’t make much difference, either because the amounts used are too small to have much effect, or because the vitamins degrade with exposure to light and oxygen".  I say why not get some of that same Vitamin E by eating a hard-boiled egg with 2 additional egg whites for breakfast and get the Vitamin E internally.  Our skins health is supported by a complex system which requires us to consume certain types of foods to help keep our skin nice and soft as well as looking youthful.  I recently met a young gentlemen whom is 70years old.  Why do you think I said young gentlemen?  When I saw this guy I was shocked at how well preserved his skin was.  Now take a look at a farm worker whom has been working for hours under the prolonged exposure to those harmful sun rays we all here about. Yes the UVA/UVB rays the sun emits on us and everything around us during the day.  The sun isn't our enemy.  Plants won't grow if they don't get sun.  Our health and skin health depend on many of these plant ( fruits and vegetables ).  To much exposure to the sun will harm us thus we have the moon to give us some light during the night.

The same Harvard Health Publication written by Harvard Medical School said this, "The fact is that despite the long lists of obscure ingredients and the pseudoscientific hokum, all moisturizers help with dry skin for a pretty simple reason: they supply a little bit of water to the skin and contain a greasy substance that holds it in".  Imagine that?  The greasy substance holds in all the stuff they squeeze into the bottle so it stays squeezed in your skin.

What else is in that bottle?  Well for sure we know that they add scents to the mixture so that one of your senses can enjoy it and hopefully who ever you are hanging out with also enjoys it.  I've smelled some pretty bad stuff out there but if a company can convince the consumer that this product will relieve the dryness or cure it, one wallet gets empty while the other one gets empty. 

Again I say!  Why not eat the foods that will help add moisture to your skin.  Water is one of the simplest things to drink to add moisture to your body.  Don't believe me?  Don't drink water for a week and see how dry everything starts to get.  Not only will you get thirst but you might actually start to see some acne build up.  In "The Tao of Nutrition", Maoshing Ni, Ph.D., C.A., the author states that Soybeans can help relieve dry skin.  Yes, that includes drinking Soy Milk.  A possible simple solution is fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains.  As mentioned before a whole egg on the daily breakfast menu and some salmon two to three times a week might help.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine it is said that the exterior is a manifestation of the interior.  Problems within the body will always reflect themselve on the outside of the body ( your skin, eyes, etc. ).  Some skin dryness problems may require more serious investigation, so if you have chronic dry skin you might want to see your local holistic medicine practioner such as an acupuncturist or on the western view a dermatologist or doctor.