1. What causes foot odor?
The fix: Since dry feet equals odor-free feet, wear absorbent cotton
socks with shoes made from breathable materials, like canvas and leather, and
sprinkle Zeasorb - an over-the-counter drying powder - into your shoes every
morning. Three nights a week, pour a pot of tea made with several regular (not
herbal) tea bags into a basin, then soak your feet for five to 10 minutes. The
tannic acid in tea temporarily inhibits sweat production. See your doctor if
your feet are also red, swollen or scaly to make sure a bacterial or fungal
infection isn’t causing the smell.
2. Why does my breath smell despite constant brushing?
Although brushing will help prevent cavities (so don’t stop scrubbing), it
can only mask bad breath, since the problem really lies within your throat and
tongue, not your teeth. When the bacteria in your mouth lose access to oxygen
(which can happen when you use alcohol-based mouthwashes, take certain
prescription medications for depression or high blood pressure or simply sit
with your mouth shut for a long time), they emit smelly sulfur compounds, says
Harold Katz, D.D.S., founder of The California Breath Clinic in Los Angeles;
this is the same principle at work with foot odor. Eating garlic and onion also
makes your breath stink because they contain - surprise - those same sulfur
compounds.
The fix: Contrary to popular belief, a tongue scraper won’t banish
bad breath - sulfur compounds cannot be removed manually. Instead, keep your
mouth oxygenated by drinking water throughout the day and using an
over-the-counter oral rinse with chlorine dioxide in both the A.M. and the P.M.
to neutralize sulfur compounds. (Try TheraBreath Oral Rinse.) Chewing on
oxygen-rich vegetables, like parsley and celery, can also diminish odors. If
these tricks don’t work, see your dentist.
3. I’ve started to sweat through my blouses. Should I be worried?
Most likely there’s nothing to fear, says Joseph L. Jorizzo, M.D.,
chairperson of dermatology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in
Winston-Salem, NC. You probably just have a benign, hereditary tendency toward
excessive sweating that can crop up at any age. But see your doctor to rule out
an overactive thyroid, a low blood-sugar level and a number of other problems
that can cause continual heavy sweating.
The fix: Before bed, towel-dry your armpits and apply the
prescription antiperspirant solution Drysol (it contains a higher percentage of
aluminum chloride - a drying agent - than regular deodorants do). Wash the
solution off in the A.M. and don’t reapply any deodorant. Repeat nightly. Still
not satisfied? Ask your doctor about Botox injections - one treatment ($800 to
$1,500) can paralyze sweat glands for six months to a year.
4. Every time I shave, I get a bumpy rash along my bikini line — what’s causing it?
A too-close shave or waxing can make hairs split and loop around just under
the surface of the skin. As these off-kilter hairs grow, they push up against
your skin, causing inflammation and redness, says Lawrence Moy, M.D., chief of
dermatology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
The fix: Put down your loofah; dermatologists now agree that rubbing
the bumps to free trapped hairs will only make the problem worse. Instead,
apply an OTC acetylsalicylic acid (a.k.a. aspirin) solution twice a day for two
to seven days to gently exfoliate the top layer of your skin. (Try Soft Cell.)
Once you shed this layer, the looped hairs will be able to poke through. A
cortisone injection, administered by your dermatologist, will decrease
inflammation in bigger bumps. If ingrown hairs are a persistent problem, you
may want to consider laser treatment, which damages the hair follicles and
prevents hair growth. You’ll need about three treatments (each around $350)
followed by a touch-up every six months to a year.
5. I’ve heard that spider veins are hereditary. My mom doesn’t have them, so why do I?
Genetics isn’t the only cause of these unsightly blue veins. Pregnancy and
trauma to the leg (like bumping into something) can bring them on, says Esta
Kronberg, M.D., a Houston, TX, dermatologist.
The fix: Though vitamin K cream has been touted by some as the next
big thing in spider-vein treatment (possibly because of its ability to
constrict blood vessels, which supposedly makes veins less visible), there’s no
way the molecules in the cream can penetrate the skin on your legs and be
absorbed into your veins, says Jorizzo. The best option - with 95 percent of
patients seeing improvement after one to three treatments (up to $300 per
treatment, per leg) — is still sclerotherapy, tiny injections of saline
solution, which irritates veins and causes them to swell shut.
6. Are the bumps on my butt and on the backs of my arms pimples?
No. They’re actually called keratosis pilaris - the cause is unknown, but
some claim that it’s a hereditary condition.
The fix: You can soften and help slough off bumps by rubbing them
with a mixture of equal parts petroleum jelly and either water or cold cream.
If that doesn’t work, prescription Retin-A probably will, but it can irritate
the surrounding skin. A better alternative: prescription LactiCare-HC Lotion 2
1/2%, which contains lactic acid to dissolve dead skin cells and hydrocortisone
to soothe any acid-induced irritation. Rub lotion onto bumps twice a day until
they clear up.
7. What’s causing my toenail fungus?
Toenail fungus is actually athlete’s foot (often picked up from shared
showers or borrowed shoes) that has spread into your toenails.
The fix: The most effective treatment is a prescription antifungal
pill like Lamisil or Sporanox, but be warned: These treatments are only 70 to
80 percent effective at best, and even when they work it takes nearly a year
and a half for the toenail to fully grow out, says Day. Prevent a recurrence by
wearing shower slippers every time you rinse off at the gym and by not
borrowing shoes.
8. Why do my teeth look so dingy?
Smoking and excessive consumption of dark beverages (like coffee, tea, soda
and red wine) are the main causes of stained teeth, says Lana Rozenberg,
D.D.S., founder of the Rozenberg Dental Day Spa in New York City.
The fix: As with clothing stains, the longer discolorations remain on
your teeth, the harder they are to remove - so keep up those twice-a-year
dental visits. You can lighten your teeth several shades with a whitening
toothpaste that contains carbamide peroxide, but use it only once a day to
avoid drying out gum tissue. (Try Rembrandt Plus with Peroxide toothpaste.)
Floss treated with the whitening agent silica has also been proven to polish
away stains, which often form between teeth. (Try Johnson & Johnson Reach
Whitening Floss.) For more dramatic results, your dentist can bleach your teeth
up to eight shades brighter with a highly concentrated peroxide gel
administered via laser ($800 to $1,500) or in a custom-fitted mouthpiece ($600
to $1,000) that you wear an hour a day for about 10 days, says Rozenberg.
(Though drugstore bleaching kits are much less expensive, they aren’t quite as
effective — the gel isn’t as strong, and since the mouthpieces aren’t created
specifically for you, the gel can drip out of them and inflame your gums.)
9. Why do I have stretch marks?
You may suspect that the marks on your tummy, thighs or hips were caused by
pregnancy or significant weight fluctuations. What you may not know, though, is
that hormonal changes that occur during normal growth spurts can also cause
your skin to stretch and scar, says Lawrence Moy, M.D. Red marks appear when
your skin stretches and thins so much that you can see your blood flowing
through the skin’s thinned outer layers, says Joseph L. Jorizzo, M.D., When
your skin stretches minimally or the stretched skin is thick, white marks
result.
The fix: No treatment is guaranteed to remove stretch marks, but you
can make them less noticeable. Try twice-daily applications of OTC Striae
Stretch Mark Creme - several studies have confirmed that it can reduce red or
white marks in about four weeks. Or ask your doctor about laser therapy ($450
to $700 per treatment), which can tone down the brightness of recently acquired
red marks, or microdermabrasion ($50 to $150 per session), which can diminish
the appearance of white marks.
10. Could there be a serious underlying cause for excess facial hair?
If you fight your follicles on a daily basis or sprout lots of hairs on your
chin, see your doctor. Polycystic ovarian syndrome (a disorder characterized by
high levels of male hormones) or an adrenal gland problem could be to blame. If
you’re moderately hairy (you tidy up your brows or upper-lip area once a
month), you’ve probably just got your genes to thank.
The fix: Vaniqa - a new, odorless prescription cream- has recently
been approved by the FDA to decrease light to heavy hair growth anywhere on the
face ($50 for a two-month supply). Though it doesn’t yield immediate results
(you’ll need to keep using your regular hair-removal methods at first), the
cream blocks one of the enzymes responsible for hair growth, gradually slowing
it down as long as you continue to use it, says Ken Washenik, M.D., director of
dermatopharmacology at New York University School of Medicine. For those who
don’t respond to Vaniqa, six laser hair treatments ($150 each) can
significantly decrease hair growth for months. A monthly electrolysis session
for up to a year ($60 to $100 each) can remove hair permanently.
*info from www.webmd.com
