Age Defying Divas
Four dynamic doctors share their beauty secrets…
Being an aesthetic and anti- aging physician, I am very lucky to have the latest scientific information about anti-aging available to me. I truly believe that all aesthetic treatments should be combined with anti-ageing and integrative medicine. My day starts with 30 minutes of meditation and yoga, preferably with the early morning sun. This helps me to enhance adequate vitamin D production. It also assists with switching off night hormones , into day hormones like cortisol. My diet is prescribed using my DNA profile. Since I am not blessed with good detoxification – and my DNA “make-up” is predisposed to type 2 diabetes – I ensure my diet is exclusively low GL foods.
This includes all organic foods, fruits, and vegetables which do not contain any pesticides, herbicides and xenobiotics. I also don’t smoke, drink alcohol or caffeine. Lastly, I try to allow myself seven to eight hours of peaceful sleep a night.
Given that I’m a 48-year old professional who attends world congress regularly – and spends hours on research – I have to maintain my stress levels at 0 as stress is a silent aging enemy. I strive to look my best as I believe the all-important kick start happens at our first-morning look in the mirror. If we look good, we can conquer the world! I regularly do treatments for frown lines, crows feet, and necklines, and for cheek augmentation, I use Juvederm®-Voluma. Obviously, I try to maintain a natural look. For ongoing skin aging prevention, I use Filorga facial rejuvenation as a cryo-meso peel to assure glowing and radiant skin.
I have done Derma-DNA for myself to find out the weaknesses of my skin so I can add a topical cream suitable for my DNA makeup. I mostly use Narrative, which is free of Parabens and alcohol. Another plus point is that it’s also organic. From time to time I add Filorga and Neostrata for specific c problems, and I don’t ever miss applying my sunblock. I enhance collagen production by using EC matrix from Metagenics.
DERMA-DNA TEST
Personalized skincare and lifestyle change for healthy-looking skin according to your DNA ‘make-up”. Dr. Sly Nedic reports
Due to the ever stressful and toxic environment, we live in today, younger people are now suffering from premature skin aging. Some of the characteristics of premature aging include wrinkles; loss of elasticity; sagginess; thinning and skin inflammation (amongst others).
We also see darker skin types suffering from dryness, roughness, and pigmentation as signs of aging, despite well-established beliefs that they are less prone to the aging process. Thanks to the extensive research in the field of skin aging – the old fashioned way of looking at skin aging as chronological aging and photo-ageing – can now be abandoned.
Besides photo-ageing (which is considered a major skin aging factor), there are many other factors involved in the aging process. These factors are also independent of the skin type (Fitzpatrick I-VI). These are: variations of the low penetration variants (which are influenced by lifestyle and nutrition), cellular renewal slow down and longevity cell mutation down-regulation (SIRT1), telomeres shortening, toxins overload, nutritional factors, inflammation, hormonal changes, stress and lastly, gut-liver detoxification influence.
Since many patients suffer from premature aging (despite using expensive skincare creams and regularly applying sunblock), a generalized approach where we recommend skincare according to maturity of the skin and skin type is failing to deliver results. WHY?
The simple answer is that our DNA ‘make-up” was not prepared for this toxic and stressful environment! To identify these low penetrance mutations (and to know how lifestyle and nutrition can influence them in a positive and negative way), is a key point in Derma DNA -test. Sometimes just identifying mutations (such as one that that is involved in detoxification of grilled meat and cigarette smoking) can help a patient to decrease an outbreak of acne. Simply by changing one’s lifestyle, we can influence DNA and improve our skin condition.
DNA variations in skin aging are already widely used, particularly for the personalized prevention of premature skin aging. We test mutations that are involved in skin detoxification, oxidative stress, epidermal integrity, inflammation, and melanogenesis.
We now know that the illuminating role in variants such as CYP1A1 and GSTM1 is in the detoxification process, as well as skin aging in a modern toxic environment. Similarly, the presence of SOD2 and GPX variants can elevate oxidative stress in skin fibroblasts, and accelerate aging due to the production of free radicals. MMP1 will create more sagging and ACE more cellulite.
Derma DNA -test (which has recently become available in South Africa), should be used on any skin type to identify these interactions and help to prescribe personalized nutrition, supplements, lifestyle changes and customized kin preparations.
Personalized skincare will lead to fast patient improvement, rather than using a topical cream allocated to the specific c skin type. In addition, oral supplements will target specific mutation and strict lifestyle changes will influence it to work ‘in a positive way’.
So, skin aging in a new high-tech toxic and stressful environment is a mirror of a lifestyle… and not just a simple inevitable process depends on the skin type, photoaging and chronological aging. Addressing skin aging should be part of the integrative medical approach, which includes Derma DNA -test.; personalized treatments with supplements; lifestyle and nutrition changes; customized skincare products and medical stress management. The generalized approach and topical treatments are simply not enough to keep our skin rejuvenated, glowing and wrinkle-free!