Aging of the skin can happen when there is excessive exposure to the sun, hormone imbalances, nutritional deficiencies and other forms of oxidative stress that increase wear and tear in the body in general.
Preventing aging of the skin can be as simple as using effective sun protection or as complex as trying to prevent the aging process in general. For this reason, evaluating and treating the underlying causes of aging of the skin requires more than expertise in the field of Dermatology. As a specialist in Bio-Identical Hormone replacement therapy, Functional, Integrative and Regenerative Medicine, I take a deeper approach to repairing and preventing aging of the skin. Testing and treating hormone, digestive, metabolic and nutritional imbalances is essential to achieving the optimal result in aesthetics.
In addition to a deeper root cause approach to evaluating and treating the skin, there are effective therapies that are common and popular in the modern day aesthetic world that are potent ways of stimulating repair and addressing common aesthetic concerns.
Lasers such as BBL (Broadband Light Therapy) for treating the superficial layers of the skin and Halo for treating deeper layers of the skin are potent ways of targeting the different layers of skin that can start to show the signs of aging. Regenerative injections are able to stimulate the body to repair in ways that were previously not possible to address.
BBL is the only laser that has been proven in clinical trials to reverse aging of the skin both by improvements in visual appearance and genetic expression of the treated skin. With BBL, we are able to both stimulate a more youthful genetic expression of the skin and also target and remove age spots, blood vessels and redness from the skin. BBL can shrink pore size, reduce sebaceous glands and treat acne prone skin as well.
Halo is the only hybrid ablative and non-ablative laser on the market, which means it is able to remove the upper layers of the skin to improve texture and shorten healing time as well as stimulate regeneration of the deeper layers of skin that contain collagen and elastin to improve firmness, tension and tone, and soften wrinkles. Halo is also an effective way to remove pigment and abnormal blood vessels.
Regenerative injections can be used as a stand alone treatment threaded in as injections or with a dermal pen or in combination with Halo to provide a more robust healing after the laser treatment. Injections of Platelet Rich Plasma, Amniotic Membrane are able to treat scars, stimulate hair regrowth, collagen regeneration and fats cells regeneration in order to fill in areas of atrophy in the face. No matter what regenerative injections or laser treatments we provide, if hormone deficiencies are left untreated then we will not be able to achieve an optimal outcome.
Estrogen binds to collagen receptors to stimulate repair and on going maintenance of healthy collagen. Cortisol, the wear and tear hormone, stimulates degeneration of the connective tissue in the body, including collagen in the skin.
Dark under eye circles are an obvious sign of adrenal fatigue that may require not only hormonal supplementation but a coordinated approach to removing the source of adrenal stress and repairing the adrenals. This may involve addressing digestive imbalances, identifying food sensitivities, toxin exposures, or nutritional deficiencies. Functional medicine is the field that specializes in this science based approach to looking at the biochemistry and biology of the body in order to address these types of issues that can accelerate aging of the skin.
IV therapy can be a potent adjunct to supporting anti-oxidant levels and supplying nutrients to the skin. The best way to administer nutrients to the skin is actually not topically. It is through oral or intravenous supplementation and dietary interventions. The skin is a highly vascular organ so nutrients in the blood will reach the skin easily but nutrients applied topically rarely are able to reach their desired location due to the layer of the skin (the stratum corneum) that prevents penetration to the deeper layers that are alive and effect the superficial layers that we see.
The underlying philosophy of my approach to aesthetics is to heal each problem from its root and provide a sustainable and regenerative solution. Conventional aesthetics is full of short term solutions that neglect the underlying cause of aesthetic problems and thus require regular and on going treatments that over time become ineffective or require more and more intervention since they are simply masking the aging process. It is useful to be able to have these interventions for achieving an effect in the short term but fillers and botox should not be the focus of an aesthetics practice.
At the San Francisco Institute for Integrative and Regenerative Medicine, we have invested in the top of the line lasers and use the highest quality regenerative agents in addition to taking a root cause oriented approach to healing the person as well as the skin. Aging of the skin is optional. If you want to take control over the process and learn what treatments options are relevant in your case, book a consult today.