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Finally, I thought the cooler weather would never come!! I mean seriously, it’s almost November and the temperature here has been almost unbearable until recently.  I absolutely love the cooler weather, but with the cooler temperatures come something that I am not a fan of- seriously dry skin!!! I already wash my hands more times than humanly possibly, so they are already dry and cracked, but the cold weather is seriously going to wreak havoc on my skin and my girls.  Thankfully Babo Botanicals has got you covered with super soothing, natural and organic products to soothe and protect your skin against the cold weather dryness.  Babo Botanicals Oatmilk and Calendula Shampoo and Wash is an extra gentle plant based cleanser that nourishes and soothes dry skin.  My oldest daughter has had mild eczema since she was an infant, so I have to make sure the products that I use on her are super gentle and safe.  the Oatmilk in this Shampoo and Wash was a perfect choice for her!  It comforts skin associated with eczema, dry and chaffed skin.  the Calendula Oil is great for cradle cap, or dry patches.  the smell is very pleasant, not overpowering, but just enough to leave my girls extra sniffable!! the Certified Organic Nurti-Soothe Blend is rich in vitamins and antioxidants  to leave your babies skin soft and smooth and leaves hair shiny.  I did use this on my youngest dughters hair and it was great, not drying or harsh at all.  once again I have done the unthinkable- I stole this for myself- I have super sensitive skin on my face and scalp and decided to try it out myself- I loved it!! It was so gentle on my sensitive skin, no redness or peeling- I loved it!!  what is super great is that it now comes in a 2 oz. travel size, perfect for taking right on the plane so you are never without your Babo!!!   Babo Botanicals also has the Moisturizing Baby Lotion to go with it- I so have to try this!!  Babo Botanicals has a promotion on right now if you purchase the 8 oz. Lotion, you will get the travel shampoo and wash free (see site for details)!! If you are dreading the winter dry skin as much as I am- go visit Babo Botanicals and check out all of their wonderful hair and skin products for babies ( or yourself : ) you will absolutely love it!! 

Organic Aloe Barbadensis Leaf*, Purified Water (Agua), Sodium Laurylglucosides Hydroxypropyl Sulfonate (Sugar Soap), Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate (Coconut), Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate (Coconut), Glycerine (Vegetable), Polyquaternium 80 (Sugar), Hydrolyzed Oat Protein, Organic Calendula Officinalis Extract*, Linum Usitatissimum (Linseed) Seed Extract, Glucono Delta Lactone (Sugar), Organic Anthemis Nobilis (chamomile) Flower Extract*, Organic Nasturtium Officinale (Watercress) Extract*, Organic Pueraria Lobata (Kudzu) Root Extract*, Polyquaternium 10 (Vegetable Fiber), Potassium Sorbate (Food Grade Preservative), Natural Essential Oil Blend of Vanilla & Cedarwood. *Certified Organic Ingredients. the gentlest blend of nourishing botanicals soothe and protect sensitive or dry skin.Collodial Oatmeal is well known to comfort itchy, dry, chafed skin associated with eczema.Organic Calendula Oil and Shea Butter moisturize skin and help relieve cradle cap.Perfect for the entire family. Gentle for pregnant women.Certified Organic Nutri-Soothe™ Blend rich in vitamins and anti-oxidants combines Chamomile, Watercress, Kudzu and Calendula

What exactly is the paper titled / what page number /edition is it on?

Ed – thanks, the direct link to the paper has now been added.

Robert Springer – October 25, 2011 @ 09:21 pm PDT

This research is missing the point. You cannot do that for every substance, it is a bad approach.

I accidentally discovered that orally administered antifungal medication (itraconazole) is able to suppress completely all my once serious allergy symptoms. I contacted the NIH (NIAID) with this, and though they replied, they failed to grasp the importance (also in human lives) of this serendipitous knowledge.

Not only that, fungal medication has to be taken for a long time, since fungi need long treatments. the medication will start to work after some 20 days, it seems this is the time required to switch fungi off. When anti fungal medication is suspemded after several months, symptoms of allergy will be much lower or will be cured, and they will stay so. This furhter confirms fungi as the possible cause of all allergies. When having a health problem, it should be regular procedure to tes if it is caused by a virus, a bacteria or fungi, but it seems top researchers are failing to check this, as a starting point.

If somebody with a lab or research potential is reading this, please try it, it is too important to the lives of so many to just let it be forgotten (again). the medicines are already there it is simpler than usual to test this.

All the best to you all

JayDay – October 26, 2011 @ 03:25 am PDT

JayDay, I have many decades of experience with various allergies and strategies. What you most likely experienced is the cumulative inflammation effect. When you are stressed by one or more significant allergic reactions, it lowers your tolerance for others. Your fungal immune reactions could have made you more sensitive to your other more minor allergies. This is a response that I have much experience with.

I have also had experience with an allergy treatment that placed a small dose of the allergin under the tongue — which put it directly into the blood stream. the dose was individually tailored to turn off the reaction. it was a smaller dose than turned it on. it worked along the lines of when an infection was being cleared by the immune system, at a certain low level, the immune system turns off. This is what happens when the fever breaks and you suddenly feel well in an instant.

What the researchers have done here though is fantastic for its potential. just think about all the poison ivy sufferers who get a systemic reaction. Many people could benefit from this once it is fully developed for human use.

see3d – October 26, 2011 @ 10:05 am PDT

see3d, I don’t think what you suggest is the case. When I stumbled upon this, I was avoiding all known allergens, I was free from allergy symptoms and it was in the winter, so there were no pollens, which I was very allergic to. Since the fungal treatment went on for several months well into the spring, I realized with big surprise that spring I was not suffering hay fever anymore, and that was very evident to me as my symptoms were very evident every spring. I became free of any allergy symptoms even if I walked into the park in the middle of the spring. that would have been completely impossible before the antifungal treatment.

Curiously enough, I reproduced the same effect while on antibiotics. but contrary to antifungals, allergies would be worst than at the start of the treatment. My guess is that antibiotics didn’t kill fungi but freed them of competitors, and fungi used this antibiotic treatment time to spread without competition. I think this is also why allergies can be kickstarted after an intense and long tratment with antibiotics.

I think what happens is that some fungal pathogen is releasing some specific glycoproteins into the bloodstream to tweak the immune system to their benefit. Glycoproteins are used by the immune system as messengers. Fungi are altering the communication within the immune system, so that they keep it busy. This way the fungi can spread more easily: the immune system will be responding weakly to fungi for having to deal with too many things at a time. if somebody is taking antifungal medication, that will freeze fungal activity after a number of days, about 20. if this frozen state is kept long enough, the immune system will eventually be able to clear the fungi and allergies will be cured. if the treatment is not long enugh, allergies will improve.

Your approach may also work, but some people are allergic to dozens or hundreds of substances. some people don’t even know all the substances they are allergic to. You’ll still have to prescribe a treatment for each substance. IMO it makes little sense all that trouble if you can end it all quickly and easily by taking a single antifungal agent. the simplest solutions are often the best, they’rre more likely to be addressing the root of the problem, and that’s just what I think is happening with antifungals in this case.

JayDay – October 26, 2011 @ 03:03 pm PDT

JayDay, the treatment see3D decsribed, sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is commonly called allergy drops. They are a form of desensitization and in that they are similar to the techinique in the article. there are no commercially available sublingual treatments for food allergies yet but there are allergy drops for most airborne allergies.

Allergy drops have been successfully used in Europe for decades and are endorsed by the World Health Organization. They are being adopted rapidly in the US.

Allergy Specific – October 26, 2011 @ 04:44 pm PDT

JayDay, Perhaps you did not realize that Winter has some of the worst pollen levels. Windborne pollens from trees are spread in Winter. I know.

I underwent anti-fungal treatments to no effect before I started SLIT treatments for aerosol and food allergies 25 years ago from the pioneers in the field. I got a lot of relief, but it was an ongoing process of adjusting doses every season.

The thing that finally got rid of most of my allergies was cleaning up my diet to get rid of grains and other high GI carbs and striving for low inflammation through balancing proteins, fats, and low GI carbs, along with EPA/DHA and other supplements. that cleared up almost all my many allergies. that evens out blood sugar, which to your point, also makes a less favorable environment for fungus to grow long term.

These things are as multi-faceted as individual immune systems.

see3d – October 26, 2011 @ 08:23 pm PDT

Allergy Specific, SLIT is a possibility, but it seems to me far too cumbersome. the number of possible allergens is very high, in the hundreds or thousands of substances. is like having no money and having to “desensitize” every shop in town about that fact, so that they will still sell you things despite your being broke. We don’t even know the number of shops in town, and it could be you really need something from a shop you didn’t know that existed or you were not able to desensitize.

Wouldn’t it be better just having an adequate income, a solution that fits all shops once and for all?

JayDay – October 27, 2011 @ 11:14 am PDT

see3d, my allergies were serious enough as to realize for sure if there were airborne pollens or not. the difference was dramatic enough to say that it wouldn’t go unnoticed.

Maybe your antifungal treatments were too short, non-systemic, or low dose? even topical treatments improved my allergies, in fact I realized about this after a topical treatment, then a friend doctor suggested me to try a systemic treatment. My experience is that you’ll need to take antifungals for at least 20 days to put fungi to sleep. then treatment should go on for three to six months.

It is interesting what you say about nutrition, blood sugar levels could definitely be a hint.

Sure there is an individual aspect to this, but if I’m right, antifungals should work just about the same way for everybody with allergies, just like antibiotics work approximately fine for everybody in other conditions. the key here would be a long enough systemic treatment with the right dose.

JayDay – October 27, 2011 @ 11:33 am PDT

Red light therapy has become incredibly popular due to its effectiveness at rejuvenating the skin.  Home systems, such as the DPL Light, make it convenient and simple to use this exciting technology.   

Red light therapy has been proven to penetrate deep within the layers of the skin to rejuvenate, renew, repair, and heal past damage. The layers of the skin have a high content of blood and water which enables them to easily absorb and respond to LED wavelengths. Tests have shown that LED light wavelengths offer at least 24 different positive changes at the cellular level which results in healthier and younger looking skin.   

Red wavelengths from 630-660 nanometers have the ability to stimulate the production of collagen and elastin, the building blocks of your skin.  they have also been shown to increase the energy inside the cells to speed up the healing and repairing processes.  Red light therapy has an incredible number of benefits from reducing wrinkles, shrinking pores, and diminishing scars to relieving pain, accelerating healing, and aiding with injuries. 

This technology was originally developed for NASA space shuttle plant growth experiments and was found to help in speeding up healing in outer space.  Because of this discovery LED light technology has helped countless people to heal, repair, and renew cells.  It’s a non-invasive, non-ablative, and painless alternative for rejuvenating the skin and healing the body. 

Because of its effectiveness it can be found in the hands of dermatologists, estheticians, physicians, and skin care clinics.  as its popularity grows, more and more home devices are popping up making it simple for the average Jane to use this technology at home.  it has the science backing it and the results are undeniable.  yes, red light therapy does indeed rejuvenate your skin, but the real beauty is that it does so much more.

With interest rates at a three-year low right now.  It might be a good time to refinance your home.  Jeremy Tjon of Moorhead did, “I just grabbed a calculator right away and just did it you know.  twelve months, thirty years, and I just looked at the calculator and went wow.”

Tjon and his family have lived in Moorhead four years now, and after building up some equity, he met up with a banker, and as he explains, it was worth it, ”well it's $191 a month what we're saving in our house payment, and overall in a 30 year period, it's $54 thousand dollars. so it's kinda a no brainer.”

But not everyone is as lucky as Jeremy, nearly a quarter of homeowners owe more than their house is worth, or can't even meet the tougher lending guidelines.

Blaise Johnson of Gate City Bank says your credit score, job stability, and past payment records all play into whether the bank will help you refinance or not.  but Johnson says it's worth checking out, “generally the rule of thumb is if you can get a rate one to one and a half percent lower than what you're paying now, you probably would benefit.”

Today people are getting interest rates on their mortgage under 4 percent.  Johnson says there are some fees involved in refinancing, but the benefits outweigh the costs, ”generally when you do some refinancing there's going to be some closing costs tied in with it so there will be some expenses.  but, that generally can be made up in the first 12-24 months.  Just by the savings in the interest payments.”

Now Jeremy says the process took him a couple months, but the money has never been so easy to save, “this is easy money, I plan on living here no matter what for 25-30 years, to have the banker give me 54 thousand dollars back basically in a 30 year period, that's awesome.”

If you would like to see if you could save some money by refinancing your home, we've created a link to a loan calculator that will tell you exactly how much you could save.  The link to the calculator is below.

gatecitybank.com/home/education/calcs/loan

By Mary Thurwachter

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 3:42 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011

Posted: 9:13 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011

Alison Pruitt remembers fondly her high school days when foreign exchange students would stay at her home in Michigan. She even asked one of them to walk with her at commencement.

Hosting an exchange student is an enriching experience, she says.

"It’s just such a wonderful door to open to the world," the West Palm Beach woman says. As a single mom, Pruitt has hosted students from Thailand, Italy and Malaysia.

Born in Michigan, Pruitt got a bachelor’s in journalism from Indiana University and moved to West Palm Beach in 1990.

She established a 501c3 organization with a kids’ board of directors that published Palm Beach County’s first newspaper for and by elementary- and middle-school children. the first edition of the Kidzette was published 1994.

"We invited young people to meet ‘the people in the news’ and provided opportunities for students to conduct their own interviews, create their own stories and translate the world’s current events from their perspectives.

"I was guided by firm beliefs that children are our most valuable resource; a journalistic background is a valuable part of the educational experience as it stimulates inquiry, teaches communication and encourages accuracy ."

The mother of two, Connor and Sarah, Pruitt said she was first approached about hosting an exchange student a few years ago when her children were in the Youth Orchestra of PBC. She couldn’t do it then, but asked to be kept on the list of potential host families.

"I knew we would do eventually," she says.

Then three years ago, while waiting for one exchange student to arrive, she was asked to host another girl . Pruitt and her children ended up with Mateo, from Italy, and Yui, from Thailand.

"We hadn’t planned on having two at one time," Pruitt says, "but it turned out great. the two were very different. Mateo was very outgoing. Yui was very reserved. They were like an older brother and sister to my kids."

Since then, the family hosted a third student from Malaysia.

Pruitt runs her company, Association Management & Communications, from her El Cid home. In her spare time, she enjoys golfing, taking pictures, boating, scuba diving and Bikram yoga.

An array of intriguing bottles can be found in Vero Kern’s studio.  the tools of her trade as a perfumer include flower essences, ancient smelling resins, and blends of her own design.  Kern is stylish in a chemists’ white coat topped with pearly cat’s eye glasses and a shock of platinum hair.  she pops open a fresh bottle of something that takes a visitor’s breath away -  jasmine sambac concentrate.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Vero Kern started making perfume at the age of 60“Careful!” warns Kern. “You wouldn’t believe it, it’s like petrol. but when you dilute it the nuances of the flower really come out. You really have to know these things.” 

Vero Kern knows her ingredients well. she developed her scent line Vero Profumo over five years – carefully blending fine ingredients into heady fragrances inspired by traditional perfumery – and adding a dash of lived experience.

Kern was 60 years old when she became a perfumer. Even as a child, she knew she was meant to be creative… but that white coat is also significant, she says.

“I wanted to go to an art school, I wanted to do something from bottom to top – the whole thing,” recalls Kern. “But my parents didn’t like this idea, so then I went to the pharmacy, and so on and on and on.”

Bildunterschrift: Kern’s studio is filled with intense essences and other rare ingredients

From pharmacy to perfumery

Ten years passed in the pharmacy before Kern’s desire for adventure and travel saw her join SwissAir in the early 1970s. it was a time when women were making headway at the company, and opportunities were good. she spent about 20 years there, rising though the ranks during a period of expansion and innovation that was exciting, but stressful. Kern says this background created the foundation for her financial independence and entrepreneurism.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Kern trained as an aromatherapist before she made perfumes“I would have never made it without the experience I made before. You have to be very tough and courageous to do something like this,” she says.

Kern eventually became bored with her job though, and SwissAir started having financial troubles, so they parted ways. a trip to Turkey introduced her to aromatherapy, so she decided to learn that art. from there, her next step was to attend perfumery school in France and start her own line – cautiously.

When hobbies becomes business

Though modest, Kern’s success has served as an example to others. Perfumer Andy Tauer met Kern through a mutual friend, Pascal Wehrle, who owns a Zurich bookshop called Medieval Art & Vie. six years ago, Tauer was out of work and looking for possibilities. his hobby was blending fragrances for friends and family. Pascal asked him to create a Moroccan-themed scent for this shop.

The perfume, Le Maroc pour Elle, was the first of Tauer’s 16 scents – and more are in the works. For Tauer, who is a self-taught perfumer, what’s inside the bottle comes easy. the real challenge has been building a brand and dealing with taxes, export forms, packaging costs, and raw materials. 

“Suddenly what used to be fun becomes serious, bloody serious,” says Tauer. “Because it’s your living, it’s your rent that you have to pay at the end of the month. but so far, I did not regret it!”

Tauer has been lucky in this business. his fragrances are well-liked, and get attention from perfume reviewers, bloggers, and stores around the world. but his background, including a PhD in chemistry, a stint in innovation consulting, and work as an IT Manager didn’t quite prepare him for what was to come.

“One of the problems was that we had no strategy,” he admits. “We had no plan – how do I approach the market, where do I want to go geographically?”

Bildunterschrift: Andy Tauer worked as a chemist, innovation consultant and IT manager before becoming a perfumer

Balancing freedoms with limitations

Tauer’s diverse history helps him find creative solutions in his new profession. as he holds up a five-sided amber bottle, and rocks it back and forth, it makes a pleasing sound, reminiscent of seaside shells or stones. Gleaming glass beads share space with the rich scent, one of a special series made with expensive materials. the beads look and sound lovely. but that’s not why they are there, explains Tauer.

“Actually they also perform a function – they reduce the volume,” he laughs. “Because I am a poor perfumer and could not afford a smaller bottle and other packaging.”

Going global adds complications

For both Vero Kern and Andy Tauer, working as small perfumers means balancing freedoms with limitations. the two sometimes share materials, and each has collaborations with artists in other media. These Swiss perfumers have a global customer base, and may be better known in Rome, Paris and Los Angeles than in Bern or Geneva, which have their own issues.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Tauer puts beads in his bottles to change their volumes“It’s so expensive to produce in Switzerland – people have no idea about the costs,” Kern says.  “So at the end you are glad when you can cover the whole expenses.  People sometimes say ‘Oh, it’s so expensive.’  but this kind of perfumery is already expensive to produce.”

“We have to see what is happening in Europe,” Tauer says. “We face a euro-crisis right now, which is making my products more expensive, and I have a lot of costs in Swiss francs.  And then, you know, in the US there are some signs we may go into a second recession.”

But after some reflection, Tauer adds that some things are not as important as they seem. “We sell enough to survive, and the rest – we’ll see.”

What’s most important to Kern and Tauer is that the two continue to create, innovate, and and bottle their dreams for the rest of us to share.

Author: Susan Stone, ZurichEditor: Sam Edmonds