The Food and Drug Administration has ordered the makers of Botox (Allergan) to place a “black-box” warning on its packaging, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. Black-box warnings are required for drugs that present serious or life-threatening health risks. This order also applies to Dysport and Myobloc, rival products that, like Botox, are derived from a bacterial by product called botulinum toxin, which causes botulism. The drugs are used to smooth facial wrinkles, but can also interfere with breathing and swallowing.

Bad enough that each batch of Botox tortures and kills animals, it can also make you gasp and choke. And wasn’t the hideous sight of Ryan O’Neal’s frozen, immobile face as he grieved for the passing of Farrah enough to warn any rational person away from that stuff? (OK, I don’t know for sure if that is the reason for Ryan’s frozen face, but I’m not certain what else can turn a human face into a mask like that.)

Photo by AJ Cann/courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/people/ajc1/

Listen, people, faces that move and emote and express and even, God forbid, sag a bit, are human faces. We are human beings. We should have those kinds of faces.

Be kind to your face—and the rest of you—by eating lots of fruits and veggies, exercising, taking quality supplements, laughing a lot, having as much fun as possible and saying an emphatic NO! to tobacco products. Then as age has its way with you—and we all know it will (see mug shot of yours truly for verification)—you’ll have a face full of character and charm, rather than something that looks like it’s been dipped in lacquer.

Do yourself a favor with some natural, herby, fabulously aromatic lotions, potions, salves and creams that actually feed your hair and skin and give Botox and all that other unwholesome crud the old heave-ho!

Even though I’m buried with work today, I have now circled over to the Marketing Department three times, ostensibly to visit my friend Taylor. My meandering is really a visitation to see and smell Taylor’s hand balm. I drift over and cadge a little, rub it on my hands, come back to my office and just sit and smell them while I’m doing my other work. I can’t get enough of it!

The source of this fabulousness is Gardener’s All Natural Hand Balm with Shea Butter by SunFeather Natural Soap Company ($9), a delectable combination of olive oil and shea butter scented with lavender, lemon and ginger essential oils. It feels great on my sunburned hands (another story, precisely how my hands got sunburned), but most of all it smells like the essence of clean. The company says say it is made with lavender, lemon and ginger, but I know there has to be a secret ingredient in there somewhere. It smells like it is infused with pure summer in it!

www.sunfeather.com 

It isn’t a particularly girly scent; in fact, the aroma resembles that of some soap from Herban Cowboy that I discovered a few years back. But with the wonderful olive oil/shea butter combination, it makes for a product I know I will use again and again (as soon as I get my own. Relax, Taylor, your balm is safe from me). I will have the softest hands in the building.

If it were cologne, I’d wear it everywhere.

I finally have taken the plunge: I bought a new bike and have signed up for a 40-mile charity ride in June. I don’t actually think I can do it, given the flaccid state of my muscles right now–it's just six weeks away. But I’m going to give it the Compton try. Since diabetes is rampant on my family tree, the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure is a cause I can embrace enthusiastically.

When I lived in Santa Fe several years ago I rode my bike regularly (100+ miles a week) and was in the best shape of my life. But that was then, this is now. Now, my body is quick to tell me how much things have changed, especially in my right thumb and knee, which would just as soon I found a nice recliner and confined my movement to the occasional shamble to the fridge for a beer.

However, I am made of stronger stuff than that, so I refuse to give in. And besides, I have some important assistance to make those complaining muscles and joints quiet down and line up with my agenda.

My latest favorite assistance is Little Moon Essentials’ “Asana Kisser,” which is a salve that smells like health to me. It's composed of organic ginger and cayenne, wintergreen, camphor, lavender and menthol in a nice sesame-oil and beeswax base, which makes it go on easy and disappear quickly without feeling greasy. It isn’t magic, but it definitely has extraordinary healing power. It makes a huge difference in my ability to lean on handlebars for mile after mile and then to work those nifty little shifters strategically placed for thumb-and-finger operation.

I’m not kidding about this, and it isn’t a paid announcement. If you have joint or muscle pain, as in hands that hurt or joints that are stiff, GIVE IT A SHOT. I don’t know if it would be effective for seriously bad arthritis, but I can tell you that my thumb has given me so much trouble from time to time that I’ve worried I won’t be able to type (and then I immediately fall into doomsday fantasies about what I’d do for a living if I weren’t able to work a keyboard, so actually, it’s been good for my mental health as well, since I no longer have those worries.)

I’m also greatly assisted by regular visits to my friendly neighborhood practitioner of Zen Bodytherapy, which isn’t massage, but is a “structural realignment,” and sometimes feels like it sounds. But it works to loosen up the connective tissue that literally has my body in a bind.

With the combo of body therapy and Asana Kissers, I’m good to go.

Some of my other favorites for dealing with aches and pains are not necessarily new to me, but they are dependable and effective stalwarts: Boiron’s arnica gel, available at natural health stores, Nature’s Inventory Back Soothe and Neck & Shoulder Rub and HealthSonix’s ZingiberRx Joint and Muscle Cream. Again, they might not be magic, but as far as I’m concerned, they might as well be.

And let me repeat my mantra, just in case Constant Reader has forgotten: You don’t have to be stuck with stuff. Just because you have some body aches and pains or other medical problems, you don’t have to get stuck with them. For most of our common maladies, there are ways out, and often they involve a combination of body work, massage, diet, supplements and some of the absolutely great herbal products that are available now.

I could just go on and on …