cruise
CONTROL

3. Optimize Stress.
"A certain amount of stress is necessary," says Michelle Leigh, the author of The New Beauty, "to pump up your drive and enthusiasm about life. The problem arises when you cross the limit of your optimum stress level, which may differ from one person to another. Too little stress can also be harmful, causing depression, boredom and lowered resistance to illness." Among the stress-induced illnesses that commonly afflict today's young professionals are ulcers, insomnia, bladder infections, heart disease and chronic fatigue.

4. Exercise.
The best way to conquer stess is to exercise. In the short term, exercising will have a calming effect. In the long run, your body becomes more resilient, giving you higher thresholds for coping with stress. Other short-term stress relief comes from massages, baths and sleep. Sometimes the only true solution is a career change to turn negative stress into positive stress.

5. Eat Asian Food.
Our society sees food as the cause of our weight and health problems. That's only because our sedentary lifestyles combined with an abundance of refined foods have spoiled the balance. For 3,000 years Asian herbal doctors prescribed food, in the right balance, as the cure for virtually all diseases. The key word here is balance.

One who denies herself the pleasures of food for the sake of losing weight will only slow her metabolism even further. What's more, she won't be getting enough of the nutrients her skin--and other organs--need to maintain a healthy texture. On the other hand, one who gorges on french fries and ice cream with the thought of working off the calories will find herself growing too lethargic to do anything.

Today's American diet is too oily and sweet. Drug stores now sell extracts derived from garlic, cayenne pepper and various herbs to help right the metabolic balance. A tastier approach is to eat Asian. Asian cuisines are well balanced to include the sour, the bitter and the astringent as well as the oily and sweet.

Find a dozen good Corean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Filipino restaurants in your area and start working your way down the menu.

6. Hands off.
Keep those hands off your face. Your busy hands are a magnet for the kinds of bacteria you don't want to transfer to your face oils to cause pore clogging and worse.

7. Avoid Harsh Sunlight.
The popular view is that Asian skin wrinkles less with age. Take a look at women in rural Asia who have spent a lifetime toiling in the sun. A typical 35-year-old looks 55. You'll think twice about your obsession with a "healthy" tan.

Asian skin can suffer blistering sunburns, contrary to the myth that we have enough melanin to protect us from the sun. Also, Asian and Hispanic skin are prone to hyperpigmentation--areas of darkness--that the sun can exacerbate.

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