Good communication is critical in managing stress.  While words are important, the full context of the message depends on non-verbal communication. Words by themselves comprise only 10% of our meaning.  Tone of voice accounts for 40% , and the remaining 50% comes from  visible body language.  That is the main reason that business is not just conducted by e-mail (words only).  People use cell phones to hear the voice, and travel in person (or use video conferencing) to see the body language.  Only then can they get the full intent of the communication.

Let's take a look at a simple job performance assessment: "Robin is doing a great job".  If one looks only at the written words, it seems Robin is doing well.  But let's take a look at the rest of the non-verbal cues:

-Tone of Voice: If one says these same words sarcastically the meaning is quite different.  

-Body Language: If the speaker is rolling his eyes, sticking his tongue out, and giving the "thumbs down" sign as these same words are spoken, then we take it that Robin does a really poor job at work. 

That's why most letters of reference are useless (who has ever seen a bad one?!).

Non-Verbal Tips: 

Let's consider a person preparing for a job interview.  Here are some non-verbal tips from job coaching professionals: 

-Don't slouch when standing, and don't slide your rear forward in your chair when sitting.  When walking, move your arms; don't keep them frozen at your side.  Don't fidget, chew gum, or constantly clear your throat. Shake hands with a firm grip.  Don't have your shoulders elevated in tension, so they block your ears.  Establish good eye contact when listening, and when speaking.  Sit straight up, leaning a little forward. 

You can look serious, but don't glare like this classic stone-faced gentleman (painted by Durer in 1524)

Try not to frown, unless applying for a job as a bouncer or bill collector. 

-Show good listening skills, by incorporating (occasionally) some of the elements of the question in your answers, and demonstrate some empathy for the interviewer's needs.  Listen not only to your interviewer, but also to yourself as you speak.  Watch out for messages your eyes send; stress levels are often revealed by high rates of blinking.  In fact, Boston College professor Joe Tecce documented US presidential debates, and noted that the fastest blinker lost every election since 1980.  So make sure your contact lenses are not dry! 

Obviously, there are other many other issues, like preparation, hygiene, grooming, dress codes, and attitude.  For more comprehensive detail I recommend "interview coach" links like the ones listed below.  But no matter who's coaching style you adopt, optimizing your non-verbal presentation is always a huge advantage.  

One additional tip is made necessary by the aging population of job-seekers.  If you are competing with people half your age, you don't want to look even older than your stated years.  One of the best ways to keep your body from slouching is to exercise.  One of the best ways to keep your face from slouching is to tone its underlying 22 muscles. 

Exercise for the body is as easy as doing any sport, or going to a gym.  Yet there are no stations for "face" in the weight room.  But help is at hand!  The FaceMaster is ideal for turning up the lips at the corners, from frown to smile.  It will also tone the muscles under the eyelids, and plump up the cheeks.  In minutes, you can feel the increased muscle tone, just like you can after weight-lifting in the gym.  Even skin color is improved from a single treatment.  Click the video here to watch Suzanne Somers show how simple and quick this is. 

In todays difficult economy, most people cannot afford the luxury of frequent spa visits.  But the FaceMaster produces the same microcurrent (or "e-stim") as the professional machines that cost over $10,000.  Because owning your own FaceMaster costs less than one spa facial, you can get professional results at an affordable price.     

So if you are wanting to put your best face forward, consider interview coaching, and make sure you optimize your non-verbal communications.  Make the message you send be interpreted the way you intended! 

For more information on Dr. Hanson, visit http://www.peterhansonmd.com/.  For more information on FaceMaster, visit http://www.facemaster.com/.  For more specific advice on coaching for job interviews, visit Carole Martin at http://www.interviewcoach.com/, or http://www.interviewstuff.com/.  

Insomnia is defined by the books as a symptom of a "sleep disorder".  The books continue to explain that it is a "difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or both", followed by periodic "functional impairments" while awake.  Well, thank goodness for books, otherwise we would think insomnia was nothing to lose sleep over.

In terms of function, the late Sir Winston Churchill was, by all accounts, one of the most energetic elders of his time.  He did not start his career as British Prime Minister until the age of 64, when most of his peers were planning their retirement canasta games.  His time in office was not exactly easy, as World War II had broken out, and all of Europe was being overrun by Hitler's army.  His own army was defeated and routed back to England at Dunkirk, rescued by a galant convoy of  private skiffs and small boats.  His level of focus and function was heroic, the envy of men half his age.  How much sleep did he get?  Not even three hours a day, including cat-naps.  If he lived today, he probably would have been slammed on Ambien (along with antidepressants, etc), and would have been suffering from too much sleep, along with the 48-hour hang-over of the sleeping pills.  And a woman of that age would surely be treated with hormones, like Premarin.  Also not very effective, and full of side effects.  The only sure way to enforce an eight hour sleep in anyone would be to administer a general anesthetic every evening...hardly good medical practice. 

As people age, they often need less sleep.  For example, teenagers often need massive amounts of sleep, due to growth and activities.  At some point in the middle of our lives, around 6-8 hours is common, but certainly not universal.  As we get past 50 or 60, it is very likely that just half that will do fine, although at any age it will be common to have an occasional morning of "sleeping in" to catch up.   By the latest statistics, over 64 million Americans suffer from insomnia regularly.  No wonder the prescription-drug cartel is raking in the money for pills.

So the real measure of sleep is the quality of its results, not just the quantity of time spent.  For some these results refer to focus and function during the waking hours.  But another measure is one's appearance; hence the term "Beauty Sleep".  Nothing tells the world you are feeling tired like "insomnia face": dark circles under the eyes, sagging cheeks, droopy lids, and mattress-print lines all over the face. 

On this latter point comes a great piece of advice from the legendary Cary Grant.  In his late seventies, he noted that the key to maintaining his looks was to sleep on his back, not on his stomach, to avoid the evidence of linen-folds on his face. 

Functional Insomnia: So if you are awake when you should be sleeping, then asleep when you should be awake, take precautions.  Try a strategy of night time "hygiene" that includes keeping all work materials away from your bedroom, trying a hot bath a half-hour before retiring, and avoiding any big protein meals or vigorous exercise just before bedtime. If you wake up in the middle of the night, get up and do some of your next day's activities, eg reading, paying bills, catching up on email etc.  Don't just stare at the clock and get annoyed at being awake.  Consider carving out extra time each day for a "cat-nap" if needed; it certainly worked for Winston. Hot herbal teas can also help, as can meditation/hypnosis, acupuncture, soothing music, aromatherapy candles etc.  Only as a last resort ask for intervention with pills, as they are usually overprescribed (and over-demanded). 

Facial Insomnia: If you alarm yourself with the first glimpse in the bathroom mirror, and if you seem to be suffering from an acute attack of face, don't dispair.  Micro-current can come to your rescue, without having to go to a spa.  Try the FaceMaster® and you will be amazed; sagging muscles will firm up, lids will stop being baggy, and even the eyes themselves will look more open and bright.  Suzanne Somers correctly notes that this is the ideal cure for those "red eye" flights before going on the air.  We have also had the same comments from patients who were up all night with a sick child before they had to attend an important office meeting. 

Action tip: Remember insomnia is not a disease, and it is not caused by the lack of a brand-name drug. 

For more information on functional insomnia, consider medical acupuncture, a great drug-free way to solve the problem.  To find a doctor in your area, visit the link on http://www.peterhansonmd.com/. 

For more information on your face, visit http://www.facemaster.com/. 

Dr. Hanson welcomes your comments and questions.

Bell's palsy is a paralysis of the motor nerve to one side of the face. Most sufferers wish Sir Charles Bell would take it back, even though the Scottish surgeon has been dead a couple of centuries.  The nerve in question is the facial nerve, otherwise known as the 7th cranial nerve.  The cause of this paralysis is largely unknown, although it can be created by trauma to the nerve, including pressure from a tumor along its pathway, or surgical "nicking" during complicated operations.  Most often, however, it is considered "viral". 

Now a quick word of medical lingo is in order here.  When a patient wants to know what caused their disease, Doctors have hated to say "I don't know" .  So they substitute euphamisms such as "agnostic", "essential", or (my personal favorite here) "idiopathic".  If your doctor tells you your disease is caused by "essential agnostic idiopathy" then you KNOW he/she is stumped!

But an even more obvious clue your doctor has no idea what is causing something can be found with the word "viral".  A thousand years ago, medical writings would blame diseases  like this on "evil spirits".  If we substitute this for "viral" in the modern medical literature, we are right back in the dark ages!  When modern experts further want to sound knowledgeable, they may further identify said virus as "herpes simplex type 1" or whatever.  Sounds like a much more impressive bluff.   But why only one side of the face?  Wouldn't any virus find it just as easy to settle on both sides?  Why not on the back of the head, or for that matter the arm or the leg; they have nerves there too!  Don't ask too many questions, as the experts may start to confabulate here.  And yes, sometimes we just don't know it all!

 Bell's palsy affects men and women equally, from childhood to old age, and on either side of the face .  About 40,000 Americans each year will develop this condition.  Usually it appears spontaneously, with no fever or incedent to announce it. It can get better by itself, with about half the patients seeing recovery in a few weeks.  However, some cases will last months, and many will last for years.  Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Cretien acquired his Bell's palsy in his youth, and still has it in his senior years.

In any event, when half your face is paralyzed, you do look odd, as this picture shows.  

But in terms of function, this half-faced paralysis can be a real problem.  The eyelids usually don't close fully, leaving the corneal surface of the eye to dry out.  Often eyedrops and tape are required to moisten and shut the lids at night.  Also, eating soup can be a catastrophe.  Not to mention spaghetti.   A crystal wine glass becomes a dribble cup.  You need to wear a bib just to give a toast.  

So the real question here (for those cases unlucky to not clear up quickly on their own) is not "what causes it?".  Rather it is: "can anyone please fix this?"

Oral steroids are the standard here, but they are more of a "hail mary pass" to use the football vernacular.  Side effects are a concern, and the drug goes everywhere, not just to the one nerve on one side of the face.  Much better results are seen with medical acupuncture, which inserts needles strategically into points along the underlying nerve branches.

 I have treated literally hundreds of Bell's cases with electrical micro-current applied to sterile acupuncture needles, with virtually full recovery in most, including some with over ten years of non-response to other treatments.  I have also trained dozens of M.D.'s from around the US in my offices in Denver, and they have had similar success in their own practices.  E-stim with micro current is particularly dramatic, as it can be seen to work immediately.  The muscles visibly "twitch" as they are selectively stimulated, and the nerve-muscle connection begins to resume its function.  Usually within a three visits we can start to demonstrate recovery, and further visits will take the face back to full normalcy.  We normally treat twice a week for the first six visits, then cut back to weekly or even monthly depending on speed of recovery. 

Between visits, find great improvement is seen with e-stim in a home machine version.  The same microcurrent is applied as that which we use through the needles, but no needles are used.  Simply by touching the moistened wand tips to the correct anatomical sites on the face, the home unit will make the 22 muscles on each side of the face start to twitch, and begin to resume their tone.  The machine I recommend to my patients is the FaceMaster.  Full disclosure (if not full modesty) compells me to  mention that I co-founded the FaceMaster company (with former Apple Notebook lead engineer Rodger Mohme), and have been delighted to see it pass through rigorous FDA study, to gain clearance as an effective cosmetic device for toning the facial muscles.  Suzanne Somers loves hers so much she tells everyone it is her "best beauty secret", and the first thing she wanted replaced when her home burned down. 

So, even if you don't have Bell's Palsy (and especially if you do!), use electrostimulation to tone your muscles.  Volume builds up beneath the skin.  Eyelids firm up their droopiness, cheek muscles lessen their sagging, wrinkles diminish, and the angles of the mouth turn from frown to smile.  Once my patients have seen how effective it is they do not want to stop using it on both sides of their faces. 

We welcome your comments and questions. 

For more information on Dr. Hanson's medical acupuncture practice, visit www.peterhansonmd.com For an MD in your area, visit http://www.medicalacupuncture.org/. 

For more information on the FaceMaster, and to read other blogs by Dr. Hanson, visit FaceMaster.com. 

In today's difficult economy, visits to the spa have been relegated to a lower priority.  Not only do they cost a lot of money, but it takes a lot of time out of one's day to drive, park, sign in, sit in the waiting room, then finally have your esthetician begin an hour of facial muscle toning.  All this, and it only lasts about a week.  (Much like weight lifting will do in toning your body muscles). 

So, with an eye to practicality, modern customers are turning their faces towards home.  By doing-it-themselves, they save time, and will save face.  By owning their own FaceMaster, they will spend less than the cost of one spa treatment to OWN their own machine.  Talk about a great bargain!

Skin care does not just involve the surface, any more than fresh shingles can fix an old, sagging roof.  We need to address the full picture, including the infrastructure.  The 22 muscles underneath each side of the face are mostly attached to the bone beneath, then fixed to the skin.  Like every muscle we have, they plump up with exercise, and shrivel or atrophy with disuse.  Unfortunately one cannot find an exercise station for "face" at the gym.  That's why spas have performed millions of facial muscle toning treatments over the past four decades.

But for all the difficulties in exercising sagging muscles in the face, these muscles have one advantage over the bigger muscles of the body; they are conveniently placed close to the surface.  This means that they lend themselves to stimulation with micro-current from the surface of the skin.  No matter what anti-aging techiques one does, the face still needs active attention.  Toned muscles give youthful looks, and toned facial muscles rejuvenate one's appearance. 

After the muscles are toned the face looks like it had a makeover, the skin tightens, the facial lines diminish,  and your friends will notice your great appearance...all without surgery! 

So don't dispair the next time you look in the mirror.  Take control of your body's muscles by exercising in the gym, through yoga or pilates, or through your favorite sports.  And take control of your face's muscles by buying your own FaceMaster®.  With a toned face as a basis, all your other anti-aging efforts will work better: diet, hydration, exercise, mental activity, and time management.

Nothing typifies aging as much as muscle atrophy. We see it in the whole body, unless active measures like sports and weight training are introduced. In the face, there are no gym stations to help, but we still need to tone the 22 muscles under the skin. The FaceMaster is ideally suited to the task.

There is more to medicine than medicines.  Not every symptom is caused by the lack of brand-name drugs, and not every facial wrinkle is caused by the lack of surgery or injections.  Famed NY dermatologist Dr. Nick Perricone has written his practical theories into book form, one of the first of which is "The Perricone Prescription" (first published in 2002).  In it he takes away the medical myths of aging, and offers excellent solutions for each reader.  For example, he discusses the importance of a good diet, rich in salmon, raspberries and blueberries, as well as flaxseed powder or oil.  He also points out the dangers of eating the more common fast food diet: high in processed sugars and full of chemicals and hormones indroduced into the food chain for corporate profit (not consumer health) reasons. 

As we age, the skin certainly shows it.  And nowhere is this harder to hide than on the face.  But rather than have people all start off with surgical procedures as their only menu, Perricone wisely empowers the reader to take active control over their own skin.  Not just from the perspective of nutrition, but he also covers the application of products like DMAE from the surface as well.

But under the surface is where the real secret lies; the facial muscles.  Twenty-two on each side of the face, all conveniently located close to the skin, and all reachable with stimulation from the surface.  By tightening and toning these muscles, he notes, the face looks younger, increases its volume, and overall reduces wrinkles.  Now, traditionally there has been no way for a patient to do this on their own, and Perricone notes many thousands of patients do the opposite: they ask their doctors to paralyze these muscles with Botox. 

Perricone then looked to the world of microstimulation (with a very small electrocurrent).  He notes that there were no easy machines to try this on, but he was able to conduct an early experiment using a glove to hold the positive/negative points on the skin, and the results were astounding.  He noted that the lips became plumper, the sagging under the surface became more toned, and the patients were delighted with the resulting youthful appearance.  Unlike surgery or shots, the muscles were restored to their youthful form, and not slackened, cut, or altered.  

As a fellow practitioner, I can readily concur with Dr. Perricones findings in this book.  Since his manuscript was written, however, there indeed is now a practical way of applying what he titles "The Miracle of the Ageless-Electrical and Chemical Stimulation of (facial) Muscles for a More Youthful Appearance".  Suzanne Somers has introduced her FaceMaster, as she mentions in her bestseller "Ageless", which does all the "miracle" work Dr. Perricone recommends. 

If you are worried about your face and the aging process, please read "The Perricone Prescription", visit his site at perriconemd.com, and read his blog at dailyperricone.com.   And if you are impressed by his rave reviews of electrostimulation to the facial muscles, consider visiting facemaster.com to learn how to tone your muscles like Suzanne does at home.  Save yourself a trip to the spa, a shot, or a surgery. 

Review written by Peter G. Hanson, M.D.

Author, "The Joy of Stress", Co-developer of the Facemaster, and Medical Acupuncturist in Denver.  www.peterhansonmd.com

For years, movie stars have known to tone their muscles before they appear on camera.  For some, that would mean lifting dumbells before showing off arms and shoulders.  For others, it means doing lots of crunches before showing off their abdominal muscles.  Yet others need to do lunges before showing their legs.  However, ALL need to tone their face muscles, and NO gym has a "face" station.  The stars' secret?  Microcurrent toning treatments at the spa.  As an example, let's take a look at a public article from Harper's Bazaar magazine in January of 2007.  Note that Kate Winslet, seen here sharing a cover with Cameron Diaz, keeps her whole body in tone, and does not neglect the face.  In the June edition of the same magazine she is quoted as being a great fan of e-stim facials, of the kind done for hundreds of dollars per spa treatment.   However, spa treatments require a lot of time as well as money.  They only last about a week, like a session of weight-lifting would do for your arms.  This kept facial muscle toning away from the general public, as it was generally impractical.   

Another celebrity, Suzanne Somers, has a practical solution that brings the red-carpet secret to the home user: her FaceMaster ®.  Particularly in today's challenging economy,  people are forced to cut expenses.  Hence the modern DIY (Do It Yourself) mode.  Not just eating at home, but bringing the spa home as well.  The FaceMaster is just as powerful as the $12,000 spa machines that the stars use, yet it costs less than ONE TREATMENT.  Not only that, but one can use it every day, and do so in the comfort of their own home.  Suzanne often uses her FaceMaster in bed, while watching TV.  In just minutes a day, you can have the same toned facial muscles, and increase the volume of muscles under your skin. 

Save time.  Save money.  Save Face. 

Visit www.facemaster.com