Mobile phones may be a key weapon in the war against HIV and AIDS in Africa, says to the UNAIDS chief.

The relatively new technology has a role to play in a continent plagued by inadequate health centres and dilapidated infrastructure, said Michel Sidibe, the executive director of the United Nations AIDS agency.

“You can talk about different policies, about capacity building, but you can’t beat this kind of epidemic with facility-based approach only,” he added.

A major mobile telephone operator in Nigeria already runs a toll-free call scheme that links callers to counsellors on HIV-AIDS concerns.

“It’s a fascinating initiative,” said Sidibe.

“Its advantage is that you don’t have to move from your place to a centre where… you may be stigmatised.

“You have free communication and quality advice, which can help you take a decision.”

With basic intensive training and armed with mobile phones, local community or village workers could be a part of the health service delivery system, he said.

For despite the resources poured in years into Sub-Saharan Africa to combat HIV-AIDS, the region remains the world’s most heavily affected, accounting for 67 percent of HIV infections, according to UNAIDS’ own figures.

“You need first to look at a community-based approach, tap on non-conventional facilities,” Sidibe told AFP during a recent trip to Nigeria.

It was time that Africa, saddled with a myriad of economic, political and social woes, got back to basics, he argued.

“I don’t think in any of our African countries we will be able to wait to have professionals, or to have enough of those people.”

“It is time to reinforce our capacity to use the modern technology differently,” he said.

Africa, a continent with one of the highest numbers with access to cellular phones, should take advantage of the digital revolution to reach out widely, he said.

“It’s something we need to start replicating in Africa, remember we have more mobile phones in African than in north America,” he added.

Nigeria has more than 70 million cellphone line subscribers: about one line for every two people.

A pilot project using cellphones is underway in the Nigeria’s northern Kaduna State and southwestern Ondo State.

Village workers — who have barely been through secondary school — have been trained to identify symptoms of minor ailments.

They tour villages examining patients and use their mobile phones to call up trained medical workers at a major referral centre to get diagnosis and prescriptions dictated over the phone.

“Community health workers go out with a mobile phone connected to a central referral hospital, can take temperatures… and doctors at the referral units advise on drugs to administer,” said Sidibe.

“Using all these types of approaches can help us improve information systems and expand delivery by reaching the poor in the community,” he said.

Despite prevention measures, which he said had helped avert 400,000 new infections in the past eight years on the continent, sub-Saharan Africa had the highest number of new infections in 2008.

The rate runs at 71 percent according to UNAIDS.

Most of those infected were sex workers, drug users and homosexual males.

About three million Nigerians, or just under five percent of Africa’s most populous nation are infected with HIV.

Sidibe said he visited Nigeria and South Africa because the two economic giants account for more than 50 percent of all HIV cases in Africa.

These booties are undeniable HOT! The three and a half inch heel makes these perfect for dancing into the wee hours.

Brand: Jimmy Choo
Color: Black

You’ve eaten your meals for the day.  All is well.  Then…there’s that sensation. Hunger.  But, are you hungry…or sad?  Do you want a second helping…or do you want to feel less anxious?  Do you want to eat something…or is something eating at you? Learn a strategy to hold down eating when hunger isn’t the issue.

STOP – BREATHE – REFLECT – CHOOSE

This four step process, outlined in The Wellness Bookby Herbert Benson, MD and Eileen M. Stuart, RN, M.S. is an effective stress management technique easily adapted to manage emotional eating.

What is emotional eating?

Emotional eating is using food as a coping mechanism to manage difficult feelings. It doesn’t necessarily mean satisfying a sweet tooth craving or eating an extra helping of your friend’s baked pasta. The difference is the emotional motivation underlying the urge to eat. For example, do you simply want an extra helping of fantastic tasting food, or do you feel anxious and are desperately trying to calm yourself?

Emotional eating gains momentum by an often frenzied response to overwhelming feelings. Difficult feelings are more easily managed when you’re able to pause andreflect on what you’re experiencing. The following strategy helps you create spacebetween your initial thought, and subsequent behavior, of overeating. You then regain control to make a conscious choice. This helps you manage your emotions in a self-loving way rather than through compulsive overeating which usually leads to self-loathing and guilt. Read the rest of this entry »

Match red with neutrals to make them pop. Sex up the look with accessories like a studded clutch and leather booties.

• Cardigan, $49.90, from New Look
• Cotton top, $46, from Topshop
• Cropped cotton pants, $89, from Gap
• Faux pearl and ribbon necklace, $38.90, from Accessorize
• Studded leather clutch, $113, from Topshop
• Leather peep-toe booties, price unavailable, from Nine West

Spice up an LBD with red accessories in a luxe material like satin.

• Silk toga dress, $560, from Burgundy
• Satin clutch, $26.90, and satin heels, $49.90, both from New Look
• Gold hoop earrings, price unavailable, from Accessorize

Of all the variations of plum, eggplant or aubergine is the shade that flatters everyone, unlike some of its paler cousins. It won’t make you look tired and is dark enough when you want to smoke things up. Even as a nail colour, it’s luxe, not tacky.

Clockwise from top: Dior Vernis nail polish in 782 Silver Purple, $33. Make Up Store Microshadow in Dita, $26. Bourjois Smoky Eyes Trio in Violet Romantic, $24. Chanel Rouge Allure lipstick in 147 Maniac, $44. Sally Hansen Insta-dri Nail Color in Pronto Purple, $12.90. Dior Style Liner in 174 Sparkling Purple, $45

Red Hot Eliza Dushku looking fab at “We Live In Public” Premiere.

The “Bring It On” babe looked lovely as she arrived at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, sporting a strapless merlot-colored minidress with black stockings and black heels.

• London Lasting Finish Kiss & Stay Lip Gloss
• Expert Wear Bronzer Pressed Powder
• Moon Beam by Benefit
• Colour surge eye shadow soft shimmer
• Highlighting Blush Powder by NARS
• California In a Compact – Beach Bunny
• Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss by Clinique
• Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner
• CoverGirl Eye Enhancers 1 Kit Eyeshadow
• Estée Lauder Signature Hydra Lustre Lipstick LOVE
• PERFECT WEAR Eyewriter Liquid Eye Liner

As with most other health issues, you can do a lot to protect yourself when it comes to the your skin health. Learn why sun damage is the real enemy, and how to guard against it.

Just like the rest of your body, your skin ages over time. But much of the visible surface damage, like dryness and lines, comes as a result of sun exposure, which you can protect yourself from. More good news: It’s possible to ease some of these signs of aging in your skin with simple prescription creams.

Aging Skin: Causes and Effects
A variety of factors are to blame for the typical signs of aging skin. These can include:

Sun exposure. “Take a woman with the skin changes that we associate with aging — wrinkles, dryness, age spots — and look at the skin under her arm. That skin is likely to be smooth and clear. The difference is sun exposure,” says Steve Feldman, MD, PhD, professor of dermatology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC.

Called photodamage, the effects of sun exposure on your skin are caused by ultraviolet light, and the lighter your complexion, the worse the damage is likely to be. Over time, even a small amount of unprotected sun exposure each day can cause:

• Age spots. Also called solar lentigines, or liver spots, these dark patches of skin are caused by sun damage. Bigger than freckles, age spots are more common in women with lighter complexions.
• Spidery veins. As skin ages, especially with sun exposure, you become more prone to the eruption of small blood vessels near the surface of your skin called telangiectasias.
• Leathery texture and dry scaly patches, or actinic keratoses. Aging skin does not retain moisture well. This is due partly to the loss of sweat and oil glands, but sun exposure will also make your skin dry.

Read the rest of this entry »

Diets rich in fat seen as dangerous.

Catholic.org reported that Women over the age of 50 who consume a diet rich in fat face a far greater risk for strokes.”It’s a tremendous increase that is potentially avoidable. What’s bad for the heart is bad for the brain,” Dr. Emil Matarese, stroke chief at St. Mary Medical Center says.

A recent study has found a 30 percent greater risk of stroke among women eating the most trans fat, found commonly in fried foods, crackers and cookies.

Results of a study at the American Stroke Association conference revealed that women who ate the most fat had a 44 percent higher risk of the most common type of stroke compared to those who ate the least. The study involved 87,230 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative.

There were reported 288 strokes in the group of women who consumed the most fat each day (95 grams) versus 249 strokes in the group eating the least fat (25 grams).

The study also found a 30 percent greater risk of stroke among women eating the most trans fat, found commonly in fried foods, crackers and cookies.

Women before menopause traditionally are at a much lower risk for stroke that men of a similar age. After menopause, the risk of stroke rises and the gender advantage disappears.

This has all changed with national obesity rates and increasingly poor diets.

Doctors recommend that more women look at labels to see how much fat is in their food. “This is a simple way that any woman, especially postmenopausal women, can improve their health. Simply avoiding fried foods is a big one,” one researcher says.

The American Heart Association recommends limiting fat to less than 25 to 35 percent of total calories, and trans fat to less than 1 percent.

Greek myth isn’t too family-friendly. Those Gods up above could be a wild bunch, full of jealousies and nasty feuds, while their visits here tended to involve rape or murder, when demigods and humans weren’t fighting blood-lustily in their honour. But it’s not so much the strange sanitizing of Greek myth that makes Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief fizzle out as its plod-by-numbers trek through fantasy-adventure formula.

The opener of Rick Riordan’s series has Percy (Logan Lerman) discovering Dad is water-god Poseidon even as the teen’s being accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning-bolt. (Only an American re-myth would make Percy’s disabilities—ADHD and dyslexia—not differences but latent super-gifts, signs of his restlessness to fight and being born to read Ancient Greek, not English.) After scorning a Fury’s wrath and butting heads with a Minotaur, Percy’s off to the Underworld to save Mom from Hades’ clutches, though he must find three pearls en route (presumably because epics are always brought to you by the number three). He’s accompanied by Grover (I respectfully refrain from another Sesame Street joke here) and Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), a daughter of Athena. [Source]

The average British woman risks her health and looks with a make-up bag four years past its use-by date, researchers say.

Out-of date beauty products can be a magnet for germs but most women have no idea that EU rules mean brands have to state an item’s bathroom shelf life, according to a new poll.

Past their ‘use-by’ point, make-up items carry a risk of irritation and infection due to contamination by bacteria, according to Debenhams, which surveyed 1,000 women.

Around nine in ten did not know make-up comes with a ‘period after opening’ sign – an open pot icon showing the number of months it can be used safely – did not understand the symbol or could not read the often tiny writing. [Source]