New & exclusive to the UK men’s grooming market, Rehab London has burst into the arena with a male skin care range that is “rock n roll” on the outside, but gentle on the inside.

Rehab London sees the importance in natural products designed for men. With advanced natural skincare technology we have developed a range for beautiful healthy skin, harnessing the powers of the finest quality ingredients to cater to all skin balancing needs.

The entire range is free from skin-unfriendly parabens, petrochemicals and Sodium Laureth Sulphate but packed full of the anti- oxidant ingredient, Hawaiian Water Algae. We are proud to introduce Volcanic Sand of Tahiti and Bamboo Spiny Medulla Granules for deep exfoliation to the UK and all our moisturisers contain anti-aging protection from UVA and UVB rays.

Rehab London is an environmentally responsible brand. All our packaging is minimal and made from recycled and sustainable sources, using glass wherever possible and adhesive labelling for successful recycling.

Rehab has been created with cutting edge science technology by a group of Dermatologists and Doctors who are frequently asked by male clients, including celebrity males, about skincare and before launching Rehab they spent two years surveying over 2000 men to find out exactly what was missing in the current grooming market.

The research found that:

• 95% of male consumers prefer natural ingredients in their skincare products but 100% were unhappy with the sticky residue that organic products commonly leave on the skin
• 85% of male’s surveyed want recycled and environmentally aware packaging
• 90% of men want a hyposensitive product as opposed to the high maintenance organic alternative
• 80% of men had adverse skin reaction to a large number of products on the current market

Rehab are exactly the type of Men’s Skin Care products SHED likes to promote. They produce functional, natural, high quality products for men, and still stay environmentally aware.

You can check into the Rehab MENS Skin Care range in the SHED here.

Ben from Your Diet Advisor gives SHED the low down on tips to improve your breakfast nutrition, helping you to improve your performance and health throughout the day.

“If there is one area of someones diet that gets barely any attention to detail is breakfast. Some say its the most important meal of the day, in some ways it is, but all your meals are important, no special emphasis should be put on one meal per se. The problem with breakfast is it’s a routine meal, you tend to eat the same old thing that takes the best part of 2 minutes to prepare.

Breakfast cereals, white toast and pretty much any classic european breakfast wont do a lot for the human body. We are an organism that has developed on a fresh and wholesome diet from nature, and for 30% of your nutritional intake you give your body is something dried that appears nice and neatly from some cardboard or plastic beautifully presented with a character or slogan on the front tooting its health benefit. This is not good health.

If you could change one area of your diet today to better your health I would suggest breakfast gets the makeover. The problem most people find is in making something thats quick and convenient. My first point would be to make more time. Health takes a certain amount of planning and time, so when you have poor energy from your breakfast, only poor planning is to blame.

But still, options that are quick and wholesome could be:
1. Oat bran porridge made with full fat milk
2. Seeded wholemeal toast with a few scrambled eggs
3. Natural yogurt with fresh banana, mixed nuts and a drizzle of honey
4. Scrambled eggs, some wilted spinach and lightly fried mushrooms

If you find yourself on the run early in the morning and can’t get the breakfast you need, then an apple, banana, a small pack of nuts and half a litre of water is a great nutrition booster pack for the journey. A little bit of planning in the morning will go a long way for setting you up for the day. Your energy will thank you for it.”

Recent studies have also shown that by increasing your protein intake at breakfast by just 10% of your normal intake can have dramatic increases in energy levels and in the length of time before a meal is next required by the body. This is especially helpful if you need to gently reduce body fat levels without having to starve yourself.

Men’s skin is on average 3 times more susceptible to environmental damage than Women’s skin, due to the reduced levels of female hormone we possess in our male bodies.

When free radical chemical compounds in our bodies reach the skin’s surface, they can oxidise and react with elements such as UV light from normal daylight. It has been found that when UV light reacts with free radical chemical compounds in the skin’s surface that this reaction has the ability to permanently alter RNA and DNA in cells, possibly leading to the onset of problem skin conditions.

The free radical compounds in the skin can naturally be scavenged and excreted by the bodies normal processes, but Men have a 1/3rd of the biological processing ability of our female friends, due to our obvious lack of oestrogen.

Potentially toxic elements can also be added to the skin by using mainstream low quality skin care products, (mainly created by large pharmaceutical companies), which contain chemical families such as Sodium Laureth Sulphate (derivative of engine degreasing solvent) and Parabens (chemical preservatives) of which can be directly absorbed through the skin. (There is also the environmental issue with these chemicals which I’ll discuss on a future post.)

There is currently a lot of  research to suggest that these chemicals are dangerous to health and could be causing allergies such as excema, dermatitis and rosacea of the skin. I have personally had all three conditions in the past and I no longer use products which contain these types of chemicals.

Fortunately, there is a lot of products that do not use these chemicals and more companies are offering alternatives with more natural ingredients.

One great way to keep your face Free Radical clear is to use skin products with  natural antioxidants and oils to help draw out and neutralise the chemicals in the skins surface, and protect your skin afterwards.

There are some  functional, high quality product ranges on the market that can assist with clearing and cleaning your skin without stripping it of it’s natural oils or causing reactions.

The following ranges provide excellent skin care protection specifically for Men:

Green People Organic Homme Skin Care for Men

Green People Organic Limited Edition Skin Care for Men

MAX Skincare – Parabens-free Men’s range

Dr Lewinn’s MEN – Ocean Repair System (ORS) with MENactive Complex

Trilogy Natural Actives for Men

Until Next time, look after yourself!

If you’ve ever wondered what microwaving does to food (and your health) then check out this article from the guys at Amateur Radio Blog.

Ten reasons to throw out your microwave

I always made sure I stood well away from the microwave when it was doing it’s radiation thing but never realised there were more side affects after that...

I guess with most electrical products you buy these days they won’t come with the necessary research findings printed on the box, but at least this article is food for thought.. As long as it isn’t microwaved food of course…

And to the Dad’s with young children out there, I’d probably consider buying a steamer to heat the babies milk from now on…

Thanks to Ben from Your Diet Advisor for the article and web link

Guys there is no need to worry! There are loads of us men using skin care products these days, don’t be ashamed of looking after yourself.

Whilst moisturisers, cleansers and anti-ageing creams have traditionally only been used by women, it seems that men have started catching on to the benefits of these skin care products.

Recent research from Mintel shows that it is older men in particular who have begun investing time, effort and money into their skin care routine in the past few years.  Statistics suggest that £306 million per year is now being spent on male toiletries by gentlemen in their 50s and 60s alone; this is four times more than in 2002.

It is thought that this trend will continue, with Mintel predicting that the mature male skin care market will double in just two years.

As well as exploring the size of this new-found market, the researchers also investigated why more and more older men are suddenly looking to improve the condition of their skin.

The Mintel report stated:

“Men in general have shown that they are much more open to using products that enhance personal appearance, including anti-ageing products.  The drive to look youthful has overtaken the desire to look distinguished.”

“Almost half the men we spoke to said they feared ageing and feared being perceived by colleagues as getting older.”

SHED has an extensive range of intelligent skin care products for men, you can check them out right here:
Skin Care for Men

The New Year is probably a distant memory in most peoples mind by now, and unfortunately so are most of the fad diets and effort that people try to stick to during January.

I often wonder “Why bother trying with a strange diet that your body isn’t used to”? Why not just make small changes to the diets we already have? Most people could achieve a healthy body composition just by adjusting the type and way that they eat food.

It doesn’t mean cutting out everything you like, because lets face it, food is enjoyable! But I believe it has to be gradual, little steps at a time, until you get to a point when your body has adapted to the food types and the adjusted intake.

Dieting is not as complicated as we are led to believe, unless of course, you have a bodily condition that is affected by a genetic or illness condition.

As we all know 2500 calories is the daily limit for men. And it is a simple situation of maths. We burn on average 2500 calories a day, so if you eat more than 2500 calories, there’s a good chance the extra are going to be processed into fat and end up on your waist line.

To attain a healthy bodily composition and get physically healthy for most of us is as simple as consuming 2500 calories a day, from good quality food sources, and get at least 30 minutes of brisk exercise. Coupled with not smoking and drinking heavily, of course… It’s a start anyway. If you intend to reduce weight, increase your exercise or decrease your calorie intake to suit.

If you do smoke at all, and drink more than you should, then it is imperative that you include these facts in your intake plan, if you drink more then try and exercise more and also protect your body with antioxidant foods and nutrients until you can reduce your alcohol intake to recommended levels. Alcohol can actually be beneficial to health in small doses. But not 5 pints a night..

I’ll go into more detail on food types, their benefits and little health changes you can make without it being painful, in further blog posts.

Until then…

I’m proud to say the SHED blog is now fully up and running! Information, articles, nutrition, health tips, training tips and what ever else I can find in the world of men’s health will be added as  it happens…

The Nutrition Library has now been started up and can be found in the top right hand navigation pane. If you need to know what nutrient does what then check that section out. The nutrition library will be constantly updated and will also have a partner section soon with skincare additives and the associated information surrounding their use, good and bad.

I hope this will help you with informed decisions regarding what products you do or do not want to use in your life.

TheRugged.Com has also gone live today so try and check that out their site for some Men’s Health and Lifestyle entertainment…

Don’t forget, You can also check out the SHED for more general lifestyle information on Twitter!

Until the next post…

Welcome to the brand new SHED Men’s Health blog!

We’ll soon be posting up articles, product features, advice and tips and pretty much anything else we think may be of interest in the Men’s Health world.

In the mean time, please have a look round our constantly developing on-line store www.shed-mens-health.co.uk

If you would like make any comments, suggestions or have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with us!