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10 Rules of Aging Well

Getting older is inevitable (and certainly better than the alternative). While you can’t control your age, you can slow the decline of aging with smart choices along the way. From the foods you eat and how you exercise to your friendships and retirement goals — it all has an effect on how fast or slow your body ages.  Keep reading for simple ways to keep your body tuned up and your mind tuned in. And the good news is that it’s never too late to get started. 1. Eliminate Self Destructive Behaviors This is the first step in preventing disease and meeting your later years with vitality and good health and it almost goes without saying – almost. The health toll of destructive behaviors such as smoking and excess drinking do not necessarily manifest for many years, thus discouraging motivation to stop.  It’s natural to forgo making changes when the results are seemingly intangible or minimal at best. Smokers, of course, often report almost immediate improvements in breathing, sleep, and gen

How to trigger a Cascade of Healing in your skin

  Have you ever thought about how your body heals itself after a cut? It’s miraculous, really. First, your blood clotting system jumps into action, stopping your blood from “leaking” through the wound. Over the next three days, your body destroys bacteria and removes debris from the wound site, preparing the ground for a new bed of tissue. In the third phase, your body fills the wound, creating fresh, healthy new skin. This can take anywhere up to 24 days! Finally, over several months, the new tissue gets stronger and more flexible as your body creates more collagen fibres... until the skin looks as good as new. Our bodies really are remarkable... ...But what’s even more remarkable is that scientists have found a way to use this natural process to give you a brighter, fresher, smoother complexion! Microneedling is the process of deliberately creating tiny wounds in your skin, in a safe, controlled way. This triggers the “Cascade of healing” I just described... ...M

SIGNS YOU SHOULD AVOID AN INJECTOR

  Recently, I was browsing through some of my favorite Facebook groups for aesthetic providers a nd I noticed something alarming. There was a glut of posts from inexperienced injectors, asking for advice on how to get best results with dermal   fillers. They weren’t sure whether common situations were normal  and were even asking for advice on complications. For example, one injector was concerned that her patient was experiencing swelling in her lip immediately after her appointment:   She didn’t have enough experience to know whether or not something had gone wrong. Or take this injector, who wasn’t sure whether the redness in her patient was normal:   The answer is “probably yes”, but a more experienced provider could have achieved much gentler results with a cannula and know if there's something more serious like a blood vessel compression has occured.  A lso looks like she missed the right injection point a few times, which is not great.   Meanwhile, this

HOW TO AVOID BAD RESULTS WITH FILLERS

  “What’s happened to Charlotte’s face!?” If you’ve been on Twitter or Reddit recently, you’ve probably come across lots of comments like that... It’s a reference to the character Charlotte in Sex and the City . The series, which became a cultural icon 20 years ago, recently rebooted as “ And Just Like That...” And while all the characters have aged, Charlotte looked more different than the others... Her face was much broader, her lips were strangely flat and her cheeks are unusually full. The actress, Kristin Davis, didn’t look quite like herself any more. Initially, commentators wondered whether she’d had plastic surgery. But it seems much more likely that she’s had dermal fillers - done badly.   I know that this kind of “unnatural” result is a great concern for many including my clients too. Fillers are there to help ‘plump up’ areas of the face which have lost volume with age,  ‘fill in’ fine lines and wrinkle a nd give more definition to some of the facial featur

Male Hormones: Out of Balance?

  When male hormones are out-of-whack A few nights ago, my neighbor Justin showed my husband and I his latest purchase: a beautiful sporty Lexus . We “oohed” and “aahed” in equal measures as we circled the car. “You’ll certainly turn heads in this,” I  told him. “Yeah,” he sighed. “It’s just that everyone thinks I’m having a midlife crisis...” Although we all laughed, I could tell that Justin was a little upset at this. And I can totally understand that. After all, when we think about the female ‘mid-life’, it conjures up images of menopause, hot flushes, night sweats and often a very difficult time. Mention the male mid-life stage and you’re more likely to get funny comments about mid-life crises, leaving your family, Harley Davidsons and ponytails. So let’s correct a few myths. Many people don’t believe that the ‘male menopause’ really exists, but it’s a fact of life that in their 40s, most men will have a drop in their testosterone and DHEA hormone levels. The result can be periods

I Don't Want to Change My Face

  The other day, I was at my nephew's wedding, and ended up talking to a very nice lady who asked me what I did for a living.  I told her I was an aesthetic doctor  and a aesthetic clinic owner... Her attitude immediately changed. “Oh, you do Botox injections?” She replied, shaking her head. “I’m not into that. I don’t want to change my face.” It’s a concern I hear a lot, both from strangers and from patients who come in for skin treatments, but are wary of injectables. So in case you feel the same way, I want to share with you what I told this lady. The truth is, your face is changing the whole time. After the age of 18, you lose 1% of the collagen in your skin every year. That’s the key protein that keeps your skin firm and taut - so you can imagine what happens to your skin when you’ve lost 15% or 20% of it... Meanwhile, once you hit your 40s, the ligaments which support your skin start to loosen,  and the fad pads which keep your skin nice and plump start to shrivel and move ar