WEC Editor’s Blog

If you want to eliminate credit card debt, the first step is to reduce your problem. The lower your credit card debt, the lower your minimum payment. The highest “minimum payments” come with credit card debt that goes above your traditional limit. But they say that credit card debt can ruin lives, and getting out of it can significantly reduce stress. But how do you work to start to reduce debt?

The first thing to do is to cut up your credit cards. When you spend more, you are only going to keep maintaining or increasing your debt. The first thing is to stop spending more to hopefully help you to stop increasing it and therefore be able to decrease it. This will help you to go beyond other expectations.

And it goes beyond that. The second thing to do is to properly assess just how much credit card debt you actually have. If you have more, then obviously you are going to have a greater problem paying it off. You are going to have greater problems paying more than just the minimum payment. And then you should look into consolidating credit card debt. Consolidating credit card debt will help you to actively improve your financial situation. It will help you to make things more manageable.

If you have more than $10,000 in credit card debt, chances are you are paying expensive payments on 3 or more credit cards. Chances are you having more issues than not. If it’s just one credit card, obviously it is what it is. But if you have so many, it can make an extremely significant difference to get one payment. They convince the credit card companies to take less than what you actually owe, and they actively lower overall payments. If you have less than this, they will say that you do not qualify. But obviously, it’s worth checking into. If it can reduce stress in your life, and obviously you should also cut up your credit cards, it is definitely worth at the very least looking into as a serious option. consolidating credit card debt could be just the push that you need.

Ice cubes are fabulous in some ways.  They soothe away pain and swelling, and not just when you happen to bang up some joint or bruise yourself.  After all, if you’ve ever noticed, when you develop early dark circles because you didn’t get enough sleep or bags for that matter, the dark circles look like ugly bruises.  It basically happens when the blood coagulates in that spot, it’s completely natural.  But the reality is that when this happens, you can relieve the swelling and pain with one of the same methods at least.  You can apply a washcloth or otherwise filled with ice cubes to the area.  Ice cubes are just made of water, so you could even leave them by themselves on the eyes for a while.  When you do this, you of course relief inflammation, in some ways reduce water retention, and realistically, unless they are already set in, you can use these ice cubes to reduce both these problems.  It’s the cheapest possible eye solution.  Of course it won’t reduce wrinkles or otherwise reduce problems that have really set in.  But for temporary problems that you are suffering right now, it’s not a bad idea and you can’t get any more affordable.

If you are looking for the best way to deal with your skin, you of course have to have the right ingredients.  But recently speaking, some have started using what is called nanotechnology.  If you are using ingredients at night or if you have naturally occurring ingredients in the body like peptides, they are going to have little to no trouble fitting through your pores.  But on the other hand, if you have larger cells like antioxidants or even light moisturizers, let alone heavier moisturizers, they are going to have greater trouble, especially during the day, fitting through small pores.  So it is important to use nanotechnology to make them fit better and moreover actually absorb more quickly and more effectively into the skin.  This will allow them to get deep into the pores fast to start working immediately and more effectively, and they will not get stuck at the top of the pores.  Moreover, even if you have natural ingredients in the body like peptides, they will be able to actually provide more effective power as they can get deep into the pores at a faster rate and otherwise help you to achieve results at a more expedient level.

Glycolic acid is one of the available forms of chemical peels.  However, outside of chemical peels, it is also used to treat skin problems in general such as wrinkles.  They are known as alpha hydroxy acids, and they are generally found in sugar cane and grapes.  It is often used to exfoliate among other things.  They can usually be found in over the counter medications in 6-10% concentrations, and it is applied to the face just like any other face wash.  It breaks down substances beneath the surface that bond to dead skin cells just beneath the top layer of dead skin cells.  It clears dead skin cells which can dull or clog the pores and skin, and then it can be rinsed away.  It therefore reveals the skin underneath that is often glowing, youthful, and clear.  Long term use has been shown to help to diminish fine lines and age spots as well as smoothing the appearance of surgical scars, acne scars, and other blemishes.

However, one should note that it is extremely powerful.  Concentrations of up to 10% can be washed away and used with water.  But higher concentrations require that you follow them with a neutralizer of sorts.  This is why professional chemical peels use it.  It is extremely powerful.  Unfortunately, this also means that it can damage and redden the skin.  So just be careful how you use glycolic acid.

If you watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians, you know that Bruce Jenner knows he is on the list of the worst celebrity surgeries ever performed.  It’s pretty bad.  His wife took him in for a consultation with a doctor to see if they could fix his previous jobs.  But he was not up for that.  I mean I can definitely understand it.  He got a botched job, and why in the world would he want to make it worse.  His face is pulled back in the wrong ways and it has made some of his other wrinkles not only stand out more but actually turn worse, which is not really all that surprising if you consider all the facts. 

But in a way, I ask this.  Why can’t we just age gracefully?  I mean definitely keep your skin as smooth as you can in the meantime.  Use the right moisturizers, use the right maintenance creams, do what you can for your skin.  Maybe even go in for a massage or a facial every once in a while.  But don’t get surgery if you don’t feel it’s as bad, or else you might end up with that….  And frankly, I don’t know why he did it, because men can really get away with more.  I mean Sean Connery is a classic example of that.  Women love him, men love him, he has aged well and gracefully and he has allowed himself to age without freaking out about it.  Richard Gere has done the same thing, and we think it makes them look more distinguished.  I don’t understand why Bruce Jenner couldn’t do the same thing.

 Wrinkle fillers have become all the rage in certain wrinkle treatments for various reasons.  Example include Restylane and Juvederm, and they can have a variety of ingredients, none of which work with harmful bacteria such as botulism, but rather naturally occurring elements such as collagen and hyaluronic acid.  They are injections, but they are also often minimally invasive. 

In most cases, wrinkle fillers are used to correct small problems such as fine lines, furrows, folds, scars, and skin depressions.  Some have also been used to improve the full appearance of lips.  They generally work to fill holes and voids to give a smoother appearance of the skin. 

However, fillers vary and there is no standard.  They are not approved by the FDA, and each varies, each claiming to be the best.  They tend to last for only short periods of time as the body tends to break down the cells in short order.  They can use anything from collagen to hyaluronic acid to PLLA, and they do.  They do not however stimulate the production of collagen and elastin, but rather claim to replace it in certain areas.  This does not however mean that these ingredients could not diffuse to other parts of the body over time, just as many worry that the botulism in botox will. 

Despite the fact that they don’t actually use poisons or harmful bacteria, the FDA has still received multiple complaints concerning them.  These include infection, bruising, redness, pain, swelling, tenderness, rashes, cell death, blurred vision, filler moving, and allergic reactions.  To date, the FDA reports a high number of cases amounting to about 930. 

There is no specification with the FDA as to which specific products have been connected to these side effects.  But we assume they have a fairly wide range.  Still, because of these results, some customers have taken more caution and the profits of these companies have therefore suffered over time.  Though some companies, such as the major company Allergan, have attempted to soothe customer worry with multiple reassurances, they seem to have largely failed. 

1. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/wrinklefillers/
2. http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/08/briefing/2008-4391b1-01%20-%20FDA%20Executive%20Summary%20Dermal%20Fillers.pdf