Controversies over anorexia notwithstanding, runways and the pages of fashion model magazines still belong to waifs and waiflike actresses who wear size 0’s and 2’s. A real girl like Julie Henderson doesn’t have a lot of options.

So thank god for Sports Illustrated, Henderson said recently.

“They embrace every aspect of you, so

you never have issues of feeling insecure with your body. They actually like it when you gain weight. They’ll say, ‘Oh, your boobs are bigger.’?”

Henderson, a Katy native who’s appeared the past three years in SI’s annual Swimsuit Issue, is enjoying the glow of being mildly famous — not a paparazzi magnet, exactly, but the kind of famous that allows her to wade ankle-deep in the Great American Celebrity Pool.

Home in Houston for a few days before the Austin wedding of fellow SI hottie Brooklyn Decker to tennis star Andy Roddick, Henderson talked candidly about what life as an SI model brings — and doesn’t.

“You have a totally different status in the industry,” she said. “You’re not just a mannequin in a magazine anymore, but a name and a face. Doors open to do commercials, TV, movies, whatever you want.”

Later this month, she’ll film a segment as a guest judge on America’s Next Top Model, and she said she’s discussing an endorsement with an Australian swimwear line.

She earns as much as $7,000 a day now. But she’s not booked every day. It’s more like every few weeks, and she spends a lot of time at casting calls for everything from print ad campaigns to TV pilots.

Waifs and actresses aren’t the only competition: the SI pinup sorority this year included 19 swimsuit models, three tennis players, race car driver Danica Patrick and 10 NBA dancers. (Their channel at www.si.com, full of videos and photos, has generated more than 22 million views since it debuted in February.)

SI swimsuit editor Diane Smith says she looks for girls who aren’t too thin, with good smiles and a nice, sexy shape — “natural beauties with a good, healthy glow.” Henderson, she adds, has exactly the right look — “such a sporty, sexy beauty, with those freckles.”

Henderson describes herself as a “more clothes the better” kind of girl With a quick smile, she looks so wholesome it’s hard to believe she’s the same girl who entices viewers into a video with the announcement, “Guess what? I’m naked right now.”

She took her first modeling classes when she was 8 at Houston’s Barbizon School, not aiming to be a professional, she said. “It was like etiquette school, how to sit properly and all that.”

By the time she was 16 she was working in New York and Europe. In 2002, models with figures could still find plentiful work for magazines like Harper’s Bazaar, Elle Girl and Teen Vogue. Henderson has also done print ads for companies such as Benetton and Pantene.

But by the time she was 19, modeling for SI became her best route to big-time success.

“I’m a big girl,” she said, looking at her least favorite body part — her thighs. “I built up these muscles playing sports as a kid, and they aren’t going away.” Keeping it fresh

Henderson didn’t find her way into SI overnight. Rejected the first year she auditioned, she also had to pass several rounds of interviews.

That’s not uncommon, said Smith. She works with all the major New York modeling agencies to discover new models.

Smith typically chooses 18 for each issue, including five or six rookies “to keep it fresh.” But with limited space, she also has to drop five or six from the stable each year.

Henderson said the SI team eased her into her first appearance, in 2007, with a shoot on a University of Southern California campus that had a cheerleading theme.

“They never ask you to take your top off,” she said.

They do, however, pair rookies with more experienced models who’ve shed their inhibitions. So in 2008, when Henderson posed for SI in Israel, the top came off.

And this year, she volunteered to do a body painting session — wearing a “swimsuit” that’s all concept, no fabric. Body painting, she said, “is the most exclusive party you can get into besides the cover.”

Henderson chuckled, recalling the awkwardness of requesting a total body wax job. She marveled that the painting, done by artist Joanne Gair in several sessions, took 16 hours. (Her “bikini” was inspired by Mayan tile work.)

But slithering naked in the surf — on a public beach in Grenada — didn’t come naturally, even with a margarita to sip.

“They always say you feel like you have a swimsuit on. That’s a load of B.S.,” Henderson said, smiling. “I could feel the wind going in places I’m not comfortable with.”

SI pays its models an editorial rate that doesn’t make them rich, Smith said, explaining that “it’s a vehicle for them to become higher profile.”

To make it to the next level — one where she might really earn big dollars — Henderson admitted, “You have to build celebrity status.” Which, she has discovered, also means developing a tolerance for the rumor mill.

Henderson has appeared often since February with hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons, who is old enough to be her father.

“We’ve been friends for years now,” she said. “But the first time someone wrote that we were feeding each other, canoodling and making out, I was like, ‘Really?’?”

Then she got invited to Vanity Fair’s Oscar night party — one of the biggest celeb-fests of the year — and it occurred to her that maybe, as they say, all publicity is good. So she called Simmons and suggested, with mischief in mind, that they attend together. He’s been a willing publicity partner ever since.

“He’s such a great businessman — one of the best people to have in your life. He’s always wanting to do projects together. He likes to brand people and will go over and above to try to make that happen,” she said.

She said she’s also “casually dating and looking for Mr. Right.”

And in some ways, she’s still a kid at heart. When she’s home in the summer, she likes to hit the Master Blaster at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in New Braunfels with her dad, Katy real estate agent Rick Henderson — a tradition they’ve had since she was little. (He’s been divorced from Julie’s mother, Zoe Truhe, since the mid-1990s.)

For his part, good ol’ dad is mostly proud.

“The SI people are phenomenal,” he said. “They take their girls under their wings, and it’s like a family situation. Seeing that has eased it for me, knowing people are looking out for her besides me.”

And as for the body painting for body part modeling?

“It’s not like she’s in Playboy or Penthouse,” he said.

“If that was the case, me and her would be having to talk.”

News Sorces : Chron.com (By MOLLY GLENTZER)

The goal of the biphasic and triphasic formulations is to achieve adequate control of the menstrual cycle while using lower doses of both estrogens and progestins, thereby reducing the risk of adverse effects. Reviews of controlled studies have not demonstrated a clear advantage of the newer formulations over the older monophasic drugs.

General use

When taken in the proper amounts, following a specific schedule, oral contraceptives are very effective in preventing pregnancy. Studies show that fewer than one of every 100 females who use oral contraceptives correctly becomes pregnant during the first year of use.

These pills have several effects that help prevent pregnancy. For pregnancy to occur, an egg must become mature inside a woman's ovary, be released, and travel to the fallopian tube. Sperm must travel through the reproductive track to fertilize the egg in the fallopian tube. Then the fertilized egg must travel to the woman's uterus (womb), where it lodges in the uterus lining and develops into a fetus.

The main way that oral contraceptives prevent pregnancy is by keeping an egg from ripening fully. Eggs that do not ripen fully cannot be fertilized. In addition, birth control pills thicken mucus in the woman's body through which the sperm has to swim. Thus it is more difficult for the sperm to reach the egg. Oral contraceptives also change the uterine lining so that a fertilized egg cannot lodge there to develop.

Although contraception is the primary use of these medications, they may also be used to treat adolescent and post-adolescent acne in girls. Some products have this as part of their official indications, but others may be used as well. (taken from:http://www.healthline.com)

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Moisturize! To complement your revitalized hair color and brighten up your look, Evans recommends using products that help even out your skin tone and reduce the look of fine lines and wrinkles, like those from Olay Definity. Since skin loses moisture and elasticity, use a lightweight foundation that is moisturizing and contains at least SPF 15. Evans says, "Give your skin at least a full minute to absorb liquid formulas, so powder won't cling to slick spots."

Brighten Up Reconsider your hair color and makeup color choices to complement your changing skin tone. Try going a little lighter with your hair color shade to enhance your complexion. Evans recommends adding a bright, rosy lip color to soften your overall look. One option is CoverGirl Outlast All-Day Lipcolor, which lasts 16 hours and has a beautiful shade range.

Stay Smooth And Silky Nothing finishes off your look like shiny, healthy hair. Keep hair smooth and silky with a weekly deep-conditioning treatment. "Slather on the treatment and cover hair with a plastic shower cap to help it penetrate the hair to help maintain that just-colored look and feel," Evans suggests. Great-looking hair sets the stage for looking as good as you feel-regardless of your age. You look like yourself-only better.

In women, this change can be compounded by decreased genital sensitivity, vaginal dryness, delayed or absent orgasms and general dissatisfaction with sex.

Viagra, also called sildenafil citrate, has been a blockbuster drug for men with sexual dysfunction and for its maker, Pfizer Inc. But Pfizer largely gave up on testing Viagra in women four years ago after thousands of women receiving it had failed to register much effect.

The company did continue to fund research for certain subgroups of women for whom the drug might still have potential, including those in the new study who were taking SRI antidepressants.

In men, Viagra boosts the natural effect of nitric oxide, which induces blood vessels to relax and facilitates blood flow to the penis, causing an erection. In women, blood vessels in the vagina and clitoris also swell in response to the drug, but studies in women had failed to show clear gains in sexual function.

Viagra doesn’t directly enhance libido. Scientists have suggested that the drug didn’t work on women because their cascade of arousal, desire and orgasm is more complicated than men’s.

Indeed, the results of this study might not be applicable to other women, the authors say. It remains unclear why Viagra would work for women taking anti-depressants, but not for other women. “The bottom line is we don’t know for sure,” says study coauthor Julia Heiman, a clinical psychologist who is director of the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington. But these women might have been more motivated than women in previous studies. “We were giving this drug to women who wanted this to change,” she says.

Using newspaper advertisements, postings and referrals, Heiman and her colleagues recruited 100 women, ages 18 to 50, who reported having sexual difficulties while on an SRI. None had pre-existing sexual troubles. The researchers randomly assigned half of the women to get Viagra and half to receive a placebo. They instructed the women to take a pill one or two hours before having sex.

The women recorded their experiences in diaries and each woman met with a researcher four times during the eight-week study, including visits at the start and finish. These discussions and the diary entries enabled doctors, using a standardized set of questions about sexual interactions, to come up with a composite score of sexual function for each woman before the study and after the eight weeks had elapsed.

While the women taking placebos registered only a very slight improvement overall in benchmarks of sexual function, women receiving Viagra reported significant gains, the researchers report in the July 23/30 JAMA. In particular, the women said their ability to reach orgasm and their orgasm satisfaction improved markedly. Other aspects of sexual function — arousal, desire and natural vaginal lubrication — improved less.

The work represents the first randomized trial to show a positive effect from Viagra in women with SRI-linked sexual problems, the researchers note. Earlier studies in which participants knew they were receiving the drug had also suggested Viagra might work in this group.

“This study doesn’t come completely out of the blue,” says John Markowitz, a psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan. The findings reflect a clinical concern that doctors have with these anti-depressants. Sexual dysfunction “is probably the Achilles heel of SRIs,” Markowitz says. Although Viagra isn’t approved specifically to be prescribed for women, he says, “doctors have been doing it for a long time. This provides some evidence to back up what I suspect is a widespread practice.”

Women who experience sexual side effects while taking antidepressants are three times as likely to stop taking SRIs as are other women on these antidepressants, previous research showed. Women participating in the new trial continued to take SRI antidepressants during the eight-week test period.

Heiman cautions that the trial was relatively small with significant but modest effects. It doesn’t suggest a broad new standard for women who have sexual troubles. “For this subgroup of women, this approach could be somewhat helpful, and could be enough to make a difference,” she says.

Meanwhile, other studies continue to search for a “pink Viagra,” centering on women’s use of testosterone patches, a combination estrogen-testosterone pill, and Wellbutrin, an antidepressant that acts differently from the SRIs.

However, the researchers from the University of New South Wales, admit the intensity and duration of the gentle tai chi exercise program wasn't sufficient to make a big difference to blood sugar levels and blood pressure.

But they argue that tai chi has higher levels of adherence than many other types of exercise. As it is non-competitive and levels are increased slowly, it is suitable for sedentary, overweight or disabled people, making it a good choice for those daunted by more strenuous programs.

A good first step

It has long been recognised that regular exercise has a positive impact on diabetes.

"Apart from genetic influences, physical inactivity and poor diet are the biggest causes of type 2 diabetes," says Bronwyn Penny, who is an accredited exercise physiologist at Diabetes Australia NSW.

"From a diabetes management point of view, exercise should form a major cornerstone in controlling the condition."

But a large proportion of adults with type 2 diabetes don't follow activity guidelines, which recommend at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least five times a week.

Penny says many diabetics are overweight or obese and associated arthritis and other conditions may make it difficult for people with these conditions to exercise.

"Tai chi and other forms of gentle exercise can be a great stepping stone to getting people more active," Penny says.

In the long-term, however, she believes people with diabetes need more intense exercise than tai chi to sustain good blood glucose control.

"We know that moderate to vigorous exercise will have a better impact on managing and controlling diabetes, however for a lot of people, tai chi can be an effective start."

Body and mind

Study co-author Dr Paul Lam is a Sydney-based GP, lecturer in community medicine at the University of New South Wales and a tai chi master.

Lam has seen a rapid increase in diabetes patients in his own practice, and says that despite most doctors recommending exercise to manage type 2 diabetes, many people with diabetes lead a sedentary lifestyle and are less likely to adhere to regular exercise.

"It's a vicious circle, many diabetics don't enjoy exercise because they're not very good at sports or they're not very co-ordinated, so they don't do it and then end up being even less co-ordinated."

Tai chi can help people with diabetes many ways, says Lam.

"It's not just the exercise, people are also learning to relax and improve their ability to handle stress, they get social reinforcement from sharing an enjoyable experience with others and it also nurtures community spirit."

Tai chi can help improve flexibility as well as have other mental health benefits, says Dr Pat Phillips, senior director of endocrinology at Adelaide's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and co-author of a book on the subject with Dr Lam.

"Flexibility can be a real challenge for people with Type 2 diabetes," Phillips says explaining that one common complication of diabetes is stiffness in joints and muscles that can result when the body's protein cells become bathed in glucose.

He's also a fan of the social benefits of tai chi for people with diabetes.

"We tend to underestimate the value of social interaction and the good feeling that you can get from exercising in a group."

Phillips adds that while medical management of diabetes often focuses on tablets, insulin treatments, blood tests and diet, there's increasing realisation that physical fitness and good mental health are important components in controlling the condition.

The joy of exercise

Joy Ford was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in her early thirties, over a decade ago, and also has sciatica.

She took up tai chi nearly two years ago and also walks for an hour or so five days a week.

"I can really feel the benefit from tai chi in my joints and I haven't had sciatica for more than twelve months now," she says.

"There's no way I would go to the gym with all those people in size ten leotards. The tai chi classes have a really big range of ages and sizes and people are very nice," she says, confessing that in the past, she's struggled to stay with any exercise programs for long.

Establishing an exercise routine that encourages long-term adherence is becoming more important for staying healthy as our sedentary Western lifestyle settles in for the long haul.

2/ Sweet Potatoes The anti-oxidant properties of sweet potatoes can help to rid the body of free radicals linked to many chronic illnesses including diabetes and colon cancer. They are also thought to be able to lessen the effects of asthma and arthritis due to their anti-inflammatory tendencies. Sweet potatoes are also a good source of iron, calcium and fiber, and best of all they can be used in a number of recipes.

3/ Broccoli Like so many vegetables out there, this one is also great protecting your body from the ravishes of cancer. They are attractive enough to enhance any dish but their uses go far beyond aesthetics. With high folic acid levels, it is useful in preventing birth defects. In addition it is great for getting enough calcium and vitamin C in your diet.

4/ Onions This unassuming bulb actually offers more health benefits than you may think. They help to lower blood sugar levels in addition to promoting good cardiovascular health. It has been proven that adding onions to your diet can reduce your risk of developing certain cancers and contribute to gastrointestinal health.

5/ Carrots Ask anyone to name a vegetable, and most of them will say ‘carrot’ right off the bat. There’s a reason why this vegetable is so popular. Apart from being one of the most commonly used, it is the best source of the pro-vitamin A carotenes. They are also known to help strengthen the vision, in particular night vision. Carrots can also be used to regulate blood sugar levels and are good for the health of the colon.

6/ Spinach While most people make a face at the thought of eating this vegetable, but spinach actually protects us from a number of illnesses like arthritis, heart disease and osteoporosis. Studies have shown that spinach contains a minimum of 13 flavonoid compounds. Serious illnesses like ovarian and prostate cancer can also be helped by consumption of spinach.

7/ Kale This vegetable has a multitude of benefits for the body. Like every other vegetable it contains important vitamins, but has more dietary value per calorie than most vegetables. Kale is known for its detoxing ability, as well as its proven capacity for reducing the risk of cancer, especially of the ovaries. Consuming adequate amounts of this vegetable can also help to keep lungs healthy. Maybe the best thing about kale is that it can easily be grown in home gardens.

8/ Eggplant Studies have indicated that eggplant may have a protective effect on the brain. The fact that they are low in calories makes it a popular food among dieters and health conscious individuals. This vegetable has high levels of copper, potassium and fiber. Eggplants positive effect on cardiovascular health is well documented.

9/ Cucumbers Widely acknowledged for its soothing effect on the skin, cucumber is popular not only for eating but skincare products. It has a positive overall effect on the body, including the ligaments, bones and muscles, and is also essential for a healthy complexion due to its hydrating properties. Cucumbers are able to help lower blood pressure if consumed in sufficient quantities.

10/ Asparagus Aside from promoting healthy skin, asparagus also contains fiber and vitamin B6. It is a good food for pregnant women to consume due its high levels of folate, which also promotes heart health. Another advantage is that it is low in sodium, but contains potassium, and helps to maintain a healthy large intestine.

As outlined, it is difficult to put one vegetable ahead of another because of the similarities in nutritional content. Most would agree however that to improve or to maintain health, these vegetables should be consumed regularly as a part of a healthy diet.