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Realization of Hydration

Considering the skin contains around 64% water, why is the cosmetic industry so obsessed with hydration and what does it really mean? Unless you have atopic dermatitis, hyperthyroidism, ichthyosis or at the very least diabetes, dry skin is not the common symptom or even category everyone imagines.

Moisture and Aging

We all start out with dewy, bouncy, young skin, never feeling the urge to slap on a moisturizing cream. After the age of 23 or 25, dead cells no longer self-exfoliate as well as when we were children. Dead cells build up with what I like to call “the redundant cuticle.” These dead cells, which are still attached to the epidermis, are smaller than the living cells underneath. This imparts that tight, dry feeling and leaves the person with the perception of dry skin. Most people will put a moisturizer on it, and the oils in the product break the dry, tight tension. We might think we are moisturized, but we are just greased. In fact, the very word moisturizer is a misnomer invented in 1962 to sell and market beauty creams. If properly formulated, creams can be excellent delivery systems for lipid carrying nutrients, but water is not one of them. Creams can maintain hydration levels, but only if the skin is in hydration homeostasis already.

The Importance of the Matrix

The matrix of the skin is that jelly-like fluid, mostly hyaluronic acid, sugars, salts and chondroitin sulfates. Real hydration is when this matrix is thick and bouncy by virtue of intercellular water retention bound by essential fatty acids. As we age, this matrix of the skin gets thinner and thinner. The skin can become chicken-like and crepey.

Addressing Hydration

Hydration must be addressed from both the outside and the inside, as we will discuss below. Approaching the skin from both sides maintains water homeostasis, which kind of “kick-starts” all systems we enjoyed in youth into acting normal again. Inside. The only way to really address a thinner matrix is consumption of water and taking essential fatty acids orally. Sea buckthorn and evening primrose oil are my choice of essential fatty acids for many reasons. Outside. The epidermis is another matter, but it must be maintained at the same time. First, we must remove the excess cuticle barrier and this can be done with different forms of enzyme exfoliants or different acids, depending on skin condition, age, sex and ethnicity.

Hydration must be addressed from the outside and inside

Once this is done, the acid mantle must be reestablished daily by using the proper homecare products that imitate the acid mantle. This is nature’s natural moisturizer and is the replication of the two secretions we are born with: water from the sudoriferous gland and sebum from the sebaceous gland. Together, these secretions blend on the surface of the epidermis and form the biofilm—the acid mantle.

Peeling Popularity

One of the things that confuse skin therapists is the peel craze, a popularity that will not go away. This has been around as long as I have been in this field, which is 50 years. The old-fashioned medical peel with phenol acid and croton oil was the top of the line in the 1950s. I made many serums for plastic surgeons back then. I am embarrassed to confess it now, but at least I tried to slow down what basically was burning the heck out of the epidermis. The resulting erythema and edema of this peel was viewed as a “great result” only to have the real picture pop up a year later. Skin looked fake and waxy with no pigmentation or worse.

The CO2 laser was not much better, instead just vaporizing the heck out of the epidermis.

Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) were gentler, but misunderstood at first. They were not “all-natural” fruit sugar acids that were harmless as popularly touted. They are hygroscopic acids that, when applied to dead, dry cells, would pull all available moisture into the cells which swelled up like an over-full balloon, eventually bursting and the fragments detaching from the underlying newer cell epidermis.

Since that time, I have seen bio-peels, green peels, blue peels, microdermabrasion, scrapping skin off with a scalpel and even bird poop peels, whose incredulity outranks fish-nibbling peels. The assumption is that with enough peeling, miracles will happen and voila, new skin!

Replacing Hydration

Gentle peeling such as with AHAs can be effective without causing the trauma associated with aggressive peels, but again, we must realize that once we do this, we have robbed the water bank of the client. Following these procedures, the practitioner must put the hydration back immediately. The “peel” is just a door opener for our real work—removing the redundant cuticle and feeding the new baby cells with the nutrients that they require and recognize.

After gentle peeling, we must add beta glucan into the skin for the Langerhans cells to help with the healing from the peel. Essential fatty acids are also important after a peel, due to the water loss. Lastly, transdermal delivery creams that penetrate the skin are a great way of putting nutrients back into the skin.

We cannot force any ingredient into new revised skin that the cells do not recognize, regardless of how exotic or trendy that ingredient may be. What could happen is either rejection, which gets no result, or contraindications.

Also, keep in mind that a thorough removal system leaves a desert behind—no water, no trees and no bushes.

This is a perfect landscape for Staphylococcus aureus or any other bad bacteria to come in and rule the land— creating all types of dermatitis and other skin anomalies.

The Role of the Microbiome

Eczema, psoriasis or atopic dermatitis are all deficits
in water. To get down into the root of it, the skin’s microbiome must be established immediately. Fortunately, we have our own good and bad bacterial colonies at certain points around the face and body. The trick is to provide a field where a protective biofilm can be formed to maintain the good bacteria and keep the bad guys at bay along with a variety of viruses and parasites

Microbiome research is a growing trend that I am pleased to be in on. It is still the tip of a very large iceberg and a lot of money will be made off hard working therapists that do not bother to research the microbiome.

Establishing a healthy skin microbiome will help regulate the skin. All the problematic skin conditions due to lack of hydration (eczema, psoriasis) will be addressed once you have a healthy microbiome. We can think about as preparing a garden. If the soil is healthy and maintained, then the plant that grows from this healthy soil will be healthy and fruitful.

When the skin condition is serious enough to warrant special microbiome treatment—such as eczema, psoriasis or atopic dermatitis—the products used must have live spores of the good bacteria. This is not easy to do and very costly to do right. I know this from three years researching this viable phenomenon, looking at everything and trying many approaches.

A Skin Journey

Following the paths of logic in biochemistry and biology, usually one can come up with workable formulas and protocols. Remember the body is a complex, organic computer capable of many self-repair modalities if given the right protocol, ingredients and environment. Client compliance with ongoing home treatment is essential to any life-changing result. Your clients must accompany you on the journey to better skin health and regardless of their IQ or education, you as the professional, must educate them along the way.

Article sourced from DMK website

Age management, are you healthy aging?

No matter how many skin treatments one has, injections or surgery if the internal system of the body is compromised with nutritional deficits (lack of exercise and excess alcoholic beverages, drug abuse, and so forth) the cells of the body will not respond with normal rhythm of proliferation. Likewise, inflammation appears, followed by chronic pain, all of which show up on the skin of the face and the body. In order to have homeostasis in both, everything must be addressed, from appearance to body energy. A sense of well-being leads to a smoother, stress-free face. When the entire package is addressed, a person in their 70s can appear and act like someone in their 50s. To maintain this living illusion, it takes several steps and a daily routine – in other words, consistency. 

DIET

While everyone is not built to be stick thin, everyone can maintain the figure they had when they felt and looked their best, whether it was in high school, college, or after weight loss success. A common method for motivation is keeping a positive photograph as a visual to stay on track with body goals. Sugar is not anyone’s friend. Sugar contributes more to fat than fat from oils, bacon, and other sugars. Natural sweeteners can be a positive alternative. Sugar also feeds the bad bacteria that can collect in the intestinal tract and stomach leading to inflammation and insulin problems, which can exacerbate acne, eczema, and another inflammatory dermatitis. Instead, a diet rich in vitamins and nutrients and low in carbohydrates is important. 

EXERCISE

Movement keeps the hormonal cascade going, causing energy levels to increase. This includes breathing techniques, such as fire breathing, bellows breathing, and nose – 100 times each. For anyone 70 years plus, just keep moving, no matter how you feel.

SKIN REVISION

Skin is like organic plastic with many reparative systems, making even the deepest scars workable if the client gives the professional the time and is compliant at home.

The phrase skin revision simply means to revise problematic skin, including aging, back to the way nature intended it to be through the cellular and genomic processes. Cells are not programmed to die for about 150 years. They are programmed to stay alive if possible, given the right environment and nutrients they recognize as viable skin food. It is easy to see this phenomenon by viewing the hyperpigmented, wrinkled, and sagging face of an 85-year-old woman, including the backs of her hands, which can look like a pair of old gloves. Every one of these indignities is nothing more than defense mechanisms of the skin against solar and environmental attacks. 

Cuticle buildup, which results in webs of fine lines and transepidermal water loss is skin trying to armor itself against the many daily assaults, including cosmetics that are not chemically attuned to the person’s needs or skin hormonal systems. However, if the skin around the areola of her breasts were to be studied, one would find smoother, brighter, firmer, younger skin always protected by the simple act of getting dressed every day. It is the parts of the skin that are always hanging out in the sun that are trying to defend themselves. 

This area is the client’s true age and when confronted by this fact the client is overjoyed that it would be possible for the face to match – the body is already willing to do this. But, first, the professional must remove the damage using various modalities that do this, such as products that address the pH scale, like professional treatments that use either acid or alkaline tools to desquamate or break up the dead cuticle buildup. There are many methods of removal, but none should be so invasive as to arouse even more defense mechanisms, such as hyperpigmentation. 

After the field is clear and homeostasis is restored to the intercellular fluids, the living cells must be offered what they recognize and need to stay alive a little bit longer. Essential nutrients (oils, amino acids, and other nutrients) that must come from outside sources are vital food for cells, and a whole army of powerful antioxidants to protect the entire process is a priority in a time when climate change is all too real and the ozone layer is depleting yearly, letting even more carcinogenic rays from the sun through. As skincare professionals practice what they preach, they will set an example to clients and will find a deep self-worth knowledge that age does not matter, but looking good does.

Article sourced from DMK website

Acne can be cured?

Therapists are fearful of the “C” word. I suppose ethically to claim a cure is to imply a certain amount of ego and a lot of risks.

When we take a client from point A, bristling with pustules, papules, encapsulated milia, and other acneic anomalies, to point B with porcelain, satiny skin, do we say “they are cured” like a televangelist or do we say, “they are in a controlled remission”?

Technically, every cure is a controlled remission with the possibility that a recurrence could be the result if treatments and home prescriptives are not maintained—as long as we are not under the ground, at which point true permanency is guaranteed.

To remove the burden of acne, we must understand it fundamentally despite its many confusing varieties.

Looking at acne as a single disorder (as opposed to its medically pigeon-holed categories) will remove much of the confusion therapists are confronted with.

Acne, from the Greek word “akne” (meaning point), also known as acne Vulgaris, if full-blown over the face, back, and chest, is physically a disease where hair follicles are clogged with dead skin cells and oil from the epidermis.

This could be easily addressed by exfoliates and desincru­station formulas if the underlying genesis was not such an aggressive emotional roller coaster.

It all starts with the hypothalamus gland—currently replacing the pituitary gland as our master gland.

Think of the hypothalamus as a radio antenna receiving all signals of stress. The stress of puberty segueing into adulthood, the stress of dysfunctional relationships (onset adult acne), job-related or peer group-related stress and, the worst stress of all, subliminal stress that cannot be identified.

The hypothalamus picks up the phone and relays the stress message to the adrenal glands who become very excited and phones the testosterone hormone. He calls up the sebaceous gland in the skin and commands “pump more oil” as a defense mechanism at which point we would have excessively oily skin.

However, there is always a cuticle build-up to contend with. Dead cells stop voluntarily exfoliating and layer, many filling up the shunts of the hair follicle, impacting with sebum. Underneath, the epidermis tries to isolate this foreign impaction, creating a small granuloma or cyst-like pustule which may or may not spike into actual pus.

At some point, unable to help themselves, the person scratches or squeezes these bumps and P.acnes bacteria enters the picture, exacerbating the condition, spreading infection everywhere.


Several steps can be taken to stop all this ravage:

  1. Relieve the skin of its cuticle burden.
  2. Using special saponifi­cation formulas, remove the pre-deposited fats from the follicle.
  3. Increase capillary dilation and fresh oxygen from the lungs (not topically applied—the skin does not breathe).
  4. Destroy all P.acnes bacteria keeping a friendly acid mantle intact.
  5. Restore homeostasis to all inter-cellular fluids, thus minimizing inflammation.

Psycholo­gically, the stress levels will slow down as the patient sees something positive happening to their skin. Many times, their depression is very deep after having tried so many things before with little results. Now we have an internal as well as external treatment that ensures a positive result for a lifetime.

Skin health internally and topically is better able to fight back bacterial, parasitic or even viral attacks. No one needs to suffer the scourge of acne and its possible difficult-to-remove cuneiform scars.

Article sourced from DMK website