Naturalpath

A new year means a new crop of budding film starlets – and none of them is shaking up the fitness scene like Indian “it girl” Hemalayaa.

Check out her most recent headlines:

Caught dirty dancing!! But we don’t mean in clubs… Hemalayaa prefers boogying to infectious Indian music to get a full-body workout. See her burning up the dance floor (and the calories) in Bollywood Dance Workout.

Best beach booty!! This star knows exactly which moves will burn fat and firm her backside…so you can bet that’s not a butt double in her latest release, Bollywood Booty.

Is that a belly bump?! Not on this screen siren. She works hard to tone her tummy with upbeat, targeted world-inspired dance workouts like the ones in her Beautiful Belly DVD.

How the stars drop pounds! Hemalayaa reveals celeb secrets in Bollywood Burn, where she shows how to shimmy away pounds and stress using toning and cardio dance moves inspired by hit Indian films.

Carol’s Question…My Mario Badescu skin lotion says it protects against environmental damage and pollution. This sounds like Marketing hype to me. What sayeth the Brains?

The Left Brain’s Reply:
We all know that certain environmental factors, such as the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight, can cause skin damage. But what about air pollution - is it bad for your skin? To answer that question we refer you to a study recently published in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science (2006. 28. 349-357) entitled Effects of Environmentally Realistic Levels of Ozone on Stratum Corneum Function.

The Beauty Brains forum has been re-designed to make it more user friendly. We’ve changed the look, made it possible to subscribe to comments/discussion threads, and improved the programming to make it easier to leave comments (automated link building).

We’ve also put in all the Beauty Brains 2009 Objectives to participate more in the discussions.

Thanks to everyone who participates and a special thanks to the following top Beauty Brains Forum members. You make it a site worth visiting.

Karen
PurpleRules
cate
taiwanesegurl
Judy
pas71
Anne
Fitness Brain
anonymousblonde
TailFeather
Lynnette
Janis

So, if you haven’t been to the Beauty Brains forum in a while, take a look and tell us what you think. If you have suggestions for improvements, we’d love to hear them.

Today, we’re having a guest post by a cosmetic chemist who calls himself “SoapyGuy”.

There has been a lot of buzz in the cosmetic community about this recent study that appears to prove that antioxidants have no effect on aging. So what is this study and what does it really mean?

Anti-oxidants and Age

Since the 1950s one of the leading theories on aging has been that it is caused by the accumulation of damage from free radicals, but a study from University College London (UCL) claims to disprove this theory. The topic of free radicals is more than an article in itself, but let us just say that they’re highly reactive molecules that are thought to cause a lot of damage to cells.

Superoxide Dismutase and Worms

Cells have a number of mechanisms for preventing this damage, one of which is an enzyme called superoxide dismutase (SOD). What the scientists at UCL did was genetically crank up the ability of a nematode worm, C. elegans, to produce this enzyme. The theory is that if there was no superoxide, one of the main free radicals in cells, the worm should live longer. But that wasn’t the case. And this isn’t the first study to show this; a University of Texas study using mice appeared to have a similar result.