The extension of the average human lifespan and the large ageing baby boomers population have generated a well of anti-ageing products and technologies that are aimed at targeting the “side effects” of ageing, helping in body contouring, wrinkle reduction, skin tightening and more.

Can Bottox stop depression?

Botox was one of the major break-through products introduced to combat the signs of ageing by reducing wrinkles caused by stressed facial muscles due to the fact it blocks activation of muscles; hence temporarily paralyzing facial muscles. Before it was introduced to the anti ageing industry, it was used for other medical conditions, for example treating crossed eyes, uncontrolled blinking facial spasms and more.

In 2006, Eric Finzi, MD, PhD, and Erik A. Wasserman, PhD, from Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery Associates in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Chevy Chase Cosmetic Center in Maryland experimented with treating depression using Botox. They conducted a small pilot study on 10 subjects (9 subjects suffering from major depression and one subject suffering from Bi-Polar disorder.) Their study demonstrated a significant improvement in the subjects suffering form depression and an easing in symptoms of the one subject suffering from Bi-Polar disorder. Unfortunately this is the only study conducted on this matter and no other information is available on trials on this interesting concept. It makes sense that Botox will alleviate depression due to the numbing affect on the muscles responsible for frowning and sadness. Try to feel sad while your eyebrows are lifted and relaxed, it is a very strange experiment as the feeling that comes with this expression is of well being and happiness.

Maybe Botox helps the ageing population by improving the general feeling one has about him/her self and about life and not only by reducing the wrinkles.

Maybe the new expression for positive thinking should be “Have a Botox outlook on life”…think about it (without frowning).

I have been grey since my late thirties and have not had the urge to cover the grey. I believe you are as young as you feel or as old as you see yourself. To be honest, it has not been easy to withstand the pressure from society,  friends try to refer me to their favorite hairdresser or even better, say kind words like ”you look very young but you will look much younger if you dye your hair”. The hardest hit was when I came to pick up my son from kindergarten and heard the kids yelling “Your grandma is here to pick you up”!!!! But still I did not fall into the hair dying loop (once you start, it is hard to stop).

Ageing is a state of mind

Fortunately, grey hair has become accepted in some western countries. Images of graying models are accepted and are considered sexy and fashionable. It is not about the hair color, it is about how you carry your body, your skin complexion, what you wear and the energy levels you portray.

Ageing is a state of mind, rather than dyeing hair to conceal gray, I prefer dancing, going to rock concerts and staying young at heart. I think that if you feel younger when you dye your hair, than go ahead and do it, feeling younger makes you younger.

Declaring emancipation from hair dyes does not mean letting age take its toll and leaving all to nature. Personally, I use anti-ageing moisturizing creams every day and try to maintain a rigid exercise program to keep my body and spirit in high energy levels. I am fortunate to work in the aesthetic industry so I have accesses to variable technologies that target the ageing skin. I have found Radio Frequency (RF), particularly TriPollar RF face treatments to be to be very pleasant, relaxing and effective from the very first treatment. What I like about these treatments is the fact that the results are not so drastic so I do not look like I had a face lift. Don’t get me wrong, the results are noticeable, acquaintances that had not seen me for a while have all commented on my fresh looking skin and fine complexion. The wonderful thing about it is that it looks natural and is indeed a natural skin rejuvenation process triggered by the treatment; the skin creates new collagen during a few weeks causing the results to improve over time.

So, if you are in the early graying phase and have been pulling the gray out (ouch!), first, pulling them out will not induce growth of more gray than you pulled out so if you want to continue pulling, go ahead. However, you will have to pull out many more hairs as you progress in age, so let it be and learn to accept the random gray hairs and view it as exotic. Later when your hair is mostly silver it can help to adopt the positive attitude towards your hard earned silver crown and learn to enjoy the respect and beauty earned with silver hair. So, go wild – go gray and enjoy a youthful approach to life with a silver crown on your head.

With proper attention and treatment, ageing signs of the hands can be reduced

Most women and some men (metrosexual men…) apply facial creams, eye creams and other anti-ageing treatments to reduce the signs of ageing of the face and body. However, hands, that are also an important age indicator, are failed to be addressed by many. Hands are the most exposed body part to ageing elements like water, house-hold chemicals and the sun, major skin ageing inducers that can be dealt with through proper measures. When dealing with ageing of hands, the symptoms include: ageing spots, thinning of the skin, general thinning of hands and protruding veins. The skin in general, including skin of the hands, produces less collagen as we age hence causing thinning of the skin, thus causing the veins to protrude and the hands to look bonier.

With proper attention and treatment, ageing signs of the hands can be reduced and the hands can look a few years younger. For those of you still young with beautiful hands, make sure to take measures to postpone ageing of hands by applying sunscreen to your hands twice a day. It is also important to wear gloves when washing dishes or if handling house hold chemicals. This will protect your hands from dryness and from the harsh effects of cleaners, detergents etc’.

To help with dry skin, apply cream at night and wear cotton mittens over the cream to enhance absorption.
A few technologies and some invasive methods have been introduced to address the different aspects of ageing hands. Combination of technologies will enable a full spectrum of treatment, however it is important to understand these options in order to ensure the correct sequence of treatment protocol as one technology can interfere with the effectiveness of other technologies if performed in an inappropriate order, timing etc’.
Photorejuvination technologies ( IPL and fractional laser) are well established methods for skin rejuvenation. These methods can help with the reduction of age spots and general improvement of skin appearance of the hands due to induction of new collagen growth and removal of age spots. Healing from photo rejuvenation treatments can take a few weeks because the skin is purposefully damaged to cause superficial skin injury, that induces scabbing, peeling and healing.
Dermal fillers, which are normally deployed for facial wrinkles, can be used for the hands too (for example Restylane) in order to restore “plumpness” and improve the general appearance. If you decide to combine dermal fillers with photorejuvination technologies, it is important to undergo the photorejuvination treatment prior to the use of dermal fillers to ensure that you do not interfere with the dermal filler’s action. It is also important to allow the hands to completely heal before undergoing the next type of treatment.
For treatment of protruding veins on the hands, an invasive cosmetic surgery is available where the veins are removed (of course the doctor will asses the blood vessels on the hands to ensure that the surgery does not damage the blood supply). This surgery requires a long healing duration (a few months) and is usually performed on one hand at a time.
A non invasive safe technology for the improvement of hand appearance is TriPollar RF (Radio Frequency). TriPollar RF treatments can be performed during lunch break short  office visits with no down time and with no need for healing. These treatments induce formation of new collagen in the dermis, hence improving skin texture and resulting with smoother, younger looking hands. TriPollar RF treatments can be combined with photorejuvination treatments to enable removal of age spots along with improvements of skin texture. If combining these two technologies, make sure that the hands have completely healed after the photorejuvination treatments before starting the Tripollar treatment protocol.