It’s hard to introduce one of your favorite role models in the world. Words don’t do her justice. Without delay, here is Dr. Sandy’s blog post “Choices, Skin Care Edition”.
As you know, I am a big fan of Nina and Jarrard Copeland. They are amazing human beings who make our world a better place to live. Instead of singing their praises for the rest of Nina’s blog, I will state that I wanted to write another blog post for Nina to free up some of her time to deal with some of the challenges life has dealt them currently. They have a lot of inner strength and as usual, choose to take the high road. I am still reflecting on life and life choices. Sometimes we get to choose in life and sometimes life chooses for us. How we choose to deal with life determines our character. Nina and Jarrard have impressive character.
Since childhood, I have been self-conscious about my crooked teeth. Our dentist told my parents that braces were not needed…..and they believed him. Not so pretty dentition greatly impacted my life. As I age, I think my teeth have become more crowded. So….I chose to get braces at the same time our children have braces. This means that I am choosing to have braces for 3 years during my mid-40s. I know that my teeth are already moving and I will be happy when the braces are removed. I know that I chose this. The awkwardness and other consequences however of wearing braces is more than I anticipated. Reflecting on this choice, I realized that I am a patient and consumer of health care instead of my usual role of being the health care provider. This process has made me even more sympathetic towards my patients. Health care choices can be overwhelming. “Cosmetic” choices can carry even more emotional ramifications. I however look at things differently than most people. I believe that our life is God’s gift to us and what we do with it is our gift to God. We must always give and do our best with everything. When it comes to our bodies, we are taught that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. I want to keep my temple looking good until God calls me home. This is why I try to eat well, exercise, get enough sleep, drink water, use sun protection, minimize stress, etc. This is also why I color my hair and use good skin care. This is also why I got braces. This is also why I go to experts for my care. This is why Nina injects 50 units of Botox into my upper face every 3 months and she injects 1 syringe of Voluma every 6 months into my cheekbone area. This is also why one of our laser techs treats me “as needed”. This is also why I continue to study skin care. God made the skin the largest organ of the body. And since I think one of the gifts God gave me is a passion and love for skin, I want to share with you some of my thoughts about skin care. I hope you love the skin you are in. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable about your skin because I know how uncomfortable I felt/feel about my teeth. So to start, be nice to your skin. We take an oath in medicine to first do no harm. Treat your skin with love and respect. Why would you want to scrub, pick, dig, your skin? Why would you want to change the color of skin that God gave you by tanning and therefore cooking your skin? Why would you trust your treatments to someone less educated and passionate about skin?
Last blog, I shared with you that I was honored to spend the weekend with international skin care experts and researchers on the Allergan campus. Until this weekend, I have believed at a minimum one needed sun protection during the day to prevent damage and retinol at night to repair damage. Other specialty products are added as the need arises. Such as TNS/growth factors to build up your dermis or lytera to diminish discoloration. I now also believe hyaluranic acid is needed to restore the epidermal barrier.
Many years ago, I switched to retinol made by SM because Dr. Vega, one of the SM researchers, developed the first retinol that also had anti-inflammatory properties. This is important because it allowed the retinol to be less irritating as well as more effective at repairing damage and preventing skin cancers. I could tell a huge difference in my skin within 2 skin cycles. (A skin cycle is about 28 days. To see any real change in your skin it takes at least 2 skin cycles.)
Dr. Vega and her team are superstars. They did not quit after developing the best retinol ever. Last year, they developed a Superscreen called TD&R for total defense and recovery. This product not only protects against UV damage but also protects against IR radiation AND has antioxidants. It prevents new damage and reverses existing damage at the same time. I no longer have to preach wear your sunscreen—people want to use this product! For what you get, it is an amazing buy. I am such the bargain shopper. The price is high if you consider it a sunscreen. But when you take into account that it blocks UVR, IR and reverses damage—it is a steal.
So now about hyaluronic acid (HA). We all know that hyaluranic acid is the current fad when it comes to skin care. We know that our body makes less of it as we age. We know that it is important for our epidermal barrier. We know it makes our skin look radiant and less wrinkled. We know that it is too large to penetrate into the skin. We know that most available products only last on the skin for 1-2 hours. What we didn’t know until these scientists did their homework is that an extract from the Vitis flower can penetrate the skin for the skin to produce its own HA. Amazing! So they developed a product that overtime (at least 2 skin cycles) will stimulate your body to make hyaluronic acid. Since they know that some people want to look “instantly ageless” (even though those claims make me cringe), they mixed this Vitis flower with other antioxidants and 5 types of hyaluronic acid. This allows my skin (and yours) to feel amazing not for 1-2 hours but for 8-12 hours. Also, with continued use, our skin will feel “forever young” by training the skin to make more HA.
If you are interested in learning how to better take care of your skin AKA your window to your soul AKA the biggest part of your temple, then I encourage you to come visit one of our excellent JD team members. One of JD’s finest would love to prescribe a personalized plan just for you. Use our education and passion for your personal benefit. Thank you Nina for allowing me to share my thoughts for the past 2 weeks. I doubt you will choose to go another week without sharing with your followers your own thoughts and choices. Thank you who have read my posts the last 2 weeks. One of the last things I say to my kids before we part is “I love you and make good choices”. So until next time, make good choices, take care of your temples and Stay skintastic!
