What's new with Arbonne: June 2010

Most parents don’t realize how often baby eczema is triggered by food allergies – indeed, how often it is the first sign of food allergies. In one study, about 40 percent of babies with eczema had proven food allergies¹. And the more impressive the rash appears, the more likely there is a food allergy involved. For the third of babies with the worst eczema, more than 96 percent have a proven food allergy connection².

Babies with eczema often have different ratios of beneficial bacteria in their guts, compared with other healthy babies; perhaps these bacteria are part of the allergy-eczema link. In an April 2005 study, researchers investigated whether giving babies probiotics (beneficial bacteria) could improve their eczema. There were 230 babies in the study, ranging in age from 6 weeks to just under one year old. All of the babies in the study were suspected of having a cow’s milk allergy. All of the babies were switched to cow’s-milk-free diets (and their nursing moms to cow’s-milk-free diets). All of the babies were treated with topical medicines. Some of the babies also received daily supplements of probiotics; the rest received placebo capsules. The people evaluating the babies’ symptoms didn’t know which babies belonged to which group.

The results of the study were published in the April 2005 Allergy³. All of the babies in the study improved, by an average of 65 percent. But those babies with either a positive skin test or blood test for food allergy enjoyed a 32 percent greater improvement if they got the probiotic Lactobacillus GG (LGG) supplement than if they got the placebo capsules. More research is needed to clarify the role of LGG, and of probiotics in general, in the treatment of eczema in babies and in older children, but this study suggests that the use of probiotics is promising. I’m especially pleased to see positive results for this gentle treatment shortly after the FDA issued its strong warning against the use of some of the harsh topical creams and ointments in children under age two.

Body: Reviewed & Recommended

March 21, 2010
Posted by marta

Arbonne RE9 Advanced Firming Body Cream- reviewed and recommended

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Arbonne has just launched two new lines (color cosmetics, which we’ll be reviewing very soon) and the RE9 Advanced range of skincare. The “breakthrough” idea (according to Arbonne) behind RE9 Advanced is to take a vitamin C supplement along with topical treatments aimed at boosting collagen production. I am not a big believer in the body’s ability to efficiently process supplements, still I’m prepared to give the skincare products the benefit of the doubt and over the coming weeks will be reviewing some samples, starting with the Firming Body Cream ($68).

This body cream redefines the phrase “sinks right in”. Every time I have used it, Arbonne RE9 Advanced Firming Body Cream just seems to be absorbed within milliseconds, leaving my skin feeling comfortable, hydrated and somewhat firmer. Like the rest of the RE9 range, it has the stamp of a head of research who used to work at Aveda. Think botanicals.

I like the fact that it has seabuckthorn (hippophae rhamnoides), a plant that has plenty of quercetin. This is an important flavenoid and some researchers believe that quercetin is a more potent antioxidant than the much-hyped resveratrol. The aging amongst us, will be pleased to see that isoflavones, which have chemical structure that is similar to estrogen (the hormone we women start to produce less of as we reach menopause), are here thanks to a plant called pueraria lobata, more commonly called kudzu. A native of Japan, this plant is now rampant in North America (if you see trees covered with some invasive vine, it may well be kudzu). So if nothing else, Arbonne is probably doing the Environmental Protection Agency a favor by finding a use for it.

Moving away from botanicals, it is worth giving a shout out to hexapeptide-10, which also goes under the name of serilsenine and is made a Spanish company called Lipotec. A hexapeptide is a chain of six amino acids that stimulate cell activity by interacting with specific molecules. The result is that collagen is rebuilt and fine lines are supposed to be reduced and pore size reduced. Incidentally, hexapeptide-10 is also favorite of the South African brand Dermaxime.

Ingredients

Water, sunflower seed oil, stearic acid, shea butter, dimethicone, squalane, cetearyl wheat straw glycosides*, glycerin, cetearyl alcohol, orange peel oil, hippophae rhamnoides oil, imperata cylindrica root extract, oat kernal extract, lamaria digitata extract, pueraria lobata root extract, ginger root extract, plankton extract, hexapeptide-10, tocopheryl acetate, tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate, panthenol, carbomer, acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, sodium PCA, butylene glycol, polysorbate-20, sodium hydroxide, caprylyl glycol, caprylhydroxamic acid, limonene, linalool, citral.

*Formulated without gluten

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