And what is it, exactly?

 

Collagen is a fibrous protein that helps make the conncetive tissue in our bodies. It’s not just in our skin, it’s in our joints, bones, muscles, veins, organs and even our hair. It helps give strength and elasticity and even replaces dead cells. Collagen production begins to decline from our mid twenties onwards, contributing to everything from aching joints to thinner, more wrinkled skin. That’s why serious athletes are interested in getting it back. So are women of a certain age.

Now, regardless of your outlook on ageing, everyone wants to look and feel healthier, so a diet rich in collagen producting foods is a good idea. So is including collagen promoting products in your skin regime.

Guess what?

We’ve got you covered: all our products include collagen enhancing ingredients, and one particular ingredient has it in abundance…

There’s a reason we include Carrageen Irish Moss seaweed in all our products*

It is POWERFUL in HYDRATING the body

It is RICH in Vitamins A, B, C, D and K

It is LOADED with many BEAUTIFYING MINERALS

It is especially high in IODINE, which is great for treating skin infections

Iodine also REGULATES the moisture levels of skin, promotes SKIN REPAIR and balances hormones

Vitamin K PROTECTS the skin’s ELASTICITY and REDUCES the appearance of WRINKLES

Carrageen Irish Moss will SOFTEN skin, SOOTHE eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis

It will also HEAL burns

It strengthens the CONNECTIVE TISSUE, so fortifying skin, hair, nails, joints and organs.

It is rich in HYALURONIC ACID, excellent for keeping collagen synthesis up

 

Find ANU Face mosituriser, Night Balm, Cleansing Balm, Hand and Body Lotions in our shop www.anuyou.ie /shop or with our stockist around the country.

*ANU Baby Balm is the only product that does not contain Carrageen Irish Moss.

Can I eat Collagen?

Yes! You’ll find it in lean meats, bone broth, egg whites, wheat germ, fish, fruit and vegetables. And yes…Carrageen Irish Moss seaweed!

We get our raw, unprocessed Carrageen directly from Inis Meain, where Caitriona’s brother in law gathers it for us, sun dries it and sends it to us here in Dublin. If you’re not close to the Atlantic coast, you’ll find it in The Health Store and other good health shops.

 

TO EAT IT : Make Carrageen Moss Blancmange

Ingredients

Lemon rind

750 ml milk

30g tablespoons / sugar

15g carefully washed carrageen moss

 

Method

Place the moss in a saucepan with milk and lemon rind. Bring slowly to the boil and add the sugar. Strain into a wetted mould. Turn out when set and serve with fresh or stewed fruit.

Enjoy!

I once had cause to spend two weeks in a neurology ward in Beaumont Hospital. The women in my ward bonded in a way that was tangible, mainly because of our concern and I suppose, love for an extraordinary woman called Alice, who was gravely ill with a brain tumour and very close to death. She was one of the most gentle souls I ever encountered and she became the hub of our attention as she crept ever closer to the end of her life. Like many women of her generation, she didn’t want to bother the nurses, and so it often turned to the rest of us during her sleepless nights to keep her as comfortable as we could manage. Although she was elderly, it was as if we were sitting with a young frightened soul, ready to return to Heaven.

We had a nurse’s aide that we were all fond of, another gentle soul; a man of Nigerian descent. Alice would get so distressed when he finished his shift. She’d weep and thank him for minding her, and he always felt pained leaving her. He was so kind and considerate that she genuinely missed him at the end of the day. We couldn’t pronounce his name and kept forgetting the shortened version he told us.

“We’ll have to give him a name of our own.” Someone suggested.

“I think all good men should be called Joseph.” Said Alice.

Of the six of us, three were older women, and religious; three of us were younger and not. But the easy silence that descended just then decided it. He would be called Joseph. Because he was a good man. Simple as that. Because, regardless of our beliefs, we could agree that at the core of the man called Joseph, the father of Jesus, was something good. I thought of my own father and the father of my children. Good men. I gave quiet thanks for that.

To celebrate good men, we’re offering 20% off our skincare products, so you can treat the good man in your life, or just treat yourself (which should make him happy if he really is all that great!)

Use code: JOSEPH at the checkout for 20% off. Until end of June 2018.

Am I the only one suffering from brittle nails? I swear this extended Winter is to blame!

In fact cold weather can be a culprit; extremes of cold weather and the heat indoors actually confuses our poor nails as there is difficulty regulating moisture. Who knew? So, glove up when you can.

Is it possible you are over washing your hands? Limit the amount of very hot water you use and avoid chemical laden soaps (all liquid soap, in other words) and always finish with a hand moisturiser. Busy hands are guilty of not always wearing gloves when doing housework but just remember, everyday household chemical cleaners are not doing your nails any favours either.

Cold hands: warm heart, so they say, but if that’s you, it could just mean your circulation is reduced and this will limit nail growth – they need to be warm. Just like hair, nails tend to grow slower in the winter for this very reason. Moisturising them means you’re massaging them and keeping blood flow going. Keep a good natural moisturiser (like, ahem…ANU!) not just near the sink, but in your bag or in the car so traffic jams can actually be beneficial – win/win!

The biggest baddie for brittle nails is nail varnish remover – even the acetone free version is harmful, especially as we need to use more of it to effectively remove that colour. While you’re working on your nail health, try going nail naked, or if you really do like varnish, use clear or barely clear so chipping isn’t as obvious (and you get away with longer time between removing). Nail strengtheners are a better option, or indeed look to your diet – always the better option in the end; Omega 3, 6 and 9 rich food is beneficial and zinc, iron or biotin supplements can work wonders.

Our hands are important; we look at them all day and yet, most of us neglect them. And with very little attention your hands and nails can look so much better, so long as it’s consistent. Make good habits. As with all skin health, moisturise and then moisturise some more. Think about what you’re touching and ask yourself if you’d let such things near your face. We all admire beautiful hands. Imagine if those beautiful hands were yours.

“Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician.”  (Dorothy Parker)

I’ve written about this before; the term ‘anti-ageing’. How can you be anti-ageing? The world isn’t really full of older women wagging their fingers and complaining

“I may be ageing, but I’m agin it!”

Down with that sort of nonsense. Ageing happens, just like the sun rises, but I think the problem is the term rather than the event. In my blog “Dont Get Old” I conclude that while ageing is fine, we should try not to get old. That’s a different matter altogether, and I wish there was a better, more globally accepted term for it that doesn’t reek of political correctness.

Synonyms for ageing include:

Crumbling,

Fading,

Declining,

Waning,

Wearing out…

Where’s the respect? All these young whipper snappers are forever coming up with new buzz words – I won’t use examples, because chances are, they’re already passé (Preach!) It’s not all negativity and wrinkles in my online thesaurus; there’s also:

Maturing,

Mellowing,

Developing…

Nice, but…who wants to be nice? Since hitting fifty last July, I’ve had the biggest revelation of my life: most of the rules haven’t been rules at all; the unbridled joy of not caring is one of the best things about hitting so-called ‘middle age’. And when you don’t care, you don’t worry, and when you don’t worry you don’t get lines, so it’s all good. But even if you do get lines – who cares? I like that things get simpler. You know how you feel when you come down from a complete meltdown? When someone has chilled your beans (I am so young at heart) and you realize all is actually well with the world…that’s my middle-aged feeling, and I like it. So please, tell me: do I sound like a woman on the road to hell? A woman beginning to wane, wear out…do you think I may be fading into the wallpaper or crumbling into uselessness? Now that we’ve got that sorted out, I have a challenge for you: come up with a term to replace ‘Anti Ageing.’ Old age is not a crime. Here at ANU, we want to talk about the benefits of our products in a healthier light; we’re not anti-ageing, but we are pro-health. I promise if there’s a good one in the comment box, we’ll use it!

On that note, I’ll leave you with Tip No. 10 in Look magazine’s top ten awesome makeup tips for older women:

Do not be tempted to contour – leave it to those with time to waste and who don’t mind being laughed at in in public.’

That’s a bit mean, but I did open this blog with a quote from Dorothy Parker – she didn’t pull her punches either, and now that we are the NEW Middle Aged, and anti Anti-ageing, that’s just the way we roll these days.

A 4 Your Lips lip balm gift for the best one!

When I was a teenager my mother used to despair of me ‘always fighting with the nuns.’ Square cog, round hole, mad hair.  You get the picture. I couldn’t be tamed. Years later, I’d smile at that, wondering what she would have made of the fact that I have at least four nuns in my phone’s contact list. One, in particular, is the woman I’d like to write about for International Women’s Day.

Sister Rachel was known around here as The Healing Nun. When I talked about her people said she sounded more like a White Witch. I made it a habit to get to her every few months, like others might go for a massage or a facial. She never once asked me what was wrong, although sometimes I would talk about this or that issue; either way, she would see me fixed and send me on my way. When our session ended, I always got a kick out of her in all of her eighty something years, stooping down and rising up with the energy of an angel to build up my aura. A Dublin woman, she was down to earth as well as very much of the earth. She’d often struggle to find the correct term for something, although it was endearing; how she’d describe what she meant instead in words that were handier, and always she was fascinated by the power of the body, the mind, the spirit, the generosity of the earth. At her funeral, her niece spoke so eloquently about her, and described her so exactly that I wished I had recorded it, the last whispers of the woman who spent her life giving because that was the truth of her. “It’s incredible!” She would say, in awe of everything. She was a joy to behold because so many things pleased her. One day a few years ago we discussed herbal medicine. I had begun studying it years before and had to give it up which I resented. But she just worked with the earth in the simple way that matters; she picked nettles and cooked them up with some garlic and butter on a Friday night, spreading the mix on toast and giving it to whoever was around, watching the Late Late Show and absentmindedly enjoying the snack, not realizing what they were eating. She told me about Maria Treben, the Austrian Herbalist; she loaned me her book, Health Through God’s Pharmacy. And I was back in love with the earth; with the Yarrow and the Horsetail and the Dandelions. Now everywhere I look I see the fruits of the earth; the gifts on offer, right there in front of me, free and freely available. I often thought I’d love to walk through the woods with Sister Rachel, softly pointing out certain plants to each other and what ailments they would cure.

I’m not alone in my admiration of this beautiful earth-woman, and I remember her fondly today as we celebrate what it is to be a woman. She quietly found a way to balance her life as a nun and as a healer; it’s not just the mothers among us who are givers.