The Center for Disease Prevention & Reversal Blog

One often hears how healthy someone looks. What prompts people to say that someone looks healthy?

Most often, it is subtle cues such as texture of skin, even skin tone with a mild glow and bright eyes. Many of these features are interpreted unconsciously to be equivalent with health, vigor and youth.

Proper skin care and true health promote this glow and great skin texture.
poor nutrition with lack of exercise can take away from good skin tone and glow.

Many patients walk in to my Chicago area office complaining of dull looking skin and poor skin texture. In addition to possible fillers, many are in need of nutrients on and in their skin

A great skin nutrient delivery system are micro-dermal needles. This creates deep penetration of nutrients and a wonderful response of increased blood and therefore oxygen to the skin, bathing the firbroblasts in nutrients and improving the skin texture.

How do you know if you are getting all the nutrients you need? How do you know if you are absorbing all the nutrients you take in?

The gold standard is an intracellular level of vitamins, minerals, co-factors and anti-oxidants. This can be performed from a blood test. If Levels are low but you believe yourself to be obtaining ample amounts, digestive issues can be at play.

Beauty is not only skin deep, health factors into looks and how someone fells about them self. Next time you're thinking of going to a botox factory clinic, think again and come to a clinic where you health and beauty needs are met inside and out.

In my Chicago area office, I see many women who have used botox repeatedly over the years. They often have flat foreheads and abnormally shiny skin from muscular atrophy.
Often their eyebrows are too high on the foreheads giving them a look I affectionately call "Mrs. Surprise".

The question is; is this the necessary outcome after using years of botox? And the answer is; it doesn't have to be.

Training courses for physicians often focus on the marketing and financial aspects of learning a new technique. The plastic surgeon I initially heard speak about botox had a frozen expression and stated he used a whole vial (100 units) in each of his patients face. He was supposedly excited about the topic but I couldn't tell. He spoke about getting the patients "hooked" on their freshly ironed face and returning every three months for their eight hundred to twelve hundred dollar treatment.

I don't love my "elevens" but I can tell you that weakening the muscles (by using less botox per area) as opposed to paralyzing them is a better way to go in the longterm. This isn't the norm as it is not how we're taught in training courses, and it's not a good business model, since we charge per unit of botox. And, to be fair, there are many patients who want their face immobilized.

I encourage my patients to sit down with me and talk about expectations, short and longterm. This way I can explain that weakening the musculature that causes excessive wrinkling is often a better option than completely paralyzing facial expressions. Besides, next time you're feeling something, don't you want others to know it.