Anti-Aging Musts April 5, 2012

Creating an anti-aging skincare routine isn’t all that hard. If you keep a few key things in mind you’ll help your skin look great now and into the future.

Though I don’t advocate going crazy with anti-aging treatments when you are in your 20s do start thinking at that time about protecting your skin. As the Web MD article 10 Ways to Slow the Aging Process explains:

Think the early twenties is too soon to see signs of aging skin? Dermatologists see them commonly.

“The earliest signs of aging really start around the eyes. You can start to see some fine lines, and then on the face in general, some broken blood vessels and sun spots,” says Doris Day, MD, a dermatologist in private practice in New York City and clinical assistant professor of dermatology at New York University Medical Center. Typically, the more sun exposure, the greater the damage, she says.

Fortunately, the twenties and thirties are also prime decades for women to learn how to counter sun damage and other factors that age the skin, says Heidi Waldorf, MD, an associate clinical professor of dermatology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She is also director of laser and cosmetic dermatology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center.

“What you do for your skin or against your skin will have ramifications as you age,” she says.

First, younger women must understand the pitfalls. For instance, Waldorf sees many who still embrace tanning. Often, they wrongly believe that skin aging is something to worry about down the road, not in their youth, Waldorf says.

Another common habit that damages young skin: smoking.

Ok so the article already mentioned two of the big no nos – sun and smoking. Here are more tips about those and other anti-aging musts:

• Use sunscreen daily, even when it is overcast outside. When spending the day outside wear a hat and sunglasses, and reapply sunscreen every 2 to 3 hours when spending the day outdoors. Don’t forget that you get lots and lots of sun exposure even when you are going about your normal daily activities like driving, walking around the neighborhood, sitting by a window, and running errands.
• Don’t smoke – smoking ruins your skin is so many ways. See my post below for more information about smoking and your skin.
• Maintain a healthy lifestyle – exercise, practice relaxation techniques, and eat right. When you take good care of yourself it shows in your skin.
• Use skincare products with antioxidants in them to protect your skin from pollution, free radicals, and the sun.
• Use a retinol or prescription Retin-A skincare product starting in your 30s in order to correct skin damage, smooth your skin, build collagen, and treat acne (if you need to).

My Related Posts:

• Don’t Neglect Your Skin! Start Early, See the Results Later
• The Skincare Products Everyone Needs
• How Wrinkles Form
• No Lie: Why You Really Need Your Beauty Sleep
• Let’s Debunk Some Sunscreen Myths
• How Smoking Ruins Your Skin
• Skincare Tip: Add Antioxidants to Your Home care Regime
• All About Retinol

Sources and Further Reading:

• 10 Skin Tips to Slow the Aging Process - Web MD
• The 8 Best Skin Tips You’ve Never Heard - Allure
• The 10 Commandments of Anti-Aging - Allure

Image from hghwatch.com

What Is Dermal Micro Needling? March 12, 2012

Ever feel like the universe is looking out for you?  I know that may seem like an exaggeration, and I would agree, but I found it interesting that just as I was starting to research this blog post, and failing to find real, scientific information about dermal micro needling, I discovered that the there was a great article on the subject in the February issue of Les Nouvelles Esthetiques and Spa - A Collagen Boosting Alternative: Dermal Micro Needling.  Not only did I come across the article I just mentioned pretty soon after coming across that article I was finding articles about micro needling from legitimate sources in different places.  So with the help of these articles let’s jump right into the whole subject of micro needling.

 

All About Dermal Micro Needling

According to the article from LNE & Spa:

The principle of skin needling is to stimulate the body’s own production of collagen.  DMN involves the use of a sterile roller, comprised of a series of fine, sharp needles to puncture the skin.  Medical needling is performed under a local anesthetic; the needling device is “rolled” over the surface of the face to create many microscopic channels deep into the dermis of the skin, which stimulates your own body to produce new collagen.  At a microscopic level, proliferated skin cells, such as fibroblasts, migrate to the point of injury and transform into collagen fibers, resulting in increased fiber strength and elasticity.  This treatment improves your skin by increasing production of collagen, facilitating natural repair and growth and making the skin stronger and thicker.  The new collagen fills depressed scars and wrinkles from the bottom up, lifting the depression so they are level with the surrounding skin.  This process takes two to three months to produce visible results, and can also help thicken thinner, fine skin types.

There are a few different type of dermal rollers, which is what the dermal micro needling devices are called.  The ones designed to be used at home have shorter needles than those used by physicians.  Dermal micro needling can be combined with other skincare treatments and products in order to enhance the collagen building results.  Additionally, the procedure can be used on all skin types.  The side effects are mainly varying degrees of redness; the amount of redness depends on how long the needles used were and how deeply they entered the skin.  Potential complications can arise if the healing skin isn’t cared for properly.  Those complications can be infection, scarring, an outbreak of cold sores if you are prone to getting them, and even post inflammatory hyperpigmentation that can last up to 12 months.   Proper care after treatment involves the use of healing creams or ointments along with a broad spectrum spf for the first day or two after the treatment.  Depending on what you want to fix about your skin you may need between 3 to 8 treatments spaced 3 to 4 weeks apart.

 Yes or No?

To quote the article, again, from LNE & Spa:

DMN has been used successfully to treat fine lines, wrinkles, lax and sun damaged skin to reduce the appearance of stretch marks; improve acne ice pick scars; and induce hair’s regrowth.  It has also been used to tighten skin after liposuction.  The advantages of this procedure are that the skin becomes thicker, with an increase in collagen deposition exceeding more than 400 percent.

But for all this positive talk about DMN there are naysayers as well.  On About.com they have this to say about DMN:

Does It Really Work?

Depends on who you ask. Personally, I’ve seen some pretty dramatic before and after photos – so dramatic, in fact, they made me even more skeptical than before. However, there have been a few scientific studies showing micro-needling to be effective in the treatment of scars. On the other hand, I have seen TV interviews with doctors who have seemed  to be saying that its real value lies in its mechanical exfoliation action on the skin. In researching how it works, it seems like it certainly could be effective for at least some of the conditions it claims to treat. However, I also believe that only time will tell just how effective it is, and whether or not it’s worth it.

Furthermore, according to Annet King in her article for The International Dermal Institute - Skin Needling: Hurting or Helping? – there are a lot of variables that one has to keep in mind when considering dermal micro needling:

Effects on the Skin: Medical vs. Skin care
Most of the claims about wrinkle reduction and new collagen growth come from the manufacturers of the rollers or those members of the medical community who are associated (remunerated) by those companies. What’s important to keep in mind is that in most cases, patients in the study also used a topical Retinoic Acid or Retinol based product in conjunction with the skin needling. However some independent dermatologists do claim to see positive scar reduction outcomes in their patients, and another upside is that it does offer a cost effective alternative to fractional laser resurfacing. In general, skin needling is a long term commitment of 1-2yrs of combined in office and at home treatment.

The effects of skin needling differ according to needle gauge, length and the manual pressure that’s used with the roller. Therefore the level of skin invasion and subsequent inflammation on the skin can vary from gentle stimulation to piercing the skin and drawing fluids, i.e. blood and lymph. With the variances of effects skin needling rollers can have, most devices are disposed of in the appropriate biohazard container or are properly sanitized and given directly to the same client for at home use. Whichever method is observed, it is important that correct sanitation measures are followed to prevent the chance of cross contamination from occurring. As with many methods, it’s vital to respect the boundaries of medical, professional, and at-home tools, and skin benefits shouldn’t be confused. Dermabrasion, microdermabrasion, and crystal-containing scrubs come to mind! The marketing hype can baffle the end user and incense the professional!

Different Needles Different Outcomes
A roller with wide gauge, short length needles that are under 0.25mm in length is generally non-invasive and cannot cause trauma to the skin, but rather it stimulates and provides gentle exfoliation while increasing superficial circulation. This action, much like manual massage and other electrical modalities, may enhance the penetration and absorption of active ingredients into the deeper layers of the skin. Therefore, additional age fighting skin benefits can be achieved when skin needling is combined with products that contain collagen boosting and skin fortifying ingredients like Retinol, Vitamin C and Peptides.

The longer, thinner needles around 1.0mm or 1.5mm in length are more hazardous; the potential for breaking the skin, drawing fluids, causing injury and subsequent risk of infection is much higher. Extreme caution must be used as this is considered highly invasive and high risk. It may also be beyond a skin therapist’s legal scope of practice. Therefore, this procedure is best conducted under medical supervision as adverse reactions and post procedure complications can occur. When the barrier of the skin is compromised to this degree, bacterial skin infections, adverse skin reactions, post inflammatory hyperpigmentation and premature aging (due to inflammatory mediators being drawn to the area) can result. Products that are calming and anti-inflammatory would be ideal to soothe any inflammation post needling, and for pre-care the most important aspect is that the skin is thoroughly clean to prevent any possibly risk of infection.

In my opinion the jury is definitely still out on this skin treatment.  I would like to see more real scientific research done on the subject before offering a concrete opinion if this is a skincare treatment to pursue.  If you are an esthetician who does micro needling I would love for you to comment below, and if you have tried micro needling please comment below as well.

 

Sources and Further Reading:

• A Collagen Boosting Alternative: Dermal Micro Needling - LNE & Spa, February 2012 pages 32 – 36
• Is Micro-Needling Too Good to Be True? – About.com
• Skin Needling:  Hurting or Helping? by Annet King – The International Dermal Institute
• My Experiment with Micro Needling - Gouldylox Reviews - a great first hand account from a real person trying micro needling.  By the way, this is a great blog for make-up tips and tricks.
• Beware of Micro Needling - Truth in Aging
• Genuine Dermaroller Therapy Review - Love Lust and Fairy Dust - another first hand review of derma rolling.  This time the derma rolling was done by a doctor.

Image from Derma-Rollers.com

Acupuncture Facelifts – Do They Really Work? January 5, 2012

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In the quest to look younger many women turn to surgery, skincare products, and injections.  I’m all for looking your best because when you feel that you look good those positive feelings radiate out into the rest of your life.  The traditional Western ways to stay looking young involve injectable fillers, Botox, and even cosmetic surgery but it turns out that there are other ways to look younger such as trying facial acupuncture.

Personally, I am a very strong believer in acupuncture.  I have been going regularly to an acupuncturist for over a year and a half and love it.  I love acupuncture because it helps me with stress relief, PMS relief, and overall well-being.  Also acupuncture treats the body as a whole and does not separate emotional wellbeing from physical wellbeing.  I think a holistic outlook on health, including skincare health and beauty, is important.

What is Acupuncture?

Here is a great summary of what acupuncture is and how it works:

Traditional  acupuncture is an ancient Chinese form of natural medicine that dates back  approximately 5,000 years. It has developed from careful observation of the  workings of the body and how the environment affects it. The principle behind the  medicine is to view and treat the body, mind and emotions as a single unit,  working on the cause of the illness, not the  symptoms. In many countries it is a primary form  of health care; in the hospitals in China it  is used directly alongside Western Medicine.
Here is a simple analogy to get a basic understanding of how our body is viewed in Chinese Medicine: Think of the body as a complex system of water pipes which need to be in good health for     everything to work smoothly. When a blockage develops in a pipe somewhere it affects the workings of the entire system and generates symptoms. This is akin to what happens when an injury or     disease affects our body. These “pipes” which run all over our body are called meridians. The “water” which flows through them is named Qi (Chi). The Chinese mapped out these meridians over the course of almost a thousand years. By inserting a needle into specific points along these pathways, the blockages can be removed and harmony returned to the body. Whilst  several research studies are being performed to explain how Acupuncture works  in a Western Medical Framework, these scientists have not yet been able to  explain how it works exactly; however, they have provided solid evidence that  acupuncture does in fact work very well.

The benefits of Traditional Chinese Medicine are:

• Drug-free pain relief without the side effects

• Boosts the immune system against disease

• Treats the cause as well as the symptoms

• Effectively treats many common ailments

• An all natural form of Medicine

• A good form of maintenance and prevention

• Can prevent chronic conditions from further deteriorating

 (Source:  Traditional Healing Acupuncture Clinic)

Facial Acupuncture 

How exactly does facial acupuncture work?  According to Mary Elizabeth Wakefield, one of the leaders in practicing and teaching facial acupuncture in the US, facial acupuncture is:

… a safe, painless and effective treatment for renewing the face as well as the whole body. Fine lines may be entirely erased, deeper lines reduced and bags around neck and eyes firmed.

Fine needles are placed at a variety of acupuncture points on the face, neck and around the eyes to stimulate the body’s natural energies, or Qi. Since muscle groups are addressed as well the acupuncture points, the face lifts itself, via the acupuncture points, through the muscles’ toning and tightening action. The needles also stimulate blood and circulation, which improves facial color.

Benefits

Constitutional:

• Improves acne (caused by hormonal imbalance)
• Helps menopause, perimenopause, PMS and other GYN issues
• Helps sinus congestion and headache
• Improves hyper- and hypothyroidism
• Reduces symptoms of toothache, TMJ, trigeminal neuralgia, and Bell’s palsy
• Helps headaches (except severe migraine)
• Treats diarrhea and constipation (most digestive issues)
• Helps to eliminate edema and puffiness
• Benefits eyes, ears and brain
• Can help insomnia and dizziness
• Helps depression and aids self-esteem

Facial:

• Improves collagen production and muscle tone
• Helps reduce bags and sagging tendencies
• Helps eliminate fine lines and diminish larger wrinkles
• Helps reduce double chin and lift drooping eyelids
• Improves metabolism
• Tightens pores and brightens eyes
• Increases local blood and lymph circulation
• Improves facial color
• Reduces stress and promotes total health and well-being

Short and Long-Term Effects of Facial Acupuncture

After the first treatment, one usually observes an increased glow to the complexion, the result of increased Qi and blood flow to the face. The person’s face appears more “open”, there is a clarity in the eyes (“clear Shen”), and the patient appears to be more rested; wrinkles start to lessen and the skin appears more toned.

A significant difference in their appearance can be ascertained following the 5th to 7th treatments; even more marked changes in wrinkles, skin tone, etc. The impression of relaxation and calm is more pronounced; they appear as if they have returned from vacation. Lifting of the jowls, neck and the eyes has begun and is usually noticeable. With continuing treatment, constitutional issues like digestive complaints have been ameliorated or subsided.

By the end of a series, the patient should look and feel 5-15 years younger. These results may vary slightly, depending upon how well the patient has taken care of themselves during the process, and afterward. At this stage, booster treatments provide ongoing support within a normal process of aging.

If you are interested in pursuing facial acupuncture as an anti-aging method be aware of the fact that there is quite an investment of time required to see results.  (This is true with any acupuncture treatments since Traditional Chinese Medicine works differently and more slowly usually than Western medicine techniques and medications).  Once again according to Mary Elizabeth Wakefield:

How Long is the Treatment?

Constitutional Facial Acupuncture™ involves the patient in an organic process, in which a series of treatments is necessary to achieve maximal effect. After an initial session, practitioner evaluates the patient’s response, and then can determine the number of follow-up visits that will be required:

After this evaluation, and taking into consideration other variables such as stress, diet, lifestyle, genetic inheritance, proper digestion and elimination, sleep, emotional balance, and age, the following durations of treatment are customarily recommended:

• Usually 12-15 treatments;
• 20 treatments for smokers or people whose skin tends to sag, i.e., who manifest jowls, “turkey wattles,” droopy eyes, etc.

It should be noted that age is not as crucial as might be estimated; an older patient with a healthy lifestyle may in fact have a better prognosis than a younger person who is prone to dissipate themselves.

Treatment Timeline:

• 2 times a week (if possible), for 45 minutes to 1 hour; or
• 1 treatment per week, 90 minutes

Maintenance Treatments:

Within the normal parameters of aging, the completion of a series of treatments should be effective. To ensure the persistence of the results, ongoing maintenance treatments are recommended:

1. Every 2 weeks for 2 months following the completion of a treatment series, then once a month for an indefinite amount of time;
2. Of course, the patient can also embark upon a subsequent series after a week’s respite

Cost of the treatments varies widely according to who you go to and where you live, but overall investing in this treatment could be less costly in the end than getting surgery or regular fillers and Botox (or both).

Of course not everyone is so gung-ho about facial acupuncture as an anti-aging cure-all:

Rhoda Narins, MD, president of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, says she thinks acupuncture has its place, especially as a pain reliever. But she doesn’t believe in it as a replacement for cosmetic treatments such as surgery, Botox injections, and the like. “Acupuncture doesn’t stop the muscle movement that creates lines,” she says. “Botox does.” Nor can acupuncture tighten or “fill” the skin as surgery or injectable fillers such as Restylane can.

Too many “extreme makeovers” on television are leading many of us to believe that a new look is a no-muss, no-fuss proposition. “That’s just not the case,” says Narins. “Changing your appearance is not something that should be taken lightly.”

(Source:  Acupuncture: The New Facelift?  WebMD)

If you feel that you want to try facial acupuncture you can find an acupuncturist through Mary Elizabeth Wakefield’s referral list.

Further Reading (and lots of first hand accounts from those who tried facial acupuncture):

• Stick It To Me - The New York Times T Magazine (Be sure to check out all the comments on this article)
• A Facelift Through Acupuncture?  – Washingtonian
• The Art Of The Needle from Adventures in Beauty: O‘s Beauty Editors Take the Plunge from O Magazine
• Watch a demo of how facial acupuncture is performed from The Dr. Oz Show

Photo from skincarebeautyzone.com

How to Fix Your Aging Eyebrows October 6, 2011

I’ve said it already, but I’ll say it again – having a well-groomed eyebrow makes a huge, positive difference in how you look.  But as we age our eyebrows change – they become sparse, the hair grays, or they become overgrown.

Luckily there are many quick fixes for all these issues.  If any of the above eyebrow issues sound familiar think about having a few products on hand in order to look your best.

Sparse Eyebrows:

As we age our hair can thin out.  If your brows have become sparse fill them in with brow powder.  Choose a color that either exactly matches your brow hair color or one that is slightly darker.  Use a small, stiff angled brush to apply the powder.  Be sure to tap your brush after dipping it into your brow powder so that you don’t apply too much powder then use short strokes to apply the powder to your brows.  If you feel like you overdid it take a spoolie brush or a disposable mascara brush and gently run it through your brows to remove excess powder.  You can also use a brow pencil to fill in your brows or a combination of brow powder and pencil.   You can set everything when you are done with brow gel – either tinted or clear.  One last tip – use Latisse to grow your brow hairs back in.  Just as Latisse makes eyelashes longer, darker, and thicker it will do the same for your eyebrow hair.  You can also try Rogaine on your brows for similar results.  One thing to keep in mind when it comes to Latisse and Rogaine is that they work on hair follicles that are still active; they will not work on hair follicles that have died.

Graying Brows:

Depending on how many gray hairs you have in your brows the technique you’ll use to cover them will vary.  If you have a few gray brow hairs consider using a brow marker, like TouchBack BrowMarker (there are many other products out there as well), to cover those few gray hairs.  Sometimes it is even enough to use tinted brow gel on your brows to cover the grays.  The most permanent solution for gray brow hairs is to have them dyed professionally either by an esthetician or a hairstylist.

Overgrown Brows:

Our hair can become long and coarse as we age making our brows look unruly.  The best solution for this is to trim your brow hairs.  Using a spoolie brush or a clean mascara brush push your eyebrow hairs up.  Use a small scissors to trim the ends off the hairs.  Brush the hair back into place to see if you trimmed enough.  Also brush the hairs down and then trim any that appear excessively long.  Once your brow hair lies flat again use a brow gel to keep it in place.  Trim your brow hairs as often as needed.

Source:

• Don’t Let Your Brows Age You – Prevention Magazine

How Wrinkles Form September 12, 2011

We’re all going to get them eventually.  There’s no way to stop from getting a wrinkle though there are numerous ways to try to lessen the appearance of wrinkles and to stop them from getting deeper.

How exactly do wrinkles form in the first place?  Dr. Leslie Baumann explains the process very succinctly:

… all wrinkles are caused by the same chain of events within the skin.  Age causes uppermost epidermal cells to get thinner and less sticky, which allows moisture to seep out in turn making skin drier.  Oil glands also begin to slow down, which contributes to dryness as well.  A bit deeper in the skin, supportive scaffolding (i.e. collagen and elastin) breaks down, and skin loses its smoothness and tautness – leaving it on other choice than to wrinkle and sag.  In the skin’s lowest layer, the subcutaneous layer, fat cells begin to shrink, so they are less able to “fill in” or plump out damage in the skin’s other layers.

There are quite a few factors that contribute negatively to this skin chain of events:

• Sun exposure:  UV rays breakdown our collagen and elastin.  One of the easiest ways to prevent wrinkles and skin laxity is to be a vigilant sunscreen user – every day (no matter the weather) and to reapply throughout the day if you are outside or by a window.  Yes, aging UV rays can pass through glass.
• Repeated facial expressions:  Areas of the face, like by the eyes or the forehead, wrinkle because of repeated use of that area.  Just as lines become a permanent part of a piece of paper that has been folded and refolded facial lines become etched in your skin.
• Genetics:  How your parents aged can work both for and against you.  Some people win in the skin lottery – their DNA actually protects them from aging.  On the other hand, other people lose out when it comes to aging.  Think about how your parents looked in their 60s in order to determine how you may look at that age as well.
• Skin color:  The lighter your skin tone is the less natural sun protection you have (that doesn’t mean that someone with darker skin can forgo daily sun protection – everyone needs sunscreen).  Darker skin tones show wrinkles later than those with light skin.
• Your health:  poor health can adversely affect your skin.  The medications you are prescribed can also have a negative effect on your skin.
• Your diet:  Though there continues to be quite a bit of debate over how our diet affects our skin a few things are clear – it is always best for your overall health and your skin’s health to eat a diet low in processed foods and full of multi-colored fruits and vegetables.  Omega-3 rich foods (fish, walnuts, and almonds for example) are anti-inflammatory which protects the skin from aging.  (Many experts believe that skin inflammation is at the root of skin aging).
• Lack of sleep and stress:  Both of these factors can cause your body and your skin to age faster than it would normally.  See my previous posts for more information on both of these topics:  No Lie – Why You Really Do Need Your Beauty Sleep and Stress and Your Skin.
• Smoking:  Cigarettes are a killer.  They kill your body and your looks.  See my previous post for more details:  How Smoking Ruins Your Skin.

I want to end this post on a positive note so let me once again quote Dr. Baumann for some easy advice on preventing and correcting facial wrinkles:

So now you’re probably wondering what you can do about wrinkles?  If you haven’t already started preventing signs of aging by wearing sunscreen every day, it’s not too late.  To repair wrinkles, retinoids are the most effective skincare ingredient available today because they address these aging changes within the skin.  These vitamin A derivatives boost your skin’s collagen production and help thicken the uppermost layer of the skin.  Together, these actions smooth the appearance of wrinkles and keep skin looking its best.

 

Sources and Further Reading:

• The Anatomy of A Wrinkle - Skin Type Solution Library: Tips
• Simple Skin Beauty by Ellen Marmur, MD – Chapter 3:  Factors That Influence Your Skin

Younger Looking Hands August 15, 2011

If you really want to tell someone’s age don’t look at their face – look at their hands.  So often people forget to care for their hands and simply concentrate all their anti-aging efforts on their faces.

Over a year ago I wrote a blog post called Give Your Hands Some TLC, but I thought I would revisit the subject of caring for your hands with a few new tips and product recommendations.

Just as there is a solution for every skin issue that you have with your facial skin there is also a solution for the skin issues on your hands as well.  First off, you can use the anti-aging products you use on your face on your hands too.  Retinols, either prescription or OTC, will help smooth your hands and stimulate collagen production so that your hands will eventually look younger.

If you spend a lot of time outside either working, playing sports, or driving consider wearing gloves.  During the summer you can wear fingerless gloves like these gloves from Coolibar.

If your hands have lost a lot of their volume consider injections like Radiesse or Restylane to restore volume and help build collagen.  This procedure can also help hide prominent veins.  Or consider laser treatments which can get rid of sun damage, age spots, crepiness, and help build collagen as well.  Just as you can have a chemical peel performed on your face in order to treat hyperpigmentation and fine lines the same thing can be done on your hands.  As always with chemical peels – a series of peels usually yields the best results.

If you aren’t ready for treatments that only a doctor can provide like the injections or the laser treatments be sure to keep your hands well moisturized and to use spf on your hands.  Moisturizer temporarily plumps the skin leading to a smoother appearance.  You could even apply a moisturizing hand mask like this mask from OPI.  Using spf daily, and reapplying before you go outside, helps prevent sun spots and collagen loss over time.

 

Sources and Further Reading:

• Take Time Off Your Hands – Literally - Skin Type Solution Library in Tips section
• New Medical Esthetic Treatments Available for Aging Hands – Skin Inc.
• Expert Tips on Turning Back the Hands of Time - WebMD
• How to Get Younger-Looking Hands - More Magazine
• Do You Have Old-Lady Hands?  – Allure
• New Beauty - Fall 2010 issue, pages 50-52

Stop Doing Those Facial Exercises! Give Yourself a Facial Massage Instead April 11, 2011

A while back a college friend of mine contacted me via Facebook to tell me that she was doing facial exercises nightly in order to maintain and improve her appearance and thought that she was getting good results.  But she was wondering if perhaps she was just seeing things and if facial exercises actually work.  I quickly emailed her back with a link to Paula Begoun’s take on facial exercise which, in a word, is that they are bogus. 

What are facial exercises anyhow?  I’ll quote from the book The Yoga Facelift in order to explain:

Facial expressions that reflect worry, unhappiness, and anger have a way of becoming permanent.  The good news is that we are not stuck with what we see in the mirror – if we don’t like what we see, we can change it.  There are a number of ways we can effect change.  First of all, from a purely physical stand-point, exercises do a lot to counteract the effects of time and gravity.  Over time our muscles lengthen as gravity pulls ever downward, causing the sagging we start to see everywhere in our faces; eyes start to droop, foreheads and cheeks sag, and jowls start to form until it’s almost like watching a snowman melt in slow motion.  Exercising shortens muscles, and so we end up with tighter, firmer faces as we tone the musculature underneath.  This method of addressing sagging is far superior to plastic surgery, the other option, because it actually improves your appearance over time. 

 

Sounds rather persuasive, doesn’t it?  The program outlined in this book takes an hour to perform and you need to do that hour long program once a day for about three months before you can go on a maintenance program that only requires you to do facial exercises for 10 to 15 minutes a day.  I tried a number of the exercises in the book just for fun.  Some were strange, uncomfortable, and difficult to do while others were just relaxing.  Truthfully even if I did believe that facial exercises worked I certainly don’t have a free hour each day to perform them.  But even if you do have that amount of free time to devote to facial exercises don’t waste your time!  Here’s why (I like how Paula Begoun explains why facial exercises don’t work so I’ll quote her here):

For the most part, facial exercises are more a problem for skin than a help. Facial exercises provide little or no benefit because loss of muscle tone is not a major cause of wrinkles or sagging skin. In fact, muscle tone is barely involved in these at all. The skin’s sagging and drooping are caused by four major factors:

1. Deteriorated collagen and elastin (due primarily to sun damage);
2. Depletion of the skin’s fat layer (a factor of genetic aging and gravity);
3. Repetitive facial movement (particularly true for the forehead frown lines and for smile lines from the nose to the mouth);
4. Muscle sagging due to the loosening of facial ligaments that hold the muscles in place.

Facial exercise is not helpful for worn-out collagen, elastin, or the skin’s fat layer, because none of that is about the muscles. It is especially not helpful for the lines caused by facial movement! Instead, facial exercises only make those areas appear more lined. The reason Botox injections into the muscles of the forehead and facial lines work to create a smoother face is because Botox prevents the muscles from moving!

Facial exercises won’t reattach facial ligaments; that is only possible via surgery. One procedure in a surgical face-lift is to re-drape the muscle of the cheek and the jaw, drawing it back and then literally stitching it back in place where it used to be. Exercise doesn’t reattach the ligaments, it just tones the sagging.

The ads for facial exercises often tout the fact that the facial muscles are the only muscles in the body that insert (or attach) into skin rather than into bone. They then use this fact to explain why, if you tone facial muscles, they directly affect the appearance of the skin. What this doesn’t say is that skin movement is one of the things that causes the skin to sag. If you are doing facial exercises and can see your skin move or frown lines and laugh lines look more apparent, it only makes matters worse.

 Now if doing facial exercises relax you after a long day then that is the only time I am all for them.  If you really want to do your skin and face some good consider giving yourself a nightly facial massage.  By giving yourself a short facial massage you are able to release tension that you hold in your face, relax, destress, relieve muscle pain, and make yourself feel good.  A facial massage also stimulates blood flow to your face and helps with your circulation.

In my opinion the easiest facial massage you can do on yourself is a pressure point massage.  Take your index fingers and gently make about 15 circles on the pressure point.  See the photos below for some ideas of where you can find pressure points on your face.  Only press as hard as you feel comfortable.  The idea is relax not hurt yourself.  I hold a lot of tension in my jaw so I particularly like to rub that pressure point.  A pressure point massage can be performed on any skin type even on someone with acne.  You can do it while watching TV.  Give it a try – you won’t regret it!

How Smoking Ruins Your Skin March 31, 2011

I guess I remain surprised that people still smoke.  It has been proven time and again that smoking causes cancer and can kill you – so I ask myself “why do people still smoke?”.  I even know lots of estheticians who smoke which surprises me on so many levels especially since an esthetician knows very well how smoking can ruin your skin.

Let me break it down for you how smoking ruins your skin:  smoking causes your blood vessels to constrict which means your skin literally starts to asphyxiate - you’re starving your skin cells of oxygen.  Since oxygen isn’t getting to your cells in order to help them rebuild they don’t regenerate as quickly as normal and your skin cell turnover slows down.  As you continue to smoke you’ll get fine lines around your lips, and your skin will be rougher and thicker not to mention dull in color.  The carcinogens in the tobacco smoke degrades collagen and elastin, just as sunlight does, so your skin becomes less elastic and more wrinkled over time.  As you smoke you overuse certain muscles in the face leaving you not only with the wrinkles around the mouth, as already mentioned, but with lines between your eyes and crow’s-feet from squinting all the time (see the photo below as an illustration of what this looks like).  Additionally, smoking can make undereye circles worse.  And if all those bad things that can happen to your skin from smoking aren’t enough to convince you to quit smoking also know that smoking is associated with the development of skin cancer because of the build-up of toxins around your face and mouth and the damage caused to the DNA in the skin tissue from the smoke.

I’ll leave you with this statistic as a last thought.  According to The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 23% of smokers think smoking looks attractive, versus 1.5% of nonsmokers.  So smoking does NOT equal sexy.

 

Source:  Simple Skin Beauty by Dr. Ellen Marmur – pages 46-47

Further reading:  Get Serious with Clients About Smoking - Skin Inc.

Does Secondhand Smoke Cause Damage to My Skin? - Renee Rouleau

 

New Trends in Anti-Aging Procedures: “Vampire” Facelift and Ultherapy March 7, 2011

I recently read with great interest two articles about new in office anti-aging procedures.  The first article was in Harper’s Bazaar, and it was about a new nonsurgical browlift called Ultherapy.  The second article was in The New York Times Skin Deep series about a new trend in facelifts called the “vampire facelift”.    Neither of these procedures are surgical or invasive.  The so-called vampire facelift falls under the category of “liquid facelifts” which is a facial rejuvenation procedure that normally means fillers and Botox are used to create a temporary change in the appearance of one’s face without surgery.   Ultherapy uses ultrasound technology and heat to lift the brows and rejuvenate one’s appearance.

I’ll begin by discussing the vampire facelift.   Let me quote The New York Times article in order to further explain the vampire facelift:

[this procedure] entails having blood drawn from your arm, then spun in a centrifuge to separate out the platelets. They are then injected into your face, with the hope of stimulating new collagen production. Selphyl, as the system is called, arrived on the booming facial-rejuvenation market in 2009, and is now used by roughly 300 doctors nationwide in the name of beauty, said Sanjay Batra, the chief executive of Aesthetic Factors, which manufactures the Selphyl system.

Why would someone choose to pursue this procedure as opposed to having Botox and fillers injected into their face? 

Ghoulish as the procedure sounds, some patients prefer the idea of using their own blood rather than a neurotoxin or synthetic filler to rejuvenate their faces. “We all want to look better,” said Joan Sarlo, 56, who underwent a Selphyl “vamp-lift” performed by Dr. Lisa A. Zdinak, a Manhattan-based doctor whose specialty is ophthalmic plastic surgery. But the “less unnatural the better,” Ms. Sarlo said. “What could be better than your own blood?”

Some doctors say that fillers taken from one’s body are less likely to cause irregularities and bumps in thin-skinned areas than synthetic ones like Sculptra Aesthetic. But at this point, it’s hard to tell whether “platelet-rich fibrin matrix,” or P.R.F.M. (the medical term for the golden-hued platelets that Selphyl extracts), is an effective filler for hollowed-out cheeks and wrinkles.

But for me the crux of any cosmetic procedure comes down to safety and proof that the procedure is safe through FDA approval as opposed to testimonials and heresy.  And here is where things get messy, excuse the pun, with the vampire facelift:

What’s more, doctors and consumers aren’t clear on where Selphyl stands with the F.D.A. In a YouTube video featuring Dr. John Argerson, a board-certified family medicine doctor who works out of Refine MediSpa in Johnson City, Tenn., tells consumers that Selphyl is a “newly F.D.A.-approved filler” for nose-to-lip folds. And in a December 2009 article in Dermatology Times, a trade publication, Dr. Ranella Hirsch, a board-certified dermatologist, said Selphyl is “a new F.D.A. approved dermal filler.” This week, Dr. Hirsch, who doesn’t use Selphyl in her practice, said that she couldn’t explain why she misspoke, adding in an e-mail that “the lack of clarity between F.D.A. approval versus F.D.A. clearance to market is a key point.”

Indeed. The F.D.A. has not approved or cleared P.R.F.M. derived in a Selphyl centrifuge to be marketed for facial rejuvenation. In 2002, the agency cleared a blood-collection system called Fibrinet, whose platelet-rich byproducts orthopedic doctors then used to speed tissue repair. In 2009, this same machine was born again as Selphyl, and since then, the company promoted it as a way to “reverse the natural aging process.” This week, Shelly Burgess, an F.D.A. spokeswoman, said that Selphyl’s maker would have to file an amendment to get clearance to market its blood collection system in a new way, and no such amendment could be found at this writing.

Asked whether Aesthetic Factors’ marketing of Selphyl for cosmetic rejuvenation violated any F.D.A. policy, Ms. Burgess simply wrote, “As a regulatory agency we would not discuss whether a firm’s claims violate our regulations.”

In light of the fact that there is little to no clinical data that this procedure works as claimed, and furthermore since the FDA has neither cleared nor approved this procedure I would steer clear of doing it until there is such approval.  There are so many safe options for liquid facelifts that there is really no need to try something that is still in trial stages.  Who knows?  Maybe 15 years from now a vampire facelift will be the norm but until then I would suggest that you proceed with caution.

 

 

Ultherapy is very different from the vampire facelift described above.  This procedure uses ultrasound heat on your forehead in order to greatly increase collagen production beneath the skin’s surface.  As collagen production increases in that area of your face your brow firms.  Immediately after getting the treatment you will see a smoothing effect, and as your collagen production increases over time your results will improve in the months to come.  And what might be the best news of all, these results are pretty much permanent though some patients may need a touch up in a year.  Ultherapy costs somewhere between $1,000 to $4,000 and has been cleared by the FDA for use on the forehead (according to the Harper’s Bazaar article).  If the machine is used incorrectly a burn could result because of the intense heat generated by the machine.  That heat can also make the procedure less than comfortable. 

According to an article in the April, 2011 issue of Vogue (which I can’t find online unfortunately) Ultherapy can be used on both the face and the neck not just the forehead.  The article explains how Ultherapy works thusly:

Thermal energy bypasses the upper layers of the skin (those conventionally targeted by Fraxel and Thermage), safely heating the underlying connective tissue that lines the facial muscles.  That tissue contracts, resulting in an immediate tighting and, ultimately, a tangible lift.  …  In an attempt to target multiple layers of tissue, doctors then set the device to a shallower depth and make a second pass with the hand piece, this time intentionally aiming its heat at the skin’s upper layers in order to stimulate line-smoothing collagen production.

Furthermore, according to the Vogue article it takes about an hour to complete both the neck and the face using ultrasonic imaging so the doctor performing the procedure can view each layer of the muscle and skin as they work on the patient.  Risks include some swelling and bruising and a feeling of tightness for a few days following the procedure.  And one more thing, the procedure doesn’t feel so great.  It can feel like a hot prickling sensation to intense and short bursts of pain.  

Overall as an option for slowing down the aging process Ultherapy sounds promising.  You can try it out if you feel that your face needs a lift but you aren’t ready for a facelift yet.

One more note – it turns out both of these procedures have been featured on The Rachael Ray Show , How to Look 10 Years Younger,  which has made me wonder – do I need to start watching The Rachael Ray Show in order to keep up with cosmetic procedure trends?  I always thought her show was all about cooking. 

Nutritional Supplements and Your Skin or Eating Your Way to Better Skin October 20, 2010

I’ve been debating a long time about how to approach this subject on my blog.  Though I definitely think that the subject needs to addressed I’ve never been quite sure how to approach it mainly because the scope of the subject is so large.   But I finally decided that it is time to take the plunge and write this post.

There are quite a few things that need to be mentioned here.  One is the issue of a healthy diet and how to affects your skin.  Another entirely separate issue is that of supplements, in pill form or drink form, that claim to address all sorts of skin issues from acne to aging.   I actually already wrote two posts debunking the idea that you can drink collagen in order to get smoother skin (see my posts Can You Drink Your Way to Firmer Skin?  and Taste Test) and have even addressed the issue of diet and acne in an earlier post, but I felt it was time to delve a bit deeper into the issue.

 

Healthy Diet = Healthy Skin?

 

Everyone of us already knows that in order to stay healthy we should, ideally follow, a healthy diet.  At the very least we should reduce our intake of fast food, fatty foods, and excessive amounts of sugar and processed foods.  So if we follow a healthy diet will this be reflected in our skin?  Many experts would say yes.  But just what are we supposed to eat in order to maintain a youthful glow?  Well that opens up a lot of room for debate.   One of the biggest advocates for eating a certain diet in order to get and then maintain beautiful skin is Dr. Perricone.  His books are widely available if you want to check out his ideas and food plans. 

In an article for her Beauty Bulletin – The Best Foods for Beautiful Skin - Paula Begoun recommends eating berries, salmon, walnuts, whole grains, and yogurt (among other foods) in order to maintain healthy skin.  Much of that advice is reflected in Chapter 4: Beauty and The Buffet of celebrity esthetician Kate Somerville’s book Complexion Perfection!.  Somerville, like Begoun, tells her readers to eat salmon, whole grains, and berries.  Additionally, Somerville also recommends eating black beans, almonds, flaxseed, and sweet potatoes (plus other foods).  A one day sample menu for healthy eating is even provided in her book.

But my favorite advice about diet and your skin comes from Dr. Amy Wechsler’s wonderful book The Mind Beauty Connection.  (I highly recommend this book if you want to better understand how stress and lifestyle choices affect your skin)  Chapter 7 of the book is entitled The Beauty Buffet and Bar: Optimum Diet Choices for Beautiful Skin, and the chapter does an excellent job in explaining why certain foods may positively impact the appearance of your skin and how a healthy diet can help the health of your skin.  While rereading this chapter of Wechsler’s book for the writing of this post I was struck by both the logic and insight of what she wrote time and again.   I think it is a good idea to share some quotes from the above mentioned chapter (pages 167-169): 

There is no magic pill, potion, formula for beauty.  Too many things coalesce in our bodies to produce either the results we want or don’t want. … There is … plenty of scientific proof about eating certain foods to support your skin and health, while avoiding others that can sabotage your beauty goals.  Don’t panic:  The point is not for you to do anything too unrealistic, such as suddenly savor wheatgrass juice or spoon flaxseed oil in your mouth every morning.  …  Remember, this isn’t about going on a specific diet.  It’s ultimately up to you to make modifications in how you eat so you can move over to a lifetime of healthy eating – and limitless beauty.  As with any healthy eating guidelines, the goal here is to supply your cells and systems with the raw materials they need to function efficiently and optimally, inside and out.  You don’t want to give your body any excuse to age prematurely, so you need to be sure that at any given time it has all the resources it requires to stay alive, hydrated, and nourished to the max. 

Nutritional medicine is a rapidly growing area of research that will continue to gain momentum as we learn more and more about the connections between nutrition and health – not just in relation to skin health, but all kinds of health concerns.  In fact, the link between nutrition and diseases like obesity, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease are well documented.  I expect us to learn more and more about the powerful influences diet can have on our skin health and ability to slow down the inevitable decline we call aging and its appearance on our bodies.  Because we know that oxidative stress, inflammation, and, to a lesser extent, genetics, are the chief agers in our bodies, and because they spur chronic conditions that wear us down physically, gaining the upper hand on these as best we can is key.  And if diet can help this in any way, then we should be paying attention.

I also want to note that there is no single approach to optimizing health and beauty, and that diet alone is not the answer.  …  The combination of proven skin-care techniques, relaxation therapies to dampen stress, exercise, restful sleep, and diet are all important and play a part in your looks on the inside and the outside.  It would be impossible to say which of these factors is more important than the other.  They all bear weight, and perhaps which one carries the most depends on the individual, especially as they relate to a person’s genetics and other lifestyle choices.

 

Like Begoun and Somerville, Dr. Wechsler also recommends eating berries, nuts, and salmon, among other foods.  (I am starting to sense a theme here)  Furthermore, Dr. Wechsler is a big advocate of drinking lots of green tea throughout the day and taking a multivitamin.

 

What About Nutritional Supplements?

 

More than one well-known skincare expert/source sells nutritional supplements than claim, as already mentioned, to clear your skin or prevent aging.  To name just a few, you can buy supplements from Perricone MD , Murad, and Kate Somerville.  (As an esthetician I do not recommend a certain diet or any supplements to my clients.  That is an area that is well outside my expertise.  If a client does ask me about such issues I recommend that they look at Dr. Perricone’s books or Dr. Wechsler’s book and leave the final decision on what to do up to the individual.)  It definitely is alluring to think that all you need to do is pop a few pills a day, recommended by a skincare expert no less, in order to look beautiful.  Yet let me debunk that idea.  Once again I’ll quote from The Mind Beauty Connection (page 194):

 The Truth About Vitamin C and E Supplements and Skin Vitamins:

What about individual nutrients or special skin-health formulas that claim to improve skin?  These grab-bag concoctions, which are mostly a mix of antioxidants, are hugely popular.  However, there’s minimal proof of payoff, at least right now.  Oodles of isolated antioxidants like vitamins C and E and phyto-chemicals like those found in green tea have been dazzling in the test tube.  When fed to lab animals, they have been marvelous at protecting against sun damage, wrinkles, and cancer; making skin softer, moister, and smoother; and halting inflammation and signs of agin.  Those effects almost disappear when single-nutrient pills are tested in people.  Green tea polyphenol pills, for example, protect mice skin from UV damage and skin cancer but do nada for human skin.  In a topic form, however green tea is anti-inflammatory and photoprotective.

In fact, studies of isolated antioxidant pills in humans have overall been not only disappointing but actually worrisome.  Disappointing because the supplements haven’t staved off health trouble.  Worrisome because studies have shown that people with various diseases, from heart problems to liver aliments, who took vitamins A, E, and/or beta-carotene supplements, either to try and stop the disease or keep it from coming back, had a greater risk of dying than those who didn’t.

Punch line: The more research we do on antioxidants, the more it looks like the work best in our bodies when they are consumed with other vitamins, minerals, and probably other components we haven’t even discovered yet.  All of the antioxidants nutrients you need come packaged together whenever you eat a stalk of broccoli or a juicy plum or a slice of multigrain walnut- raisin bread.  Put simply:  Eat whole foods.

 

Need further proof?  During the months I was contemplating how to write this post I came across a great article in the The New York Times by Alex Kuczynski called The Beauty-From-Within Market.  Kuczynski concisely addresses just these issues:  how Americans love the idea of nutritional supplements and if they really work:

Americans take pills to scrub our arteries, to relax us for airplane flights, to deforest our nasal passages of mucus and to remoisten our tear ducts. We take pills to sharpen our memory, to forget the awful things that have happened to us, to revitalize our libidos and to fall into a stuporous, amnesiac, refrigerator-clearing sleep.

Like children wishing for magical results in a fairy tale, we can now also take pills to make us pretty. These are supplements sold at yoga studios, department stores, hair salons, some dermatology offices and even on QVC; they promise to even skin tone, reduce lines and wrinkles, shrink pores and offer protection from the sun. Along with food and drink that promote external beauty, these are part of what is known as the beauty-from-within industry, and it’s growing fast.  …

The global beauty-from-within market – comprising beauty foods, beverages and oral beauty supplements – totaled $5.9 billion in 2008 and $6.3 billion in 2009, and is projected to be up to $6.8 billion in 2010, according to Datamonitor, a market research company that studies the skin care market. (To compare, the global skin care market – which includes cleaners, moisturizers and anything you apply to the surface of your skin — is projected to reach $65.7 billion in 2010.)

 

Kuczynski tried the supplement Glisodin and didn’t see much of result with her skin.  She also interviewed two experts for her article (of course when I saw that one of the experts interviewed was Dr. Wechsler I was very happy):

Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University… is the queen of skepticism on the purported beauty benefits of supplements. “Lecture time,” Nestle said. “If you eat any kind of reasonable diet you will not have deficiencies that can be addressed by vitamins. All you are going to do is pee them out.”

The irony, she said, is that people who have little need for supplementary vitamins and minerals are the ones most predisposed to take them. “People with disposable income to spend on vitamins, who are interested in their health and well-being, these are the people who need them the least,” she said. And people who care about their skin enough to take beauty vitamins are also probably wearing sunscreen and using moisturizer. “It is very hard to demonstrate health in people who are already healthy,” she said. And it is also difficult to gauge improved dermatological health in people who already practice good skin habits.

The chief problem with beauty supplements,  said [Dr. Amy Wechsler, a dermatologist in Manhattan], is that no matter how effective the delivery system, very little nutrients can reach the skin from a pill. In other words, my skin wasn’t going to look as poreless and pure … Lady Gaga’s, just from popping a pill.

“It is very American to put hope in a bottle,” Wechsler said. “And it is also very American to try to sell that hope.”

 

Bottom Line:  Eat a healthy diet, destress, and practice good skincare habits and routines.   Don’t expect great changes from a pill. 

Further reading:  Though I did not incorporate this article into my above post it does tie in perfectly with the theme:  The Truth About Beauty Beverages:  Do Certain Drinks Deliver Beauty Benefits – Or Is That Wishful Thinking?  Experts Weigh In  -  Web MD