by Peter G. Hanson M.D.
24. April 2009 16:28
Dermatology may only be skin deep, but it can certainly have some inner health connections. In particular, our skin can reflect a lot about our diet. In an earlier blog I reviewed the horrible effects of sugar (http://facemaster.com/Blog/post/Beauty-Skin-Care-Secret-Sugar-turns-up-the-heat!.aspx) . But while fruit Pop Tarts may be bad for your skin, fruit itself can be very helpful.
Dr. Nicholas Perricone has long advocated "superfoods" such as the acai berry from the Amazon. These can help prevent inflammation, which is the basis of virtually all diseases. (However, be careful of Acai Berry scams, and check the review listed on http://www.theacaiberriesreview.com/). For those of us who can't find acai berries easily, he also hails blueberries and raspberries  as being a great source of antioxidants and vitamins, and these are available most of the year.
On the skin of the face, inflammation shows up in a number of ways, from zits and other blemishes to a generalized "puffiness". Anything that counters this in the diet is your face's best friend.
But be wary of the sugar content of many commercial fruit preparations. Check out http://www.caloriecount.about.com/ to search for hidden dangers. For example, Jamba juices sound completely healthy, but they start with a sugar solution before berries get added. So their Berry Fulfilling Original has 45.0 grams of sugar, much more than the raw berries alone would have. In general, as is the case with most food preparation, it is much better to make your own. Here are a few secrets to a good smoothie:
1. Start with Very Ripe Berries: Bartenders who make fresh daquiries will all seek out fruit on the last possible date before they are thrown out. In other words, just at the stale date, the berries are at their most succulent and tender, and will have the most powerful flavor. By happy circumstance, they are also sold at a discount, often half price, as they will be worth nothing the next day. While these may look less than perfect when whole, they are unbelievable in the blender. Add other ingredients like ice, soy milk, yoghurt, or juice for liquid content. Also add extra ingredients like flax seeds or flax oils, or egg white for protein. The mixes are infinite. Check sites like www.azdrinkrecipes.com/nonalcoholic, and invent your own!
2. If you can't find Fresh fruit, try Frozen fruit. Thaw in a bowl overnight in the fridge. Mix in with fresh, like bananas which are usually available year-round.
Here are a couple of tricks for introducing more solid fruit into your diet:
1. For desserts, try fruit without the added sugar, syrup, or cake.  Instead, try having it with lemon juice. Sure it might make you pucker on first bite, but the juxtaposition of the natural sweetness and the tart lemon juice is quite a treat for the palate. Another alternative is to serve under melted chocolate or hot fudge, the very dark variety. When chocolate is over 75% fat, it has much less sugar. The regular milk chocholate or syrups are usually very high in sugar. When in doubt, check labels (for example on frozen fruit packages), or check the internet at sites like www.cspinet.org/reports/sugar.com
2. For main courses, try fresh fruit on your cereals, or in organic applesauce, cottage cheese, or plain yogurt. Garnish with fruit and even an omelette will look better.
3. For snacks, consider fresh fruit instead of junk foods like potato chips.  And remember avoid canned fruit, as it has loads of sugar in the syrup, or has loads of chemicals if labelled "lite" syrup.
Every athlete knows that diet is one part of the fitness program, while exercise is another. In terms of the body, good nutrition plus good exercise will go a long way to preserving a youthful appearance. In the face, the same applies. The only problem is the exercise part; the gym holds no machines for any of the 22 muscles on each side of the face. Scrunching your face into contortions only makes surface wrinkles worse. So the best option to tone your face into a more youthful appearance is a little help from electricity, namely microcurrent. This tiny flutter of stimulation tones the facial muscles through the skin, and offers greater circulation benefits as can be seen by the rosy complexion that results in just a few minutes. Tired pale faces look rejuvenated in just a single treatment. Although temporary, the treaments improve with consistent useage. The same could be said for diet: the positive antioxidant effects are only temporary, but the body gets more benefits with regular ingestion.
Visit http://www.perriconemd.com/ for more information about Dr. Perricone's diet for younger looking skin.
Visit www.facemaster.com for more information about facial toning: Suzanne Somer's best beauty secret.
Dr. Hanson welcomes your comments. He can also be reached through http://www.peterhansonmd.com/.
by Peter G. Hanson M.D.
21. February 2009 15:49
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.
by Peter G. Hanson M.D.
16. February 2009 16:36
Not All Plastic Surgery Guarantees A Youthful Look!
In the movie business, cameras are everywhere. Close up images of stars' faces are broadcast on the big screen, the television, and the internet. Needless to say, those who are in the public eye are always mindful of the changes that age imposes. In Hollywood, where plastic surgeons abound, there are unlimited options for facial rejuvenation. The list of menu items is mind boggling, or one might say face boggling: injections of fillers, implantations of plastic cheek "bones", threads looped under the chin and under the skin, liposuction, and, ultimately, amputation of unwanted skin through traditional face "lifts".
Peer pressure is a huge factor here. For example, many teenagers are now getting breast lifts, nose jobs, cheek implants, and are competing with their mothers' age groups for cosmetic procedures. In some cases these procedures can be justified as one-time fixes. But often there is a temptation to become "addicted" to constant tinkering, and the results are not always satisfactory.
Actress and TV star Lisa Rinna is a good example. This beautiful 45 year old star of "Melrose Place" and "Dancing with the Stars" has always kept her body as toned as it was twenty years ago. But she did not like what she saw in her face. She became a fan of juvederm injections (www.juvederm.com), until one day she saw a picture of herself and decided to change course. Her words to the press were direct, as she noted she "looked like a freak", and needed to stop her regular regular visits to the plastic surgeons for a while.
Here is a photo taken recently, when she broke her story to the press last month.
Note the look of her cheeks, distinctly different from the look of toned muscles. Naturally she does tone her body mucles (very well, obviously!) by exercising. But the plastic surgery menu does not include exercise for the 22 muscles of the face.
Toned muscles always look more natural than injected ones. That's why people go to the gym to lift weights, not just shoot injections into their biceps! And nothing provides a better substrate for the skin than great tone on the underlying muscles.
In today's economy, people are looking for ways to save money by following the "DIY" or "do it yourself" model. Instead of going to a spa or medical setting to have your facial muscles toned (temporarily) using a $12,000 machine, why not capture the same results with your own machine. For less than the cost of one spa treatment, your own FaceMaster will become your favorite beauty secret, just like it is for hundreds of thousands of satisfied users.
It is clear that many people will want many services on their faces. But none of the surgeon's list will tone their facial muscles, in fact they usually need more toning after procedures. If you have had plastic surgery the FaceMaster is an ideal way to re-tone your facial muscles, and to maintain your youthful appearance, the natural way.
To read more about Lisa Rinna's comments on her face, visit http://www.usmagazine.com/news/lisa-rinna-i-looked-like-a-freak-after-too-much-plastic-surgery.
To learn more about the FaceMaster, visit FaceMaster.com.
Dr. Hanson welcomes your comments, and would be pleased to take your questions.
|
Subscribe
Log in
Visit FaceMaster.com
The Effects of Aging, Health and Stress on Your Face