Why mice are being gassed so YOU can look younger

Most people thought animal tests for cosmetics had been banned - don't be fooled...

When Jenny Brown agreed to go undercover to investigate the testing of a rival to Botox on animals, she knew it might be unpleasant, but nothing had prepared her for this: highly trained lab technicians kneeling on the floor while they tried to break the necks of mice with a ballpoint pen.

Even worse, having to watch as those technicians botched the job — and broke the creatures’ backs instead. Jenny’s secret filming of the operation shows the mice still alive and writhing in agony with broken spines. It also shows others being poisoned with deadly injections and, if they survived, being gassed to death by the hundred.

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Spot of bother: Acne isn't just a problem for teens, more women are suffering... but help is at hand

Acne can be the bane of our teenage years — plaguing our puberty before settling down in our 20s.

Or, rather, that’s how it used to be. Today, spots are no longer just a problem for adolescents.

A recent study found that more than half of UK women over 30 struggle with blemishes.

Experts say our busy lives have sent levels of the stress hormone cortisol soaring, pushing oil production into overdrive.

‘Acne is caused by the sebaceous glands producing more oil,’ says consultant dermatologist Dr Susan Mayou. ‘Excess sebum is trapped by dead skin cells, which clog pores, so blocked bacteria then reacts with the grease, forming spots.’

And adult spots can be even more severe, consisting of red, painful deep cysts not just on the face but on the body, too.

These flare-ups can dent our confidence and make us depressed. But the good news is even severe adult acne can be cleared.

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Bye bye Botox? These celebrities claim to have given up their frozen faces - but have they really?

After years of claiming her perfect, wrinkle-free features were totally natural, Nicole Kidman finally admitted last week that she has tried Botox in the past. However, the 43-year-old actress swears she no longer uses it because she didn’t like the results.

And she wasn’t the only one who thought this. In 2008, one cosmetic surgery expert told a medical conference that the Oscar-winner was so ‘over-Botoxed’ she was giving the industry a bad name.
Nicole is the latest in a long line of stars who swear blind that they’ve said bye bye to Botox, but can we really believe them?

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skin laser reviews for treating acne with laser light therapy

After 2 month's treatment with a skin laser

Before treatment with a skin laser

"I have been using the skin laser to treat my spots for 2 months now. I have tried everything, including strong antibiotics from my GP, in the past and nothing has really worked. My forehead and chin were covered in angry, red spots. Now I can't believe the difference after just 2 months using the skin laser about 30 minutes in the evenings. It's almost back to how it was before I got spots. Not perfect yet but so much better. I shall certainly keep on using it."
Letty D, 24, London

Collagen skin creams a waste of money, 'say scientists'. Well, they have been saying it for years

You know my least favourite journalistic cliche? It’s not “romp”, although I’m pretty sure nobody outside of the pages of the red-tops has ever “romped” with a member of their preferred sex. I don’t even know how one romps; I imagine one it involves playfully hitting one another with pillows. And it’s not “a friend of the [alleged romper] told The Daily Intrusion [after we gave them £10,000]“. It’s “scientists say”.

So I winced this morning reading the phrase “expensive collagen creams are a waste of money, scientists said today.” The story is, apparently, that the wrinkle-smoothing claims of various ludicrously overpriced skincare products are nonsense, because the collagen molecules they contain are too large to be absorbed through our skin, and therefore sit uselessly on the surface of our skin until we next wash.

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Worried you're going bald? Eat nuts and have a fried breakfast

The good news for men is that scientists have discovered a cause of baldness — the failure of hair-producing cells to develop properly.

The bad news is that effective treatment could be a decade away. While your genes play a major role in hair loss, what many men don’t realise is that their everyday habits could be exacerbating the problem.

Here, Britain’s leading hair experts reveal the simple steps to help minimise it:

DON'T BRUSH TOO HARD

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The £4,500 op to get rid of my Christmas pud

I have never longed to look like one of those male models you see in adverts, with bulging biceps and washboard abdominals.

That kind of physique takes a rare set of genes and hours spent working out every single day. Life's too short.

But since my early 20s, I have been a regular at the gym. It's more damage limitation than anything else and I hoped exercise would offset my love of pints and the occasional pizza.

Yet, having always been pretty much in proportion  -  a healthy 5ft 10in and 11 stone  -  as my 30th birthday crept closer, I developed what some might unkindly call a paunch. My metabolism was naturally slowing down.

While women may acquire saddle bags, men accumulate fat round their middle. I exercised harder but the fat stayed where it was, wobbling insolently centre-stage.

Having a bit of a pot belly isn't the end of the world  -  I didn't lie awake at night worrying about it  -  but I wasn't that happy. And this was my state of mind when last year, on a journalistic commission, I investigated the boom in male cosmetic surgery. In particular liposuction, the surgical removal of fat.

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Why ARE so many men going under the knife?

There was a time when the only things that made Gordon Ramsay’s face puff out and his hair stand on end was the sight of a soggy soufflé.

But last week, as the celebrity chef went on a New Year’s walk with his friends the Beckhams, there was another reason for his unusual appearance.

Ramsay, the Rottweiler of the kitchen, has undergone a £30,000 hair transplant to thicken his thinning pate. Surprisingly, the supposed hard man, who peppers every sentence with at least four F words, actually seems to care what other people think about his appearance — and he’s not alone.

According to the latest statistics from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), demand for surgery among men grew by 21 per cent last year, despite the economic downturn. The number of gynaecomastia — operations to deal with the dreaded man boobs, or ‘moobs’ as they’ve become known — soared by 80 per cent alone.

The procedure ranks alongside rhinoplasty (nose job), liposuction, otoplasty (ear correction) and blepharoplasty (eye bag removal) as one of the five most popular surgeries for men.

Duncan Bannatyne of Dragons’ Den has been open about having his eye bags removed a few years ago, U.S. actor Mickey Rourke is unrecognisable thanks to his facelift, while actor Rupert Everett has clear signs of wind-tunnel effect.

Dr Daniel Sister, of BeautyWorksWest, a specialist in aesthetic medicine and non-surgical procedures, says: ‘Men now account for 30 per cent of my work. Because of the economic crisis, they are either seeking jobs or trying to keep them, so they want to look good — not too tired or worried.’

Giving themselves the edge at work seems to be the key for many men going under the knife.

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Space age serum

Barley plant DNA is the key to a new 'miracle' serum - but can it REALLY turn back the clock?

Prepare yourself for the new must-have skincare ingredient. ‘Oh no,’ I hear you sigh. ‘Not another one?’ But bear with me. This one is so effective that using just one drop, twice a day, can make your skin look hugely better within just six weeks.

Since a serum containing this ingredient launched in Iceland six months ago, it has proved such a sensation that one in five women there have abandoned their normal skincare in favour of this ­miraculous stuff.

The product is called Bioeffect and its magic ingredient is EGF, or Epidermal Growth Factor, to give it its full name.

The substance was first identified in 1986 in a piece of scientific research considered so significant that the scientist behind it won the Nobel Prize for his work.

EGF is a molecule that occurs naturally in skin. We have more of it when we’re younger; less of it when we’re older.

It’s known for its healing effects on burned skin, and for its ability to ­rejuvenate healthy skin by speeding up the rate at which the skin cells renew themselves.

This is what makes EGF possibly the most potent anti-ageing ingredient ­available. Put simply: when you apply it to ageing skin cells, it can make them behave like young ones.

So what is it actually going to do for your face?

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Hair cells in bald men could be reawakened

Researchers have discovered that the skin on the heads of bald men contains just as many potential hair cells as their hirsute counterparts.

But somewhere along the line, the ability of them to grow strands of hair has been lost.

Now the researchers hope they can reactivate them – allowing for men to turn back the clock to their youth.

A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania looked at the "bald skin" on the head of men having hair transplants and compared it with skin where hair continued to grow.

They found they had exactly the same amount of stem cells – master cells that can convert into any other cells in the body.

However the ability of these cells to develop into a more advanced state – known as progenitor cells – had been lost.

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