As a woman, beauty has its risks. For an hour or so every few weeks, lots of women just like me escape to a nearby salon for a pedicure and/or manicure. Depending on the salon, the level of relaxation comes with a price. No matter how soft the chairs are, how incredible the massage feels, how clean the spa looks, or how great your nails turn out, one thing for sure is you can never enjoy the choking smell of acetone and glue used in polish remover and artificial nail procedures.

Just last year, the Environmental Protection Agency  awarded $100,000 to two non-profit groups based in the Seattle area teaming up with the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice to set out to paint nail salons a better shade of green. The “Toxic Beauty” project was proposed to help researchers find solutions like safer products, alternative methods, exposure-reducing containers for chemicals, and better ventilation systems in order to help solve the health risks involved in being an employee or customer of nail salons with high chemical levels.

Using recycled materials in décor and paper supplies, new green nail salons are seeing more results and less chemically-induced nose wrinkles than ever before. Introducing amenities such as energy-efficient lighting techniques, renewable architectural resources, all organic oils, lotions and waxes, some of these salons are even going as far as offering safe, non-toxic nail polishes, soy-based nail polish removers without acetone, and offering only services for natural nails.

A few Sundays ago while walking around and shopping in San Francisco, a friend led me and my tired feet to a busy street and ushered me into a glass door next to a tiny ice cream shop. I closed the door behind me and realized it was a nail salon with bamboo accents, a modern “less is more” approach to design, and three working technicians. I noticed a man getting his fingers filed, a woman across the way having her toes polished, and we were greeted by the receptionist with a smiling face and a time slot. What I didn’t notice was the smell; there wasn’t one. Unfortunately the only open appointments were at a later time that my friend and I couldn’t stay for and we promised to be back another day. Only after we left did my friend mention the all-natural, non-acrylic approach to reinventing the nail salon. I frowned at my missed opportunity and can’t wait to make good on my promise to return and give my tips and toes the green treatment they deserve.

Health and fitness are part of any plan for life improvement. And there is no better time to dedicate oneself to a healthier lifestyle than upon the start of a new year. It is typically the number one resolution of people in America: to get healthy, which may include a more appropriate diet, more daily exercise, and/or a gym routine.

But New Year’s resolutions may last only a few weeks. That is why health professionals take many more factors into considerations when predicting the actual trends for the new year. Not only do they look at the past and current years and the course of health and fitness throughout, but they are familiar enough with where the industry is going as 2008 comes to an end to predict what 2009 may hold.

For the second straight year, it was voted that the health and fitness industry will see more educated and experienced fitness professionals. As the field becomes more competitive and the public grows more concerned over the credentials of those who hold their health in their hands, not to mention stricter regulations being put into place, more professionals are working toward certification and accreditation. Not only should that be more comforting to those seeking health and fitness guidance, but it heightens the level of education among those who want to train and teach.

Author Thompson noted, “When predictions become consistent, we view it as an opportunity for education and action. These developing themes will help health and fitness professionals give the best possible service to the public, and also help the public understand the quality of service they should be receiving as clients.”

While the reported trends should not have a tremendous effect on one’s personal goals for 2009, they do show which way the industry is going and what be more readily available–like personal training–than in the past. Whatever one’s New Year’s resolutions may be, if health and fitness are on the list in some fashion, that desire to make it happen is all anyone in the industry can ask for.

Advertisements on TV make urinary incontinence seem like a joke, but to the more than 13 million American women with the problem, it is not funny. Incontinence, involuntary loss of urine, is reported by 50 percent of women over 60, and though men suffer from the problem as well, most sufferers are female. Incontinence can come at any age but as we grow older hormonal and body changes can exacerbate the problem. Incontinence comes in several forms, including stress incontinence—caused by laughing, sneezing or coughing—and urge incontinence, the sudden need to urinate.

Information published in the January 29 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that weight may be a factor in the problem. Lead author Dr. Leslee Subak, an associate professor in the departments of obstetrics, gynecology, reproductive sciences, urology and epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco and her associates found that weight loss can help to control the problem. According to Subak, “Weight is one of the biggest risk factors for developing incontinence and for worsening incontinence.”

The women were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a control group. Two-thirds were in the intervention group for diet, exercise and behavior modification. The remaining one-third, the control group, received four educational sessions about weight loss, healthful eating and physical activity. All participants received self-help information with tips for improving their incontinence.

The intervention group met for one hour every week, for six months. This group was on a structured diet and exercise plan to help them lose 7 to 9 percent of their starting weight. The intervention group averaged a loss of 8 percent of their body weight, around 17 pounds each, while the control group lost 1.6 percent, or about three pounds each. At the end of six months the intervention group had reduced weekly incontinence episodes by 47 percent. The control group had improved by 28 percent. The intervention group had fewer episodes of stress incontinence, but no improvement in urge incontinence.

Shriners Hospitals for Children is a one-of-a-kind international health care system dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing specialty pediatric care, innovative research and outstanding teaching programs. Children up to age 18 with orthopaedic conditions, burn injuries of all degrees, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for admission and receive all care in a family-centered environment at no charge—regardless of financial need.

Next week is nationally designated Burn Awareness Week and Shriners Hospital for Children will be kicking off a year-long campaign focused on preventing gasoline burn injuries. A special Web site has been developed for the campaign at www.burnawarenessweek.org.

“Preventing burn injuries and burn awareness education should be an ongoing effort, not just a week-long campaign,” said Peter Armstrong, M.D., chief medical officer at Shriners Hospitals for Children. “We are declaring 2009 the year of ‘Preventing Gasoline Burn Injuries.’”

According to a study published in the November 2007 issue of the Journal of Burn Care and Rehabilitation, there are an estimated 10,000 pediatric burn injuries annually in the United States. “Most of these types of burn injuries are preventable,” Dr. Armstrong said.

Since 2002, Shriners Hospitals for Children has treated more than 800 children for acute burns caused by ignition of a highly flammable material, such as gasoline. Kids 13 and older are in the highest at-risk group for gasoline and other flammable substance burns.