QUOTES THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Dear Esteemed Reader,
    Below is a list of quotes that could potentially awake the genius in you and spur you into action. These quotes are from men who have excelled well in their various fields.

• When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
• Fall seven times and stand up eight.
• When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.  
• When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
• Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. –Maya Angelou
•  Happiness is not something readymade.  It comes from your own actions. –Dalai Lama
• If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on. –Sheryl Sandberg
• First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. –Aristotle
• Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. –Napoleon Hill
• Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. –Albert Einstein
• Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.  –Robert Frost
• I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse. –Florence Nightingale
• You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky
• I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. –Michael Jordan
• The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. –Amelia Earhart
• Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. –Babe Ruth
• Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. –W. Clement Stone
• The past is a ghost, the future a dream. All we ever have is now. –Bill Cosby
• Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. –John Lennon
• We become what we think about. –Earl Nightingale
• Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore, Dream, Discover. –Mark Twain
• Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. –Charles Swindoll
• The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. –Alice Walker
• The mind is everything. What you think you become.  –Buddha
• The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. –Chinese Proverb
• An unexamined life is not worth living. –Socrates
• Eighty percent of success is showing up. –Woody Allen
• Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. –Steve Jobs
• Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. –Vince Lombardi
• I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. –Stephen Covey
• Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. –Pablo Picasso
• You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. –Christopher Columbus
• I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou

Acne

Whether you call them blemishes, pimples, or zits, most of us experience mild acne at some point in our lives. More often a problem in the teen years, acne vulgaris, as it’s known medically, starts when skin pores become blocked by excess oil and dead skin cells. Some people have severe acne resulting in hundreds of pimples across the face, chest, and back, although many treatments can help.

Pimples have long been the bane of teenage existence, but pediatricians say there is now enough evidence on effective treatments to put out the first guidelines on battling acne in children.
There is a range of medications that can clear up even severe cases of acne, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Writing in the May issue of its journal Pediatrics, the group throws its support behind new guidelines from the American Acne and Rosacea Society that detail how to treat acne in children and teens of all ages.
That “all ages” part is important because acne is becoming more and more common in pre-teens, too, said Dr. Lawrence Eichenfield, the lead author of the AAP report. One study of 9- and 10-year-old girls found that more than three-quarters had pimples.
It’s thought that it may be because boys and girls are, on average, starting puberty earlier compared with past generations, said Eichenfield, a pediatric dermatologist at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego.
According to the AAP, mild acne often can be tackled with over-the-counter fixes. Washes, lotions and other products containing benzoyl peroxide are the best studied, and the best place to start, the group said.
“It’s a pretty effective agent, especially for mild acne,” Eichenfield said. Benzoyl peroxide is also the most common ingredient in over-the-counter acne fighters. Another common one is salicylic acid, but there has not been much research on it. When it has been tested head-to-head against benzoyl peroxide, Eichenfield said, the latter has won out.
If over-the-counter products do not do the job, the next step could be topical retinoids — prescription medications like Retin-A, Avita and Differin. They are vitamin A derivatives and work by speeding up skin cell turnover, which helps unclog pores.
The main side effects of all the topical treatments are skin irritation and dryness, the AAP said.
If the acne is moderate to severe, oral antibiotics could be added to the mix because bacteria that live on the skin play a role in acne. When pores become clogged with oil and skin cells, bacteria can grow in the pore and cause inflammation. Antibiotics help by killing bacteria and soothing inflammation.
But, Eichenfield said, “it’s important to use antibiotics appropriately.” One reason is because acne-causing bacteria have become less sensitive to common antibiotics in the past couple decades, due to widespread use of the drugs.
Another is that antibiotics can have side effects, such as stomach upset, dizziness and, in girls, yeast infections.
When acne is severe and other treatments have failed, the AAP said, doctors and parents might consider the prescription drug isotretinoin — brand-names including Roaccutane (formerly known as Accutane) and Claravis.
The drug is very effective, but it can cause birth defects, so girls and women have to use birth control and get regular pregnancy tests if they go on the medication. Isotretinoin also has been linked to inflammatory bowel disease, depression and suicidal thoughts in some users — although it’s not clear the drug is to blame, the AAP said. (Severe acne itself can cause depression and suicidal thoughts, for example.)
Dr. David Pariser, a dermatologist not involved in the recommendations, said they are “based on sound evidence” and reflect the “best practices” in battling acne.
When should parents consider taking their child to a doctor for acne treatment? It depends on how severe the problem is, and how bothered the child is, said Pariser, who sits on the board of directors of the American Academy of Dermatology.
Some kids can deal with skin eruptions, but Pariser said he sees others who refuse to leave the house.
Both he and Eichenfield said it’s important to dispel kids’ (and sometimes parents’) acne myths. “Acne is not caused by dirt or poor hygiene,” Eichenfield said, and harshly scrubbing your face will probably make the situation worse.
It’s best to wash your face gently twice a day, with a soap-free pH-balanced cleanser, the AAP said. Facial toners — which commonly come in pre-packaged acne regimens — can help clear away oil. But the group suggested going easy on toners, since they can irritate the skin.
And what about food? “The medical community has swung back and forth on that over the years,” Pariser said. Years ago, people thought that certain foods, like chocolate, sugar and iodine, promoted breakouts, but studies starting in the late 1960s failed to confirm that.
“The idea that food plays a role became relegated to myth,” Eichenfield said. But recently, he added, some researchers have been revisiting the issue. There is some evidence that a sugary diet may promote acne, for example. But for now, it’s not clear whether any diet changes will actually help keep kids’ skin clear, Eichenfield said.

The bottom line, he said, is that many treatment options are available. “There’s no reason that children have to live with acne that is severe and troubling to them,” he said.

WELCOME TO HEALTHERTAINMENT

I looked across Africa and Nigeria in particular, so many blogs on entertainment, gossips and breaking news.

Only little effort is placed on our very reason of existence cum "health is wealth". As the popular saying goes, our very reason of existence is based on the state of our well being.

It is imperative to note the following:

In 2012, almost 5 million (73% of all under-five deaths) occurred within the first year of life. The risk of a child dying before completing the first year of age was highest in the WHO African region (63 per 1000 live births), about six times higher than that in the WHO European region (10 per 1000 live births)globally, the infant mortality rate has decreased from an estimated rate of 63 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990 to 35 deaths per 1000 live births in 2012. Annual infant deaths have declined from 8.9 million in 1990 to 4.8 million in 2012. 

 Its on this note, my colleagues and I have taken up a mandate of using the social media to our advantage, informing you about causes and prevention of diseases, essential health tips and pharmacological information.

We'll be obliged to answer your questions professionally, treat your comments and concerns unbiasedly. Have a blessed weekend ahead.

Remember, health is wealth.