Aesthetics Blog

Apr 2

Written by:
4/2/2013 12:00 AM 

All research studies for anti-aging treatments have come to the same conclusion: there are four must-have ingredients for women and men seeking younger, healthier skin. First, let's look at what causes the skin to age: sun exposure (UV damage), free radicals, stress, and inflammation. Our skin is constantly under attack with these daily factors, it's part of living. But luckily, we now know what causes our skin to sag, what brings on the wrinkles, dark spots, flaky, dry skin, and even redness and can therefore know how to fight back!

1: Sunscreen! We CAN NOT stress this enough. The daily use of a sunscreen (at least SPF 30 or higher), and we mean, EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. can reduce the UV damage to your skin and protect it from future damage. UV rays are responsible for breaking down collagen, promoting inflammation, increasing melanin (darkening of the skin). All of these factors will lead to pre-cancerous lesions and left untreated, these can turn into deadly skin cancer. Therefore, we advise all patients to wear daily sun protection of at least a 30 or higher.

2: Antioxidants: Such as an easy to absorb Vitamin C (in the form of L-Ascorbic Acid-make sure your product label lists this one). Antioxidants neutralize free radicals. Free radicals live in our bodies and on our skin and in the environment. What happens is when they get "excited" by pollution, daily stress, etc...they start to attack our cells and destroy the DNA in those cells. Therefore, we are left with weaker cells, which result in all signs of aging.

3: Growth Factors: Whether is is from a human growth factor, or botanical (swiss apple stem cell extracts), this new and highly regarded addition to skin care is proven to promote the formation of healthy NEW cells, to replace the damaged/dead ones. So if you want to improve your collagen, reduce wrinkles, then you must include this!

4: Retin-A or Retrinol products: To promote health skin cell turnover. This is a fancy way to say that as we age our skin cell cycle slows down to a crawl and is responsible for dull, flaky, lifeless skin and also wrinkles. So the use of this product every night (if you can tolerate it), helps reduce the aging process to the skin. This product also helps with adult acne, so it is and  continues to be the "gold standard" in skin care prescription.

To see more of the product lines we carry, click here.
Don't forget, the experienced medical Aestheticians at Advanced Aesthetics of Arkansas, offer skin care consultations to help you navigate through all the product ingredients. We can help you simplify your routine and give you the knowledge to care for your skin.