How Far Would You Go for Great Gams?
Slim, svelte legs: We don’t all get ‘em. Legs can be plump and dimpled; varicose veins and swollen ankles can mar those aesthetic curves.
Well, guess what? “Hypothermia and PressoTherapy, available at the finest salons across the United States,” can “significantly reduce and eliminate leg pain, recontour unshapely legs and restore the skin’s smooth, velvety texture.” So write publicists for a chain of beauty salons.
I didn’t take Latin or Greek, but I know that “hypothermia” pertains to low temperatures. PressoTherapy, now. . . . Does it perchance mean you press the legs?
Exactly so, we learn. Your legs get slipped into sleeves that are inflated and deflated with pumps (to redefine the legs’ curves, treat cellulite and reduce the presence of varicose veins).
Hypothermia, meanwhile, brings leg temperature down 2 to 5 degrees, up 2 to 5 degrees, again and again, 12 full times--to revitalize circulation, decongest legs and “increase the supply of bioflavenoids” to the limbs.
We had no idea what to make of this.
No, we’ll be honest: We thought it sounded more than a tad wacky. So--since many of the claims seemed to pertain to swelling and varicose veins--we called a local leg vein man, Dr. Wayne Gradman, an attending physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The therapies are rooted in fact, Gradman says--but are unlikely to help with swelling unless you’ve got a serious circulation problem. They certainly won’t help get rid of varicose veins--those veins have to be removed or destroyed, he says.
Pressure sleeves are used to help people whose extremities are very swollen and waterlogged for various medical reasons, but the healthy, casual user won’t get much relief, Gradman says.
“This is a valid medical treatment gone awry,” he says.
And refrigerating your legs will tighten and tone blood vessels, but not for long: “The minute you restore the temperature, it’s going to restore [the vessels’] normal tone--nothing will be changed,” Gradman says. These beauty salons are very nice places, but we’re not sure we’d want to move in for keeps. Maybe I’ll just turn my thermostat down.
Better Karaoke Through Technology
My pal Mandy, a.k.a. the queen of karaoke, has a super-powerful voice, but she says that years of belting out songs outside of her true range means she sometimes has this interesting “pathetic squeak” when she tries to sing high.
These days, science could save her from squeaky problems by doing an MRI scan on her vocal cords and informing her of her optimal singing range from the get-go. That’s what Dr. Marco di Girolamo of the University of Rome La Sapienza has been doing with professional opera singers in Italy.
Sometimes, he says, voice teachers don’t properly determine singers’ “vocal register”--and “singing in the wrong register can lead to problems, including the tendency toward vocal cord nodes,” he says. Singers can end up permanently hoarse from such calluses.
Di Girolamo, an opera fan and radiologist, measures vocal chords as well as the mouth and throat--and from that can conclude what someone’s range is. In a recent study, for instance, sopranos had the smallest vocal-cord size, averaging 0.71 square centimeters. Basses had the largest--a whopping 2.88 square centimeters.
Finally--speaking of gullets and mouths--perhaps you’ve noticed that snack food packages are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. “Big Grab” chip bags look positively petite compared with “Super Grab” bags, and candy bars called “King Size,” “Big One” and “Huge Size” are proliferating. (We would print nutritionists’ feelings about this trend were it not for the paper’s policy against use of profane language.)
But if that’s not enough to convince you that portion sizes are out of control, how about this? Reputable sources told me they spotted workers at a local fast-food chain wearing back belts--those corset-like support garments worn by heavy lifters--as they hefted burritos to customers.
What’s next? Forklifts? Don’t laugh. It’s coming.
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If you have an idea for a topic, write or e-mail Rosie Mestel at Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., LA, CA 90012, rosie.mestel@latimes.com.
