Skin Rejuvenation is Simple and Complex Part II

Today I will address the use of lasers in skin rejuvenation. Lasers are very exciting. They do many things, they have exciting names, and they cost a lot of money. Few physicians realize how they work and very few consumers understand when they are applicable. Truly – an American Entrepreneurial Dream come true.

Before we understand how lasers can produce miracle results we must look at the process of aging skin. Skin ages as a result of 2 phenomena: chronologic aging (some of you, me too? are getting older and sun damage). Chronologic aging produces a loss of all of the tissue layers in the face including bone, muscle, fat, and skin. The collapsing (shrinking) head makes the envelope (the skin) redundant and it tends to hang down. The loss of elastic tissue makes the skin less likely to hold its shape. Sun damage causes degenerative changes in the skin which lead to changes in skin color, “broken blood vessels”, and various growths on the skin.

Without a good skin care regime as alluded to in Part I, no rejuvenation system will provide more than temporary results. Given that such a system is in place lasers can help restore skin integrity, skin appearance, and skin tightness. A laser is a beam of light. It has many wavelengths and can use the visible spectrum with all the colors of the rainbow as well as the heating rays produced by the sun and which we call infrared radiation. It can be absorbed by color, water, collagen, hemoglobin to name the most common targets in the skin. Lastly, lasers can destroy tissue or they can induce wound healing and formation of new tissue and that is the basis of how we regenerated skin with lasers.

Today patients do not want downtime and lasers have had to adapt. They produce lower energy now, they produce less swelling and inflammation, and they can be used in combination to produce the best results. Today fractional lasers are the most advanced product to produce skin tightening. The can produce up to 1000 non-visible, microscopic spots of injury in a square ½” X ½”. Downtime is limited to 12-24 hours of redness. The downside is that patients need up to 6 treatments given every 2-3 weeks to produce desired results. The upside is that patients enjoy their results for years to come and they have had a minimal interruption in their daily schedule.

Next blog must talk about why light gives life and how lasers can give quality to life.
Edward Lack, MD. http://www.metropolitanmds.com/

Chicago PanCan Walk May 3 Touches my Life Again

One of the tenants or truths of life is that history repeats itself. I again experienced my truth over the past 2 weeks when a chest X-ray revealed a possible nodule on my right lung. I have had a 3 month long cough which coincided with a respiratory virus that has been going around Chicago. As so often in the past, I ignored wisdom and chose to medicate myself including the ordering of the chest X-ray. I was not prepared for the abnormal finding, nor for its emotional impact on my life. Kerstin and I will be relaxing in Europe next week and I did not want a work-up to interfere with our trip. So I enlisted a Northwestern radiologist as my colleague and we did a number of variations of my chest X-ray and all showed the same findings. My radiologist honestly believed I did NOT have cancer and suggested repeating the X-ray in 3 weeks to be followed by a CAT scan if necessary. The irony, not lost on me, was that I was disquieted by any decision I would make. The delay in diagnosis brought anxiety and self-reproachment to me. Why didn’t I spend more time with my lovely wife Kerstin? Why didn’t I remember to thank God each day for my gift of life? Why didn’t I keep daily events in perspective and give too much weight to insignificant problems? On the other hand I had anxiety about initiating my work-up and losing my vacation and missing more time with Kerstin.
As you who know me and read my blog know, I am an incredibly blessed man. My dear partner John Rachel and my oncologist, Mary Mulcahy prevailed upon me that nothing irrevocable would happen if I proceeded with an evaluation, and much anxiety could be averted. I am most pleased to tell you that a thorough exam of my body revealed that I do not again have cancer. The nodule on my lung is part of a shadow of scar tissue from my prior treatment. And I am once again amongst the company of the cancer survivors.
To say that I am relieved and grateful is an understatement. Yet this was my wake-up call. This is my reality-time to remember who I am and the blessings from all of you with whom I share parts of my life. Perhaps 5 years of freedom is too long to remember the lessons of priorities. Once again I have learned them. Once again I will actively reach out to those who need support or just someone to listen (a task for someone who talks as much as I do). And once again I will walk, this time on May 3, with PanCan, feeling proud to contribute to the effort to find early detection and treatment for pancreatic cancer: still the 4th leading cancer killer in the United States. If any of you reading this blog have the time and inclination I would like to invite you to join us for the walk. The 5K walk will start and end in Grant Park, just west of Shedd Aquarium near the Field Museum. We will gather at 9:30 and the walk will start at 10AM. After the walk, participants will enjoy entertainment and the chance to win some great prizes in our opportunity drawing. For those of you who would like to donate in any amount please make checks out to PanCan and either send them to me at 2350 Ravine Way, Suite 400, Glenview, IL 60025 or send them directly to PanCan. If you wish you can mention Team Lack and regardless we will carry you in our hearts as we commune with each other and celebrate our lives. To you, my lovely cohorts in life, I wish health and happiness and the richness of sharing with one another.

Skin Rejuvenation is Simple and Complex

Skin rejuvenation has undergone so many changes that neither the consumer nor the physician can easily distinguish which treatments are effective vs. which treatments are hype. Nor can they distinguish between which are more efficient and which are less, which are more cost effective and which are less. The realities of cosmetic enhancement are that not all treatments fit all people and a practice must have wide varieties of option to offer.

First and foremost patients and physicians need to identify the cosmetic issue that is concerning the patient. Then they need to determine what is the cause of the problem. A simple example: A woman comes to the office complaining about deep nasolabial folds around her mouth. She does not realize that the cause of the folds is the loss of volume of her cheeks. Neither does her doctor/med spa technician. The patient has filler like Restylane injected into the folds. Now her face looks flatter (2 dimensional) and her cheeks are still sagging and she looks older. What a difference if she and her caregiver had realized that filling in her cheeks would give her a youthful appearance, make her look younger, keep her 3 dimensional appearance, and soften the nasolabial folds.

Commercial companies realize that the attention span of a consumer is about 3 months Because of this they are constantly bringing out new and improved products, catering to the wish for ever better products. The cosmetics industry is the same and now the same philosophy permeates med spas and cosmetic physician offices. This is a little strange when we think that the basis of skin rejuvenation goes back to Cleopatra some 2400 years ago. Cleansers, pH stabilizers, skin lighteners, skin sealants, and alpha hydroxy acids were available then and are available now. In reality the additions of antioxidants and skin proteins has added little to the value of skin care with the exception of the Vitamin A derivatives. That is why I like the Obagi skin care program. It is basic. It is effective. It has been proven over the course of centuries. We also need to cater to those patients with sensitive skin and allergic skin and diseased skin. For instance, many of us who live the winters in Chicago are easily irritated by preservatives or fragrances found in commercial products. Others have childhood histories of eczema and some of us have become allergic to some ingredients. That is why MetropolitanMD also carries products from Linda Sy, AHAVA, and Bioelements. One size doesn’t always fit all.

The sum of this is that all the wonderful treatment programs we have lose value if a good skin care regimen is not used to maintain the improvements. Next week I will address some of the newer uses of laser treatments for treating vexing problems of the skin.