Skin Health....Can a jolt of electricity help aging skin? " There is no question that some harnessing of different electrical currents can have some beneficial effects on the skin," said Dr.Stephen Bosniak, a Manhattan plastic surgeon who is developing an electrical for use after cosmetic surgery. There are a host of treatment in spas, salons and physicians offices now being used, but do they work? These devices apply mild currents to the skin, often as part of a cosmetic facial- are being debated among skin and medical experts. Most already agree that the currents are to mild to be harmful, though pregnant women and people with pace makers are advised not to use them. But many who have studied and used the machines doubt their effectiveness, particularly those that are said to tone muscles. Some are rather pricey and require 2-3 weekly visits to the spa or salon. Some of my clients like them as part of facial and claim to get a lift that tightens sagging skin for up to 2 days. The skepticism arises when the machines costing around $3000 and are said to smooth wrinkles by toning facial muscles, and often promoted as alternatives to plastic surgery. The theory is that a mild electrical current can tighten the muscles beneath the skin, smoothinjg wrinkles. continued below>
Your Skin is the largest Organ of the Body!
Skin metabolisim slows as we age and old cells are attacked and removed from cell production line and older, slower cells continue to work holding skin and muscle tone. Nevertheless, as this process slows, so does aging continue. The promise of younger skin in our later years as I see it, is in hydration, and enzyme activity in the dermal layer. Also, increased cellular activity would be essential to maintaining new cell growth and good metabolism.
Shingles...comes from the chickenpox virus that stays in the body from the time of entry until death. Mostly at older ages, the virus leaves the nerve cell it found a home in, travels down the nerve root to the skin and produces the typical rash and pain. Older people should consider getting the shingles vaccine. It is a painful experience and the pain can last long after the rash is gone.
Psoriasis is a skin problem that rears it's ugly head in several ways. Least know of this problem is psoriatic arthritis which affects 5-30% of those affected with the skin disorder. While people with psoriasis can have other forms of arthritis, such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis they are different from psoriasis. Even a mild case of psoriasis can trigger psoriatic arthritis causing backaches as well as swollen fingers, which can swell to the size of sausages. This disorder can be quite disabling. Next week...see what can be done to offset or prevent this type of psoriasis.
Continued from above skin wrinkles... Well, sounds good but does it work? My early work in the 70's on scalp stimulation for hair growth in New York and as a member of the Americal Trichological Association, produced evidence that electrical current did stimulate metabolisim and effected enzyme and membrane characteristics, generally, allowing cells to function better or at best, exciting them to work a little harder. Results were better for those having mild electrical stimulation on the scalp 2-3 times a week as opposed to once a week. On the scalp they did promote new hair growth on some individuals and I do agree that the same effect can be made on face membrane and muscle tissue. The issue then as it is now was the range of current and repetition of treatments per week. Nevertheless, it must be said, that once treatment stops, the benefits also go away in both skin and scalp therapy. Please read more on this tommorow
Glycolic acidsoften used in salons for skin surface renewal also serve other purposes such as skin tag removal. See upcoming issue for more info on this breakthrough in beauty and medical proceedure as researched by LuisLuis beauty. Click to see www.LuisLuis.com
Skin so Bacterial. Skin hosts many more bacteria than we thought. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health Microbiome Project sequenced genes from skin samples from healthy volunteers and found bacteria that hailed from 19 different phyla and 205 genera and that possessed more than 112,000 individual gene sequences. Previous studies of skin cultures supposed that just one type of bacteria, Staphylococcus, was the main resident. The scientists aim to establish a bacterial baseline so as to better treat skin diseases, such as acne or eczema, where bacterial populations might be out of balance. One such study involves gram-negative bacteria - so named because they do not retain a laboratory stain devised by the Danish bacteriologist Christian Gram - are usually harmless. They reside on the skin or in the gut where they aid in digestion. But, any change or disruption of the today's immune response - caused for instance, by severe burns, chemotherapy or major abdominal surgery - allows these rod-shaped bacteria to multiply out of control and invade other parts of the body, eventually entering the blood stream. Once there, one part of the bacterial cell wall called endotoxins can trigger a cascade of lethal effects, culminating in multiple organ failure and death, sometimes within hours. These endotoxins are more prevalent in soldiers injured in war zones and special antibodies which render the endotoxin harmless have been in use there.
Seborrhea..is associated with the malfunction of the sebaceous glands. Dry heat or excessive alkalinity promotes unatural dryness of scalp and skin tissue. In the dry type seborrhea the scalp thickens and chokes off metabolic activity causing flaking and itch. In the oily type (overactive) the sebaceous gland produced increased amount of sebum. This surface oil accumulates on scalp and forms a crust, which harbors dirt and grime, causing infection when scratched off. Raw underlying skin is not allowed time to form properly and this new raw skin continue to become infected as person itches and scratches. Treatment is direct coal tar treatments with antimicrobial agents applied directly to affected areas.
Alpha Hydroxy with glycolic acid removes surface skin cells to reveal new underlying skin. Use daily. See LuisLuis.com
Purpura Rash...which is a rash caused by internal bleeding from small blood vessels and has several causes has now been linked to cocaine use. The cause of this outbreak is caused by a substance used to dilute the cocaine for more profitability. The substance is a veterinary deworming medication that has become the most common ingredient used to dilute or cut the cocaine coming into the US from South America. The drug called levamisole, once approved for cancer treatment but was later pulled for it's side effects. Three quarters of the cocaine bricks seized by U.S Drug Enforcement now contains levamisole. The drug also lowers the white blood cell (neutrophils) count sometimes fatally. Both of these side effects are allergic reations to the drug. In one condition, the body's immune system attacks the skin: in the other the bone marrow.
