Investigate HERS, Aug-Sep 2012 by Investigate Magazine

HERS | Sunscreens in Pregnancy | Bride Abductions | Chloe on Bondage | 08/2012

current affairs and lifestyle for the discerning woman

BROKEN SILENCE The Kahui verdict, and what Chris Kahui told the Coroner

ABDUCTED BRIDES

HIS Broken Silence | Born Free | Booze Babies | 08/2012

When women are wed against their will

FIFTY SHADES OF… Why Chloe Milne is unsatisfied

Aug/Sep 2012 $8.60

PLUS

PREGNANT?

New book on vitamin D blasts safety of sunscreens for children, babies and pregnant women

BEAUTY, CUISINE, TRAVEL, FAMILY, MOVIES, HEALTH & MORE

Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 1

CONTENTS Issue 133 | Aug/Sep 2012 | www.investigatedaily.com HIS Broken Silence

The testimony from Chris Kahui that the Coroner didn’t believe

Born Free

Are we losing our democratic freedoms?

Booze Babies

Foetal alcohol syndrome and crime, what are the links?

features Sunscreens in Pregnancy

A new book on how Vitamin D may help save you and your family from a raft of nasty diseases, also finds sunscreens may be harmful to children and babies. IAN WISHART has more page 10

Coroner’sVerdict

The Kahui case verdict is out, here’s what the Coroner said. page 18

BrideAbductions

ROBYN DIXON explores the fate of abducted brides in South Africa page 24

Chloe on Bondage

A review of Fifty Shades of Grey page 08

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CONTENTS Formalities

09 Subscriptions 06 Miranda Devine 08 Chloe Milne

Beauty & Health 28 30 32

Tips for Great Skin & Hair Pets & Patients Herbs for Migraines

Cuisine & Travel

34 Delectable Duck Ragu 36 Zambia Safari

46 36

Books & Movies

38 Inspirational books 40 Queen of Versailles

Heart & Soul

44 Saving Grace 46 Tummy time

28 08 40

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HERS / DEVINE

The sad truth about ‘harm minimisation’ Miranda Devine

ust 100m north of where Thomas Kelly was fatally assaulted is the new jewel in the crown of the Kings Cross drug harm minimisation empire: an afterhours drug clinic. Clinic 180, located in a two-storey terrace at 180 Victoria St, was quietly opened in April, overcoming an unsuccessful year-long campaign by residents opposed to a third drug facility in their midst. All three, the injecting room at 66 Darlinghurst Rd, the Kirketon Rd Clinic above the fire station at the Darlinghurst end of Victoria St, and Clinic 180, are within a 200m radius of the spot where Kelly, 18, was punched by an unknown assailant as he walked along Victoria St holding hands with his girlfriend at 10.05pm earlier this month. If you draw a line connecting the three drug facilities you have a triangle, at the centre of which is the spot where Kelly was felled. Residents say the area around the new clinic, which dispenses needles and syringes and provides health services to drug users, has become more dangerous. Unlike the injecting room and Kirketon Rd Clinic, which close early on Saturdays, Clinic 180 is open until 9pm. “I can’t provide any evidence but it’s possible the (Kelly) murder was linked to it somehow,” says Andrew Woodhouse, president of the Potts Point and Kings Cross Heritage Conservation Society and a resident for 22 years. “Residents are fed up with having drug addicts approaching them violently on the street. The Cross has gone from bad to worse. The concept of treating injecting users is something the community believes in, but we’re carrying the load for all of NSW. “The injecting room boasts it has 10,000 clients, but once they’ve injected where do they go? They either struggle home or wander on the streets, and if they have alcohol in them as well they turn violent. It’s turned Kings Cross into a pathology clinic.” Police won’t rule in or out any connection between the assault on Thomas Kelly and the Kings Cross drug facilities, and will only say they have visited all premises in the vicinity as part of their investigations. They are yet to charge an assailant, but are believed to know who he is. But, in their objection to the new Clinic 180 last year, the 6 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

There are for lease signs in five empty shops on either side of the injecting room, which is conveniently located opposite the main entrance to Kings Cross railway station

Potts Point and Kings Cross Heritage Conservation Society warned it would become a drug haven at night, drawing more crime and antisocial behaviour to a part of the Cross that had remained fairly peaceful. They also raised concerns that the development application did not contain any prohibition of drug use on the premises or any plan for how drug overdoses on site would be dealt with. “The Cross has gone downhill dramatically,” says resident Robbie Hall, who has lived in Darlinghurst for 32 years. “For someone who never feared walking around here, I decided not to go up the lane for milk last night.” As she showed me around her neighbourhood this month, she pointed out the shuttered shops that went out of business on Darlinghurst Rd after the Uniting Church opened the drug injecting room, formally known as the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre, in 2001. There are for lease signs in five empty shops on either side of the injecting room, which is conveniently located opposite the main entrance to Kings Cross railway station. Drug users loiter in groups outside, and dealers walk briskly nearby. Police were nowhere to be seen among this bustling activity this month. Methamphetamines (ice) now comprise at least eight per cent of substances used in the injecting room and Hall says much of the aggression in the Cross can be sheeted back to these facilities. At the Kirketon Rd Clinic, where methadone is dispensed, business is more discreet, as clients enter and leave regularly

without hanging around outside. The last thing residents wanted was yet another drug facility in lovely, leafy Victoria St, says Hall. Yes, down the road from the murder scene, where once was a quiet residential street of apartments, houses and little restaurants, with some well-run backpacker hostels, now is also an address for the drug dependent and their suppliers, and some are very aggressive. Long-term residents like Hall and Woodhouse fear that the finely balanced human ecology of the Cross, which always made it a cosmopolitan mix of bohemia and sleaze, has been thrown out of kilter recently. It’s not just the drug injecting room and nearby drug clinics which have added to the new air of menace. The number of nightclubs and bars has ballooned under Lord Mayor Clover Moore, and there is an increased weekend influx of pumped up young men and innocents from the suburbs, attracted by the afterglow of the Underbelly TV series which glorified the Golden Mile. It’s New Year’s Eve every weekend as 25,000 people stream into three or four square blocks. Exacerbating the problems is the fact that the drugs of choice at the Cross have morphed from heroin to amphetamines, which are more likely to trigger aggressive behaviour, especially when mixed with alcohol. Hall is a big fan of the local police who she says do their best considering they have one hand tied behind their backs. Forced to turn a blind eye to the drug injecting room and

Thomas Kelly died after being punched in the face by an unknown man as he walked with his girlfriend along Victoria Street in Kings Cross

the illegal activity occurring in all around it, police have been officially neutered. Dealers and users operate in a little oasis of lawlessness created by drug legalisation campaigners and weak politicians. devinemiranda@hotmail.com Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 7

HERS / GEN-Y

Fifty shades of c**p Chloe Milne

on’t get roped in. Having now read one-too-many chapters of the new bestselling novel that can only be described as “fifty shades of f**ked up”, yes that is a direct quote from the book in question, I now know that it is not sex that sells, but some seriously weird s**t. [I’m enjoying these asterisks!] The novel has asked subtlety, sophistication and good writing to step aside, in favour of a predictable and corny story with a protagonist who consults her subconscious more times than she takes her clothes off (which, by the way, is a lot for those of you lucky enough to have avoided this craze). I think we all knew women liked a bit of erotic writing, but Mills and Boon is like Disney compared to what these characters are getting up to. What disturbs me the most is the increase in sales of bondage equipment that these books have caused. I mean chocolate sauce and blindfolds are one thing, but whips, handcuffs and even rope from hardware stores; is entirely another. Honestly, there are cases that I studied in criminal law that involve activities less creepy than this. I just can’t understand why women are so enamored by a story that involves a relationship-phobic, sadistic, weirdo, stalker guy who owns a red room of pain. This guy is only a few sexual acts away from becoming the Beast of Blenheim and that, arguably, is only because he happens to have money and looks on his side. Isn’t Mr. Grey the douche bag that we’ve been trying to avoid all our lives? He’s the one who has caused you to

8 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

I think we all knew women liked a bit of erotic writing, but Mills and Boon is like Disney compared to what these characters are getting up to experience more tears than an intimate piercing, more blind rage than Ewan McDonald, and extreme weight gain due to eating a whole tub of chocolate-flavored ice cream in one sitting. What’s worse is, the female character is a submissive, powerless and apathetic girl. The feminist inside me is just screaming, ‘no wonder you women are getting paid less if you actually like men walking all over you’… or should I say spanking the hell out of you. The women of the 60’s didn’t burn their bras so that E. L. James could come along and introduce handcuffs instead. Look there is a good reason Cinderella lost her shoe and not her virginity on her first night with Prince Charming. There is an even better reason why Cinderella was probably not seen at her local hardware store picking up masking tape, cable ties and rope. How is it that we went from beautiful love stories like The Notebook to Twilight meets Criminal Minds in one sick and disturbing leap? I think us women need to get back to what’s important, like trust, respect and any movies that involve Channing Tatum. I suggest that any woman who is contemplating acting out any scenes in this book, should take out medical insurance, get yourself a good lawyer and re-read “He’s just not that into you”… in fact I think some bookstores are selling them as a package deal.

HERS

INVESTIGATE

| Sunscreens in Pregnancy | Bride Abductions | Chloe on Bondage | 08/2012

current affairs and lifestyle for the discerning woman

NEW ZEALAND’S BEST NEWS MAGAZINE

BROKEN SILENCE The Kahui verdict, and what Chris Kahui told the Coroner

VITAMIN D New book blasts health authorities over vitamin D and sunscreen safety

ABDUCTED BRIDES

When women are wed against their will

Power Play

HIS Broken Silence | Born Free | Booze Babies | 08/2012

Democracy’s death by a thousand cuts

FIFTY SHADES OF… Why Chloe Milne is unsatisfied

Aug/Sep 2012 $8.60

PREGNANT?

New book on vitamin D blasts safety of sunscreens for children, babies and pregnant women

Booze Babies Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and its role in crime

Broken Silence What Chris Kahui

told the Inquest, and why the Coroner didn’t believe him

Aug/Sep 2012, $8.60

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BEAUTY, CUISINE, TRAVEL, FAMILY, MOVIES, HEALTH & MORE

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ARE SUNSCREENS SAFE?

The chemicals you might not want near children and babies

10 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

A new book on Vitamin D raises questions about the safety and effectiveness of sunscreens, and in particular chemicals that could be harmful to children and pregnant women. In this extract from Vitamin D: Is This The Miracle Vitamin?, author IAN WISHART outlines some of the issues

hen you slop sunscreen all over your body, your children or your pregnant belly, you take a leap of faith that you are doing the right thing, and that it’s safe. Unfortunately, recent discoveries are challenging those assumptions. Most of our sunscreens contain a range of organic chemicals to block UVB and UVA radiation. The problem with many of these organic (mostly benzene-based) sunscreen compounds is that they are prone to “photodegradation”, or breaking down when exposed to sunlight. “Controversy,” reports one recent scientific study, “has also developed regarding the possibility of adverse biological effects from various ingredients in sunscreens. Oxybenzone, an ingre-

dient widely used in sunscreens, is purported to have a potentially disruptive effect on hormonal homeostasis.” What scientists have found is that Oxybenzone (aka Benzophenone-3) is well and truly absorbed into the human body through the skin, after being applied in sunscreens. It has turned up in the urine and blood of 96.8% of people tested, and is believed to accumulate in vital organs like the kidney, liver, spleen and male testes, but also in the intestines, stomach, heart and adrenal glands. It has been linked in one scientific study to low birth weight in babies.1 What does it do? We know it has an estrogen like effect and has been scientifically shown to stimulate human breast cancer cells2 – not necessarily a good thing if you are at risk of developing breast cancer, as many women are. It also gives men an extra tweak of

estrogen and displays – at a biochemical level – what scientists call “anti androgenic” or feminising hormonal effects. A study of 15 young males and 17 post-menopausal females over two weeks measured statistically significant hormonal changes after using oxybenzone, but not enough to cause what scientists call “clinically significant perturbations”. In other words, while the sunscreen chemical is affecting our bodies, this tiny study of 32 people didn’t detect anything requiring treatment or intervention. What of the effect on babies or children, however? We don’t know. We do know that sunscreen ingredients are now being found in human breast milk.3 One scientific study on human wastewater outflows into rivers has found however that all that oxybenzone we are absorbing and excreting is having a horrific effect on marine life, dramatically reducing the fertility of trout and other fish species exposed to oxybenzone.4 In the interests of balance, a further analysis has worked out it could take up to 277 years for a woman using sunscreen every day to finally get enough of a build-up of oxybenzone to harm her, pointing out that what is toxic to small animals is not necessarily so to humans.5 What we do know, however, is that oxybenzone may become ineffective and even toxic under normal sunscreen use conditions. A just-released study has tested what happens to oxybenzone sunscreens when their users jump into chlorinated swimming pools or spas. The chlorine reacted with the oxybenzone and “caused significantly more Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 11

hour of application according to manufacturer’s instructions, the chemicals were generating more “reactive oxygen species”(ROS) in the skin than people wearing no sunscreen were getting via direct UV radiation. In other words, the sunscreen was acting like oil in a frypan in terms of its effect on users’ skin and resultant ROS damage.9 It’s one of the reasons health authorities now seek regular re-application of yet more chemicals every hour or so, locking sunscreen users into a vicious circle.

Even a pregnant Kardashian used sunscreen. The question is, was it safe? /WENN

cell death than unchlorinated controls…Exposing a commercially available sunscreen product to chlorine also resulted in decreased UV absorbance, loss of UV protection, and enhanced cytotoxicity [meaning it becomes poisonous to human cells].”6 There are question marks about the safety of other ingredients in organic sunscreens. “Retinyl palmitate, a compound used extensively in various cosmetic and personal care products, has received wide attention as a potential photocarcinogen (light-activated carcinogen).” This chemical has been shown to have carcinogenic properties in animal testing, and it also has been shown to create harmful free radicals7 in the skin 12 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

as a result of breaking down under UV exposure. Scientific reaction is mixed however, with some suggesting that other antioxidant compounds in the human skin should be capable of protecting against damage caused by retinyl palmitate generated free radicals8, and they also argue that the mice in the cancer tests were prone to skin cancer anyway. Like oxybenzone, in the absence of seriously hard evidence showing the compound is definitely harmful, retinyl palmitate will remain in sunscreens used by adults and children. In 2005 a series of experiments using sunscreen containing octocrylene, octylmethoxycinnamate and benzophenone-3 revealed that within one

he second category of sun screens, the mineral-based ones, have issues of their own. These are the Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide sun blocks. Unlike the organics, the Zinc and Titanium formulations were not thought to break down in sunlight and cause damage on the skin, meaning they stay protective for longer. However, in the race to become more effective these sunscreens deliver their active ingredients as nanoparticles – molecular compounds so small they can potentially pass through barriers like the human skin. Researchers have shown that when Titanium dioxide is stimulated by UV rays, its electrons become more energised and can “react with nearby oxygen and hydrogen compounds to produce highly reactive free radical compounds…when in contact with our skin these radicals can oxidise and reduce compounds including DNA, resulting in significant mutagenesis [causes mutations at a cellular level].”10 Additionally, the resulting free radicals can react with organic sunscreen ingredients to create acids. All of this is happening on and possibly under your skin unseen, of course, whilst you and your children happily sunbathe or play on the beach. More than one research team has pointed out that the race to nanotechnology in sunscreens and cosmetics has been done “with no regard to the potential health risks.”11 “Much concern has been voiced that the integration of nano-material technology into everyday formulations has outpaced the body of research evaluating their safety,” echo Burnett & Wang, who nonetheless reach the conclusion

that sunscreens should still be used regardless.12 Sadly, health agencies in Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand have been so keen to promote sunscreens that they have allowed products to go to market untested in regard to whether their ingredients may in fact cause cancer in their own right. Even in the US most ingredients have not been required to pass official safety tests.

cientists now know that Zinc Oxide does in fact break down under UVB light, shedding zinc (Zn2+). One study found “a reduction in cell viability” as a result and that Zinc oxide breakdown “causes cytotoxicity and oxidative stress [the generation of free radicals].”13 Another recent study paints an even more disturbing picture – actual genetic damage resulting from nanotechnology in sunscreens and makeup. Remember, it is DNA damage that leads to skin cancer and melanoma, so this is where speculation about sun-

screens possibly causing skin cancer is focused. “Due to the extremely small size of the nanoparticles (NPs) being used, there is a concern that they may interact directly with macromolecules such as DNA,” notes the study, published in the journal Toxicology Letters.14 “The present study was aimed to assess the genotoxicity of zincoxide (ZnO) NPs, one of the widely used ingredients of cosmetics, and other dermatological preparations in human epidermal cell line (A431). A reduction in cell viability as a function of both NP concentration as well as exposure time was observed.” The findings warn that Zinc oxide nanoparticles, “even at low concentrations, possess a genotoxic potential” capable of genetically mutating or harming human skin. “Hence, caution should be taken in their use in dermatological preparations as well as while handling.” This again raises valid questions about whether sunscreens are safe to

use on infants and children, let alone adults. “Although toxicity in infants or young children resulting from sunscreen absorption has not been reported,” writes Dr Sophie Balk, “skin permeability to topically applied products is of concern in the very young, especially in preterm infants. Absorptive and other properties of children’s skin may differ from those of adult skin until children are at least 2 years old.”15 Thomas Faunce, a biomedicine legal expert based at Australian National University in Canberra, says authorities may need to step up. “It may be time for Australian safety regulators to apply the precautionary principle in this contact and increase labelling requirements about the use of nanoparticles in sunscreens.”16 The problem is, how do you tackle the problem when health authorities, manufacturers and cancer charities are all financially in bed with each other? Australia and New Zealand’s cancer societies, for example, earn millions

The findings warn that Zinc oxide nanoparticles, “even at low concentrations, possess a genotoxic potential” capable of genetically mutating or harming human skin

Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 13

Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health told journalists. “While perhaps not impacting an individual’s overall function, it is educationally meaningful and could shift the distribution of children in the society who would be in need of early intervention services”.21

of dollars a year marketing their own range of sunscreen products. One of those, like similar products in the US and elsewhere, is a combination SPF30+ sunscreen and insect repellent. It contains the insecticide “Deet”, known to science as diethyl toluamide, and the sunscreen octyl-methoxycinnamate. Ignore the fact that these two chemicals or their derivatives, when mixed together, can be potentially harmful.17 Instead, note that the combo also lists an ingredient called piperonyl butoxide,18 otherwise known as PBO, which is often added to “natural” insect sprays. A 2011 study – the first of its kind – found this supposedly environmentally friendly chemical PBO appears to be as toxic to infants and children as letting them lick lead paint. The study found a four point drop in mental development 14 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

levels for children whose homes are exposed to piperonyl butoxide in insect spray dispensers.19 Whilst that particular study was looking at the toxicity of PBO inhaled from automatic household spray dispensers, the application of the product directly on the skin in a sunscreen could also possibly leach it into the bloodstream, particularly of pregnant women or children. You are also likely to find PBO in headlice treatments for children. “Children who were more highly exposed to PBO in personal air samples (≥4.34 ng/m3) scored 3.9 points lower on the Mental Developmental Index than those with lower exposures.20 “This drop in IQ points is similar to that observed in response to lead exposure,” lead researcher Megan Horton of

ou might be surprised to discover that – despite being approved for use in households and on children – no significant human safety testing of PBO has ever taken place until the 2011 study.22 And that’s kind of the main point here – pesticide and sunscreen manufacturers have been given free rein to use the public as guinea pigs. The New Zealand Cancer Society helpfully publishes a “materials safety sheet” on the ingredients of its products. The poisons information in the sheet states the combined sunscreen and insect repellent is “not suitable for babies and toddlers”. Great advice, and it was delivered to the Cancer Society in October 2009,23 but it does not appear anywhere as a warning on the tube of sunscreen on sale in 2012. Thousands of families are likely to have used this harmful product on and around their children. Indeed, the tube labelling in NZ states “use this sunscreen in conjunction with other sunsmart behaviour”, including “keep infants in the shade”, clearly implying to me that it is safe for children as part of a mix of precautions. The Cancer Council of Australia’s PBO-containing product describes itself as “Ideal for families and childcare centers” in a description for the 500ml pump-bottle version.24 The Cancer Council defends its use of nanoparticles on its website:25 “Nanotechnology has been used in sunscreens for many years. To date, our assessment, drawing on the best available evidence, is that nanoparticulates used in sunscreens do not pose a risk. However, we continue to monitor research and welcome any new research that sheds more light on this topic. “Sunscreen formulas and their components are regulated through the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). In early 2009, the TGA

conducted an updated review of the scientific literature in relation to the use of nanoparticulate zinc oxide and titanium dioxide in sunscreens. “The TGA review concluded that: fThe f potential for titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles in sunscreens to cause adverse effects depends primarily upon the ability of the nanoparticles to reach viable skin cells; and fTo f date, the current weight of evidence suggests that titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles do not reach viable skin cells; rather, they remain on the surface of the skin and in the outer layer of the skin that is composed of nonviable cells.” That review was conducted in early 2009. Evidently nothing further has been done by Australasian authorities. Yet in late 2009 this study was released: Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, found in everything from cosmetics to sunscreen to paint to vitamins, caused systemic genetic damage in mice, according to a comprehensive study conducted by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “The TiO2 nanoparticles induced single- and double-strand DNA breaks and also caused chromosomal damage as well as inflammation, all of which increase the risk for cancer. The UCLA study is the first to show that the nanoparticles had such an effect, said Robert Schiestl, a professor of pathology, radiation oncology and environmental health sciences, a Jonsson Cancer Center scientist and the study’s senior author. Once in the system, the TiO2 nanoparticles accumulate in different organs because the body has no way to eliminate them. And because they are so small, they can go everywhere in the body, even through cells, and may interfere with sub-cellular mechanisms. The study appeared the week of November 16 in the journal Cancer Research.

In the past, these TiO2 nanoparticles have been considered nontoxic in that they do not incite a chemical reaction. Instead, it is surface interactions that the nanoparticles have within their environment- in this case inside a mouse–that is causing the genetic damage, Schiestl said. They wander throughout the body causing oxidative stress, which can lead to cell death. It is a novel mechanism of toxicity, a physicochemical reaction, these particles cause in comparison to regular chemical toxins, which are the usual subjects of toxicological research, Schiestl said. “The novel principle is that titanium by itself is chemically inert. However, when the particles become progressively smaller, their surface, in turn, becomes progressively bigger and in the interaction of this surface with the environment oxidative stress is induced,” he said. “This is the first comprehensive study of titanium dioxide nanoparticle-induced genotoxicity, possibly caused by a secondary mechanism associated with inflammation and/or oxidative stress. Given the growing use of these nanoparticles, these findings raise concern about potential health hazards associated with exposure.” How do we reconcile studies like that with marketing campaigns telling parents to use titanium dioxide sunscreens on their children? It is true that studies so far have not found penetration of zinc or titanium through the skin barrier beyond 17 layers, but those tests have been done on adult skin, not infant skin, which is much less developed. Additionally, young children and particularly babies may suck skin with sunblock on, therefore ingesting the chemicals. Given that titanium dioxide nanoparticles are also used as a whitener in toothpaste, perhaps there’s a different avenue for concern, although that’s another story! What it all comes back to, in the end, is that warning that nanotechnology

usage has exploded into the community long before safety has been definitively proven. If sunscreens were a dead cert, 100% effective barrier to melanoma and all other skin cancers, you might look at the odds and say it’s worth using them. Sunscreens don’t prevent most skin cancers, however, and on current evidence might (either directly or indirectly) cause rather than prevent melanoma, so the risk/benefit ratio might be harder for parents to assess. That’s not the only concern, however.

irtually every one of the NZ Cancer Society sunscreens (and a number of the Australian ones) also contains Vitamin E as an antioxidant, but there are no warnings on the packs26 about the possible dangers of Vitamin E to men at risk of prostate cancer. A recent study found men using Vitamin E suffered a significant 17% increase in risk of developing prostate cancer, meaning you would not want to be using it daily in a sunscreen as recommended by health authorities. As the study warns: “Dietary supplementation with vitamin E significantly increased the risk of prostate cancer among healthy men.”27 Prostate cancer rates have – like melanoma – gone through the roof in the past three decades. Are sunscreens partly to blame? The Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology has previously reported that Vitamin E is absorbed into the human body at a level eleven times greater when applied to the skin, as compared to taking it in dietary supplement form.28 This is not to pick on the Australia or New Zealand cancer societies, by the way. The formulations in their products are similar to those used by other commercial suppliers. Don’t assume that just because a product is marketed by reputable companies or charities, advertised on TV and sold in supermarkets that it is actually 100% risk-free. Do your homework. Then there’s the strange case of gardeners and agriculturalists, many of whom use herbicides or pesticides of some kind as part of their work. A 2004 study revealed sunscreens act like an open door for poisonous chemicals to penetrate your skin. The herbicide Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 15

in question was 2,4-D – which forms one half of the deadly “Agent Orange” formula. There was a 60% increase in the amount of herbicide that penetrated the skin via sunscreen, compared with no sunscreen, resulting in what researchers called “penetration

enhancement” that showed “physical damage” to the skin.29 As you can see then, there are nagging concerns about whether sunscreens might actually be toxic, and whether they open gateways for other toxins. What comes next, however,

is a bigger problem for the sunscreen industry: do they actually work? What you are about to read may astound you. To continue reading more on sunscreen safety, see the new book Vitamin D, on sale nationwide from 30 July

REFERENCES [1] http://www.ewg.org/analysis/toxicsunscreen [2] “Metabolism of 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone in isolated rat hepatocytes and xenoestrogenic effects of its metabolites on MCF-7 human breast cancer cells”, Nakagawa & Suzuki, Chem Biol Interactions Journal, 2002; 139:115-128. See also “UV filters with antagonistic action at androgen receptors etc”, Ma et al, Toxicological Sciences, 2003; 74:43-50. See also “Additive estrogenic effects of mixtures of frequently used UV filters on pS2gene transcription in MCF-7 cells,” Heneweer et al, Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2005; 208:170-177 [3] American Academy of Pediatrics, http://aapnews.aappublications.org/ content/32/3/32.short [4] “Estrogenic activity and reproductive effects of the UV-filter oxybenzone (2-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl-methanone) in fish”, Coronado et al, Aquatic Toxicology, Volume 90, Issue 3, 21 November 2008, Pages 182–187 [5] “Safety of Oxybenzone: Putting Numbers Into Perspective”, Wang et al, Archives of Dermatology, 2011;147(7):865-866. doi:10.1001/ archdermatol.2011.173 [6] “Altered UV absorbance and cytotoxicity of chlorinated sunscreen agents”, Sherwood et al, Journal of Cutaneous and Ocular Toxicology, 2012, January 18, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22257218 [7] Free radicals are loose electrons within an atom or molecular structure that makes the structure “reactive” until it finds equilibrium, usually by breaking another nearby chemical bond to restore its positive or negative charge to neutral. These things are all well and good until the structure they react with is a cell within your body, because the resulting damage can cause cancer or interfere with other body functions. We use antioxidants to try and mop up these free radicals by providing them with something to bind with that isn’t part of you, but it’s hit and miss. There is no guarantee that free radicals created by UV breaking down sunscreen, will necessarily bind with antioxidants – like a lightning bolt in search of the quickest route to the ground, a free radical will break whatever is easiest and closest at the relevant moment. [8] “Current sunscreen controversies: a critical review”, Burnett & Wang, Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine, 2011; 27: 58-67 [9] “Sunscreen enhancement of UV-induced reactive oxygen species in the skin”, Hanson et al, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, Volume 41, Issue 8, 15 October 2006, Pages 1205–1212 [10] “Sunscreen – a catch 22”, Blum & Larsen, Young Scientists Journal, 2010, issue 8:11-14 [11] Ibid [12] “Current sunscreen controversies: a critical review”, Burnett & Wang, Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine, 2011; 27: 58-67 [13] “UV irradiation-induced zinc dissociation from commercial zinc oxide sunscreen etc”, Martorano et al, Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, vol 9, issue 4, Dec 2010:276-286 [14] “DNA damaging potential of zincoxide nanoparticles in human epidermal cells,” Sharma et al, Toxicology Letters, Volume 185, Issue 3, 28 March

16 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

2009, Pages 211–218 [15] “Ultraviolet radiation reports shine light on how pediatricians can help patients avoid skin cancer,” Sophie Balk MD, American Academy of Pediatrics, 2011 [16] “Exploring the safety of nanoparticles in Australian sunscreens”, Faunce, International Journal of Biomedical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Vol 1, no. 1, 2010:87-94, doi 10.1504/IJBNN.2010.034127 [17] “Evaluation of percutaneous absorption of the repellent diethyltoluamide and the sunscreen ethylhexyl p-methoxycinnamate-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles: an in-vitro study,” Puglia et al, J Pharm Pharmacol. 2009 Aug;61(8):1013-9 [18] See ingredient list, Cancer Council of Australia supplier, http://www. skinhealth.com.au/site/repelplus.html [19] “Impact of prenatal exposure to piperonyl butoxide and permethrin on 36-month neurodevelopment”, Horton et al, Pediatrics. 2011 Mar;127(3):e699-706 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21300677 [20] “Natural insect sprays may be as toxic to children as lead paint – Study”, InvestigateDaily, 14 Dec 2011, http://www.investigatemagazine. co.nz/Investigate/?p=2078 [21] A study published May 2012 has followed the Pediatrics results up, and found PBO damages “critical neurological development”, see “The Insecticide Synergist Piperonyl Butoxide Inhibits Hedgehog Signaling: Assessing Chemical Risks,” Wang et al, Toxicological Sciences, (2012) doi: 10.1093/ toxsci/kfs165 http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/05/03/ toxsci.kfs165.short [22] On the other hand, scientists now know that piperonyl butoxide is also “immunotoxic” to fish, see “Immunotoxic and cytotoxic effects of atrazine, permethrin and piperonylbutoxide to rainbow trout following in vitro exposure,” Shelley et al, Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 33, Issue 2, August 2012, Pages 455–458 [23] Based on the creation and modification dates of the PDF on the Cancer Society website, accessed June 2012. See http://www.cancernz.org.nz/ assets/files/products/Insect_Repellent-MSDS-091013.pdf [24] See Cancer Council of Australia supplier, http://www.skinhealth.com. au/site/repelplus.html [25] http://www.cancer.org.au/cancersmartlifestyle/SunSmart/nanoparticles_sunscreen.htm [26] As displayed in the ingredients lists on the NZ Cancer Society website, http://www.cancernz.org.nz/products/technical-info/ as retrieved in June 2012 [27] “Vitamin E and the Risk of Prostate Cancer”, Klein et al, Journal of the American Medical Assn (JAMA), October 12, 2011, Vol 306, No. 14, http:// jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1104493 [28] “Photodamage of the skin: protection and reversal with topical antioxidants”, Burke, K E. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2004 Jul;3(3):149-55 [29] “Active ingredients in sunscreens act as topical penetration enhancers for the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid”, Pont et al, Toxicology & Applied Pharmacolo

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The CELLPHONE

conspiracy How an innocent mother was smeared in the Kahui case

Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 19

In 2011, IAN WISHART authored the book Breaking Silence on the Kahui case, which strongly pointed the finger at Chris Kahui. Now, the Coroner has agreed. Here’s how he took apart the conspiracy theories and got to the facts:

t was the conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories. The idea that a mobile phone call placed Macsyna King with motive and opportunity to murder her twin babies back in June 2006. That theory was the coup-de-grace for Chris Kahui’s defence team in the final days of his murder trial 2008, and it became the centrepiece of public speculation. Now, the Coroner has utterly rubbished it. “It is inherently implausible that Macsyna would have interrupted her evening out with her sister to return to Courtenay Crescent, happened to arrive during the 20 minute period when her partner happened to be out, fatally assaulted the twins and then left, devised an alibi that was consistent with cellphone records that she was unaware of [Coroner’s emphasis] and then successfully persuaded Stuart King, Emily King and Pou Hepi to cover this up….such a scenario is incapable of belief.” Cellphone records confirm Macsyna and her sister were in Papakura at 6:58pm on the night of June 12, 2006. According to police, at that time of night it was possible to do the Papakura to Mangere run in 23 minutes. The problem for conspiracy theorists was that witnesses say Chris Kahui had 20 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

left their home at 7pm and returned at 7:20. Try as hard as she liked, Macsyna could not have sped to Mangere, arriving around one minute before Chris Kahui got back, beaten up the babies, snuck out again unseen by the other people in the house, and been as far away as Unitec in Carrington only 18 minutes later when the next cellphone call was made. “On the critical issue of whether Macsyna King returned, or might have returned, to Courtenay Crescent on the evening of 12 June, there is no evidence that she did so and no reasonable possibility that she might have done so, let alone been responsible for causing fatal injuries to the twins,” ruled Coroner Gary Evans. “No reasonable explanation is offered as to why Macsyna King, having returned home, might then choose to inflict severe injuries on her own children. The Court is satisfied that the telephone calls and whereabouts of Macsyna King, Emily Hepi and Pou Hepi during the evening had nothing to do with the deaths of the twins.” What about the theory that Macsyna King beat the babies senseless before she left to see her sister on the morning of June 12, earlier that day? Given that eyewitnesses including Chris Kahui reported the babies alive

and well, alert and feeding happily an hour after Macsyna King left the house, the Coroner has ruled it is impossible for King to have harmed the babies earlier, given the nature of their injuries and the rapid descent toward death that followed. Had she harmed the children, he ruled, it would have been obvious to everyone in the house and they would not have fed later that day. “The Court does not find any of the possibilities advanced to be evidentially tenable. “The Court finds on the combined evidence of April Saunders and Chris

Kahui that the twins were in every respect normal and well during the morning of Monday 12 June, down until the time April and Shane Saunders left the house. “Putting it another way, there is nothing in the evidence before the Court that would show, hint or suggest any change in their clearly documented state of good health. “The twins were not, on the evidence, showing symptoms from the older, healing rib fractures found at autopsy or, in the case of Chris, from the subdural haemorrhage thought to be two

to three weeks old. They had not then sustained the serious brain injuries that led to their deaths.” The Coroner found Chris Kahui’s evidence on feeding the babies later “seriously conflicting in nature, lacking in credibility and not to be relied upon. Indeed, the Coroner felt moved to say to him while he was giving his evidence that he did not know what to believe, whether what he had told the Police was correct, or what he was then saying in the statement produced to the Court. “The evidence given by Mr Kahui at

the inquest as to feeding was in contradiction of the evidence contained in his three Police statements that the twins had been fed by him subsequent to the departure of April and Shane Saunders.” The feeding contradictions came to a head in the evening accounts. This is when other witnesses found Kahui alone with the babies, and baby Cru having breathing failure. “When interviewed by Police on 13 June 2006 Chris Kahui repeatedly stated that he was in the nursery feeding Chris when Mona came into the Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 21

room. At the inquest hearing he denied feeding Chris at this time.” The Coroner’s report suggests Kahui admitted “that something happened to the twins whilst Macsyna was away.” Why didn’t Kahui call an ambulance when he knew something had gone wrong? The Coroner states: “Chris Kahui must have had other reasons for holding out against the suggestions of other family members that medical assistance be sought or an ambulance be called. What might these reasons have been?” The Coroner states Kahui wanted Macsyna in the gun. “The evidence would strongly suggest that Chris Kahui wanted Macsyna back to see what should be done about the twins in the condition in which they then lay, and for her to face what he saw as her responsibility for what had happened to them in her absence.”

he Coroner says Macsyna King was shocked to find one twin bruised when she returned the next morning, “How the hell did our boy get that new bruise on his face and what the hell happened?” In his verdict, the Coroner notes that Chris Kahui on two occasions told Macsyna that the twins 13 month old brother had given bruises to the twins. The Coroner says the claim was untrue, and Chris Kahui resorting to such an “invention” twice “is disturbing”. “Chris Kahui’s response to the expression of his partner’s concerns is not what one might expect from a father whose attention has been drawn to bruising on the face of one of his sons. His response was to explain away Chris’ facial bruising by recourse to an invention. It is likely that a father who bore no responsibility for the injury that had led to bruising would be very concerned, would want to know how his son had got such an injury and would join his partner into enquiring into what had gone on. “As recorded, the twins were not fed on Tuesday 13 June. They were last fed the day before. The evidence given by Chris Kahui in each of his first two Police interviews that they were fed [and burped and changed by him] on Tuesday morning was untrue and, the 22 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

Court finds, untrue to his knowledge as his evidence at inquest shows. “The evidence shows it was Macsyna who made arrangements to take the twins to Dr Nayar to be checked. “Significantly, Chris Kahui did not tell his partner that the twins had not fed since the day before. Nor did he tell anyone else in the house, as already stated. He did not tell Dr Nayar this either. This was vitally important information which he kept to himself. “The Court finds that Macsyna King was materially misled by Chris Kahui as to the health of the twins…She may have changed their clothes, she was given to understand by Chris Kahui that the twins were being fed. It was she who decided that the twins should be taken to a doctor. “Chris Kahui’s behaviour in not disclosing to anyone else in the house the fact that the twins were not feeding, in not disclosing that fact to Macsyna King when she arrived on Tuesday morning, in making no enquiries of anyone as to what should be done in what were deeply worrying circumstances and in failing to get medical help for the twins speaks eloquently of his desire to keep this fact secret from everyone else. “The twins were not waking for food. They were not crying to be fed. They were not being fed. Chris Kahui’s behaviour in keeping these facts from others is incompatible with the behaviour one would reasonably expect from a normal father who had nothing to hide concerning his children’s condition. “The Court finds that Chris Kahui knew the twins needed to be taken to hospital straight away [after the doctor advised him to]. Having refused to turn off to the hospital on the way there, he drove home and then walked out of the house, leaving his partner to cope alone with two very sick babies. “At the inquest he said he knew Macsyna wanted him to go with her to the hospital, but that he was furious. Again, the behaviour of Chris Kahui in turning his back on the pressing needs of his sons for medical attention ‘straight away’ is incompatible with that of a normal father whose only concerns are his children’s welfare.

“Chris Kahui accepted at inquest that Dr Nayar told his partner and him to take the twins straight to Middlemore Hospital. He later agreed, as his actions showed, that he did not want to go straight to the hospital after seeing Dr Nayar. He admitted that Macsyna wished to go straight there. “His behaviour is consistent with a wish to avoid the hospital authorities.” In regard to the severity of the twins’ injuries, the Coroner accepted the expert medical panel’s testimony that “the effect of the twins’ fatal injuries would have been immediate and obvious…they would have remained abnormal from that point onwards.” The Coroner also drew attention to the judge’s summing up in Kahui’s murder trial, that cast aspersions on Macsyna King: “Justice Venning, who presided at the criminal trial, is recorded in para 115 of the notes of his summing up as saying, ‘The defence say that Macsyna King could have inflicted the fatal injuries either before she left on the Monday morning [12 June] or at some stage when the accused was up at the hospital dropping Mona off at about 7pm that night.’ “It is patent,” records the Coroner, “that…the two propositions put to the jury by Chris Kahui’s counsel, apportioning blame for the twins’ deaths upon Macsyna King, cannot lie in the light of the medical and other evidence heard in this Court.” In delivering his findings, Coroner Gary Evans said: “The evidence given by Chris Kahui was unreliable, conflicting and, on many occasions, untrue. The Court formed a poor view of his credibility. Different versions of events have been given by him on different occasions to different people. “The Court is satisfied, on all the evidence before it, to the required standard of proof, that the traumatic brain injuries suffered by Chris and Cru Kahui were incurred by them during the afternoon/ early evening of 12 June 2006, whilst they were in the sole custody, care and control of their father at 22 Courtenay Crescent, Manger, Auckland.”

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Bride

abductions ‘a distortion’ of South Africa’s culture

he was named Democracy in Zulu, at a time when her country had none. A few years later, the constitution born of the historic South African election that ended apartheid made Nonkululeko “free” and “equal.” But the eight cows paid for her as a bride price mean that she is neither. At 14, Nonkululeko fell victim to a secretive cultural practice called thwala – or bride abduction – that continues here in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. Originally an acceptable means for two young Zulu people in love to wed when their families opposed the match, thwala is often abused to victimize isolated rural women and enrich male relatives, activists say. “It’s a distortion of our culture,” said Sizani Ngubane, of the Rural Women’s Movement, a nongovernmental rights organization. “It is not supposed to be like this.” 24 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

WORDS BY ROBYN DIXON Seven years ago, the uncle who helped raise Nonkululeko colluded with an admirer seven years her senior. In return for the cows, her uncle ordered the girl to get into a car with him, her suitor and three other men as she returned from the village well carrying water. She was driven to a forest, where the uncle left her with the men, who said she must marry her suitor. She refused. She says they beat her with a leather whip called a shambock and took her to the top of a mountain, where three of them held her down as her would-be husband raped her. (Last names, their villages and other identifying details of women in this article are not being used to protect the identities of victims of sexual assault.) “It was agonizing physically, but even emotionally I felt, ‘Why don’t they just kill me?’ I was screaming and crying and saying even if they forced me, I didn’t love him,” Nonkululeko said. She was whisked away to his family house, raped again and forced to write

a letter to her grandmother, who also had raised her, saying she loved him and wanted to wed. “It was painful writing the letter. I was shaking and my heart was very sore.” The exchange of lobolo, or bride price, is supposed to be a long, formal process intricately knitting two families, but in this case the deal was swift, and Nonkululeko’s grandmother, who opposed the match, was ignored. The arrival of the cows at Nonkululeko’s family home sealed the child’s fate. Seven years into a loveless marriage, she says each sexual encounter feels like a repeat of that first rape. Thwala goes on in parts of KwaZuluNatal, a predominantly Zulu province with high mountains tumbling to the sea, and the Eastern Cape, in the south of the country, a predominantly Xhosa region often seen as South Africa’s poorest and most disadvantaged province. Although forced thwala is illegal – it’s rape and abduction under the criminal code – the law is almost never

Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 25

enforced because it is seen by most police and senior male family members as a cultural and domestic matter. Thwala is also illegal if the girl is below the age of consent, 16.

26 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

Nonkululeko’s plight highlights the tension in South Africa between a liberal constitution that is supposed to guarantee equality and freedom, and traditional practices – some of which

have been warped by time and poverty – that make a mockery of those promises for many women in the sub-Saharan continent’s most affluent country. “If a male relative sees a man with cattle,” Nonkululeko said, “he can just sell you for cows.” In the tawny hills of KwaZulu-Natal, a girl walks along a gravel road. The child – maybe 11 or 12 – breaks into a trot, then a run, arms flapping exuberantly as if to take off, a vision of joyful freedom. When Nonkululeko was that age, each silver machine that flew in the sky above her mountains held a secret promise. A high achiever at school, excelling in math and science, she dreamed of becoming a pilot. Her mother died when she was four. Her father was never in her life. Her grandmother drummed into her that her most valued attribute was her virginity. The child submitted to regular virginity tests. When she was 11 and 12, she performed in the traditional barebreasted “reed dance” of virgins at the palace for a local king. They were some of her happiest moments. “The belief is that if you are a Zulu maiden, your body is pure ... and you can show off your body with no disgrace,” she said. Now she’s married to that stranger, and several times a month, he forces her to have sex. “He uses his strength and muscles and beats me. “I have often thought of how to get out of it. I can’t think of any option. ... What I wish could happen is that they could give him back the cows and I could leave his house.” But male relatives rarely agree to such things, trapping many KwaZuluNatal women in unhappy marriages. “When I’m thinking deeply about my situation, sometimes that dream of being a pilot comes back,” Nonkululeko said. “It makes me feel like a failure in life.” Mandla Mandela, a traditional chief, ruling lawmaker and grandson of Nelson Mandela, the country’s first post-apartheid president, belittled activist Ngubane in a 2010 parliamentary hearing when she drew attention to bride abductions, saying that her understanding of culture had been

Although forced thwala is illegal the law is almost never enforced because it is seen by most police and senior male family members as a cultural and domestic matter “adulterated” by Western notions. “When you are going to discuss culture, do not even try to bring in white notions, as such an approach will turn things upside down,” he said.

ut Mandela also said the girl eventually must agree to the marriage before it is consummated, speaking of victims as “someone’s daughter” and equating raping a girl to stealing her father’s cows. He said cultural laws forbid a man who abducts a bride to have sex with her. Jabulile, whose name means “happiness,” grew up in an unhappy family in rural KwaZulu-Natal. When her father died, her mother was “inherited” by the dead man’s brother and spent days weeping. A month later, at 15, Jabulile was abducted by four men, one of whom wanted her as a wife. She was taken to a forest, beaten, raped, made to drink a “love potion” and forced into marriage with the man, who was eight years older. “I was crying, I was shocked, I was shaking like a leaf,” the now 28-yearold said. Jabulile’s brothers reported her abduction to the police. “The police said they didn’t want to involve themselves because by screaming and saying, ‘No, no, no,’ girls mean, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ “ Jabulile said. Her uncles swiftly accepted a payment of eight cows. Like Nonkululeko, Jabulile has been forced to have sex countless times by her husband over the years. “I never wanted it, not even once.” She didn’t realize that under South African law it’s illegal for a man to force his wife to have sex against her will. “I didn’t know,” she said, after a long pause. “I always see myself as being in the wrong, because I am married to him. “I don’t love him. I am staying with

him because he turned me into the wreck I am now. He took my virginity and made me into what I don’t want to be.” In the first legal breakthrough in such cases, a 15-year-old girl pressed rape charges against a man who abducted her in March 2011. (It was the second time she had been abducted as a bride. The first time, when she was 13, she managed to run away.) Her grandmother, Thulelene Mbhense, 60, said the girl was abducted on her way to school and held

for weeks. She said a police supervisor brushed off the case, telling the family the girl must have been badly brought up and promiscuous. Mbhense went to the village where the girl was being held, walked into the abductor’s house and saw her granddaughter sitting with the man. “I said, ‘Let’s go home,’ “ Mbhense said. Last year, her abductor was convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison. Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 27

HERS | BEAUTY

You will glow if you know what you eat WORDS BY OLIVIA ALABASTER/MCT

eauty is just skin deep, but when it comes to looking your best it›s what›s inside that counts. While there are hundreds, if not thousands of beautifying products on the market–from foundations, nail oils and hair conditioners–it is essential to start with a healthy and balanced diet if one›s natural assets are to shine. “You will glow if you know what you are eating: It’s not only about the makeup you wear or how you do your hair. It’s also about the way you’re going to eat. What’s going to go inside is going to be shown on the outside,” clinical dietician Nicole Maftoum says. If you make the right food choices, Maftoum insists, your skin will be more glowing, your hair will be thicker and your nails less brittle. Here, she talks through the best foods to eat to maintain your skin, hair and nails at their best. While the No. 1 cause of hair loss is bad nutrition, Maftoum says, it is also affected by environmental factors such as water, weather and stress. So to minimize these factors, a balanced diet is essential. For thick and shiny hair it is necessary to have a protein-rich diet, Maftoum says. While beef and chicken are protein-rich, the nutrient is also found in beans, grains and lentils, which many people, wrongly, try to avoid. “People think that beans and grains are only rich in carbohydrates when in 28 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

fact no, they contain proteins and they are rich in fibre, and they are very good for overall health,” Maftoum says. Silica works wonders at keeping hair thick, she adds, and is found in oats, bananas and beer. �� Maftoum recommends a maximum of one glass of alcohol each day for women, and for men, two. To promote hair growth, mineral-rich foods, such as potatoes, sunflower seeds, lentils and grains are ideal, and Vitamin B heavy foods, including nuts, oats,

oranges, meat, poultry, eggs and cereals, are also beneficial, Maftoum says. When it comes to looking after your skin, the first step is to stay well hydrated. Maftoum says that while ideal water intake depends on the individual, the weather, and exercise routines, it is generally good to drink around around eight cups of water every day, starting with two upon waking, as the body gets dehydrated overnight. Coffee and tea count towards your

hydration, but Maftoum also reminds that coffee and alcohol are diuretics, so when drinking either of those, one should up the water intake slightly. For glowing skin, healthy fats, such as Omega 3-rich mackerel, sardines, salmon and flax seeds are best, and in terms of vegetables, purslane has the highest content. A daily menu should include at least two portions of fruit, and six servings of vegetables, as these antioxidantrich foods help combat dangerous free radicals, and help fight the aging of skin. While all fruits and vegetables are good, red berries, such as strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are among the best, and those containing carotene, such as carrots, tomatoes and kale help prolong tans and give the skin a better color, Maftoum says. While again external factors such as the weather, washing up and cooking can affect one’s nails, it will help to have a diet rich in Vitamin B and calcium, the latter found in milk and milk derivatives, and mushrooms and tofu. Fitting in this perfect balance of fresh food can be difficult, Maftoum recognizes, especially now that women are working longer hours and it›s sometimes hard to find the time to create perfectly balanced lunch boxes for work the next day. If you›re concerned about reaching this nutritional zenith, and are eager to maintain your skin, nails and hair at their best, supplements offer another option. “Sometimes you might think you are getting all the vitamins and minerals you need but in fact you are not ... maybe you are overcooking or eating leftovers, or reheating food, and then you can lose nutrients,” Maftoum says. To be on the safe side and especially after a certain age, supplements can help, she adds. “Especially if you are concerned about wrinkles, or if you have brittle nails, or if you have hair loss, or, for example, if you have a lot of sun exposure.” One such product is Oenobiol Paris, created by French nutritionist Dr. Marie Bejot in 1985, the company›s slogan is that “beauty comes from within.” Using only natural ingredients, the capsules contain the essential nutrients to promote healthy skin, hair and nails, with

Sometimes you might think you are getting all the vitamins and minerals you need but in fact you are not ... maybe you are overcooking or eating leftovers, or reheating food, and then you can lose nutrients specific products for each, and are all based on clinical studies. Perhaps their most famous product is Oenobiol Solaire, which helps promote a long-lasting tan, but their anti-wrinkle, anti-hair loss and Aquadrainol–which helps reduce excess water retention–are also best-sellers. The products work alongside one’s usual skincare routine.

“Our philosophy is that there are some ingredients in your daily nutrition that you lack and these supplements can help combat certain deficits which result from an unbalanced nutrition,” says Myriam Aznavourian, head of communications for Oenobiol Paris. “Prevention is better than cure,” Aznavourian adds.

Meal guidelines for healthy eating

hile clinical dietician Nicole Maftoum stresses that an individual’s daily needs depends on weight, height, energy expenditure and metabolism, the following provides a guideline for a daily 1,200 calorie diet, which is also recommended for people trying to lose weight. Check with a dietician to know exactly what you should be eating.

Breakfast On an empty stomach, drink two cups of water, and then coffee, if you need it (have a maximum of two cups a day). Then have a bowl of whole grain cereals, or muesli, with a glass of skimmed milk, which provides essential calcium. Skipping the first meal of the day is a big mistake, Maftoum says, as eating breakfast revs up your metabolism for the day. “Also if you skip breakfast you will eat twice more during the day, as you will be so much more hungry when it comes to lunch time. Also, you will not be able to make up for the nutrients you skipped at breakfast.”

Mid-morning snack Two hours after breakfast, eat two portions of fresh fruit. “Fruit is rich in fibre, so it will make you feel full for longer, and also rich in vitamins, antioxidants and minerals.”

Lunch Salad should constitute 50 percent of your midday meal, with 25 percent carbohydrate and 25 percent protein. While many people assume meat should provide the protein, Maftoum warns against consuming too much meat, which can lead to heart disease and cancer. “Limit yourself to 500 grams of meat per week. The rest of the days, you can have fish, maybe three times a week, or grains, which help you burn fat and lost weight, they are very rich in fibre so they will make you feel full for longer.”

Afternoon snack If you’re feeling peckish a couple of hours later, opt for either 30 grams of dark chocolate, 23 almonds, 14 walnuts or a fruit salad with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Dinner Your evening meal should be eaten no later than four hours before going to bed, and should be lighter than your midday meal. Maftoum suggests a turkey sandwich with vegetables, or a small protein-rich salad, with tuna, sardines or mackerel.

Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 29

HERS | HEALTH

More hospitals allowing visits from patients’ pets WORDS BY MEREDITH COHN

sk patients in some American hospitals which caregivers they most look forward to seeing, and they’ll say the ones with hairy faces and bad breath. For Sean Harris, they were his dogs, Diesel and Wilson. For Michael Friedman, it was the family pooch, Larissa. “My mother and grandfather had been (at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center & Hospital) before and we brought the dog to visit, so when my father got sick, we knew we could bring her,” Brad Friedman said of Larissa, a friendly five-year-old Australian shepherd. “She just cheers him up.” Michael Friedman saw Larissa at least a half-dozen times while rehabilitating for a few weeks recently at Levindale after a car accident. Harris was visited by his dogs while recovering from a car accident at Maryland Shock Trauma Center for five months ending in 2010. The two Baltimore hospitals and a small number of other Maryland health-care facilities have joined others around the nation that now allow pet visits as a means of improving patients’ moods and possibly their health. Studies show that having a pet around can lower blood pressure, promote relaxation and alleviate loneliness, and people suffer when they are away from them for long periods. In ground-breaking research published in 1980 in the journal Public Health Reports, a professor in the University of Maryland’s psychiatry department, James J. Lynch, and his colleagues showed that patients recently released from the coronary care unit lived longer when they had pets at home. No one had to show the research to the Harris family. Sean, now 26, suffered a spinal injury when the car 30 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

he was riding in crashed. He had been hospitalized for about two months before a nurse noticed the pictures by his bed of three family dogs and a cat. She suggested they visit. Debbie Harris immediately settled on Diesel, a 120-pound blue mastiff the family had rescued several years earlier, because her son was closest to him. She said the large, grey animal, bathed and dressed in his own scrubs, was escorted through a back elevator to Sean’s room. The dog didn’t seem to mind the ventilator or other tubes he was hooked up to, or that Sean couldn’t talk and wouldn’t completely remember the visit the next day. The staff put Diesel on a gurney and raised him to Sean’s level. The dog placed his chin on Sean’s arm, Harris’ mother said. Sean prompted the dog by pursing his lips and Diesel began to “sing.” “It was a big help,” Sean said recently from his family home. His pets “still are. They keep me company.”

Visits by Diesel and Wilson, a Maltese-Shih Tzu mix, were made possible by the Rev. Susan Carole Roy, director of pastoral care services at the University of Maryland Medical Center, which includes Shock Trauma, and founder of the pet visitation program. Roy knows about the connections people develop with their pets because she has two dogs and a cat. The pet program was launched in 2008 after two years of research and policy development. It all started when Roy noticed a patient feeding a dog on the sidewalk in front of the medical center. It turned out to be her pet; the woman had been hospitalized so long that the dog had stopped eating, and a friend started bringing it to the hospital. Roy began looking for examples of large hospitals that allowed pets, and found the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic. The policies generally called for a

patient’s doctor and infection control staff to sign off. The pets needed upto-date vaccines, a bath, scrubs and an escort. At Maryland, the patients receiving pet visits tend to be the sickest, Roy said. One woman who had fallen from a horse decided to terminate her life support, and the staff got her dog in within three hours. Recently, one dog was allowed to attend a meeting where doctors had to tell a patient’s husband that she was going to die; the dog’s presence helped calm him. “They know how to see us through everything – marriage, kids being born, divorces, illnesses and death – and they’re a huge part of our emotional and spiritual well-being,” Roy said. “When pets come here, it seems like they give every ounce they have.” Anyone who has a pet would expect that, said Inga Fricke, director of sheltering and pet care issues for the Humane Society of the United States. She said hospitals and other healthcare facilities have long had pet therapy programs, where animals are brought in to offer comfort to patients. A study last year by the American Hospital Association shows that such programs are now the most common alternative medicine offerings available to patients, ahead of massage and art and music therapy. Allowing people’s own pets to visit is a logical extension, Fricke said. “It certainly makes sense, given what we know about the intense bond people and pets have, and the overall health benefits people experience when they have pets,” she said. “Even if you’re just a little under the weather, having that wet nose nuzzling under your arm makes you feel better.” A small number of other Maryland

hospitals, health-care centers and hospices are now allowing pets. Northwest Hospital and Shore Health System, which includes Dorchester General Hospital and the Memorial Hospital at Easton, Md., encourage pet visits. Levindale has been allowing animals to visit and live there since 2000. There are now five cats, birds and fish living there, and 10 to 15 animals visit. Brad Friedman, who brought Larissa, along with his son Ethan and mother Sheila, planned to return with the dog to visit other patients after his father’s release. “It’s a break from the routine,” he said as Larissa went around the room to greet everyone. Sheila Friedman said the dog will sit at her husband’s feet and keep him company at home. Other hospitals say they recognize the bond patients have with pets. Sheppard Pratt, a mental health facility, organizes pet visits mostly for children and geriatric patients. And Kennedy Krieger Institute, which treats children with brain disorders, has arranged for long-term inpatients to visit with their pets outside the center. Gilchrist Hospice Care has allowed pets since it opened in 1996, according to Reggie Bodnar, Gilchrist’s clinical director. Bodnar and others had visited other hospices and discovered a black Labrador retriever living in one in Ohio. A dog owner herself, Bodnar wanted one at Gilchrist to “put the finishing touch on the homelike environment,” but caring for the animal full time seemed too challenging. So patients’

pets were allowed to visit instead. “If allowing someone to see a pet will bring joy, of course we want to do that,” Bodnar said. “They bring a sense of calm and normalcy and unconditional love.” Bodnar said the animals seem to know what the patients need, and they tend to elicit smiles from everyone they pass in the hallway. The Harris dogs did that for Sean, his mother said. “You could tell they really lifted (Sean’s) spirits, and the spirits of the whole family and the staff,” said Debbie Harris, who visited daily and arranged for the dogs to get the required veterinarian visits and baths before bringing them from their home northeast of Frederick. Sean battled many complications during his months in the hospital and one year of rehabilitation. But the dogs, whom he calls D and Scruff, as well as another family dog and cat, all treat him with the same adoration they did before the accident. Wilson wants to sit on his lap and Diesel wants his ears scratched. The cat won’t even move out of the way when Sean moves his electric wheelchair around. Sean recently bought a house for himself and plans to resume everyday activities, which include hunting and college classes. Once he’s settled in his new home, he’ll expect visits from his two- and four-legged family members, though Diesel is now pushing 10 and battling his own health problems. Sean will now be the one comforting him.

If allowing someone to see a pet will bring joy, of course we want to do that.They bring a sense of calm and normalcy and unconditional love Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 31

HERS | ALTHEALTH

Some herbs ease migraine symptoms WORDS BY DRS. KAY JUDGE & MAXINE BARISH-WREDEN

eadaches, including migraine and tension-type headaches, are a huge medical concern in the United States, affecting more than 45 million Americans. While some people are affected by headaches only intermittently, many have frequent debilitating symptoms that lead to work absences and loss of income. The American Academy of Neurology and the American Headache Society recently published new guidelines for the prevention of migraine headaches, and the updated guidelines now endorse the use of several alternative therapies to help keep migraine headaches at bay. The botanical supplement that received the most attention in the new guidelines is Petadolex, which is the herb butterbur. Studies have shown that 75 mg of Petadolex taken twice daily can reduce the frequency, duration and intensity of migraine headaches by close to 50 per cent, which is comparable to many of the prescription medications used to prevent migraines. 32 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

Butterbur seems to work by reducing spasms in arteries in the brain; it also acts as an anti-inflammatory agent. Butterbur is also effective in reducing allergy symptoms, so if you have both migraine headaches and allergies, butterbur would be a good choice for you. It is generally well tolerated, though in sensitive people it may actually cause headaches and allergic-type symptoms, especially in those who are allergic to ragweed, marigolds and similar plants. The main concern with butterbur however is that if not prepared properly, it can be contaminated with pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are carcinogenic; they can also cause liver and kidney damage. If you try butterbur, be sure to purchase a product that says “PA-Free,” like Petadolex. Data suggest that Petadolex is safe in kids ages 6-17; it is not recommended in pregnancy or during lactation, however. Other supplements may also help to prevent migraine headaches; magnesium is probably one of the best. Many people in the U.S. are felt to be magne-

sium-deficient, either from poor diet or from the daily consumption of stomach acid medications and diuretics. Coffee, alcohol, soda and salt can also lower magnesium levels. The dose that seems to be the most effective for headache prevention is 600 mg of magnesium taken at bedtime. If you are prone to loose stools, look for magnesium glycinate or magnesium gluconate, which are less likely to cause diarrhea. If you have kidney disease, do not take high-dose magnesium supplements without talking with your doctor. Coenzyme Q10 (ubiquinol) may also reduce headaches, usually by about 30 percent; studies have shown that 100 mg three times daily is the effective dose; kids need smaller doses. The main side effect from Coenzyme Q10 is on your wallet – it’s expensive. Melatonin may also be useful for both migraines and cluster headaches; doses range from 3 to 10 mg at bedtime. Feverfew has been one of the most popular herbs used to prevent migraines, though it may not work that well in capsule form. In England however, people traditionally chew two to three fresh feverfew leaves per day to prevent migraines, and in one study more than 70 per cent of patients using feverfew in this way had reduced headaches. Another treatment that can work wonders for migraine headaches is acupuncture. A review article published in 2009 by the well-respected Cochrane Collaboration suggested that acupuncture was at least as effective, and possibly even more effective, for migraine prevention than standard drug treatments, and it has fewer side effects to boot. Many alternative therapies take two to three months to take full effect, so be patient if you elect to try one of these. And finally, don’t forget about lifestyle changes. Stress is a huge trigger for migraine headaches, and daily relaxation techniques like biofeedback and meditation can be very helpful in reducing headache recurrence. Stick to a schedule of regular healthy meals and snacks, and don’t skimp on sleep. With a healthy lifestyle and the addition of a few herbs and supplements, you should be able to significantly reduce your risk of migraines.

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Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 33

HERS | CUISINE

Easy rider

James Morrow finds the Slow Food movement tedious, tendentious – and very, very tasty

e sit at a very odd, very precarious, moment in our civilization’s history. After several centuries which have produced an Enlightenment, not one but two Renaissances, a scientific revolution, an industrial revolution, the wonders of the Victorian age, the

34 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

marvels of the 20th century, and the putting to rest of the twin totalitarian terrors of communism and Nazism, there is a growing chorus building from within calling out, ‘Stop!’. For a growing number of people, all our successes, all our liberties, are just too much to bear. In Canada, Mark

Steyn is in the dock for exercising that most cherished of Western freedoms, the freedom to offend. In Europe, the illiberal forces of fundamentalist Islam are driving honest, law-abiding folk to hide under the covers, whether it is the increasing reports of “no-go” areas for Christians in London or the fear of being set upon by Muslim youths now experienced by gays in that once most tolerant of cities, Amsterdam. And across the West the secular religion of environmentalism has taken hold of vast swathes of the population, with well-heeled commentators and politicians acting like nothing so much as priests and bishops in the corrupt days of the medieval Catholic Church, jetting from place to place while telling the common folk how glorious it is that high gas prices and the humble living that will necessarily follow is all for the good of the earth goddess, Gaia. All that is keeping a modern-day Savanorola from leading us in a new bonfire of the vanities is the problem of offsetting the carbon from all those burning 4WDs and flat-panel TVs. This reaction against all the advances of previous ages is also being felt in the way we eat. “Fast” food is looked at with the same horror earlier eras reserved for masturbation: a terrible, sinful practice that degrades the body, mind and soul. Never mind that we all enjoy a nice Big Mac now and again. Today the role of Heironymous Bosch, whose oeuvre famously depicted the dangers of eternal hell, is played by the likes of Morgan Spurlock, whose Super Size Me purports to illustrate the temporal hell that awaits all those who fall for the crafty tricks employed by that modern-day Lucifer, Ronald McDonald, to tempt the weak. The only way to slay this beast, to remain pure, is to let only natural, organic,

Duck Ragu with Pappardelle

This ultimate slow-food classic is best enjoyed on a cold winter’s day You’ll need: 1 large (size 18-20) or 2 small (size 10-12) ducks 1-2 onions, diced 2 stalks celery, sliced 1 large carrot, peeled and diced 2-3 400g tins San Marzano tomatoes 250ml good red wine Several sprigs thyme, sage, oregano or whatever appropriate fresh herbs you have to hand 500g fresh pappardelle Method 1. In a large, oven-safe and coverable pan, sear your duck or ducks on all sides until golden brown. When completed, remove and put aside and drain off some but by no means all of the fat. 2. In this same pan fry off your vegetables over medium heat until tender. Add red wine, tomatoes, and return the ducks to the pan. Cover and place in a low – 150-180 degree – oven for at least two hours. 3. By this point your duck or ducks should be falling off the bone tender. Remove them from the pan and remove all the meat from the carcass, saving the bones for duck stock (you’ll find it will come in handy for next month’s recipe), and set aside. 4. Strain the vegetable and wine mixture into a pan and warm over a low heat. Add some of the vegetables for texture, and return the shredded meat to this sauce. 5. Drop your pasta into a large pan of rapidly boiling salted water. When cooked through, strain and plate with the duck ragu. Serves 4-6, with lots of good red wine.

biodynamic foodstuffs pass our lips. The push to nudge the world in this direction comes from many places – never mind that all the Malthusian fantasies of the hard green Left

Perhaps the only thing that saves the Slow Food movement from being consigned to the dustbin (or kitchen bin) of history is that so many of the recipes that count as being“slow food” are so tasty

would come true if the world was forced to abandon modern farming methods – though one of the more powerful centres of this neo-Arcadian gastronomy must be the Slow Food movement. Founded by Italian chef Carlo Petrini in the 1980s explicitly as a reaction against “fast” food, the Slow Food movement at first glance has a lot to recommend it. At its best its adherents promote an ethic of eating that is more about base consumption and fueling the body and instead returns the act to being one of celebration of culture and community. “Slow Food” believes in local traditions, local knowledge, local taste, and small-scale production. Which is all very well and good, yet to scratch the surface of the movement is to find real and practical problems around many of the movement’s doctrines.

Robust global distribution networks and modern production methods mean that today famine is almost uniformly caused by political, rather than natural disaster, and the variety they create leads to more rather than less culinary creativity. The costs involved, and the restrictions of choice that necessarily attend, Slow Food doctrines means that it is ultimately regressive. And anyway, so much of our modern world is the result of the fact that the work involved in the drudgery of survival has been pared back to allow the development of our highlyskilled economy. But perhaps that’s the point? Perhaps the only thing that saves the Slow Food movement from being consigned to the dustbin (or kitchen bin) of history is that so many of the recipes that count as being “slow food” are so tasty. Such as this simple, slow-cooked recipe for duck ragu with pappardelle. Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 35

HERS | TRAVEL

Zambia underfoot: On the ground at Zebra Plains WORDS BY ANNE Z. COOKE

e’re nodding off in our tent, pitched under a tree, when the crunching and gnashing begin. It’s the hippos again, a half-dozen massive beasts climbing up from the Luangwa River for their nightly feed. During September, a hot, dry month here at Zebra Plains Camp, in northeast Zambia, the tree’s foot-long fruit hang low, an irresistible meal for diners with gaping jaws and fist-size grinders. Silence falls as the hippos lumber away. For a moment we doze – well wined and dined after a long day tramping through the bush, tracking wild game. Then the bushes rustle and the elephants arrive, treading gently to avoid our plastic ground cloth and canvas patio chairs. Amazed at how quietly those huge feet step, we peer out through our screened windows, spotting a shifting shadow reaching for the top branches. I fall asleep wondering who decided to pitch the tent under a sausage tree.

36 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

Intentional, perhaps, or a prank, to give the dudes a thrill? But Garth Hovell, manager at Zebra Plains, a walking safari camp in the most remote sector of the South Luangwa National Park, shakes his head. “No way,” he says. With 20 years of bush experience, Hovell, head naturalist for Sanctuary Retreats’ five Zambian lodges, says that here in the bush, where we’re the intruders, safety is Rule One. No blood allowed on his watch, is what I’m thinking. “If it gets much hotter you’ll thank the tree for such big branches,” says Milemia Banda, guide and second-incommand, with a twinkle. “And anyway, the animals are more afraid of you than you are of them. With no roads, no vehicles and no airplanes in this sector, they rarely see or hear people. To them a tent is like a tree, something to walk around.” The Luangwa River, pristine and undammed, is the reason we – and the wildlife – are here at Zebra Plains,

near the national park’s northern border. Flowing in wide, curving loops over fertile plains and through wild miombo woodland, the Luangwa supports an immense diversity of species, a veritable Zambian Ark. From elephants to antelope, lions to leopards and crocodiles to hippos, all flourish within this vast wildlife refuge. “Living with them, you really feel close to the animals,” says Hovell. “And you’ll see them, once you know where to look.” During the dry season, August through mid-October, inland waterholes dry up, pushing wildlife toward the river. It also brings them closer to our camp and to the sausage trees. Like them, your feet will be the only transport available during your stay at Zebra Plains, a reminder that hiking boots are in order. Except for the three-hour drive from the Mfuwe airport – and the return when you leave – walking will take you across the plains, along the river bank and to the campfire for appetizers and a sundowner. “The road ends here so we have to walk the last bit, less than a quarter mile,” Hovell announced when we first arrived. “I want you to see the river and the camp on foot. You need to experience it the way the early explorers did.” Digesting that unwelcome news (jet lag is a buzz kill) we managed smiles for the three camp staff who hoisted our heavy suitcases up onto their heads and fell into line. Tramping along after Hovell, we must have looked the very image of Henry Stanley, searching for David Livingstone, the missionary, in 1869, weary reporter in rumpled khakis trailed by a long line of perspiring porters. Walking-only safari camps, like Zebra Plains, are probably this decade’s biggest news in African safaris – and ironically, the oldest. The first Euro-

peans to venture deep into the Dark Continent – glory-seeking adventurers, greedy miners and relentless missionaries – expected to walk. Even after trucks and jeeps arrived, hunters and photographers bunked in tents, stalked their quarry on foot and thrilled to the charge of angry lions. The first guest-organized walking camp was founded south of Zebra Plains in 1961 by Norman Carr, a former ranger and lifelong environmentalist. Since then, hard-core walking camps have become Zambia’s signature. Most safari lodges are commercial enterprises, of course, relying on a half-dozen off-road vehicles and guides who radio big animal sightings from guide to guide. Guests get what they’ve paid for: guaranteed close-ups of lions yawning and trumpeting elephants. Luxury is the norm as is a large staff, mostly local people, from manager, rangers and guides to the chef, dish washers, maids, laundresses and the fix-it crew. “That’s not Zebra Plains,” said Hovell. “We’re designed for people who’ve been on safari before but are tired of sitting in a vehicle. Curious people who want to get away from exhaust fumes and down on the ground. They want to hear dry grass crackle underfoot and smell the earth,” he said, as we gathered in the Mess Tent for a first-

day orientation. In the days ahead, he promised, we’d track sign (footprints and spoor), be alert for unexpected encounter, and “see the animals the way they really are in nature.” As in all game lodges, our days began at 6 a.m. while the air was cool and the animals active. On day one we headed for a distant loop of the Chibembe River, led by Mathews, the camp’s armed guard, rifle loaded and at the ready. Hovell followed toting binoculars and a day pack with a first aid kit, loaner hats, survival gear, extra water and sun lotion. We six, dressed in khakis (tan makes the best camouflage), fell in behind. Guide Rabson Banda walking shotgun, kept us bunched up tight. Predators like to pick on stragglers, he told us with a grin. Banda’s backpack overflowed with the tea things: a portable gas stove, pot, cups, tea bags, cookies, brownies and water. Here and there groups of tiny puku grazed calmly, lifting their heads to watch us pass. Three giraffe and sable antelope were more wary, moving into a grove of mopane trees. After an hour walking, stopping to identify plants and tell-tale spoor, Mathews and Hovell pulled up short and bent over to inspect a lion track. With a zing of fear, we stood still and peered left and right until Hovell spied two lionesses at 50 yards, half hidden in deep grass. For a long minute they stared at us, unmoving, and then they were gone, fleeing the other way. Each day followed a similar pattern. Morning game drives lasted from 6-11 a.m. followed by lunch and down time for a shower, journal notations or photo downloads. From 4-6 p.m, we set out again, now searching for the elephant family approaching the river, or to watch the hippos grunt and growl, jockeying for position. At twilight we gathered around the

campfire for a glass of wine, some surprisingly appealing dishes and an evening of stories and stars. Escorted back to our tent by a game-wise guide with a flashlight (sometimes Isaac our porter and guard, and sometimes Milemia or Rabson) – we took a warm shower, crawled under the mosquito netting onto a first-class mattress and fell asleep to the hippo chorus. Because walking safaris are specialized, choosing an itinerary that includes stays at other lodges is a good way to broaden your experience. Sanctuary Retreats has five Zambian lodges, each different from the others. Driving safaris are most popular, but several lodges lead guided walks as well. Having done both, I confess that I like the convenience, comfort and range that a vehicle provides. But if you’re like me, you won’t say you’ve really seen Zambia until you’ve walked the walk.

The first guest-organized walking camp was founded south of Zebra Plains in 1961 by Norman Carr, a former ranger and lifelong environmentalist Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 37

HERS | READIT

Inspirational stories WORDS BY MICHAEL MORRISSEY JEWISH LIVES IN NEW ZEALAND Edited by Leonard Bell and Diana Morrow Godwit, $45

For centuries, the Jewish people have been punching way above their weight. Despite being only 0.5 of the world’s population, Jewish scientists, writers, economists etc have won over 20 per cent of the Nobel Prizes thus awarded. No other ethnic group proportionately approaches this level of scholastic achievement. And despite the Holocaust, the worst ethnic butchery in history, and numerous historic persecutions in Russia, Germany, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq plus other countries, not to mention ancient persecutions by pharaonic Egyptians and Romans, and ideological-religious persecutions by Muslims, Christians and Nazis, Jews have survived and flourished all around the world and, of course, here in New Zealand, since the arrival of the polymath Joel Polack in 1831. Today, there are – according to co-editor Leonard Bell – over 20,000

38 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

Jews living in New Zealand with the largest communities in Auckland and Wellington. Population statistics offer lower (though probably inaccurate) numbers. As with elsewhere in the world, the Jewish contribution to culture, civic service and philanthropy is outstanding. Some six mayors of Auckland have been Jewish and one wonders why this notable historic fact didn’t warrant a chapter. My guess is, rather than retread the (mildly) obvious, the editors opted for something less documented and also in line with contemporary feminist thought – “Leading the Way in Education: The Stories of Seven Jewish Woman” by Ann Beaglehole includes accounts of Ethel Benjamin, New Zealand’s first woman lawyer who graduated in 1897 from Otago University and Emily Siedeberg, New Zealand’s first woman lawyer, who graduated in 1896 from Otago University’s medical school. Needless to say, in mainly fair-minded New Zealand, largely free of the political and historical virus of anti-Semitism, these boldly pioneering women had to fight gender rather than ethnic prejudice. By shrewdly entitling this collection Jewish LIVES (caps mine) in New Zealand, rather than making it a general history like its predecessor The History of the Jews in New Zealand by L. Goldman, published back in 1958, the editors were free to include Jewish people who came from overseas or only stayed in New Zealand a relatively short time, but left their mark, thus opening up a whole new aspect to Jewish history in New Zealand. Editor Leonard Bell’s chapter, “Border Crossings: The Visual Arts” is the longest and most impressive in the book. He reconstructs the little known story of all the émigré Jewish architects

who came here and helped issue in an age of modernism in our inner city architecture. Co-Editor Diana Morrow offers a well-written and researched summary of business development in the two main cities with the Nathans, Myers and Davises figuring most prominently – all she notes assimilated into the local business community. She informs us that in 1848, there were 16,000 settlers in New Zealand and only 61 Jews, 33 in Auckland. Both populations have risen since those times! Since we have as yet no Bellows or Roths, the chapter on writers has to lean heavily on local poet Brasch and émigré Julius Vogel. Sarah Shieff brings her customary scrupulous scholarship and empathy to the Jewish musical tradition – she is herself a clarinetist. Other chapters document doctors, academics, business in Auckland and Wellington, a quick look at a few rare cases of anti-Semitism in university thesis (satisfactorily dealt with), a long look at Dunedin’s magnificent Jewish past, and an overview of the performing arts and food. Wow! David Cohen, a right winger, who likes to deploy an asinine superiority of tone when reviewing books, tries gallantly to assemble an impressive record of journalism and fails miserably. Admittedly, the historic material may be a bit thin. He should, of course, have mentioned John Sanders who raised the standard of Craccum, the University of Auckland student newspaper from a gossipy varsity rag to that of the New Statesman and had 5000 copies burned for his trouble by the Student Executive – a story retold in a recent Craccum (now an upmarket magazine) with profiles of the relevant parties. Clearly, Cohen hasn’t researched the topic adequately. Maybe he should stick to bluffing it out in the Guardian? A

curious omission is Jeffrey Masson, a former professor of Sanskrit who lives in Auckland, and has had a successful career publishing many worldnoted books on the emotional lives of animals Reading over this dazzle of scholarly achievement, one can’t help speculate that the person who figures out a way to travel to the stars will probably be Jewish. Shalom. THE SEA ON OUR SKIN By Madeleine Tobert Two Roads, $36.99

If the title doesn’t hint clearly enough, the garishly candy-coloured cover – which looks like a failed Christmas card – reinforces the obvious: this is a novel set in the tropics. Specifically, I presume (though this is never stated), Samoa. This is the sad yet haunting story of a totally romanceless marriage between Ioane Matete and Amalia Hoko. The beginning of the novel hints at emotional grimness – Amalia was not expected to marry because she had no father, brother or uncle to give her away. The day of the wedding there is a terrible storm and the bride is worried that the bad weather will bring bad luck, that her makeup will run and streak her face, that her white dress, rendered transparent by the rain, will prove an indecent garment. The wedding and wedding night turn out to be virtual nonevents. Ioane wakes up alone, sore between her legs. Of her husband there is no sign – he has taken his boat and departed. Amalia discovers that this one night of intimacy has resulted in her being pregnant. For many years after, she lives the life of a single parent. If that isn’t bad enough, when her husband eventually returns, he seeks to teach his son to be like his father – restless, never home. The central character, somehow not a heroine (though she is really), bears her unhappy fate with philosophic calm. There are of course no counselors or well-meaning but often ineffective agencies to help out. In the end this is a story of quiet courage, of stoic endurance, of acceptance that life can be a hard row to hoe and yet we must keep planting, we must not allow the ground to remain

barren; we must not give in to despair, depression or suicide. Amalia Hetete’s story is not a fairy book tale, nor a contemporary moral parable of feminist triumph but a tale of human endurance. In fact, before the novel is half way over, Amalia has quietly died and her cold husband has some more life to lead before he too, dies. Though Ioane is cold, callous and violent, he too has values and feels a surprising affection for the twins that Amalia has given birth to after their son. They say you can’t judge book by its cover and in the case of The Sea on our Skin this is distressingly so – while the cover presents the tropics as a brightlycoloured paradise, the book explores joyless lives dominated by emotional hardness. The moral of the story might be we do not need tyrannical governments or sadistic secret police to oppress us or show us how to be cruel – we can Gold By Chris Cleave Simon & Schuster, $37 In Gold, Cleave fashions a life-and-death story of two female cyclists, long entwined athletically and personally, competing for a single spot on Great Britain’s Olympic team. Cleave’s earlier novels include the bestseller Little Bee. I’m no Olympic cyclist, but his exciting race scenes and coach talk feel spot-on to me. As for the drama between frenemies Kate Argall and Zoe Castle, he has made the stakes as high as possible, and is scrupulously fair to both. Kate, Zoe and Jack, Kate’s husband, have been linked since they arrived as teenagers for elite cycling training in Manchester. Now in their early 30s, they are training for their last chances at Olympic gold. Each, in some way, is also coming undone from stress. Kate and Jack’s daughter, Sophie, is seriously ill from leukemia and the related weakening effect of chemo; Kate and Jack’s life is now segmented into blocks of training and caregiving. As for Zoe, her athletic success and gorgeous looks have made her a billboard star, but she’s dousing the pain of several secrets with one-night stands. Tom Voss, who coaches both women and is the closest thing to a father figure Zoe has, breaks the news: An Olympic rule change, designed to put more finals and fewer prelims on prime-time

manage all by ourselves. The simple ending sentence – “And the family prepared lunch.”, affirms that family and food are two positives that endure. TV, means only one of the two can go. Rather than make them agonize through three more months of training, he sets up a race-off. Cleave gives those four, and Sophie herself, their due in viewpoint scenes past and present. Sophie, 8, takes refuge from her illness in all things “Star Wars,” endlessly replaying the movies and living the scenes in her mind. But she also knows her parents are frightened and exhausted by her illness. “This was the effect she had on people: They drove twenty percent slower, they gripped the handles of boiling saucepans twenty percent harder, they chose their words one fifth more carefully. No one was going to blow a tire and crash her, or spill a pan and scald her, or say the word worry or die.” In one heartbreaking scene, she vomits into a treasured keepsake in her room, rather than disturb her frazzled and preoccupied mother in the bathroom. If medals were given for writing scenes of anguished decision-making, Cleave would have as many golds as Eric Heiden. After Kate has left for the race-off, Jack has to rush fevered Sophie to the hospital. If he calls Kate, she’ll surely leave and lose her chance at the Olympics. If he doesn’t call, Sophie may die without seeing her mother. Reviewed by Jim Higgins

Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 39

HERS | SEEIT

Queen of Versailles confirms money cannot buy class WORDS BY ROGER MOORE

ueen of Versailles is a documentary that plays like a pilot for a reality TV series. You think the Kardashians are trashy, that Jon & Kate Plus Eight was a high-carbon-footprint divorce waiting to happen? Wait’ll you see the Siegels of Orlando! That’s the way Jackie Siegel, the cartoonishly buxom trophy wife of timeshare king David Siegel, “plays” this real woman seemingly ripped from a John Waters movie. No outfit is too revealing or garish, no part of their crumbling lives of extravagant consumption off limits, no ill-considered opinion, unnecessary purchase or housekeeping failure too gauche to put on display. Where the ‘80s gave us The Queen of Mean, filmmaker 40 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

Laura Greenfield holds up, for our entertainment, the Tsarina of Trashy. With every shopping spree, every limo ride to McDonald’s, Mrs. Siegel underlines the cliché that money cannot buy you taste. Or class. But Versailles reminds us that, in America at least, being ridiculous and ostentatiously tacky is no crime. Having more money than you know how to spend isn’t a cardinal sin – even when you try your darnedest to spend it on “the largest private residence in America,” which the Siegels envisioned as a Vegas variation of the French palace, Versailles. And blaming the banks for your woes and calling your Walmart Nation customers “moochers” is an American right the tacky-rich can claim just as easily as the poor over-extended suckers who

made them rich in the first place. Greenfield’s film started as a mocking portrait of two rich Orlandoans with more money than taste. But as the economy imploded and the Siegels had to put their unfinished $100 million monument to imitation French architecture up for auction, Queen of Versailles morphed into something broader. Here it is, the coddled and overextended blaming the system they championed for their ruin. Following the Siegels for two years, documentarian Greenfield gives us the caricatures of these nouveau riche rubes, and then humanizes them as they are brought low by the forces they relied on to create their obscene wealth. We meet Siegel, a self-made man who built an empire out of vast time-share condo-hotels all across America, paid for

by working-class people who succumb to hard-sell pitches from Siegel’s sales force, “buying” a share of a resort hotel suite in Orlando, Las Vegas, the Smoky Mountains or other vacation spots. Siegel likes being photographed with famous people, lions and pretty girls. Early on, he boasts that “I personally got” George W. Bush elected, hinting that he may have done something illegal to ensure that. By the end of the film, he’s wistful about the collapse of American credit and what it did to his business, maybe even regretting the bad banking karma his deeds brought on. Jackie, his shopaholic spouse, granted Greenfield broad access to her being-a-broad lifestyle – wearing fur coats in ski boats, displaying herself and her body in all manner of tacky, cleavage-and-cut-off-shorts outfits and even tackier works of Jackie-inspired “art” throughout their home. And they hired low-wage English-asa-second-language immigrant nannies to raise their eight children to be just as vulgar and intellectually limited as they are. Jackie makes cracks about her mucholder hubby not needing Viagra. By film’s end, as the clutter of their lives and the collapse of their business overwhelms their marriage, she’s admitting that like her shopping habits, having children became “an addiction,” and that she wouldn’t have had so many if she’d thought she couldn’t afford Filipino nannies.

Plainly, they’re not idiots. Siegel may not be Wall Street, but he comes off as shrewd enough to play hardball with banks whose lax practices made him rich, and are now making him less so But for all the contempt the film invites for the Siegels, the bile never rises to a Trump-level. They’re selfmade, so if they self-destruct, there’s poignancy to that. Unlike the rest of the one per cent, the Siegels spend, spend, spend, their own private stimulus package to the Walmarts and kitsch dealers of America. Ignoring the Siegel employees laid off and playing down the struggling families with timeshares they’ll be paying for on into eternity allows the film to paint the Siegels more as victims than some moments when the predatory

nature of the business is laid bare. Plainly, they’re not idiots. Siegel may not be Wall Street, but he comes off as shrewd enough to play hardball with banks whose lax practices made him rich, and are now making him less so. Jackie got an engineering degree before doing the math that told her modelling, boob jobs and having a sugar daddy paid better. Greenfield’s film captures a look in Mrs. Siegel’s eyes – a kind of mercenary disappointment with it all. “Is this it?” The Dickensian myth that money buys misery dies hard. Jackie may show a generous streak, but takes no responsibility for the kids who let their pets starve to death, the herd of dogs she adores but never cleans up after, pets that she then has stuffed or worse when they die. David’s employee-son from an earlier marriage suggests Dad’s selfabsorption and cheapness when it came to that earlier family, and his coldness, even now. Long before they’re bickering over money, David is getting a little too attentive with assorted Miss America candidates visiting their home as Jackie repeats his threat to “trade me in for two 20-year-olds” when she turns 40. This is a trophy that has to worry about tarnish and age. But any husband or father will recognize the tantrum the suddenly frugal David tosses at lights being left on, doors left open with the air conditioning on. Queen of Versailles veers between mean and patronizing, with a hint of the judgmental in every manifestation of their spendthrift ways. But even if it never evolves into a reality TV series, even if the Siegels recover their fortunes and inspire a sequel, the object lesson here is inescapable – The Beverly Hillbillies were the last frugal rich bumpkins, and they didn’t demand tax breaks to pay off their version of Versailles. QUEEN OF VERSAILLES Cast: David and Jackie Siegel Directed: by Lauren Greenfeld. Running time: 1:41 Rating: PG for thematic elements and language GGG

Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 41

HERS | ONLINE

Parents looking to keep up with their kids on web WORDS BY KELLIE B. GORMLY

ou may have set up parental controls on your home computer, and have access to your teen’s email and Facebook accounts. But the kids may still be outsmarting you. According to a recent survey from McAfee, the online-security �� tech company, teens aged 13 to 17 are using their ever-increasing tech-savvy skills to come up with ways to hide their online activities from their parents. In the Teen Internet Behavior survey, conducted in May and recently released, more than 70 per cent of 1,004 teens said they had tricks for deceiving their parents about their online activity. By contrast, 45 per cent of teens said this in 2010, McAfee officials say. Teens this year reported subterfuge such as clearing or at least closing the browser history when a parent is there and hiding or deleting messages or videos. Many parents have given up even trying to control their teen’s online habits: 23 per cent of the 1,013 parents of teens interviewed in the survey said they have thrown up their hands and just hope problems don›t occur. Just as many said they don›t have the energy or time to monitor everything their kids do on the computer. But 32 per cent of teens have accessed nude content or pornography online, according to the survey. Yes, kids may be crafty, yet today’s parents mustn’t abdicate responsibility, experts say, because the opportunities for getting into trouble – and the consequences – are far greater. “We hid things, we lied, we kept things from our parents, but we also had a lot less to hide, say, 20 years ago,” says Robert Siciliano, McAfee’s Bostonbased online-security expert. Kids 42 HERSMAGAZINE.TV Aug/Sep 2012

“always have lied, but it’s what they’re lying about and the extent to which they’re lying. “Almost a third of parents are clueless about monitoring web activities. That’s just wrong,” Siciliano says. “That’s just throwing up your hands and saying, ‘I can’t parent any longer because I just don’t know what to do.’ ” Sometimes, kids will use a friend’s Facebook page if their parents won’t allow them to have one, says Abby Cawoski, 17, of Greensburg. Or they’ll open a secret Facebook account. Abby’s parents don’t have her Facebook passwords, but she says they trust that she makes responsible decisions and that she is “not just going to put out every detail of my life out there.” “I think there is danger on the Internet, but I think it’s one of those things where you have to have trust with your kids to make the right decisions,” says Abby, who is going into her senior year at Greensburg Salem High School. As a parent and a school counselor, Tom Rossi of Shady Side Academy in Fox Chapel says parents need to be aware of kids’ online activities, no matter how sophisticated teens are becoming. “This generation of children ... is growing up with that technology,” he says. “The challenge of us as parents and educators is to understand that, embrace them and help them navigate those waters safely.” Rossi – who is director of college counseling at the school, and teaches students about Internet ethics and safety – says parents should keep computers only in common areas in the house, rather than squirreled away in a bedroom. Parents need to have honest talks with their teens, who often lack the maturity to understand the consequences of posting things like inflammatory comments and racy photos online, he says. “We encourage kids to live their lives with principles,” Rossi says. “There are a lot of ways to get yourself in a lot of trouble that will be embarrassing at some point in the future.” With his own children – Samantha,

While parents need to set rules and limits on Internet use, they shouldn’t use scare tactics and strictly forbid things without any discussion about the whys 22, Nicholas, 20, Joseph, 16, and Olivia, 14 – Rossi, a Plum resident, has used Comcast’s parental-control programs, and he has passwords to online accounts. Nothing is foolproof, and kids often find ways around parental controls, but “If nothing else, my kids know that I’m serious about it.” Dr. Aletha Akers – a physician who has expertise in parent-adolescent communication about sex – says that kids indeed are becoming savvier about online hiding techniques, but so are parents. And they need to be. “The risks these days are pretty high,” says Akers, an assistant professor of OB/GYN and reproductive services for Magee-Women’s Hospital of UPMC. While parents need to set rules and

limits on Internet use, they shouldn’t use scare tactics and strictly forbid things without any discussion about the whys, Akers says. Instead of saying that you’ll get kidnapped if you talk to people online, for instance, have a logical talk with teens, as emerging adults, about the risk of encountering predators online because of the anonymity. “Simply forbidding doesn’t help them understand the risks and consequences,” says Akers, who has two daughters: Audrey, six, and Ava, two. Siciliano doesn’t recommend spying on your teens. That will only alienate them, and they are entitled to some privacy, she says. But that doesn’t mean “letting them run wild, like accessing (lewd) photographs, downloading pirated movies, meeting strangers and bullying someone.” He recommends products, such as McAfee’s Safe Eyes program, installed when the parents and teens are sitting side-by-side, which offer a good balance between privacy and safety. With it, he says, parents can parent without constantly looking over their kids’ shoulders. “You want to give your kids a degree of privacy,” Siciliano says,“ but the web affords them the opportunity to get into some serious trouble.” Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 43

HERS | FAITH

Saving grace WORDS BY CURTIS K. SHELBURNE

confess. It’s hard for me to imagine how anyone can be completely convinced that their Christian tradition is absolutely the best, 100% on target, and exactly “the one” regarding which the God of the universe would say, “Yep, you folks have got everything right. Everybody else who is saved will be saved just by the skin of their teeth, but you folks have it right. I’m really proud of you.” The Apostle Paul made it pretty clear that none of us “gets it right” and that the only way anybody will be saved is by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. The playing field is absolutely level, and we’re all, apart from the grace of God, a bunch of sorry losers whose performance on the field is shabby at best. The Good News is that because

of what Christ has done on the cross, the focus is no longer on us, it’s on God! If we can just get over ourselves, we’ll realize that when we as God’s people foul up, which is often, we should thank God for his grace and get up and go on. And when we do well, we should thank God for his power at work within us that makes anything good possible. Either way, the focus is on him. To use a musical analogy, because of what Christ has done on the cross, the focus is not on the note I just misplayed or even on the fine performance I may have tooted with my little horn. The focus is on the Composer/ Conductor who is the One behind all of the beauty of the music. That I am in the orchestra

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The Good News is that because of what Christ has done on the cross, the focus is no longer on us, it’s on God!

at all is an amazing tribute to his mercy and grace. And what about that little section of the orchestra with which I worship on Sundays? What about the brand name on the sign that “denominates” us? If my tradition is part of the Body of Christ, it’s for the very same reason that I am: grace. Not because we “got it right.” This doesn’t at all mean that we have no responsibility to render our service to God with hearts committed to pleasing him. It does mean that we realize that every prayer we pray, every sermon we preach, every song we sing, are all acceptable to him only because of his grace, not because we’ve done so well. On the one hand, I believe that each orthodox Christian tradition has blessed us by seeing and building on some different aspects of the truth of the gospel, and anyone with an open heart can learn something good from each one. (Of course, anything any of them has built stands only if it’s built on the foundation of Christ’s cross.) On the other hand, I don’t mean to be cynical when I say I’d bet my bottom dollar that there’s not a single one of them (including my own and yours) that wouldn’t have treated Jesus just as those very upstanding and “religious” scribes and Pharisees did 2,000 years ago. They crucified him, and we would have, too. Thank God our faith is in Christ, not in our religious tradition. And his Church is bigger than our churches. Church-wise, all the vessels on the sea are leaky crafts. But almost any of them is a great deal better than treading water. So pray about it, get in a boat, thank the Master of the sea for it, and love your fellow sailors in all of the boats. Do all you do out of love for the Captain of all and under his power, and look to him for setting the course. Then sail on! Aug/Sep 2012 HERSMAGAZINE.TV 45

HERS | FAMILY

Tummy time for infants

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GET ON THE FLOOR: As a

WORDS BY ROBERT NICKELL

aising six kids (with another on the way) has taught me a great deal about being a daddy. I’ve had to learn many things about parenting over the years, but today I want to talk about tummy time. First things first; what is tummy time? Tummy time is the amount of time babies spend belly down. Research shows this position is extremely important for the development of the proper muscles babies need to push-up and crawl. Since 1992, when the American Academy of Paediatrics announced their “Back to Sleep” campaign, parents have been placing babies on their backs to sleep in hopes of reducing the occur-

rence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The campaign was developed to educate and spread awareness about ways in which SIDS risks could be reduced. It’s important that your baby still have plenty of tummy time opportunities while they’re awake during the day. I’ve compiled a list of helpful tips and recommendations to make your tummy time experiences safe and enjoyable. GET THE GEAR: There are lots

of mats and pillows that prop baby up that will help make tummy time more enjoyable and comfortable for your baby. Find a tool that works for you, and put it to use!

daddy, one of my favourite activities has always been playing on the floor with my children. I highly recommend this as it allows you to see eye to eye and get in some extra bonding time during tummy time. FAVOURITE TOYS: Pay attention to which toys are your child’s favourite and place those toys in front of your baby while on the floor. This will encourage your baby to reach and push up – developing the muscles needed to crawl. TUNE IN: Tummy time is a good activity when your child is awake and alert. If your baby is tired or hungry, engage in tummy time at a later point in the day. Tummy time should be safe and fun for you and your child. Remember every baby is different, and some might enjoy tummy time more than others. Be patient, and take each day as it comes, encouraging your baby to spend time on their bellies every day. If you run into problems or concerns, it’s always a good idea to see your paediatrician.

Tummy time should be safe and fun for you and your child. Remember every baby is different, and some might enjoy tummy time more than others

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