Incey Wincey Spiders

No, it's not the nursery rhyme. It is about three annoying skin blemishes that may reveal more than you think.

• Spider nevi
• Spider angioma, and
• Thread veins

These little, annoying skin blemishes can tell you a lot more about what's going on with the health of your body than you might expect.


Spider nevi

Spider nevi are little skin flaws where small broken capillaries that look like a little red spider are visible on the skin's surface, usually on the face or abdomen. Often they occur on the cheeks, but can develop anywhere.

The way to tell if the blemish you may have on your skin is a Spider nevi, is to press lightly in the centre of it and if the 'legs' disappear, you have spider nevi (or spider angioma). These usually occur in people over 40 or folk with liver disease, but in themselves they are harmless. However, they can point to a health imbalance of some kind.

Spider nevi may also be due to a vitamin C deficiency, high blood pressure, and may also occur during pregnancy. The best way to treat them is to a) make sure you have no underlying problems that may be the cause of them, such as the problems listed above. If you do, then these health issues must be addressed first.

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Wildcrafted's Rose Day Cream is ideal for dry, mature and blemished skin.

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b) Use natural skin care products that contain Rose oil, which has incredible healing properties.

For example combine the Hydrating Cleanser, Milk of Roses Toner, Rose Day Cream and Age-Defying Essence to provide your skin with the perfect combination of ingredients to help heal the tiny blood vessels and restore proper circulation to the affected area.

Remember to implement a daily skin care regime of cleansing, toning and moisturising to obtain best results and finally, use a good exfoliant twice a week to keep stimmulating the skin's blood circulation and remove the dead skin cells.


Spider angioma

Spider nevi differ slightly to Spider angiomas (all though often considered the same in many medical reference books). Spider angiomas are an abnormal collection of blood vessels near the skin's surface and look very similar to spider nevi, except that spider angiomas have a raised red central dot with reddish 'legs' radiating out. Pressure on the central spot will cause the 'spider legs' to disappear. They are a type of benign tumour associated with pregnancy and in patients with liver disease.

Rapid development of numerous prominent spider angiomas may point to cirrhosis of the liver, malignant liver disease, and other liver dysfunctions. A common characteristic is an elevated blood estrogen level.


Thread veins

Spider nevi are not to be confused with Thread veins, which are a venous problem rather than a problem of broken capillaries. Okay, it's getting a bit medical... Veins transport deoxygenated blood via the liver to the heart and then to the lungs where the blood is oxygenated again.

Capillaries are where the arterial blood, through loss of oxygen, becomes venous blood and enters the veins. The veins that become visible at the surface of the skin are the thread veins and these thread veins point to underlying diseases such as cardiovascular disease or liver disease. They are often precursors to varicose veins.

Now just because you have a single spider nevus or a spider angioma, doesn't mean you have a liver disease or that there is something wrong with your cardiovascular system, but if you have several of them or they are increasing in numbers, it might not be a bad idea to go and consult you health care professional - just in case.

The skin really is an incredible organ and is able to reflect many health problems to the trained eye. Taking good care of it is not a luxury - it's a necessity.

Information on Natural & Organic Skin and Personal Care

We Are In The Information Age

Information is becoming one of the most important aspects in our lives. Computers, mobile phones, email, internet and what ever else is featuring heavily in day to day life and allows us to stay in touch with news, friends and family instantly.

As regular visitors to this blog know, I've published many articles on a range of topics covering skin care and associated topics. The issue though is that some articles have been published in ezines, others on our primary website, still other here in this blog and basically they are all over the place.

In order to bring together all the different sources and provide one place where you can access almost all of the articles I've written I have constructed a new website that is intended to provide information on skin & health care.

Information on Natural and Organic Skin and Personal Care

This is an extensive library of information on natural and organic skin care products, skin problems, plus hints and tips on how to take care of your skin naturally.

While I will still publish information on skin and health issues here, you will be able to access all the information on our new site. So have a brows and I hope you'll enjoy the information.

Herbal Medicine

Herbal Medicine - What is it, how does it actually work and what can it treat?

These are some of the most often asked questions we get from people who have never been exposed to this system of medicine and form of treatment. They hear good things, but don't know if they can believe their information sources and are interested, but not sure about it...

Well, that is understandable, after all we are told that the only 'doctor' you can trust is your family doctor and he/she alone is able to diagnose and treat your ailments. Everything else is non-sense and does not work. It has no basis in science and therefore can't be any good.

Strange then, that pharmaceutical-based medicine still uses morphine (comes from the poppy plant); Digoxin, which increases the strength and vigor of the heart muscle contractions, and is useful in the treatment of heart failure (from digitalis plant); Aspirin, which comes from the bark of the White Willow tree... Need I go on?

The point is herbal medicine employs herbs and other medicinal plants to treat illness holistically. It is effective, in fact very effective as the pharmaceutical industry still employs hundreds of herbal preparations in their medications. In fact about 70% of pharmaceutical products contain substantial amounts of herb-based ingredients.

You can access my recently written article "Herbal Medicine Explained" to read more detailed explanations on just how effective herbal medicine is, how it is applied and what it can be used for.