Sunday, January 29, 2012

ph and Women's Health


Acidic - Neutral - Alkaline
3.0 4.0 5.0 - 6.0 7.0 - 8.0 9.0 10.0 11.0

lemon juice is acidic 2.5
yeast infection will be less than 4.5
some women are allergic to semen - less 4.5
normal vagina is acidic 3.8 to 4.5
menstruation raises ph
tampons also elevate ph
A woman with BV or trich will usually have a reading higher than pH4.5
pure water is neutral 7.0
semen is 7.2 to 8.2 (leading to BV)
soaps are 9.0 to 10.0 (not good for vagina)
bleach is alkaline 12.5


"A women's normalvaginal pHranges between 3.8 and 4.5¹ which means the vagina is acidic. This acidity helps to keep it healthy. pH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline something is. The pH range goes from 1 which is highly acidic to pH14 which is highly alkaline. pH 7 is neutral.


Lemon juice is acidic and has a pH of 2.4, whilst household bleach is highly alkaline at 12.5. Pure water is pH 7. (Values taken from Wiki)

Note that many soaps have a pH value of 9-10 so that too thorough washing will upset the healthy acidic environment of the vagina. Many experts advise not using soap on this area, and certainly try not to get soap inside which will alter the vaginal pH. The vagina is a self-cleansing organ and all you need to do is wash away secretions trapped around the external folds.

The average pH of semen ranges from 7.2 to 7.8 which explains why sex sometimes makes a woman more prone to infections such as BV.

Blood has a pH range of from 7.34 to 7.45 which explains why menstruation can cause an attack of BV. Research has shown that menstrual blood has the effect of neutralizing the normally acidic vagina - not a desirable things for any woman prone to infections.

pH values will change as you progress through life. Pre-puberty the reading will be around pH7; during our reproductive years when the vagina is more vulnerable to infection an acidic pH of around 3.8 to 4.5 guards our health; and after menopause we return to a pH of 6-7.


Normal Saliva PH

  • Saliva normally varies in pH balance (alkalinity vs. acidity) between 6.2 to 7.4, with higher pH levels often seen during increased secretion of saliva, for instance, when smelling food cooking or when hungry and viewing pictures of food. Some on-line practitioners offer guides to diagnosing a wide range of physical and psychological ailments using self-administered pH test kits that they sell clients.

Read more: What Is the PH of Saliva? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5191580_ph-saliva_.html#ixzz1oAQ3hHkq



Urine PH
Urine pH is used to classify urine as either a dilute acid or base solution. Seven is the point of neutrality on the pH scale. The lower the pH, the greater the acidity of a solution; the higher the pH, the greater the alkalinity. The glomerular filtrate of blood is usually acidified by the kidneys from a pH of approximately 7.4 to a pH of about 6 in the urine. Depending on the person's acid-base status, the pH of urine may range from 4.5 to 8. 



In people who are not vegetarians, the pH of urine tends to be acidic. A diet rich in citrus fruits, legumes, and vegetables raises the pH and produces urine that is more alkaline. Most of the bacteria responsible for urinary tract infections make the urine more alkaline because the bacteria split urea into ammonia and other alkaline waste products. The urine pH varies in different types of acidosis and alkalosis. Control of pH is important in the management of several diseases, including bacteriuria, renal calculi, and drug therapy.




3/14/12
saliva 6.5 - normal is 6.2 to 7.4
urine 7.0 - range is 4.5 to 8
v. 5.75 - shouldn't be above 4.5


Women who have had 3 urinary tract infections are likely to continue having them. Four out of 5 women will develop another UTI within 18 months of their last urinary tract infection. Women who have recurrent urinary tract infections (3 or more a year) should ask their doctor about the following recurrent urinary tract infection treatment options:
 
  • Low doses of an antibiotic such as trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMZ) or nitrofurantoin daily for 6 months or longer. If taken at bedtime, the drug remains in the bladder longer and may be more effective. Research has shown this therapy to be effective without causing serious side effects.
     
  • Single dose of an antibiotic after sexual intercourse.
     
  • A short course (1 or 2 days) of antibiotics when symptoms appear.
     

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Reblog


25 iPhone Apps for the Mobile Fashionista


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The Fashion Tech Series is supported by Nordstrom Conversation. To share your thoughts on apps and social media in the fashion industry, join the Conversation at Nordstrom.
"If you’re passionate about style, chances are you’ve downloaded a few fashion-related apps for your smartphone.
You’ve probably also noticed that the quality and utility of these apps varies widely, and that many of them overlap in functionality. To combat that problem, we’ve divided the existing coterie of fashion apps into six main categories to help you find the most efficient organizer for your existing wardrobe, the most robust shopping guide for both online and retail stores, the best app from an individual designer, and the most comprehensive resources for fashion news, style advice and style inspiration.
Because the majority of big brands have opted to develop quality apps for iOS exclusively, we’ve only included apps for the iPhoneiPad and iPod touch. If you have any recommendations to share for those platforms, we hope you’ll do so in the comments below.

Best Wardrobe Organizer


While there are a number of free apps that promise to help you organize your wardrobe and effectively mix-and-match items to create outfits, nothing is as robust as Stylebook‘s $3.99 app for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Like runners-up Touch Closet and Gap StyleMixer, which are available for $0.99 and free, respectively, you can use the app to photograph and organize your clothing by category. You can then collage these images to create different outfits. What’s especially useful about Stylebook, however, is that you can remove the background from images of clothing, which helps you create clean, layered collages (in all fairness, the “background removal” tool is often ineffective — it’s best to use the manual eraser or edit out backgrounds inPhotoshop). You can even resize clothing by spreading or pinching your thumb and forefinger — a feature that Gap StyleMixer and Vogue Stylist lack.
In addition, Stylebook sports a calendar that allows you to track when they wore outfits and plan outfits ahead of time — great for figuring out when you’re going to need to have your favorite dress dry cleaned for that special after-work event next week, for instance. You can also keep a log of what outfits or pieces you’ve worn to avoid repetition.
If you’re serious about organizing your wardrobe on your mobile device, Stylebook is worth the $3.99 price tag, in our opinion.

Best App for Style Inspiration


Fashion begins with inspiration. And although style inspiration is available everywhere — on the runways, in magazines, on countless style blogs and in just about every kind of design — synthesizing and re-presenting that information in a meaningful way isn’t necessarily easy. Magazine-like style blog WhoWhatWear brings its collection of trend reports and celebrity-inspired style ideas to the iPhone and iPod touch in a visually fresh and editorially concise manner. It provides the same trend reports — with accompanying styling suggestions — that you can find in magazines like Harper’s BazaarElle and Lucky, but for free.
The only notable runner-up in this category is Chicfeed, a free, no-frills app that collects and organizes the latest images from street style blogs like The Sartorialist and Face Hunter into a simple slideshow.

Best Shopping App


Lucky magazine’s much-lauded Lucky at Your Service iPhone app not only helps you find the best apparel, accessories and beauty products (at least according to Lucky editors) of the moment, it also helps you track them down online and, in some cases, at nearby retail outlets using GPS. Lucky will even call the store to reserve it for same-day pickup. Best of all, it’s entirely free.
Although Lucky‘s app has some killer features, it’s not a one-stop shopping app; its selection is limited to editors’ recommendations. If you’re looking to browse a wider online inventory, ShopStyle‘s free app is your best bet; it compiles items from more than one hundred online retailers, such as Neiman Marcus and Bluefly, to help you access a broad range of brands, styles, prices and colors, and identify the lowest prices.
If you prefer retail stores to e-commerce sites, however, Lustr Fashion Finder is your free, go-to app. Lustr uses GPS to pull up the best current and upcoming sales and promotions in your proximity. You can also search other neighborhoods and sale timelines, as well as the kinds of products you are looking for, and compile all of the information into a shopping itinerary. The app also offers exclusive promotions to its users.
Bargain hunters will also appreciate Gilt’s iPhone and iPad apps to take advantage of the site’s luxury flash sales, which are scheduled at different hours throughout the week. The deals to be found through eBay Fashion’s app are also worth checking out.
Other runners-up include Rugby Ralph Lauren Make Your Own, which lets you design, share and purchase your own rugby shirt, polo shirt or sweater; Yoox and Net-a-Porter, for browsing their extensive catalogs; andiShoes, which makes up for its lack of browsing options with above-average close-up photographs of more than 50,000 shoes.

Best App for Style Advice


If you’re looking for style advice, look no further than Glamour magazine’s free Ask a Stylist for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Simply snap a photo of the item or ensemble in question, upload it to the app along with your question for almost immediate advice. (Glamour promises a wait of no more than fifteen minutes.) You can even browse the bios of the participating stylists to submit it to one whose taste is most similar to yours.
To get a second opinion (or third, or tenth), check out runner-up Fashism, which lets you solicit opinions from the site’s online community.

Best App by Individual Designer


Apps by individual designers are, by and large, roughly the same. Each generally offers runway photographs and video footage, a slideshow of the current season catalog, a news feed, some background history about the designer and a store locator. Some, like runners-up Gucci and Donna Karan, include a few novel elements; the latter uniquely allows you to mix and record your own music, for instance, while Donna Karan’s enables you to book appointments with personal shoppers, and read the designer’s interviews with the likes of Susan Sarandon, as well as peruse Karan’s answers to style questions from fans (unfortunately, there is no option to submit additional questions).
But the winner in this category goes to Ralph Lauren’s app, which includes fantastic behind-the-scenes video and photo montages of the design and casting processes, archival runway footage and interviews with the designer. Of all the apps, its design is perhaps the most elegant, ultimately presenting Ralph Lauren’s rich heritage in a holistic and engaging manner.
Other runners-up include Diane von Furstenberg, which allows you to shop for items through the app, including an exclusive $325 wrap dress; Chanel, which allows you to view close-ups of accessories on the runway by rotating your device (but which does not, unfortunately, include any video); and D&G, in which Stefano Gabanna’s tweets are featured prominently alongside the rest of the app’s (mainly visual) features.

Best Fashion News Resource


Already one of the leading sources for fashion and party news on the web, Style.com‘s app is the best for keeping up with the news on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. There’s no quicker way to access high-quality runway photos and videos on your mobile device during Fashion Week, which are also accompanied by intelligent reviews. The app also includes archival footage, international party coverage and features from the site’s style blog.
If Style.com’s app isn’t enough, check out Fashion News, a basic RSS aggregator that comes pre-loaded with a list of fashion and beauty blogs, which you add to, remove from and read offline — and that’s about it. (In other words, if you’re a developer and looking to create a fashion app, fashion news is ripe for innovation.)
Have you tried any of the apps above? What did you think? What other fashion-related apps would you recommend to users, or like to see made available for smartphones? Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments."

Sunday, January 15, 2012

My Favorite iPhone Apps

Open this on your iphone:
go to your App Store icon on your phone to download most of these:

be sure to activate itunes icon you'll find on your iphone

google apps
  • google voice - don't have time to listen to every voicemail? get them transcribed
utilities
  • evernote - this will allow you to save all kinds of notes with tags that are highly searchable
  • dropbox - synchronize the files on all your computers and your iphone


access your other sites and readers on your iphone

    financial
    • mint.com - connect all your accounts to view your current balances at a glance
    • squareup - take credit cards on your iphone
    photography
    Authors/Publishers
    • Hazelden - including Language of Letting Go and Food for Thought
    • Louise Hay - including Heal Your Body
    Games
    • myPause
    • Period Tracker
    • PMS Helper
    Spiritual
    12 Step
    Health

    Send me an email: janerekas@hotmail.com Jane Rekas, LCSW