21 Jan Dr. Mamina Exposes Which Anti-Aging Treatments Actually Work
- What actually works for reversing those stubborn signs of aging?
- The real truth about Botox, fillers, and all those fancy laser treatments?
- Why some of your trusted skincare beliefs might be completely wrong?
Where to Draw the Line with Sun, Health, and Skincare?
The sun plays a really important role in our overall health and wellbeing – from our moods, to our vitamins, to our circadian rhythm. It’s really important to get sun daily. Ideally 15 minutes in the morning. But it’s important to still wear sunscreen in the areas that get chronic sun exposure – and yes – you can still make vitamin D with sunscreen. Between 10am-2pm the UV index is the strongest so you want to avoid sun exposure then.
Are Sunblocks Bad for You?
Both chemical and mineral sunscreens get absorbed in your skin. Dr. Mamina personally prefers hybrids or mineral sunscreens. Even with mineral sunscreens you can absorb enough UV to benefit from sun exposure.
As to whether or not sunscreens are dangerous for our health, is still a grey area because nothing has shown in studies on humans. If you’re not concerned about skin cancer or brown spots, then you shouldn’t wear sunscreen lol…but if you care at all, you should be wearing it.
What About Tanning Beds?
The skin care risk is exponentially higher in tanning beds. It’s a highly concentrated level of harmful exposure and it’s just not worth playing with tanning beds. Instead of tanning beds, if you live in an area that lacks sunlight, look for high lumen lights – NOT artificial UV rays in the form of tanning beds.
What Do I Do with These Midlife Brown Spots?!
There are a number of ways to navigate the brown spots – from prevention, to topical, to procedural.
- Prevention – use sun protection, even if you are outside for only 5 minutes a day. It all adds up!
- Topicals:
- Hydroquinone could be great for short term use on a small area, but is not recommended during pregnancy and breastfeeding. If used for too long, it can actually darken the skin.
- Retinoids help with multiple aspects of your skin – increases your skin turnover and also works on remodeling collagen. Dr. Mamina loves these, especially tretinoin!
- Acids that help with exfoliating and brightening
- Compounded Estriol creams – estriol mixed with hyaluronic acid is a great compound to use on your skin in midlife. It’s especially great around areas with thin skin.
- Procedural:
- Chemical peels depending on how deep/dark the brown spots are
- Laser treatments in office (IPL/Fraxel/Pico)
This and so much more, including tackling wrinkles, on this episode!