What is the whole Botox thing about, anyway? Injecting a toxin into your muscles to prevent them from being used. Doesn’t that imply that your overuse of muscle is probably what’s contributing to your wrinkles?
Here’s my idea: what if you gave yourself a massage instead? I’ve found that I overuse the muscles along my eyebrow at the edge of the eye socket and they are knotted and painful. I admit it, I squint. The bummer about that is that I have been getting these almost vertical warning wrinkles that are alarming-looking. What if my face froze like that?
I’ve started using my thumbs to press on the knots. And when I do that, the vertical lines go bye-bye. A free, healthy alternative to Botox:-) And more natural looking too.
I’m just not a Botox girl. But I consider these wrinkles a wake-up call. If I keep squinting, I’m going to get vertical wrinkles, permanently. I need to change how I use my muscles by not squinting so much. I resolve to wear my glasses more. And given the horror of vertical wrinkles, horizontal forehead lines are the new sexy. Some year, that’s what I aspire to:-)

If you’re over 40, chances are you’re not digesting your food efficiently. Over time, the digestive feedback loop goes haywire. I’ve gone into this somewhat before, but if you don’t drink enough water, you’re not digesting your food right, plus your bile will get too thick and start clogging up your gallbladder and bile ducts. You may form gallstones, like I had, without even knowing it.
If this is happening, your bile won’t be able to neutralize your stomach acid, so your small intestine will make mucus to protect itself from the acid, which will prevent toxins from being removed before digestion by the Gut-Associated Lymphatic TIssue (GALT). It will also prevent your immune system from killing off bacteria and viruses that it comes in contact with in the small intestine’s GALT, because 80% of your immune system is housed in the GALT.
Your stomach acidity will begin to drop over time to keep you safe if you’re producing mucus. Your bile quality will also decline, which (even if you had good stomach acid production) will keep you from digesting your food as well as you need, in order to be able to free nutrients for absorption.
Low stomach acid puts you in danger of H. Pylori colonizing your stomach. Besides causing stomach ulcers, H. Pylori keeps your stomach acid production low because of the damage it causes in your gut.
It’s a great idea to help yourself out by taking digestive enzymes and probiotics when you eat.
Thing is, there’s a way to do that safely. Drink 8-12 ounces of water 15 minutes before you start eating. Only the water, nothing else. Then, as you begin your meal, take the digestive enzymes with a little more water. Then you’re being safe. Of course, as always, check with your doctor before trying any of this!!
If you aren’t careful to hydrate your stomach first, you might start to feel a burning in your stomach, like I did last week. I’ve been taking digestive enzymes for a few months and hadn’t timed things wrong before.  I’m pretty sure I’ve got some H. Pylori action going on, doggone it all. I have to check that out with my doc…