Accutane / Roaccutane / Isotretinoin. Acne Drug Pros And Cons!

Hi,
So I have recently discovered a acne drug called Roaccutane or Accutane in america or Isotretinion. I found out about it when i stubled across a documentary on BBC 3's body beautiful season. Here are links to the video on youtube and the official page on the BBC website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgpYS33kMVc

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00xxy87

Now the interesting thing is that there are 2 sides of the argument on weather this drug is a miracle treatment or a death sentence. If you Google it or search it on youtube then you can find loads of reviews and information about it. I will give you the good side of the story first. Here is someone with a good experience of Accutane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY6sIDAUqwM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4GbREyEEOI

So there is no doubt that Accutane is effective and everyone knows that it is a strong treatment, its serious stuff. Accutane was originally a skin cancer treatment but when they found it helped acne they started to sell it specifically for acne as well. It makes your skin really dry and after a certain amount of time (There are various different Accutane corses) the acne dissappears. It does what is says it will do. But they do make you sign a form saying there is a tiny chance of suicidal thoughts, so they warn you. There are other side affects that they warn you about but many people only suffer mildly or not at all.

The other side of the argument is that Accutane can and probably will ruin your life, forever. Here are some people talking about bad effects etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMld7Dtpqbk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX5etVb1eXc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tm62inJDSg

The other argument is that Accutane is a seriously bad drug which should be banned from legal use and that the people who sell it should be sued. (The opposing arguments are both very strong and there are dedicated belivers on both sides.) While people are on Accutane they are given regular blood tests, pregnancy tests (Because it causes birth defects.) and genaral checkups. The side effects of Accutane can vary alot but here are some common effects.

Dryness of the skin and mucus membranes.
Miscarriage and severe birth defects.
Depression, anxiety and suicide.
Makes your skin sensitive to the sun - Photosesitivity.
High blood Triglycerides - Fatty blood.
Thinning hair.
Decreased night vision.
Fatigue.
Nausea and vomiting.
Headaches.
Bone and Joint pain.
Severe chest or abdominal pain.
Difficult or painful swallowing.
Trouble concentrating.
Sleep problems.
hallucinations.
Sudden numbness or weaknss especially on one side of the body.
Blurred vision.
Hearing loss or ringing in your ears.
loss of appetite.
jaundice.
Diahrrea.
Flu symptoms.
Fever.
Chills.
Rashes and purple spots under skin.
Etc.

So as you can see there are different sides to this story and there are supporters of both.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWAlDX2iSJA

The other thing people who are against Accutine say is that the side effects don't stop with the drug. There are a lot of people who believe that the effects of Accutane last not just while your on the drug but also stay with you for months afterwoods or for the rest of your life.
I don't know how Accutane effects people first hand as i have never taken it, but i do have spts and it sucks.
I hope you found this information helpful and interesting.
Bye. 

Unique vs sheep

Hi,

So when it comes to people being who they want to be, the world seems to have a problem. I mean once upon a time, people used to celebrate their differences, but now our differences are the things that break us up. People always want to be the same. Wear the same clothes, use the same kind of Facebook profile picture and talk the same. What happened to individuality? The people who stood out used to be the popular ones, the ones who everyone liked. But now they are the ones being bullied and called geeks, or weirdoes. But they are still the people who grow up to have good jobs and live happy lives because these are the people who don't have to worry about looking cool (Everyone says they’re not cool any way.) They just concentrate on being themselves. So next time someone asks if you like a new song, or the latest fashion don't just say yes because it makes you look cool, actually think about what you like. Otherwise one day you will wake up and realise you don't know who you are, you will see that everything you do is just to look cool. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever fit in and be 'normal', and then I remember that if being 'cool' and 'normal' is wearing that stupid new hairdo, or listening to that boring new song, then I don't want it.

At the same time being just one person all the time is almost impossible. For example the person I am with my family is totally different to the person I am with my friends, and all together I must be about 20 different people depending on who I'm with and what I'm doing. When you are that many different people, it's easy to get lost inside them and not know which of those people you want to be. One of the hardest things to do, is to try to keep doing what you believe is right, whatever person you're being. What I'm trying to say is, whatever happens don't sell out your ideals for a easy life. Sure sometimes it's better to keep your mouth closed, but there are times when however hard it is, you have to stand up for what you believe. And however cheesy that sounds, someone has to care about the things you care about. And if you can't say what you think, then who will?    

Bye!

E45 Lotion Advert in the post!

Hi,

Today we received an advert in the post, for E45 lotion. It is a small black piece of card which folds out and on the front it says “One try and you’ll be hooked” then when you open the front flaps you see a picture of the product and a caption which reads “Your daily fix” Removing the next flap you will see a page with the caption “50p off your next fix of E45 Lotion.” Then the last flap reveals the whole advert with a series of captions; “It’s easy to get hooked on beautifully soft skin.” then “Find your daily fix.” Underneath that it says “Craving something lightly fragranced?” and “Fixated on fragrance free?”

Basically the whole ad is written like it’s talking about drugs. This is strange since it makes ‘getting hooked’ sound like a good thing. This is not only trivialises drug use, but implies that drugs are cool being associated with this product. So the advert designers have just managed to 1. Associate this company with the idea that drugs are cool. 2. Imply to the public that drugs are cool. 3. Trivialise drug use. And 4. Annoy me a lot!

Here are some quotes from the advert:

"It's easy to get hooked on beautifuly soft skin"

"And why shouldn't you? Our range of daily lotions are so light, they let you enjoy the indulgence and nourishment of E45n every single day."

"We're sure that with these samples, plus 50p off any lotion from our new-look range, you'll be hooked in no time."

There are lots of adverts which use similarly sick themes this is just one example.
Would this advert make you want to buy the product?  

Bye 

Entertainment and body image!

Hi,
So there are good movies, songs, TV and magazines that promote positive body image and say that it’s ok to be whatever size and shape you are. There is also a lot of popular negative media about body image. This Pesky Dames video talks about the objectification of ‘page 3’ models in magazines.
   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5qT-tHpcn4&feature=relmfu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzwcF-Vno14

The second link is about advertising and negative body image.

I know I talk about body image in the media a lot so today I will talk about the other 3 main categories; movies, songs and TV.  The third link is about pop music and the hatred of women.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zal98IyTPac

The movie ‘Lying to be perfect’ is a good place to begin. It gives the message that it’s what’s on the inside that counts and whatever you look like you can still be great. They even talk about the way some larger women are treated differently and disrespectfully because f their size, it also talks about men objectifying women and sexual harassment:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vUmpU2olT0

But it also implies that what you look like is one of the most important things and that looking different changes your life, for example all the women are happier and more successful at the end when they are thinner. The film also annoyingly concentrates on the ‘getting thin’ rather than the only briefly mentioned ‘getting healthy’.

Secondly music, a good example of bad body image in music is as the Pesky Dames said, One directions song ‘What makes you beautiful’ as they say ‘ you don’t know your beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful.’ This implies that it’s attractive to have low self esteem.

Lastly TV! I could go on forever talking about this subject but since I have a life, I won’t. So TV shows, like movies often star thin people who care a lot about how they look. The TV ads are often the bad body image (By the way there are a lot of perfume ads with kissing etc. But when was the last time you saw a gay one?) But don’t get me started on that. The TV I want to concentrate on is reality TV. Most reality TV either stars thin people or laughs at the larger people on the show. Although quiz shows often aren’t too bad the hosts can often be subtly patronising to any larger people on the show for ‘cheep laughs’. The slow motion playback on total wipeout often shows overweight people falling off things or struggling to complete various tasks. The way they play it back they might as well have added sound effects.

The other thing TV shows do is have ‘Best Moments’ episodes were they show people failing over and over again, this is a good place to show all there footage of  larger people falling off things in slow motion again.

People don’t understand that being overweight doesn’t mean being under intelligent and until they do people like me will keep trying to explain to people that being ‘fat’ is not a bad thing as long as you are healthy.

Good luck surviving the media.

Bye   

Government secrets and being a real person.

Hi,
So some ware in the government someone is having an affair, everyone knows about it but no one knows who it is. They say it could be a massive political problem so they are keeping it a secret for now, but if they do reveal who it is they will probably do it when there is other interesting news so they don't make every front page. At first people joked that it might be David Cameron and Ed Milliband but apparently it isn’t someone in the cabinet, I don’t know how they would have dealt with that one cause there is a lot of homophobia and they would have both lost a lot of trust and support. But in France this week the first gay couple were married. Now its legal there will probably be a lot more, but people are still quite angry about it. I think everyone should be allowed to express themselves like the plus size American model who I will talk about in this post. This link is a BBC article about her.           


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22508670


She believes that people of all shapes and sizes are beautiful, and that we should aspire to a healthy body rather than a skinny one. The comments made about this article are also interesting, with real women acknowledging the importance of feeling happy about themselves. I also saw a lot of people talking about the way that people pick on naturally skinny people like it’s their fault that they feel bad about their 'not as skinny as you' bodies. Here is the link to the comments page.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22736496

These pages were definitely inspiring and I am glad that so many people had something positive to say about it. Although I know that they won’t have used everyone’s comment they did give a good impression of the amount of people who know that you can look however you want and its alright.



But now they tell us this:



They used to tell women this:

  




















So you see what i mean.
Bye

Teenagers and Writers block!

Hi,
Teenagers are mostly stereotyped as stroppy, hormonal and obsessed with their friends and who they are going out with. Obviously adults must forget what being a teenager is about pretty quickly because although this is partly true there is a lot more to it than that.
I have been a teenager for 3 years and it mostly sucks because of the mood swings and hormones and wanting to fit in. But I am also working out who I want to be. Everything I do will contribute to my personality so teenagers are all laying down the patterns for the rest of their lives. I want to spend the rest of my life doing interesting things like eating chocolate and watching Doctor Who but here are some things I think everyone should do while they are a teenager.

1.      Watch at least 5 episodes of Doctor Who (Preferably a series.)

2.      Learn to do cartwheels or handstands (If you don’t want to then do magic tricks.)

3.      Try at least 10 new hobbies before you are 16 because then you always have a backup if your career goes wrong.

4.      Get your own Pet.

5.      Write down 5 things you think people should do before they become, ‘Not a teenager’ and post them on the Internet.     

So if you havent done any one of these things yet then hurry up!

bye

P.S. Sorry this post isn't that good. I am having trouble with the subject that I will be writing about, so I may need to think about it a bit longer before I write a decent blogpost.

Feminism and single parents.

Hi,
Feminism is a word that some of people associate with crazy women who hate men or Margaret Thatcher. But that's not what feminism is about. Another misunderstanding is that feminism is no longer relevant today.
I will explain why feminism is still relevant.

First, Feminists are people who believe in equal rights for men and women, so anyone who says they think one sex is better, is not a feminist. Second Margaret Thatcher said "The battle for women’s rights has largely been won I owe nothing to women’s lib and I hate feminism It is poison."
 You get the idea.

Now my main point is that feminism is still relevant today. There is a new law that the government (Supposedly) want to bring in that prevents people on benefits including single parents from voting. I can't find anything from the UK on it but I have found an American article about it.

http://ontd-political.livejournal.com/10165355.html

This article says "What about single parents? The concept doesn’t change. In this day and age, it’s usually the parent’s choices (exception: rape) that created the kid in the first place. If an individual’s marriage ends in divorce, that would be their choice as well. If this caused the need for government benefits, then through their choices they ended up being the ones not allowed to vote."


Well, first let me say that the majority of single parents are women and if you see a single man with children most people would assume he was widowed. So let’s go for a common story. A couple have children they are happy, then the father meets someone he wants to leave, his wife can't stop him, she is not happy about the divorce which is forcing her to stay at home and look after the kids instead of work, she goes on benefits, and her husband has his own life now and plenty of time to work. He can afford to vote, she can't because she is on benefits. Sexist!
There are loads of other feminist issues and feminism is definatly still relevant I am just giving you one example.
for more feminism: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9I30HBMwEKDWLi_3FNecTQ

Bye