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A spa which offers services to the clients through trained professionals on day use basis is known as Day Spa. Salon and Day Spa refer to the salons where spa treatments are offered. In these places the visitors or clients are allowed to come for a few hours during the day time, and night accommodations is not offered. In the Day spa professionally trained personals are allowed to do personal care treatments like massages, facials etc. But in day spa the people are allowed only for limited hours like duration of the treatment, but in case of destination spa they offer the same services in a hotel where the people are allowed to stay for more than one day depending upon the package. Destination spa is totally contrasted to Day spa.

Day Spa services are easily accessible these days and they help to refresh, recharge or nurture the mind, body and spirit. Day spas are found mostly in large metropolitan cities, suburbs etc and most shopping malls have Spa Salons. Many health clubs, wellness centers or medical facilities like rehabilitation centers, dermatology clinics, plastic surgeons, chiropractors or even complementary medicine practitioners offer spa services these days.

Day spa industry offers best services and products to their customers and the Day spa Association have a set of guidelines to help the people what to expect from a day spa.

Following are the guidelines set by the Day Spa Association:

Clean, Safe and nurturing surroundings.

Privacy must be given for each client by providing private treatment rooms.

Separate showering and changing facility for men and women.

They must offer fine clothes and shoes in all sizes.

The Spa Salon must have proper Business license.

Professionally trained staff and licensed therapists must be on work.

The therapists must be trained by using Professional Spa products.

The Massages offered are Swedish, Lymph Drainage and Reflexology.

Generally the treatments offered in Day Spa Centers are Body packs and wraps, Exfoliation, Cellulite, Body contouring or toning, Waxing, Electrical impulse body toning, heat treatments, Ayurvedic treatments, Laser hair removal, Electrolysis, Hand and Foot care, cleansing facial, cosmetics, make up consultation, spa manicure and pedicure, scalp treatments and hair packs, weight management, nutritional counseling, hydrotherapy, aromatherapy, yoga, meditation etc. They also have these facilities in Homecare program. Facials must be done once in a month for optimum skin maintenance and this might differ for specific treatments as twice in a month.

Day Spa services have some etiquette where the professionals must give full attention to the clients by performing spa services truly and use proper utensils, personalized products, clothes etc and assist with coats and clothing and send them off with a thank you note. To enjoy the facility as spa guest punctuality is very important, dress according to the body services, allow the therapists to perform the service on time, inform the therapist about the body parts where the trouble occurs often, and vacate the personal service room as soon as the treatment is over. By helping others, the client can enjoy the massage and it is very good for the body as well as mind.

About the author:
Read more on http://www.saunashome.info which is a comprehensive resource guide on saunas and spas. http://www.infraredspa.info is a complete online guide on infrared spa.

The word spa is related with water treatment or health treatment through water and it has various related meanings like balneotherapy, spa towns or spa resorts which offer these treatment or medication or equipment. It is a best way to treat both body and mind. Basically the term Spa is derived from the name of a town in Belgium. In earlier days the illness caused by iron deficiency was treated by drinking spring water. In England the old Roman ideas of medicinal bathing were put into service in health resorts, but in the beginning they were into water drinking rather than bathing and slowly it was lost when many spas started to offer external remedies.

Spa is meant for overall well being of mind, body and spirit and done by various professional services. This differs from country to country and can be done both traditionally and through modern therapies. To revitalize the body and mind various spa therapies and treatments are being offered which include aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, herbal body glow, shirodhara therapy, Hawaiian massage, Thai massage and Balinese massage. But in many countries they even include Ayurvedic therapies.

Some of the types of Spas are, Club Spa, Cruise Ship Spa, Day Spa, Dental Spa, Destination Spa, Medical Spa, Mineral Springs Spa, Resort or Hotel Spa. Club Spa and Day Spa offer primary fitness services on day use basis through professionals. Cruise Ship Spa provides spa services when people are on the move in cruise ship. Dental Spa offer services with the supervision of a licensed dentist which will include traditional dental treatment. Destination Spa’s primary idea is to guide the individual to develop healthy habits. In olden days, this program was done as a seven day stay and it included spa services, physical fitness activities, healthful cuisine and wellness education program. Medical Spa’s purpose is to give medical and wellness care and also in traditional method. The procedure or service includes both aesthetic or cosmetic and prevention or wellness. Mineral Springs Spa offers hydrotherapy treatments by using natural mineral, thermal or seawater. Resort or Hotel Spa is owned by resorts or hotels where they offer professional spa services, fitness etc. This is useful for the guests who visit to these places.

Even many services have luxury spas, where they have some unique features like lavender scrubs, geranium cream wraps, jasmine bath, chakra head, shoulder massage, honey citrus wrap, almond cleansing scrub, Balinese massage, lavender milk bath, tomato body wrap, the honey and sesame scrub etc. By taking a spa therapy or treatment it helps the body to cool, relax and refresh itself and mainly it relieves the mind from stress. Whatever is done must be done in a relaxed manner, so that it will help the body or mind to refresh quickly. So spa therapies and treatments are an ideal way to relax.

About the author:
Read more on http://www.saunashome.info which is a comprehensive resource guide on saunas and spas. http://www.infraredspa.info is a complete online guide on infrared spa.

Yoga is a relaxing form of exercise that can help alleviate depression. Meditation and yoga poses can help you attack the root cause of depression – the feeling that you can’t handle the demands of your life. It tones the nervous system, stimulates circulation, promotes concentration, and energizes your mind and body.

The first thing a depressed person stops doing is moving. Regular exercise becomes intolerable. But Yoga exercise, starting with as few as three poses a day in just a few minutes’ time, coupled with correct breath patterns, can become so pleasant to you that soon you will want to do more and more.

The heavy, unmoving feeling of depression will be on the run! Yoga exercises put pressure on glands and organs, helping them to produce the soothing, healing chemical balance that is needed to feel well and be well. Yoga exercises improve circulation, sending invigorating oxygen to your brain and all your muscles. The stretching and strengthening movements flush toxins from the body as well.

Yoga is a spiritual practice with the goal of awakening to one’s true nature or cosmic consciousness, gradually attaining higher and more expanded states of absorption and at the most advanced stages – “samadhi.” Even many of the most well known “authorities” and authors use Yogic terminology incorrectly, and confuse the stream with the ocean, so to speak.

Breathing is critical to yoga. How you breathe is much more important than your ability to touch your toes to your ear. Each inhalation should expand both the belly and the chest—not only does this maximize the oxygen you receive, but it also helps you relax into each posture. Breathe out naturally, not forcefully. You may have a tendency to hold your breath while moving from one position to another; try to become aware of this, and make sure to keep your breathing consistent.

Tense the muscles in your neck, shoulders, arms, elbows, waists, hands, fingers, chest as well as muscles in your trunk and legs. Hold the tension, then relax and exhale.

Starting with your scalp, face, and head, tense all of your body muscles. Hold the tension, then relax and exhale. Feel how all of the tension has melted away from your body.

Meditation can be a powerful tool over the long-term to facilitate greater levels of happiness. Dr. Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin has done research that shows that meditation tends to increase the activity of the left prefrontal cortex of the brain.

Left-sided activation has been associated with greater levels of calm and happiness and well as more emotional

resiliency, rendering practitioners better able to withstand the inevitable ups and downs of life. Students who are severely depressed may not be able to meditate, even if they keep their eyes open. If that’s the case, try to initiate meditative practices when they are out of the depths of depression to help insulate them against recurrences.

The physical practices of yoga nourish the brain and balance the nervous system, says Weintraub. The kind of deep, diaphragmatic breathing done in yoga reverses the shallow breathing patterns associated with depression and anxiety. Studies also show that yoga practice lowers cortisol, the “stress hormone”, and raises “feel good” hormones like endorphins.

Regular practice of Yoga will protect you from depression and help you stay bright-minded, while recognizing the signals that depression is giving you. To begin with, choose three exercises that appeal to you, and do them every day. Then, as you get more comfortable, expand your routine to give yourself more of a challenge and increase the beneficial effects.

About the author:
Read about Natural Herbal Home Remedies and Pregnancy Information Guide. Also read about Dental and Tooth Care Guide

When doctors talk about the disease of depression, they aren’t talking about occasional feelings of sadness or “the blues” that all of us experience from time to time. Depression is a serious condition that can have a variety of persistent physical, emotional and cognitive effects. Physical Effects

* Appetite changes. Your interest in eating dwindles and you lose weight and energy. In some cases depression may cause you to overeat and you gain weight quickly.

* Sleep disturbances. You wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning and can’t fall back to sleep. Oversleeping is another problem you may sleep 12 to 14 hours at night but still not get out of bed the next morning or else return to bed very quickly.

* Changes in energy. You may feel slowed down, as though you were carrying a heavy weight around with you. Even the simplest tasks getting dressed, making breakfast seem like enormous obstacles. Some depressed people feel abnormally restless and are unable to sit still or relax their bodies.

* Sexual problems. If you enjoyed sexual activity before, you now feel a lack of inter­est and desire.

Emotional Effects

* Loss of pleasure. You no longer enjoy what used to give you pleasure hobbies, conversations with friends, a visit from someone you love.

* Increased anxiety. You feel nervous much of the time and may spend many hours worrying about your health or other problems in your life.

* Sadness. You feel despondent and often feel like crying. There may also be feelings of worthlessness and guilt.

Cognitive Effects

* Changes in concentration. You seem unable to focus on what you’re doing and have difficulty making even small decisions.

* Impaired judgment. You have trouble making accurate assessments and tend to exaggerate your own faults, blaming your­self for your illness. This loss of judgment may cause you to “catastrophize,” turning minor events into major upsets.

What Causes Depression?

Although the exact cause of depression is unclear, there’s good evidence that depressed people have abnormal levels of certain brain chemicals called “neurotransmitters.” These chemicals, which transmit signals between brain cells, playa vital role in how you feel, think and behave. However, doctors still don’t know if abnormal brain chemistry actually causes depression, or if this chemistry is merely the result of depressive illness.

It’s unlikely that depression stems from a single cause. Most experts now think that certain factors such as heredity or childhood influences predispose you to the illness, while an event or combination of events for example, stress caused by loss or change actually triggers the symptoms. Here are some factors that have been implicated in depression.

About the author:
Depression is a serious condition that can have a variety of physical, emotional or cognitive effects. Learn about some natures remedies which could help you in anxiety relief.

It would be great if bipolar suffers could control their manic attacks. Now, researchers in Australia claim that they can. The researchers have developed a new form of treatment that gives bipolar patients more control over their lives than they have ever had.

Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme mood swings from periods of excitability to periods of depression and back again. Bipolar 1 disorder affects over two million U.S. citizens every year. In many people, the mood swings can be so great that it prevents them from being able to live a normal life. This roller coaster of emotions not only affects them, but it affects their friends and family as well.

The new procedure basically involves adding therapy to the bipolar treatments that the patients normally receive. In reality, therapy is not new as many physicians already believe that the most effective treatment for bipolar disease is to use medication in combination with prescriptions medication. But belief does not equal proof.

Researchers from the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria (MHRI) located in Melbourne, Australia, and is Australia’s largest independent psychiatric research center, have gone on record as believing that this study is the first one that proves bipolar patients can control their mania. The exciting impact of the Australian study is that it gives credence to the value of psychotherapy in treating bipolar illness.

The Melbourne study consisted of 84 bipolar patients. Half of the patients were given medication only. The other half were give the same medication but in addition attended weekly therapy sessions. The therapy sessions focused on teaching the participants to recognize the common symptoms that might trigger a depressive or manic episode. Symptoms such as

insomnia, a significant change in appetite, trouble concentrating, listlessness or tiredness, and other symptoms that are commonly recognized as indicating a bipolar event might be taking place.

The working theory behind the study is that if a bipolar sufferer is aware of an impending episode, he has the chance to do something about it. And the theory, in this case, proved to be correct. At the end of the study, the 42 patients taking the therapy, had only 50% of the manic or depressive episodes of the 42 patients that were treated with medication alone.

The study effectively demonstrates that therapy which emphasizes and teaches the patient how to plan his life, as much as possible, around regular daily activities and stable relationships, can help them to suffer less manic/depressive attacks and to recover faster from the ones that they do experience.

Unfortunately, long-term therapy is not cheap and many insurance companies will either not cover it or cover only a portion of it. Hopefully, studies like this will help to push the insurance companies into recognizing that therapy is a valid and useful treatment for bipolar disease and may even help to decrease their long term costs.

This study is also important and encouraging for many sufferers who don’t want to be entirely dependent on prescription medication. It gives them a sense of hope that they can exert a portion of control over their lives that up until now has been lacking.

About the author:
Julie Frey is webmaster at www.bipolarsickiness.com who writes articles relating to bipolar disorder in children.

For the overwhelming majority of teenagers out there, bad skin ranks anywhere from a minor inconvenience to a social disaster.

The stereotypical scene where a teenager prepares for that first big date or first major school dance only to wake up the morning of with a giant pimple that deserves its own zip code right in the middle of the forehead has become a staple of coming-of-age tales.

But for a growing number of teenagers, severe acne can be an emotionally, psychologically and physically debilitating condition that can push an already fragile psyche right over the edge into severe depression or even suicide.

Teenagers already are the most likely group to suffer from serious, life-threatening depression, but when you add in the complete social exiling that severe acne can cause, the natural leap to suicide can be inevitable.

A recent study conducted in New Zealand bears out this hypothesis. The study showed that those teenagers that suffer from acne, even those with relatively mild cases, at least think about suicide far more frequently than anyone ever thought.

The true impact of bad skin on teen social interaction is far greater than even the most critical of analysis suspected. As it turns out, the old saying, “Kids can be so cruel” is far truer than anyone ever wanted to admit.

So, if you are a parent of a teen that is beginning to show the signs of severe acne or if you have had a child previously who suffered from severe acne, what can you do to help protect them?

Short of pulling them out of school and teaching them at home, the best thing to do is to take them to a doctor and see what prescription acne medication is available to them, and as a parent, it is your job to watch for signs of depression or isolation every day.

Signs of depression in teenagers includes a persistent or constant sad, angry or empty mood that endures for weeks on end. Every teenager gets depressed after a particularly bad day at school or after a poor performance on a test or after a tough breakup with a girlfriend or boyfriend, but a persistent state of sadness is not normal for anyone of any age.

Try talking to your teen. If communication is not your specialty, try to see if you can get your teen to a mental health professional for guidance.

Other key signs that your teenager might be depressed are a constant state of pessimism or always taking a negative view point on everything. Again, being pessimistic is normal once in a while, but it should not be a constant state of looking at the world.

If your teenager has a particular hobby or interest that has endured through childhood but suddenly disappears from their lives, this can be a sure sign that something serious is wrong.

Of course, children out grow playthings and toys and even favourite movies and television shows, but things like drawing, painting and music tend to stay with them throughout their lives.

If you see a sudden complete loss of interest in these types of things, in conjunction with these other signs, intervention might be a good idea.

About the author:
No one should suffer from bad skin so having a good
dermatology management program in place is essential. You should know what
skin treatment options are available and be aware of specific skin procedures that you may want to consider

We have some good news about Zoloft and two sad truths about medical treatment in general.

The first sad truth affects all medications including Zoloft. Whether they be prescription or over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, health and herbal supplements, or dietary products, they are designed to be absorbed into your blood stream. Once there, the active chemicals go everywhere inside your body. This means that these chemicals circulate through your unborn baby via the umbilical cord. If your baby is born and you are breast-feeding, the chemicals are almost certainly going to be in your milk.

The second sad truth is that illnesses and diseases do not ask when it is convenient to come. They come when they please. Thus, a woman may continue to take a medication for weeks before she realises that she is pregnant. Once you recognise your pregnancy, do you continue to take the medication or, if the illness comes later, do you begin treatment during the pregnancy or while breast-feeding?

Some say knowledge is power. It allows a patient to give informed consent to the treatment recommended by a doctor. In this situation, the question is simple to ask.

“Does taking this medication run the risk of harming my child?”

It is a shame that we do not know more about which medications may be harmful during pregnancy and while breast-feeding.

Although it was more than fifty years ago that thalidomide was first used to treat morning sickness in early pregnancy, the medication’s name lives on in infamy. It took until 1961 for doctors to realise that the medication was the cause of major birth defects and it was withdrawn from sale. All prospective parents live with the fear that today’s medications may have a similar effect. This fear is not unjustified given a study by Lo and Friedman in Obstet Gynecol (2002). The authors found there is no real evidence as to the scale of risk of birth defects or peri-natal injury arising from the use of almost all the medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). What are parents supposed to do? Their decision on whether they may be exposing their unborn child to danger is nothing more than a lottery. This makes a mockery of the doctrine of informed consent.

However, there is some good news. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Alwan, Friedman and others chose to investigate Zoloft and the other Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) as the most often prescribed antidepressants during pregnancy. Their results were reassuring, showing no significantly increased risk of birth defects. The women who participated were all taking Zoloft for more than one month before they became pregnant, or took Zoloft during the first three months of their pregnancy. Thus, the mothers were able to take the benefit of effective treatment to control their depressive illness and not harm their babies while in the womb.

It is a medically recognised fact that breast milk is the healthiest food for babies, so women should not stop breast-feeding unless it is absolutely necessarily. A nursing baby will ingest some Zoloft through breast milk, but it is in sufficiently small amounts that it should not affect a baby significantly. However, the latest study did not investigate whether newly born babies were actually affected by Zoloft. This leaves mothers and their medical advisers with a serious lack of information. Babies will benefit if their mothers are well enough to interact positively with them. Given this advantage to both mother and baby, doctors may well treat nursing mothers with Zoloft to give their babies the best nurturing and developmental opportunities.

Millions of prescriptions are written for Zoloft every year yet there is no attempt by the manufacturers or the regulatory authorities to verify Zoloft’s safety during breast-feeding. Although the latest news is reassuring and there seems to be no anecdotal evidence to suggest an epidemic of birth defects or injury to newly born babies, it is sad that parents are left to gamble with their babies’ safety. Zoloft is a top performing medication. It deserves to have its reputation for safety more formally confirmed.

About the author:
Learn more about the information you read here on treating depression and by John Scott at http://www.forgetdepression.com/.

It is always fascinating to watch how the media pick up on a story from the world of medical research. No matter how well balanced and scientifically neutral the source material may be, it seems that news must always be more sensational. Only bad news is good news to sell newspapers and keep the advertisers happy. Take a headline, “Toothpaste gives you cancer!” Panic not. I just made that up, but you get the idea.

So, as responsible journalists, how should we approach an article in the January edition of Diabetes Research

Medications for depression treatment were proven not significantly harmful during pregnancy.

However you ask the question, you always get the same answer. More antidepressants than any other medication have been prescribed to Americans over the last twenty years. This is a remarkable statistic when you think of all the possible illnesses and diseases that physicians could be treating. According to the preliminary data for mortality in 2005 complied by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the top three causes of death were:

• heart disease 21.9%

• cancer 18.9%

• stroke 4.8%

Yet, even when you go to the top fifteen listed causes, no-one dies of being depressed (although suicide is the 11th most common way of dying). So what are these prescriptions for? The most prescribed antidepressant medication in the US is Zoloft with more than 28m prescriptions written in 2006. Zoloft is one of the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). It is designed to change the level of serotonin, one of the neurotransmitters in the brain. Serotonin helps to regulate your mood. That means that a vast proportion of the pharmaceutical industry’s profit comes from convincing people who are not likely to die soon that they need to buy antidepressants like Zoloft, so they can feel better. Teach them to feel dysfunctional and depend on medications for the rest of their lives.

But, of course, this is just to provoke you into thought. In his article in The New England Journal of Medicine (2006), Friedman invoked the National Comorbidity Survey as evidence that fifty percent of all serious adult psychiatric illnesses, including substance abuse, anxiety disorders and major depression, have started by the age of fourteen years, and three quarter are in place by twenty-five years. He confirms suicide as the third-leading cause of death among persons fifteen to nineteen years of age.

Thus, if we were to classify suicide as a psychiatric illness, we would get a different perspective on national mortality rates. Now, let us step back from mortality data to a better measure. Mental illnesses are increasingly relevant to the mission of disease prevention and health promotion. Chapman and Perry in their article at Prev Chronic Dis (2008) warn that, by 2020, depression will be second only to heart disease if you measure using disability-adjusted life years.

So, if you accept the reality of psychiatric illness as a disability, the need for treatment becomes obvious. Now look at the people with heart conditions or cancer. If they are also depressed, this robs them of whatever quality of life they might otherwise have enjoyed, and probably reduces their life expectancy by undermining their will to live. Morally, the state should ensure that its citizens are given the best treatment possible. Economically, the state faces an increasing burden of social security payments with a declining tax revenue. States should therefore ensure preventative and therapeutic care is available to all.

So, when you put anxiety disorders and depressive illnesses into a proper context, the need for medications such as Zoloft becomes obvious. And why is Zoloft the most prescribed of all the antidepressants? Because, the physicians who write the millions of prescriptions watch over their patients. If the medical professionals and their patients did not see a safe and effective product, the free market economy would operate and people would switch to another medication. That has not happened. Zoloft remains the trusted response to depressive illness.

About the author:
John Scott wrote this article to help you find out more about depression treatment. Visit http://www.forgetdepression.com/ today for more information.

Hypochondria

The popular image of the hypochondriac is a Woody Allen-type character who goes from doctor to doctor, anxiously takes his temperature every hour and imagines any headache to be a brain tumor.

Most of us suffer mild episodes of hypochondriasis (commonly known as hypochondria) from time to time. But when hypochondria becomes chronic and severe, it’s no laughing matter. Hypochondria is a psychological condition that doctors categorize as a somatoform disorder the presence of physical symptoms suggest illness, but no illness can be diagnosed. If you suffer from hypochondria, you are constantly preoccupied with sickness. You believe you have a serious illness, based on your own interpretation of certain symptoms and sensations, and go from doctor to doctor in search of a diagnosis and a cure. These fears and beliefs persist, even when no illness has been diagnosed and despite many reassurances from numerous doctors. People with hypochondria know their own medical histories in great detail, and often say that previous physicians who found nothing wrong with them were insensitive or incompetent.

It’s tempting to label anyone who does this a hypochondriac unfortunately, many people with real illnesses have been dismissed as hypochondriacs until their diseases were finally recognized. However,hypochondria clearly exists as a mental disorder, and the preoccupation with imagined illness can become so severe that it impairs relationships and interferes with the person’s ability to function normally. The incidence of true hypochondria in the general population isn’t known, but doctors estimate that between 4 and 9 percent of people they see in general practice suffer from some degree of hypochondria. The problem usually begins after age 30 and tends to persist in to older age.

Many people who suffer from clinical depression or anxiety become abnormally vigilant about their bodies, focusing on every little change, and it’s not uncommon for them to develop hypochondria. The good news is that when these disorders are successfully treated, the hypochondria tends to disappear.

Abnormal Grief

When you experience the death of a loved one, it’s normal to feel grief. This may include feelings of sadness and loss, as well as physical symptoms of stress such as insomnia and fatigue. While these feelings vary widely from person to person, they tend to follow a normal course. But sometimes grieving is intense and long-lasting enough to be considered abnormal or even pathological. Such grieving can take a tremendous toll on your emotional and physical health and should be recognized when it occurs so you can get help.

About the author:
Learn about other mental problems like anxiety and insomania and their cure with natural herbal supplements, as they have been found to be quite effective.