Beauty and the Brain

     Ever notice how when you're in a good mood, feeling confident, dressed smartly - that you feel more beautiful, more magnetic. I know I do.

     Beauty, as it turns out, isn't as much in the eyes of the beholder, as in your own inner eye. How you feel about yourself says a lot about your skin, hair, nails and confident look.

   That's the message behind a new book, The Beauty Prescription, written by a South Beach psychiatrist, Dr. Eva Ritvo, and a Beverly HIlls dermatologist, Dr. Debra Luftman.

   The two met in med school at Tufts. "Two blonde girls from Los Angeles - it didn't take us too long to find each other.'' They became friends, got their med degrees, got married, had kids, went on family vacations together.

  It was a jaunt to Jamaica that led them to write the book. They were talking about how their patients typically were women in mid life, when they're often balancing work, husbands, teenage kids, older parents - all the combustibles of everyday life.

They either wanted to feel better - the psychiatrist, or look better - the dermatologist. In either case, the prescription was the same: ""You've got to sleep, you've got to eat right, you've got to exercise.''

The book is built around the beauty-brain loop. Your emotional health, self-confidence and self-esteem shape your physical beauty. At the same time, your health, appearance and physical well-being affect your state of mind.

In short, women who feel good on the inside look good on the outside.

Sounds simple, but not always easy to pull off. A beauty prescription quiz takes you on a dive into the deep end of your life - asking questions that make you think about the choices you've made. Once you discover how you may need to change some parts of your life, the second part of the book shows you how. Triumphant personal stories are balanced between practical advice and anti-aging. An appendix in the back -- "Shopping the Beauty Counter with Dr. Debra'' -- goes over the best beauty products -- both cheap and not so cheap.

With the economy's troubles blaring, the holidays around the corner and everyday life getting noisier - this book may be the perfect Saturday afternoon read to rejuvenate your beauty -- and your brain.