Health & Happiness Summit with Dr. Oz & Dr. Wentz Come to Radio City

People want to know why I joined Usana Health Sciences. Why am I so into it? Is is just because I have my own business here and therefore I am towing the party line?

I love this company for many reasons. Chief among them is the knowledge I gain. On February 25th The Health and Happiness Summit is taking place at Radio City Music Hall with a lineup of several of the Top envelope - pushing- forward - thinking- scientists and doctors in the field of well being and nutrition today! Masters at keeping up the excitement, USANA is giving away only five pairs of tickets to see and hear Dr. Mehmet Oz (you remember him right?), Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz CEO and Founder of Usana Health Sciences (my homies!) and co - authors of the New York Times best seller The Healthy Home.

Dr. Christiane Northrup, one of my personal faves for her direct- loving- take no prisoners straight talk for women's health, Dr. Nicolas Perricone holistic dematologist (YES!),

Dr. Rovenia Brock aka "Dr. Ro" top nationwide nutritionist (and gorgeous!),

Dr Michael Breus who specializes in sleep, Lisa Oz relationship coach and co - host of The Dr. Oz Show and (surprise!) Montel Williams. Stepp Stewart will also be attending so it looks like there is going to be an added fun factor!
It is precisely this caliber of event full of real knowledge and not fluff with individuals like these who have dedicated their lives to helping others coming together to bring forward a positive and credible agenda of health for all of humanity and healing for the entire planet which makes me so very proud to be a part of this vision.
Dear Readers of this Blog kindly put your heads and hearts together and pray that I win a pair of tickets! I sincerely hope that I win a pair of these tickets so I can bring ONE of you with me to this monumental event in the finest theatre New York City has to offer. Radio City is a real art deco palace where I have had the pleasure and thrill to enjoy performances by The Jacksons and The Rockettes! Going to this event would be a thrill and affirmation of life for me!
To learn more about the summit visit the Speakers Page
Tips: Follow USANA Health Sciences on Twitter  and  @ #HHSummit

Your Teen and Acne - How to Help Them Through Their Growth Spurt

It's happening. Your child has suddenly become a teenager overnight. Voices are deepening and you find yourself looking up instead of down to have a conversation with them. These years are fast paced, filled with growth in all directions and can be challenging for teens and parents alike. One of the most important things for teens is the need to be accepted by the social circles found outside the family.  They want to look their best and good skin is the foundation of that. For parents it's important that their child continue to do well in school and stay healthy. With hectic schedules and nutritious food hard to come by I offer some insights and solutions here on how to make that happen for families on the go.

Pizza and Your Teenager
Who doesn't like pizza? For parents on the run it can appear to be a great alternative to making a big family meal after a long days work. All you have to do is pick up the phone and ask for a delivery! It may not be the ideal choice but we can't expect you or your teens to give up pizza entirely.  
What might be missing from this diet that you both need?
What's missing are the essential minerals magnesium and calcium which play a crucial role in the building of healthy bones and skin. In an earlier post I mentioned a friend who had been taunted with the name "pizza face" because of her pimply complexion when growing up. While pizza and soda might seem friendly, over time fast foods like fries, pizza and soda are acidifying meaning that they cause a ph imbalance in the body. (According to Dr. Christine Wood, the average soda consumption in 13 to 18 year old males is 3 or more cans of soda per day. 10% drink more than 7 cans per day.) For your teen this means a few things: A loss of calcium and magnesium, lowered energy and pimples. The human body is fascinating and clever in it's own way. The blood needs to maintain the proper ph at all costs and this is how it will compensate; The body is going to leach the magnesium and calcium it requires to stay in balance from the bones first. For growing teens this is not good news. This may also be about the time that you notice your teen experiencing rash like breakouts of acne and oily skin. This is so because again magnesium and calcium are needed to keep the skin healthy which they do by helping maintaining the proper ph level. If your teen is feeling tired and you can't get them out of bed before noon on the weekends remember that magnesium helps the body maintain it's energy level. Magnesium and calcium play an incredibly important role in the growth spurt of your teen. Try to restrict the amount of fast food they eat, add fresh veggies like organic carrot sticks or salads at meal times and be sure to add what they need in a easy form. I suggest a chewable form of calcium and magnesium BodyRox Active Calcium. It tastes good too.

Body Rox All Star Sports Nutrition
If your teen is a sports nut and you share that passion with them you can tell them that many top athletes take supplementation in order to perform at their best and enhance recovery time. In addition to calcium and magnesium BodyRox delivers vitamins D, C, riboflavin, folic acid and B vitamins for energy. Vitamin E, selenium, zinc and cartenoids have been added to support radiant skin keeping teens special needs in mind. Make it fun and fact filled and your kids will be sure to follow your lead. Get your teen into life long good habits now and you can look forward to many happy and healthy years together.

Tips: To learn which top athletes and teams use supplementation check out these posts on my companies blog Athelete Update
To learn more about Body Rox Active Calcium visit this link
Ekayani @ Usana.com

Hormones and Skin? How Magnesium and Calcium Affect Your Complexion

As I go out in the world talking to women about the state of their skin I hear again and again: "I have bad skin. My doctor says it's my hormones."
The ensuing story usually is as follows: They were prescribed birth control pills to "balance" their hormonal activity and clear up their complexion. Often they discontinued because the pills made them feel moody. They were left with a feeling of despair, resigned that they were condemned to a life with a bad complexion. There was nothing they could do as even their doctors could not help. But before I get into how you can turn your life around do the following stories sound like you?

Stories of Bad Skin

In the case of a colleague I will call "M" the birth control pills she was prescribed as a teenager caused massive weight gain. M went from 140 pounds on her 5 foot 10" frame climbing to 286 pounds. As for her skin it didn't improve. The next recommendation M was given was retinol which in her case burned her skin causing discoloration. At school "pizza face" became her new name.

"C" is in her early thirties, subsists on a vegan diet and has some of the worst acne I have ever seen. While being a vegan is not necessarily a strike against her (See my article on glowing skin of vegan athlete Mark Eisenhart) her lack of magnesium and calcium intake is. The skin on her neck and chin are cracked and reddened with large pimples on her cheeks. Not only is it unsightly it's painful. She is tired all the time and can barely get through her eight hour work day. How is she going to feel when she is 40?
Beauty and Energy - Magnesium and Calcium A Match Made in Heaven
When I think about these women I reflect on my own past. While people like to point out that I have beautiful skin it wasn't always the case.

Ekayani today

There was a time in the mid 1990's when I experienced my own health crisis. I had been pushing myself on a grueling schedule taking care of everyone and everything but myself. The end result was that I broke out in sores (complete with pus) all over my body from head to toe. Red and itchy, scratching only made it worse. The cortisone creams I was given provided very little relief. One particularly painful memory was the job I lost because of my skin condition. I got a call back from the casting directors for a modeling job but I simply left because I could not risk showing them my skin in the state it was in. Broke and fearing my way of earning my livelihood had come to an end I didn't know where to turn. The following week feeling tired and sad I went to my voice lesson at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Yael took one look at me and said she knew what I was going though because she had been there too.
"You have? What do I do?"
Yael informed me that I was deficient in the trace minerals magnesium and calcium. She told me that this could be brought on by stress where the body uses up it's reserves. The body is left deficient with one feeling a profound sense of fatigue no matter how much you sleep. I had eczema. She lovingly ordered me to go the the pharmacy and purchase a chewable magnesium and calcium supplement, vitamin B complex along with some other trace minerals. She told me I'd feel an improvement in three days and much better in a week provided I took these supplements daily both morning and night. Sure as can be my fatigue melted away. My once beautiful skin returned. After this dramatic incident I vowed never to neglect this aspect of my health again by neglecting to take these essential nutrients.
Put Yourself in the Drivers Seat -  Keys to Long Lasting Health

What most people don't realize is that magnesium is just as important to the human body as calcium. In fact the body cannot use calcium without the proper amount of magnesium present. It's like having a car without the keys. Magnesium is important for the elasticity of the skin, helps keep the color in our hair, helps keep the nervous system running smoothy, helps maintain energy, helps maintain proper ph and prevent cramping of the muscles. An optimal supply can also help the severity of cramps during the menstrual cycle so before you pop another Advil take my health assessment advisor. See if your habits support your lifestyle HAA takes minutes and it's free. Look under my products tab.

I recommend to my clients three different versions of a non shell fish sourced version of calcium and magnesium supplements from USANA Health Sciences. They are pharmaceutical grade and rated 5 stars for the body's ability to digest them. BodyRox are specifically formulated with teenagers in mind. Body Rox provides essential vitamins and minerals while offering a broad range of anti oxidants for protection against oxidative stress while supporting a healthy immune system. 112 tablets per jar. For those who just don't like swallowing pills Body Rox Active Calcium Chewable is the ticket. Great for adults and teens it provides optimal levels of calcium magnesium, vitamin K and high potency D. This is a great choice for vegans. No shell fish. 112 tablets per jar.

Active Calcium is the same as above in a non chewable form suitable for both teens and adults.  Active calcium is also available in the Healthpak a convenient assemblage of chelated minerals, mega antioxidants, AO booster for the immune system and active calcium in AM and PM packs. It also comes in a formula without vitamin K. Vegetarian formula. I take this daily. Easy to travel with too.
Tips For more useful information on magnesium and calcium go here: Skin Nutrition To learn more about these product recommendations visit Ekayani @ USANA.com

Valentine's For the Guys - Mens's Grooming Products that Go Beyond Shaving Kits

Valentine's Day is  around the corner and while the emphasis is placed on the wooing of women what about the guys?

For those ladies already in a meaningful relationship here is a suggestion to enhance your loved ones well being. If you have already given your man grooming products (like shaving kits) try giving him something that will help him Man Up and Moisturize. If your man's poor skin is burning and stinging after a shower and a shave, help him glow and feel better in his own skin with these three easy steps. TLC not included.

Step 1 Start with a Clean Slate
Give you man a bottle of the Gentle Daily Cleanser. It will gently removes impurities from his skin while sealing in moisture. Concentrated he'll only need a dime full which makes your thoughtful gift last and last and last...Paraben free.

Step 2 Exfoliate Before He Shaves

Rice Bran Polisher will help your man have a smoother and cleaner shave. It will support an acne free and radiant complexion because of the papaya and kukui nut oil in it that helps balance the skins ph.
Step 3. Protect and Moisturize
 Help protect  your prince's complexion with daytime protective emulsion. It contains SPF 15 which can help him from getting that weather beaten look. He can also try using olive oil. My grandfather Bernando LaPallo swears by it and he doesn't have a line or wrinkle on his 110 year old face.

TIP: Instead of slapping on an alcohol based astringent on his skin  let him try our Hydrating Toner. Aloe based it seals pores shut. It won't sting his beautiful face. To order these products mentioned here visit my website and look under Personal Care. All products are paraben free.

Glowing Skin - You Manifest What You Eat Mark Eisenhart Blows Us Away

Lately I have been knocking my head trying to figure out a way to illustrate for people beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a direct link between what you eat and the health of your skin and body.

How to explain that the diseases that plague North Americans is brought on by the choices we make? In spite of the latest groundbreaking research that suggests what my grandfather Bernando LaPallo has been living all his 110 years that diet  do in fact trump genetics, I encounter doubts often. But think about it. Say you have two children that are born on the same day to the same parents but one is fed a diet of processed foods, soft drinks and medications and the other is fed a nutrient rich diet with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Who do you think is going to be healthier?
Well that poor kid who is eating the processed diet is the average American today young or old.
In fact, American children are getting 40% of their calories from fats and sugars in the form of soda consumption and fried foods. Still don't believe that diet makes a profound difference? Then please meet my poster boy for those two Americans I was just talking about. Meet Mark Eisenhart!


Meet Mark Eisenhart - Before and After Nutrient Rich Foods

These two photos are of the same man! His name is Mark Eisenhart. Based out of Oregon he is a vegan athlete, motivational speaker and what he is mostly is healthy! 215 pounds lighter just look at his skin. The photo of Mark on the left displays a washed out, pasty epidermis. Marks photo on the right shows the vitality evident in his glowing complexion. Not to mention his physique!
How did he do it?
Mark switched gradually to a plant based diet transitioning the refined sugars and flours out. He did this over the course of one year. Little by little he cut out red meats and today lives on a completely vegan diet. In 2009 he reached his bottom peaking out at 455 pounds. Drinking, smoking and taking prescription drugs to deal with twenty different diseases brought on by his obesity and other lifestyle choices he knew it was now or never. Mark was sinking fast. In a turnaround which came down to a decision to choose life over death, Mark began meditating everyday asking himself why he was sabotaging his life while introducing plant based nutrient rich foods into his meals. He credits this quiet time with himself along with eating fresh fruits and vegetables for his flourishing health. While a completely vegan lifestyle might not be for everyone, the take away here is the good stuff Mark added to his diet made it possible for him to let go of the not so good stuff. For those who say it's ALL genetics Mark Eisenhart has just called your bluff!
Remember  Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, keep your colon clean and keep a positive attitude. You will see and feel the difference in your life. In case you didn't get a good look at his complexion, here is another shot of Mark. Mark will be speaking at RAWVOLUTION in Santa Monica, Ca.,Thursday, February 2, 2012. If you are in the area go check him out. It's only $10 to hear and see this man in action. Turns out Grampa was right after all. Tips at the end of this post.

For Healthy Tips check out these links!
Grampas Fresh Fruit Salad Recipe

Follow Mark on Twitter

October 2 - 7 2012 Revision FALL Retreat in Our Tulum Resort All Inclusive $1598

Dear Friends - You are invited to an Mayan Revision Quest FALL Retreat I am co leading with my good friend Jennifer "Jenevi" Varriano. This Mind Body Spirit trip is a top down rejuvenating and reinvigorating experience in the sweet locale of Tulum, Mexico from October 2 - 7, 2012  on the Mayan Riviera for the all inclusive price of $1598.00  Come Cleanse Rejuvenate Dance Celebrate our renewed purpose in 2012 while chilling in paradise.The Villa is luxurious, the food excellent and the price is right. Truly, Ekayani

Our Tulum resort will be situated in a Private Villa on the Carmen del Playa only 12 minutes walking distance to La Quinta the village shopping and nightlife district. This provides us proximity for some fun for your free time outside of the group experience of the Mayan Revision Quest we have designed for you as guides. 24/7 concierge service, a private villa cook and private suites are some of the creature comforts you will enjoy.

Jenevi is a yoga alliance certified yoga instructor with a degree in chemistry. She will be teaching daily yoga classes  and conducting the optional Juice Feast. During the immersion she will provide an introduction to the Parashakti's Dance of Liberation. I will be providing daily Sanskrit and Bengali meditation classes based on my internationally recognized house music album Yoga on the Dance Floor and Sanskrit Mantras produced by the wildly talented Tom Glide. The last night we are going to have a dance party! (Yes, that's Ekayani with the microphone.)

We are very excited about this trip because we are able to offer you an all inclusive package without compromising on accommodations, comfort and service. The villa affords us the intimacy we wanted  while being in the lap of luxury - and not breaking the bank.

Nearby the Sacred Mayan Ruins, the Sian Kaan Biosphere with it's cenotes, our Mayan Sweat Lodge and great outdoors await!

We are pleased and proud to be partnering with Lux World Travel who are experts in sophisticated yoga retreats and vacations. For more information about this retreat please call 1-866.269.2659 or write Revision - Quest@LuxWorldTravel.com or visit this link Lux World Travel Mayan Revision Quest

What is Asthma and How to Support Healthy Lungs

What is Asthma?
Here are two definitions of asthma:
asth·ma
noun /ˈazmə/ A respiratory condition marked by spasms in the bronchi of the lungs, causing difficulty in breathing. It usually results from an allergic reaction or other forms of hypersensitivity

2. Asthma, from the Greek Άσθμα (ásthma), meaning gasp, is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asthma

In my last post on Solar Energy Installation and Your Skin It's Urgent I touched on the asthma epidemic in children caused by coal burning plants installed in big cities. The definitions above got me to thinking about another product that has been helpful in providing relief to some adult asthma sufferers I have had as clients because of the support it provides to the cardio vascular system.

What do grapes have to do with your lungs?
Often dubbed natures candy, grapes contain a seed from which grapeseed oil can be pressed. Red grapes contain resveratrol, a natural phenolic antioxidant that can help blood vessels remaining open, and pliable from clumping together. This would suggest that eating seedless grapes is not so great as it leaves out the most beneficial part of the grape.  Read More

How to Support Healthy Lungs with Proflavanol C 100
About those grape seeds....Grape seed extract is used in this bottle of Proflavanol C. Here are the benefits aside from not having to chew the seed itself which admittedly does have a bitter taste. Available year round.

• Clinically shown to promote sound cardiovascular health*
• Helps support balanced immune function*
• Vitamin C carries dual importance as the body’s premier water-soluble antioxidant and as a coenzyme essential for the synthesis and health of connective tissues and throughout the body*
• Supports eye health*
• Provides ingredients essential for maintaining healthy, younger-looking skin*
• Younger Looking Skin too? For you Style Watchers film star Emma Stone admitted to just using grape seed oil on her skin several times a day. Grape seed has incredible regenerative powers for the skin which is why it is used in Usana's pure botanical line Sense.