Generic Vaniqa

Answers to Pressing Beauty Questions - Part Two

2009-11-23T01:42:00.000-08:00

After the first part in this series where 6 pressing beauty questions were covered, we follow up with another 6. Discover the answer to all your embarrassing beauty questions here:

7. What's causing my toenail fungus?
This rather embarrassing fungus is in truth athlete's food that you've picked up from shared showers or borrowed shoes that's spread into your toenails.

The fix? What works best is a prescription antifungal pill like Lamisil or Sporanox, but be warned: these treatments are only 70 to 80% effective at best and can have some nasty side effects.

What's more, it can take nearly 18 months for the toenail to fully grow out. Now you know why it's so important for you to wear those shower slippers at the gym!

A natural option to try is bathing the affected nails in hot water and epsom salts 2 - 3 times a day and try to avoid wearing socks and shoes were possible.

8. Why do my teeth look so dingy?
The dull, stained look comes from culprits like smoking and drinking dark beverages (coffee, tea, soda and red wine) that stain your teeth.

The fix? As with any stain, the longer it sits the harder it will be to remove... so keep going for those dental cleanings.

You can also lighten your teeth a few shades with lightening toothpaste with carbamide peroxide, but use it only once a day to avoid drying out your gums.

And while you might be tempted by the packaging... drugstore teeth lightening kits generally aren't strong enough (nor are the trays fitted properly) to take your tooth color more than a few shades lighter.

If you need stronger stain removal, your dentist can bleach your teeth up to eight shades brighter with a concentrated peroxide gel administered with a laser (at a cost of $800 to $1,500), or by using a custom-fitted mouthpiece (at about $600 to $1,000) that you wear an hour a day for 10 days.

9. Why do I have stretch marks?
While you might blame your pregnancies or weight fluctuations (maybe even your mother) for your stretch marks, they are actually caused by hormonal changes that happen during normal growth spurts. When your skin stretches minimally or the stretched skin is thick, white marks are the result.

The fix? While there's no treatment guaranteed to take away stretch marks, there are steps you can take that make them less visible.

Twice daily applications of over the counter Striae Stretch Mark Crème may help - in fact several studies have confirmed that it can reduce red or white marks in about four weeks.

You might also ask about laser therapy (at a cost of $450 to $700 per treatment) that can tone down the brightness of recently acquired red marks.

Microdermabrasion, at a cost of $50 to $150 per session, can also diminish the look of those marks.

10. Could there be an underlying cause for my excess facial hair?
If you find that you're fighting new facial hair growth on a daily basis, or are sprouting lots of hairs on your chin, it's time for a visit to your doctor.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (a condition known to cause high levels of male hormones) or an adrenal gland problem could be to blame.

If you're moderately hairy and touch up your upper lip or eyebrows once a month, you probably have nothing to worry about and your genetics to thank for the add on to your beauty routine.

The fix? Vaniqa is a new, odorless prescription cream that has just been approved by the FDA to decrease light to heavy hair growth anywhere on the face ($50 for a two-month supply).

Though it doesn't give immediate results (keep using your regular hair-removal methods at first), the cream blocks one of the enzymes responsible for hair growth, gradually slowing it down as long as you continue to use the product.

For those who don't respond to Vaniqa, six laser hair treatments (at a cost of $150 each) can significantly decrease hair growth for months, while monthly electrolysis sessions for up to a year (at a cost of $60 to $100 each) can get rid of hair permanently.

11. Why is my face so shiny?
If you're loosing hair and have stopped getting your periods a hormone imbalance could be to blame... so see your doctor.

If this isn't you, your skin may just be oversensitive to your male hormones (all women have them) and it is this that's triggering the production of extra oil.

A too harsh cleaning regimen can also be responsible. Many dermatologists contend that alcohol-based toners and gritty scrubs can overdry and irritate your skin, making it produce extra oil to compensate.

The fix? Clean out the oil without overdrying your skin in the process.

In the morning, wash your face with an oil free lotion cleanser, then rub on an alcohol free toner. You can top this with an over the counter oil absorbing gel and touch up shiny spots during the day with blotting papers.

Repeat your morning cleansing routine, without the gel, just before bed.

If you're still shining away, ask a dermatologist about Retin-A Micro, a less irritating cream created to treat acne, but that has also been proven effective against oiliness.

12. What do I do about these warts on my hands?
To get warts you have to be genetically predisposed, and be exposed to an infected person. The culprit is the human papilloma virus.

The fix? Use a clean nail file to slough off the top layers of your warts to get rid of dead skin. Don't use the file for anything else, or share it with anyone. Next rub on over-the-counter Occlusal HP - its highly concentrated salicylic acid dissolves warts.

If warts linger after several months, you can talk to your dermatologist about laser therapy and liquid nitrogen treatments. Even with treatment, warts can come back.

You should also know that you need to be careful when engaging in sexual activity - though it's unlikely, hand warts can spread to your (or your partner's) genitals.

Facial Hair Removal Breakthrough - The Story

2009-09-15T23:40:00.000-07:00

With around 50 million women in the USA alone concerned about facial hair removal according to some estimates, it's no wonder some of the large health and personal care companies invested much time and research into developing an answer.

That answer came on July 31, 2000 when Bristol-Myer Squibb along with The Gillette Company announced the Launch of Vaniqa, a cream designed to slow down and minimize facial hair growth.

As a result of applying Vaniqa cream, millions of women now had the opportunity to make facial hair removal a lot easier.

Yes, they still had to continue with their regular method of facial hair removal, be it waxing, sugaring, threading or tweezing, but doing this in conjunction with applying Vaniqa reqularly made it a lot easier and facial hair removal sessions more infrequent.

The road to FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval for any drug is a long drawn out process which takes years. This of course is for the public's protection to make as certain as possible there are no undesirable serious side effects.

Bristol-Myer Squibb and Gillette succeeded in getting Vaniqa FDA approved so it is available as a prescription cream from a medical practitioner.

The background to the launch of Vaniqa is intriguing:

A drug by the name of Eflornithine was developed many years ago to combat malignant cancer. Regretfully it was not effective for that purpose.

However, by accident it was discovered that Eflornithine was effective against the condition commonly known as sleeping sickness which is found in many parts of Africa.

A curious side effect of the drug was hair loss, as is the case with some drugs used in the fight against cancer.

Further investigation revealed that Eflornithine inhibits the work of an enzyme connected with hair growth. This led to the production of a cream containing 139mg/g of eflornithine hydrochloride. It took the name "eflornithine hydrochloride 13.9%" and was sold under the brand name - Vaniqa.

Vaniqa is a topical cream applied directly to the skin to assist with facial hair removal, specifically in the areas around the lip and under the chin.

As time went on, both Bristol-Myer Squibb and The Gillette Company felt that Vaniqa was no longer in keeping with their future goals and targets so they sold it in June 2002 to a company called Women First Healthcare.

In June 2004, the U.S. Bankrupty Court announced that SkinMedica, a pharmaceutical company specializing in dermatology, had won the bid for all U.S. rights and some international rights for Vaniqa from Women First Healthcare.

As of this writing, Vaniqa continues to be sold under prescription in the USA. It is also available in the European Union from Shire Pharmaceuticals who hold a sub-license for exclusive rights to market it in the EU and some other areas.

Evidently there is a future for this product, given the interest in acquiring rights to produce and sell it backed by the more than thirty six million dollars paid by SkinMedica to Women First Healthcare.

So is Vaniqa for everyone?

Not exactly. It is for women not men, and girls under the age of 12 are advised not to use it. In clinical tests, about 58% of the women using it found it made a difference to the rate of facial hair growth. It seemed to have better results on women past the menopause.

This means that a fair percentage did not notice any difference.

As with all drugs there can be side effects although in the case of Vaniqa, these are minimal, and mainly involve skin irritations and rashes for a small number of users.

So to clarify, Vaniqa is not a facial hair removal cream. It is rather a facial hair growth inhibitor. Applying it regularly each day will result in a reduction in hair growth for at least half the women who use it thus making their preferred method of facial hair removal such as waxing, tweezing, or threading, a lot easier.

For answers on how to use Vaniqa for best results, check the resource page listed below.

Before You Buy Vaniqa Facial Hair Cream Online Read This

2009-09-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

If you are wondering whether to buy Vaniqa online or through a local pharmacy, make sure you understand how online drug distributors work and the criteria that should be met before purchasing prescription drugs like Vaniqa on the internet.

First though let's consider a few factors you may wish to keep in mind before deciding to buy Vaniqa for unwanted facial hair.

What Vaniqa Is And Is Not

Since Vaniqa came on the market in the year 2000 after rigorous clinical trials to meet with the FDA regulations before approval, thousands of women have found it reduces the rate of hair growth, thus making waxing or tweezing much easier. This is an important factor to note: Vaniqa is not a hair removal cream. If that is what you are looking for then you need to research depilatories - strong chemicals that actually dissolve unwanted hair on the face.

Vaniqa is a hair growth retardant. Over half the women who used it during clinical trials found that hair growth reduced after a couple of months of twice daily application of Vaniqa.

A further point before you buy Vaniqa - it should only be used by women and it is not recommended for girls under the age of 12.

There are many web sites on the internet dispensing prescription drugs and numerous places where you can buy Vaniqa online very easily. There however lies the problem.

FDA Guidelines

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) warns about purchasing prescription drugs from just any online dispenser. Sometimes unscrupulous vendors sell prescription drugs without proper safety checks. Any prescription drug should only be given under the supervision of a qualified and licensed health care practitioner.

Perhaps you want to buy Vaniqa at low prices and find a vendor who only requires that you fill out an online form and answer a few questions in order to get your prescription filled.

The American Medical Association states that practitioners who give prescription drugs solely on the basis of an online questionnaire generally have not met the general standard of medical care. A patient may then receive a drug that is inappropriate for them.

So if you wish to buy Vaniqa online, make sure the pharmacy is licensed to dispense prescription drugs, and that they require a legal prescription from a US licensed doctor. A small number of pharmacies are certified through the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice (VIPPS) run by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. You can find further information about these pharmacies on this government web site: www.nabp.net/vipps.

This narrows down the number of places where you can safely buy Vaniqa online but you can do so with peace of mind knowing you are not getting a prescription item from an unauthorized and questionable source. The resource box provides a link to an online pharmacy that meets stringent government regulations and where you can buy Vaniqa online with peace of mind.

Vaniqa Side Effects

There are minimal side effects with Vaniqa. Just a few women had a skin reaction. On the other hand, there are precautions for pregnant women, women who are nursing a baby, or females suffering from a severe case of inflammatory acne.

Facial hair can cause much anxiety for many women as they view it as unfeminine. Vaniqa cream provides a way to reduce the hair growth and make hair removal sessions much easier. For your own safety, just make sure you check out the online pharmacy thoroughly using the guidelines above before you actually buy Vaniqa online.