Author Archives: admin

Support our new charity, ‘The Well of Joy Foundation’ by joining us at our Launch Party !

The proceeds of the night will go to ‘Changing Faces’, an amazing organisation, which supports people and families whose lives are affected by conditions, marks or scars that alter their appearance.

Join us on Saturday, 19th May 2012 at 7:30pm for a glamorous 80’s Disco night at Frankies in Knightsbridge, London.

Tickets include:

- Prosecco Reception with Canapés
- Italian Party Food all night, by Marco Pierre White
- Wine & Beer
- ‘Raffle’ & ‘Silent Auction’
- Goody Bag
- Free entry to AFTER PARTY at the esteemed Private Club Layalina in Knightsbridge

All for only £75 per ticket !
Email: wellofjoy@eudelo.com

An effective skincare regime is important for maintaining healthy, beautiful looking skin, but there might come a time when you want to do a bit more to turn back the clock. Thanks to a wide range of minimally invasive aesthetic procedures, we can now diminish the signs of ageing effectively and achieve natural appearing results non-surgically. However, it might seem daunting to choose the right type of treatment for your ‘first time’. Well, my first advice would be to go for a temporary treatment, as these offer a lower risk of unwanted effects compared to permanent options. Also, remember that our face changes with time and a treatment result, which looks great today, might seem out of place in 10 or 20 years.

Two of the most popular minimally invasive treatments are fillers/volumisers and wrinkle relaxing injections with botulinum toxin. Hyaluronic acid is an example of an excellent temporary filler for so-called ‘static lines’ such as the nose-to-mouth lines. Fillers/volumisers can also be used to improve a gradually ‘deflating’ facial contour with a gentle cheek or lip plumbing for example. For ‘dynamic lines’ (caused by repeated mimic movement) such as frown lines between the eyebrows, the muscle relaxing botulinum toxin remains my all-time favorite.

Overall, I recommend a step-wise approach with phasing of treatments, so that changes will be gradual and you will continue to feel your own self, while optimal correction is achieved over time. Compare it to joining the gym – you wouldn’t expect to be all ‘sorted’ after a single session, would you?

Last, but not least, it is advisable to see a cosmetic dermatologist early enough, as minimally invasive procedures can not only combat visible signs of ageing and beautifully enhance your facial features, but also play an important role in prevention.

Here are the 8 most common giveaways:

1.) Lines and wrinkles:
As we age, we develop ‘dynamic lines’ (i.e. lines caused by repeated movement of mimic muscles such as frown lines and crow’s feet) and ‘static lines’ (i.e. lines which develop independent of mimic movement such as the nose-to-mouth lines).

2.) Irregular pigmentation:
With age, our skin tone become less even and we may develop brown patches and ‘freckly’ sun spots. This is a clear sign of chronic sun damage (you never develop them in sun-protected skin areas such as the buttocks!).

3.) Loss of volume:
With age we loose volume in our face and one of the first areas our fat ‘padding’ goes, are our upper cheeks. So with age, our cheeks become flatter and our face looses its youthful heart shape.

4.) Reduced skin elasticity:
As we age, our skin’s collagen and elastin content declines, which leads to reduced skin elasticity, crepiness and fine criss-cross lines.

5.) Sagging:
The combination of a) loss of volume, b) reduced skin elasticity and c) gravity leads to skin sagging (for example visible on lower cheeks and jowls).

6.) Dryness and thinning skin:
Especially after the menopause with declining oestrogen levels, our skin will become noticeably drier and thinner. It also heals more slowly and bruises more easily.

7.) Changing skin surface and texture:
Babies and young children have a very fine and smooth skin surface with virtually invisible pores and extremely fine facial hair. However, with increasing age our skin surface appears less refined, develops enlarged pores, a duller skin surface and courser, darker hair on chin, jawline and above upper lip.

8.) Lip deflation:
We also loose volume in our lips with age, which leads to less youthful appearing lips with development of vertical lines on and around the lips (a bit like a plum loosing water and turning into a prune).

So that’s the low-down of common signs of skin ageing, many of which are commonly overlooked when planning skin rejuvenation measures. However, in order to achieve a harmonious look, one needs to address all potential problem areas and plan a variety of different treatments over time.

I recently read in an article that Lady Gaga attributes her beautiful skin complexion to lots of orgasms. That statement sounds a little exaggerated, but might there be a drop of truth in it? What actually happens in our skin during an orgasm?
There are in fact lots and lots of physiological processes happening in our skin during sex and in particular with orgasms. We all know that on a systemic level our heart rate, breathing rate and blood pressure goes up during sex, which allows our body to pump more oxygen around the body. The skin’s blood circulation will also go up and with it the skin’s oxygen and nutrient supply. The skin becomes warmer and might look flushed, as adrenaline dilates the body’s superficial blood vessels.
With skin temperature going up, our sweat glands will increase their perspiration rate. And this applies not just to our ‘normal’ sweat glands, but also special types of gland called ‘apocrine sweat glands’. They secrete pheromones in sexual arousal and are located in our skin around the nipples, in armpits and genito-anal area. But not only our sweat glands work harder during sex, the skin’s oil glands also tend to produce more skin nourishing oils.
About half of all women or even more may develop a peculiar looking ‘sex rash’ (‘sex flush’) with sexual arousal or orgasm. This measles-like appearance with pink spots and patches on tummy, chest, face or even the entire body is caused by a temporarily increased blood flow in the skin and is nothing to worry about. It typically disappears minutes after orgasm, but in some cases may stay for an hour or two.
After orgasm, our muscles relax, blood pressure drops and the body slows down from its excited state. A study showed that women have lower stress and cortisol levels after an orgasm, which can only be good for our skin, as high cortisol is known to contribute to collagen degradation.
So, Lady Gaga was right then, in that orgasms lead to short-term benefits in our skin. But what’s going on in our skin in terms of long-term effects with regular orgasms? There isn’t much scientific research published, I am afraid. However, looking at the proven short-term benefits, regular orgasms can’t be a bad thing if you ask me …

With the American version of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ movie hitting our cinemas, tattoos might become even more popular than they are already. However, it is not uncommon for women to get a tattoo thinking this is the best thing ever, but then regretting it later. Maybe even assuming that if they don’t like it any longer in the future, they could always have it lasered away. Well, let me tell you, tattoo removal is not an easy option, even with the most advanced lasers. Apart from the fact that any laser treatment is rather expensive, there are often many treatment sessions needed to gradually fade an unwanted tattoo. And sometimes, depending on the exact ink colour, the tattoo might not even go completely, but leave a shadow behind for good.

What is laser treatment anyway? ‘Laser’ is an acronym for ‘light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation’. So lasers are sources of high intensity light with a single wavelength, i.e. monochromatic. The aim of laser treatment is to destroy a target structure (e.g. pigment) with heat, while ideally not harming any surrounding tissue, as thermal damage of surrounding tissue might result in scaring. That means that different types of lasers have to be used to treat different problems – there unfortunately isn’t one for all. If you want to treat a vascular birth mark such as a port wine stain for example, you need a laser wavelength, which is predominantly absorbed by haemoglobin in our blood vessels, while treating unwanted hair requires a laser wavelength, which is absorbed by the pigment in the hair. For tattoo removal on the other hand, the appropriate laser light will target the ink pigment used. The altered ink pigment is then removed from the skin by a certain type of scavenging cells called macrophages. The exact choice of laser for tattoo removal depends on the colour, depth and chemical nature of the tattoo ink. Yellow, orange and green ink colours are generally the most tricky to remove. And as with all laser treatments, textural skin changes and scars may occur if you are unlucky.

Now, how about this – why don’t you get temporary tattoo (say for a party or so), which lasts a few days to avoid regrets later? I have recently seen a temporary tattoo kit containing a variety of easy to apply tats in Boots and thought to myself that more people should use these instead of going straight for the ‘real stuff’. And the best thing about these zero commitment tattoos? Removal requires no lasers!

After two gruelling months of public voting, expert panel evaluations and ‘mystery shoppers’ (or should I say ‘mystery patients’) testing our services to the core, the big day had come to find out who would take home the ‘gold medal’ in the Aesthetic Awards 2011/2012. It was a nerve wracking evening, but I am so excited to reveal that (dum-dum-duuum…) … we made it!!!  Yes, we won the Gold Award for ‘Best clinic’ in our category. I would have never expected that we would win, looking at the other fine finalists, but am absolutely thrilled about the award.

Most importantly, I would like to thank all of you who have voted for us. It is such a great feeling to get some recognition for what we are trying to do on a daily basis and I feel truly thankful and privileged to have such amazing patients and clients, who make coming to work a pleasure every day (well, most days…).

Often in clinic, I get patients coming in complaining about red patches on their face, in particular around the nose and around the eyebrows. These might be mildly itchy on occasion, and the skin here might be flaky or scaly, but otherwise cause no major symptoms. After looking at their skin, they are often surprised why I go on asking about ‘dandruff’ on the scalp, especially as usually the answer is yes.

The reason is that there is a very common skin condition called seborrhoeic dermatitis (also known as seborrhoeic eczema), which often affects the face with scaly, salmon-red patches, in particular around the creases of the nose and around the eyebrows, but also affects the scalp with bran-like scaling and sometimes itchiness. In addition to this, it can also affect body areas such as the middle of the chest and/or skin folds such as the armpits.

Seborrhoeic dermatitis is a very common skin condition that tends to come and go. The condition can appear at any age after puberty, but tends to flare in periods of stress, general ill-health and in immune-deficient patients. It is caused by an inflammatory reaction to an overgrowth of a yeast-like fungus called Malassezia. Malassezia is a normal part of our skin flora, but patients with seborrhoeic dermatitis seem to be more sensitive to a skin irritating substance this fungus produces.

The good news is that the condition is harmless and non-contagious. However, it is a chronic skin disease, which is unfortunately likely to persist, in varying degrees of severity. It can be kept under control well though with regular use of antifungal creams and shampoos (aimed to reduce Malassezia growth) and intermittent use of anti-inflammatory creams (aimed to reduce the inflammatory skin reaction) on an as needed basis. The skin should be cleansed with a non-soap cleanser such as Cetaphil cleanser.

I can’t describe how thrilled we were to find out that we made it into the Final of the Aesthetic Awards 2011. The announcement of reaching the Final came completely out of the blue for us, as we did not even know that we had been nominated. And even better – we made it into the Final in not just one category, but two: ‘Best small clinic’ as well as ‘Speaker of the Year’!

This is really amazing, as there were more than 4500 nominations, as I have since learned. In the ‘Best small clinic’ category, we are listed in the top 8 of the country and the best in London! In the ‘Speaker of the Year’ category, I am short-listed in the top 5, among high calibre speakers such as Dr Tim Flynn from the US. I feel very honored to have made it this far and would really like to thank whoever has nominated us and rooted for us!

But – now I need your help! Every one of you can now vote for the winner and I would be extremely grateful, if you would cast a vote via this link:

http://bit.ly/nWqOz6

It only takes about 30 seconds to vote and there isn’t much time left – so please do it now. Thank you ever so much – I will keep my fingers crossed! Stefanie

I just watched a highly entertaining talk by the brilliant Aubrey De Grey on the possibility of significantly extending human lifespan (we are talking about hundreds of years!) and that this is actually not an unlikely concept even in people of our generation. This is of course an extremely fascinating theory and what is reassuring is that Aubrey is actually an acclaimed anti-ageing researcher and scientist at Cambridge University.

What he says is basically that in the future we will be able to gradually extend our life span more and more and eventually even be able to turn back the clock, rather than simply stopping it. The key is that the gradual extension of life span is not a linear development, but is in fact exponential. So the rather slow appearing increase of human life span at the moment (of one to two years per decade), will in fact speed up significantly in the future, as rejuvenation medicine technologies evolve and the rate of improvements increase. He calls his theory “longevity escape velocity”. And this speeding up of development might in fact happen to such an extent that he thinks that the first 1000-year-old human being will only be around 10 years younger than the first 150-year-old human being.

But lets talk first about why we age in the first place. Well, as he wittily puts it, ageing is “a side effect of being alive” and that is very true, as cell ageing is a consequence of cell metabolism. Our cells’ metabolism causes ongoing damage by mechanisms such as DNA damage, protein cross-links, mitochondrial damage etc. etc. That is also the case for our skin cells by the way.

So until those fundamental breakthroughs in technology which will allow us to delay the ageing process “beyond our warranty period” and postpone the onset of age related illnesses, have evolved far enough, we simply have to live as ‘good’ a life as possible I suppose – experts in rejuvenation medicine believe that only around 10% of ageing is down to our genes, and 90% is down to lifestyle. This again is matched by observations in Dermatology, as we know that the visible signs of skin ageing are up to 90% down to sun exposure and other environmental factors such as smoking, but only around 10% down to our genes.

http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html

When traveling in the tube in London in rush hour in summer, I sometimes can’t help wishing more people knew about effective treatments for hyperhidrosis. Hyperhidrosis is a term describing an excessive production of sweat in the skin’s sweat glands. The most common type is a localised, symmetric form, affecting for example the palms, soles and/or armpits. There are millions suffering with this problem worldwide. While there are some cases of excessive sweating caused by an underlying problem such as an over-function of the thyroid gland, most cases don’t suffer with any underlying condition and the cause remains unknown – we call this ‘primary hyperhidrosis’.

Hyperhidrosis can have a detrimental effect on a suffer’s social life and drastically decrease his quality of life. So if you suffer with excessive sweating without any underlying problem, what kinds of non-surgical treatments are there to improve the sweating? The first, simplest step might be to try an antiperspirant solution or powder containing aluminum chloride, which is available in any local chemist. Over time aluminum chloride reduces sweat production in sweat glands. It should be applied regularly once or if tolerated twice per day on dry skin. However, in some people it can lead to skin irritation.

In addition, there are also certain prescription drugs that can be tried such as propantheline tablets, glycopyrrolate tablets or topical glycopyrrolate solution. Another type of treatment, which is usually very well tolerated and works particularly well for hands and/or feet is iontophoresis. Iontophoresis is a method of passing a tiny electic current (don’t worry, it does not hurt, only tingles a bit) trough the skin while your hands and/or feet are soaking in water (or glycopyrrolate solution). I have seen great results in patients on iontophoresis and a home device can be bought for a few hundred pounds. Although there are pads available for treating the armpits, in my experience this area does not respond as well to iontophoresis as the hands and feet.

However, for the armpits there is another treatment method available, which I have to say is my favorite treatment for hyperhidrosis, as it achieves truly amazing results. This treatment involves injecting botulinum toxin (one brand name is ‘Botox’), which blocks the nerves that activate sweat glands in the skin. After application of numbing cream (so that you won’t feel the injections), very small amounts of the botulinum toxin solution are administered into the affected skin area. The sweat blocking effect is quite astonishing and the best thing is that it lasts about six to nine months, before the treatment has to be repeated. And for me as a doctor it is really wonderful to hear about the change in quality of life in patients after treatment.