How To Make Your Lips Soft And Pink, Naturally

Soft lips are the desire of everyone in this world. Along with soft lips, everyone desires supple and pink lips. But due to harsh weather, wrong food habits, and lack of proper care, our lips may lose their natural pink hue and turn darker. But you need not worry much as Mother Nature has plenty of ingredients that can bring the glow and color back to your lips. 

Top 10 Foods That Support Bone Health

Our bones require specific nutrients to stay strong and healthy. Calcium and vitamin D are the two big ones that I think most people recognize, but magnesium, protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamins A, C, and K are also essential for bone health.

Here we features 10 foods that will supply you with those essential nutrients when included in a balanced diet. I’ve also found delicious and healthy recipes and tips for preparing these foods.

A walk a day may keep early death away

Get off your duff and take a walk 

Too harsh? Too much on TV? Too much work? Too bad, because just one energetic, 20-minute stroll each day could slash your risk of suffering an early death, perhaps adding untold years through with those extra steps, scientists reported Wednesday. 

In fact, by tracking more than 330,000 European men and women over a 12-year-span, experts determined that twice as many deaths may be tied to a lack of exercise as by obesity. 

And for sedentary folks, making only a "modest" bump in your daily motion seems to particularly bestow your bodies with a bevy of bountiful benefits, they said in their report, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"Fairly small amounts of physical activity, such as 20 minutes of brisk walking each day appears beneficial," said Ulf Ekelund, of the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at Britain's University of Cambridge and the Norwegian School of Sports Science. Ekelund led the study. 

"To put it simply: sit less, move more, and the more the better."

What constitutes "brisk?" Maintain a walking speed of about 3 to 4 miles per hour during those 20 minutes, Ekelund suggested. For people with "mean body weights," the walkers should burn between 90 and 110 calories through that jaunt. 

Even better: if you are a person who doesn't exercise, adding that daily walk would elevate you from a group of people the scientists classified as "inactive" to a subset they dubbed "moderately inactive." And that change alone could reduce your risk of premature death by anywhere between 16 to 30 percent, Ekelund said. 

In monitoring those 330,000 Europeans, the health boost from walking was shown to be highest among "normal weight individuals," but even folks with a higher body mass index (BMI) measured some benefits, the study said. 

An adult with a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An adult with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight.

"This study adds to the mounting evidence that movement and activity makes a difference in your health, even if you are not at your ideal weight," said Dr. Edward Laskowski, a professor in the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic, and co-director of the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center.

"You don’t have to run marathons. Consistent, small doses of exercise like walking are effective," Laskowski added. 

The findings that a daily, stroll of 20 minutes may reduce a person's risk of premature death by up to 30 percent are consistent, Laskowski said, with the physical activity guidelines for Americans. Those were developed by a consortium of health and fitness groups under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services. The guidelines recommend 150 minutes of "moderately intense activity" per week. What's more, the guidelines are based on earlier research that showed substantial cardiovascular and other health benefits from logging just that amount of exercise. Benefits go up, however, as people get closer to 300 minutes per week. 

"Walking is simple, doesn’t require a lot of expensive equipment, and you can do it with family or friends in a multitude of locations," Laskowski said. "Any activity is better than no activity, and the more we can weave activity into our lifestyle and families, the better the benefits we will reap."

He speaks with a personal passion. Laskowski incorporates regular walking into his own fitness program, he said. 

"Walking clears my mind, gives me energy, and helps my sleep and my mood," Laskowski said. "The days I am not able to get out and be active as much, I don’t feel as good.” 

Participants in the study were all involved in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Study. Over an average of 12 years, researchers gauged their heights, weights and waist circumferences. Participants used self-assessment to measure their own levels of physical activity, the study noted. 

Ekelund and colleagues then looked at who died over the next 12 years. 

Lower risks of early death from walking were spotted in the data for both the normal-weight group and those carrying more pounds, the study found. For example, people at a healthy weight who were classified by the researchers as active dropped their odds of early death by 30 percent when compared to those from the inactive group. 

And among people who are considered obese due to their BMI, their risk reduction was 16 percent if they were active compared to folks who do not exercise. 

Foods to eat and avoid for healthy, shiny hair

When hair looks limp, dull and lifeless, people often turn to new shampoos and conditioners for that extra oomph. But really, a poor diet could be the culprit for lackluster locks.

“[Lifeless hair] is usually coming from the inside out,” says Michael Stranko, a hair stylist at Hair Designs by Karen Greb in Pittsburgh.

Stranko notices that when a client’s hair changes, many times diet is to blame. One woman was on a doctor-ordered, low-fat diet and even two month after it ended, the stylist saw a difference.

“Her hair turned very thin, very brittle, and there was no life to it. When you aren't getting a proper nutrition it … comes out through the hair,” Stranko says.

Sven Barucha / Shutterstock

Though there is a limited amount of science to back up Stranko's observation, eating protein and certain fats is said to help give you lustrous hair.

“If you don’t have enough protein, you can end up having hair that is dry and thinner. Protein is the building block for … keratin,” says Dr. Debra Wattenberg, a New York City dermatologist at NY Skin Rx.

Meat, fish, beans, and soy will arm the body to make keratin, a fibrous protein that builds hair and nails. While Omega-3 fats, found in fish, walnuts and flaxseed, help make hair shine. 

“Essential fatty acids are really important,” says Dr. Apple Bodemer, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “People who are on really, really low fat diets [have] hair breaking and hair falling out.”

Read more: The 7 things I wish I knew before cutting my thin, fine hair

Also important to healthy hair: vitamin D, zinc, and iron. Iron helps red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients to the hair follicle and zinc works as a co-enzyme, helping to create the hair structure. Less is known about the role of vitamin D, but experts suspect it helps with the growth cycle.

While some people pop biotin supplements for hair health, there's no clear evidence that extra vitamin B — the type of vitamin biotin is — is a magic bullet for lush locks. Vitamin B serves as a co-enzyme to help hair develop. People with B deficiencies, which are serious and rare in the United States, often do lose hair, but it’s hard to say if extra biotin helps; some people swear by it, while others notice no difference. 

Eating the daily recommended levels of fish, meat, and dairy should give you enough vitamin B for healthy hair.

Stress or poor diet can cause breaking and thinning hair, but when people notice a change in their hair, they might want to visit a doctor. Breaking and thinning hair may indicate anemia, vitamin D or B deficiencies, low zinc levels, or symptoms of a more serious disorder such as thyroid conditions or GI disorders, such as Crohn’s or Celiac’s, when patients can’t absorb nutrients properly.

While some foods make hair strong and beautiful, eating too much of others can make hair brittle and thin. 

Here's what to watch out for:

Vitamin A

While vitamin A bolsters the immune system and aids vision, overloading with vitamin A causes hair loss.

“Too much vitamin A can cause you to lose the hair and vitamin A can be toxic to the hair follicles,” says Wattenberg.

The two types of vitamin A are found naturally as either retinoid in animal products or beta carotene in vegetables, such as carrots.   

“It would take like a million carrots” to damage a person’s hair, says Dr. Whitney Bowe, a dermatologist at Advanced Dermatology in New York City.

But people constantly popping vitamins might be ingesting too much vitamin A, causing thinning hair.

“[Vitamin A] will act on the oil gland and shrink it down,” says Bodemer. “The oil gland is not producing the same amount of oil [to] help coat [the hair] and make it healthy, strong, and shiny.”

More evidence a veg diet might lower cancer risk

Fish

Yes, fatty fish like salmon and tuna contain omega-3 fatty acids, which give hair its luster. 

But tuna and swordfish, also contain mercury, so excessive consumption of the wrong kind could wreck your hair. 

“Mercury can cause hair loss,” says Wattenberg.

Experts believe mercury disrupts protein development and interferes with zinc, wrecking the growth process.   

Wattenberg says people think if the fish is cooked, they’re protected from mercury, but that’s not true. 

There's also no clear guidance on when mercury levels in the body become toxic. But, as long as you're not pregnant, it's probably safe to eat light canned tuna two to three times a week, or about 12 ounces total, according to the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. 

ALSO READ:One simple diet change may be all you need to lose weight

Sugar and juice cleanses

While there’s not a lot of research connecting high-sugar diets with hair loss, experts know that sugar promotes inflammation. When people eat sugar or carbs, the sugar floods the blood, causing a spike of insulin and androgens, which bind to hair follicles and cause the hair to fall out.   

But bingeing on leftover Valentine’s Day truffles won’t lead to hair loss. It’s normally seen in people who chronically have high levels of insulin.

“When inflammation is constantly driven by high glycemic and high sugar diets, [it] messes with the immune system and that is where the high sugar diets are coming more into play [with hair health],” says Bodemer.   

Bowe says she sometimes sees short-term bad effects of too much sugar when her patients try crash diets or cleanses.