10 Dos & Don'ts to Help Slow the Aging Skin Process

Maybe you're in your 20s or early 30s and you think you can't possibly have (gulp) aging skin yet. Well, you're wrong. Your skin's "youthfulness" has less to do with age than how it's been treated, so if exposed to sun, smoke and stress, your skin will start "acting old," losing collagen, glow and elasticity. Lines will develop prematurely and your skin may look dull and "blah."
It's easier to prevent damage than to repair it, but the good news is you can put the brakes on prematurely aging skin and you can reverse the aging process, well, to a point.
Here are 5 dos and 5 don’ts to help slow down and reverse the aging process and leave your skin glowing at any age.

5 Dos and 5 Don’ts to Help Slow the Aging Skin Process

• Do stop smoking. Ever notice the skin of a lifelong smoker? It can appear wrinkly like a squashed paper bag. The fact is, smoking is the 2nd biggest cause of skin damage after sun exposure. Why? Nicotine constricts blood vessels and decreases the flow of oxygen to the skin. Not good things.
  
• Do use a retinoid every day or every few days. A daily application of a prescription retinoid lotion (such as Retin-A or Tazorac) can erase years from your face. In fact, dermatologists claim retinoids (see "Is this product the secret to looking young?" are the one anti-aging product that really works. Before I used Retin-A, I suffered from dull skin. My complexion had a white cast, a dull pallor until I bought a tube of Retin-A over-the-counter in Mexico. I had friends who swore by the stuff. After using the product for a few weeks (and going through the annoying period where my skin turned red and peeled), all of a sudden I had dewy, glowing skin and people started to tell me I had gorgeous skin.
  AHAs used properly not only rids your face of dead skin, but can seem to take 10 years off as well by reducing fine lines. (Keep in mind these products do NOT shrink pores. Your pore size is completely hereditary, so don't believe promises of permanent reduction). Over-the-counter options such as RoC Deep Wrinkle Night Cream are good, but prescription creams work the best. Extra tip: You must stay out of the sun if you use retinoids. You are extra-susceptible to sunburns.
• Do give yourself a facial once a week. If you follow my Basic At-Home Facial I guarantee your skin will never look better. My facial takes only 30 minutes and includes cleansing, exfoliation via a facial scrub, a hydrating mask, a quick steam and moisturizer.
• Do wear sunscreen every day, rain or shine. You’ve had it ingrained in your head since youth, but seriously, even in winter it can take just 20 minutes of unprotected sun exposure to damage the skin. Here's a list of great sunscreens, including what I believe to be the best sunscreen in the world. By the way, it's a MYTH that 80 percent of your lifetime sun damage occurs before age 18, according to O Magazine. Katie Rodan, MD, adjunct professor of dermatology at Stanford University School of Medicine, says in O that this myth stands officially debunked and studies indicate we get only 23 percent of total UV exposure by age 18. Of course it gets worse as we age. So you CAN prevent sun-induced aging by wearing sunscreen.
  
• Do shield your windows. The average commuter gets 200 hours of sun exposure each year and 80 percent of sun exposure is through car windows, according to Boston dermatologist Ranella Hirsch in Harper's Bazaar. To protect your skin against sun damage (the leading cause of aging skin), invest in a window shield like Solar Gard. Shields with SPF 285 can block UVA and UVB rays by 99 percent.
  

  You saw the 5 "dos" for perfect skin care. Now here are 5 don'ts:

• Don’t pull and rub your skin. Aging skin has been under attack by UV rays, stress and carbon monoxide so don't stress it more by pulling on it.
  
• Don’t forget to moisturize. While it's a myth that wrinkles are caused by dry skin, moisturizing can improve the appearance of lines by temporarily plumping them up. Also consider a good eye cream. Eye creams are controversial because some pros claim they don't really do anything, but many women swear by them. Extra tip: Moisturizers are best used on damp skin. They lock the moisture in. Dr. Dennis Gross doesn't use tap water when washing skin because of harsh minerals found in many city water sources. Instead, he rinses off with Evian water.
  
  See my list of the best moisturizers and the best eye creams.
• Don’t ignore your neck and chest. The neck and chest are first to show the signs of aging (they have fewer oil glands than the rest of your body), yet most of us ignore them. Look for moisturizers that have age-fighting ingredients like vitamin A (retinols), kinetin, copper or vitamin C.
  
• Don’t tan. Even if wrinkles haven't shown up yet, you need to stop tanning now because they will. Once signs of aging appears, you'll be spending a lot of money to reverse it. So if you do have sun damage? You can reverse the damage with photorejuvenation such as pulsed light treatments. Many spas and dermatologists provide these pricey fixes. If you do have brown spots, treat them with lemon juice diluted with water, according to NY dermatologist Jessica Krant in Harper's Bazaar. Krant suggests applying the mixture with a Q-tip nightly, gradually increasing it twice daily until sun spots fade away.
  
• Don’t sporadically take care of your skin. It's important to cleanse your face every night not only to avoid clogged pores, but also to wash away all the pollution your skin has been prone to.
  
  As for anti-aging regimens, you need to keep it up for best effects. You may suffer redness and a bit of peeling at first, but this is normal. To get the full effects of acid peels, retinoids, AHAs, and moisturizers you have to keep at it. The initial benefits will go away if you stop using them.
  

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How to Fight the Frizz in Summer

Frizzy hair is a curly girl's nightmare and summer humidity and rains can wreck havoc on hair, turning glossy curls into frizz within a matter of minutes. So how to fight the frizz? One secret lies in conditioning. It's important to deep condition hair every time you wash it. Keep a thick conditioner on hair for at least 5 minutes before rinsing and consider adding a stay-in conditioner once you leave the shower.

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Does Kate Middleton Wear Too Much Eyeliner?

The beauty world went into an uproar this week after British designer Vivienne Westwood told The London Sunday Times that the Duchess of Cambridge "has a problem with eye make-up."
"The sharp line around her eyes make her look hard. Either she should be smudgy or wear none," said Westwood, who can be a bit over-the-top herself (see her in hot pink hair and a crazy get-up and check out her penis shoe).
Westwood is not the first to criticize Kate Middleton's eye makeup. Months ago, makeup artist Pati Dubroff told Allure Magazine that Kate needed to ease up on the eyeliner. "Kate mainly plays up her eyes with heavy black liner along the inner rims, which actually makes them appear smaller," Dubroff said to Allure. "I'd love to see her soften it up with a plum or aubergine shadow just along the lash lines to enhance her green eyes."
Good point. Plum or aubergine shades really do make green eyes pop. But do you think Kate needs to lighten up on the eyeliner? Weigh in below

http://beauty.about.com/b/2011/08/20/does-kate-middleton-wear-too-much-eyeliner.htm

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Calcium/Vitamin D Supplementation May Help Prevent Weight Gain in Postmenopausal Women

Some research suggests that calcium and vitamin D may play a role in weight management. These nutrients may stimulate the breakdown of fat cells and suppress the development of new ones.
In the May 14th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr. Bette Caan, Principal Investigator of the Oakland WHI Clinical Center, published results based on data provided by the 36,282 participants in the WHI Calcium and Vitamin D Study (CaD). Dr. Caan and her co-authors looked at weight change over the 7 years that women participated in the CaD study. She found that at the end of the study, women in the group taking study pills with active calcium plus vitamin D weighed an average of 0.28 pounds less than those taking the placebo pills, which is a small but statistically significant difference in weight change.
Women taking active pills were also less likely to gain weight. The greatest benefits were seen in women whose total calcium intakes at the start of the study were below 1,200 mg/per day, which is the current recommended dietary intake for women this age. In these women, when compared to women taking placebo, women taking the calcium and vitamin D supplements had a lower risk of gaining weight, and had a higher likelihood of maintaining a stable weight (within 2.2 pounds of their starting weight) or losing weight (more than 2.2 pounds), after three years in the study.

Prevention of weight gain is an important public health goal. Monitoring calories in the diet and maintaining daily physical activity should clearly be considered the basic parts of weight management. However, further research is needed to look at the effect of calcium supplementation, combined with caloric restriction and physical activity, on preventing weight gain.

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Low-fat dietary pattern and cancer incidence in the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Randomized Controlled Trial

A low-fat dietary pattern may reduce the occurrence of invasive ovarian cancer among postmenopausal women. In the WHI Dietary Study, there were 160 cases of ovarian cancer reported among the 48,835 participants during the 8.1 years of the study's intervention phase. There were fewer new cases of ovarian cancer identified among the dietary change (intervention) participants than among the usual diet (comparison) participants. For the equivalent of every 100,000 low-fat dietary change participants per year there were 36 cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed. For the equivalent of every 100,000 usual diet participants per year there were 43 cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed. This difference was statistically significant. The probability that a difference between groups, as large as that observed, occurs by chance alone is only 3%. A probability of 5% or less is considered statistically significant.
During the first four years of the WHI Dietary Study, no effect of diet on ovarian cancer was apparent. This was anticipated in the study’s design. It can take years to see the effect of a preventive intervention on cancer risk. After the first four years of the study, there was a statistically significant 40% risk reduction in ovarian cancer among participants in the low-fat dietary change group compared to the usual diet group.
As with the breast cancer findings, the greatest reduction in cases of ovarian cancer was among dietary change participants who started with higher intakes of total fat as a percentage of calories and made the greatest reductions in fat intake. The reduced risk of ovarian cancer among the dietary change group compared to the usual diet group did not appear to be effected by the modest weight loss experienced by the dietary change group or by family history of ovarian cancer.
Among U.S. women, ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death. Ovarian cancer is a rare form of cancer among women, striking approximately 13 women out of 100,000 in the U.S. each year, which is about 1 in 60 women in their lifetimes. Compare this to breast cancer, which is diagnosed in approximately 119 women out of 100,000 each year, 1 in 8 women in their lifetimes. The mortality rate for ovarian cancer is high. Ten women out of 100,000 in the U.S. die each year from ovarian cancer. For breast cancer, 28 women out of 100,000 in the U.S. die each year. A lack of screening tools specific for ovarian cancer may be partially why the mortality rate is so high. Symptoms are non-specific and, contrary to common belief, pap smears do not detect ovarian cancer; they detect cervical cancer.
A suggestive benefit from the low-fat dietary pattern was seen for total invasive cancers. A 5% risk reduction was seen. There is, however, a probability of 10% that a risk change of this size or larger occurs by chance alone.

Background points about the low-fat dietary pattern from the WHI Dietary Study

The low-fat dietary pattern from the WHI Dietary Study that dietary change (intervention ) participants were asked to adopt included 20% of calories from total fat, 5 or more daily servings of vegetables and fruits, and 6 or more daily servings of grains. The usual diet (comparison) participants were not asked to make dietary changes. As reported previously, significant differences in dietary intake were achieved by the dietary change group whereas the comparison group’s diet remained relatively stable. By year one, the dietary change group had significantly reduced their total dietary fat from 35% to 24.3% of calories (10.7 percentage points lower than the comparison group), increased vegetable and fruit intake from 3.6 to 5.1 daily servings (1.2 servings higher than the comparison group), and increased their grain intake from 4.8 to 5.1 servings daily (0.9 servings higher than the comparison group). The dietary change group throughout the study maintained much of the dietary change but some return to previous habits did occur.

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Health Risks and Benefits 3 Years After Stopping Randomized Treatment With Estrogen and Progestin

Findings Summary

The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Estrogen plus Progestin Study (E+P) was stopped on July 7, 2002 (after an average 5.6 years of follow-up) because of increased risks of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer in women taking active study pills, compared with those on placebo (inactive pills). The study showed that the overall risks exceeded the benefits, with women taking E+P at higher risk for heart disease, blood clots, stroke, and breast cancer, but at lower risk for fracture and colon cancer.
After stopping study pills in the E+P trial, WHI continued to collect follow-up study data from participants to evaluate the effects of stopping hormone therapy. Follow-up information for the period July 8, 2002 to March 31, 2005 was available on 95% of the women. This summary reports on the health outcomes of E+P trial participants at three years after the study pill intervention was stopped (with a mean average of 2.4 years of follow-up). The primary outcomes of interest were coronary heart disease and invasive breast cancer. A global index used to summarize the balance of risks and benefits included these two outcomes, plus stroke, pulmonary embolism, endometrial cancer, colorectal cancer, hip fracture, and death due to other causes.
Three years after stopping hormone therapy, women who had taken study pills with active estrogen plus progestin no longer had an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (heart disease, stroke, and blood clots) compared with women on placebo. The lower risk of colorectal cancer seen in women who had taken active E+P disappeared after stopping the intervention. The benefit for fractures (broken bones) in women who had taken active E+P also disappeared after stopping hormone therapy. On the other hand, the risk of all cancers combined in women who had used E+P increased after stopping the intervention compared to those on placebo. This was due to increases in a variety of cancers, including lung cancer. After stopping the intervention, mortality from all causes was somewhat higher in women who had taken active E+P pills compared with the placebo.

Based on the findings mentioned above, the study’s global index that summarized risk and benefits was unchanged, showing that the health risks exceeded the health benefits from the beginning of the study through the end of this three year follow-up. The follow-up after stopping estrogen plus progestin confirms the study’s main conclusion that combination hormone therapy (E+P) should not be used to prevent disease in healthy, postmenopausal women. The most important message to women who have stopped this hormone therapy is to continue seeing their physicians for rigorous prevention and screening activities for all important preventable health conditions.

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Breast cancer

• Abstract of scientific paper in The New England Journal of Medicine

Following the release of the findings from the Women’s Health Initiative Estrogen Plus Estrogen Hormone Trial (E+P), use of hormone therapy in the United States fell sharply. During that time, rates of breast cancer also went down, suggesting a relationship between stopping hormone therapy and the decrease in breast cancer. However, some researchers felt that the drop in breast cancer was too fast to be explained by lower hormone use. Others thought that the decreased rates might be due to the drop in mammography rates during the same period.
WHI investigator Rowan T. Chlebowski, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator of the Torrance, CA clinical center, and other WHI scientists examined data from WHI participants to help explain the reason for the drop in breast cancer rates. In this analysis, they looked at new breast cancer incidence, hormone use, and mammography use over the same period of time in two groups of WHI women: those in the E+P Hormone Trial and those in the Observational Study. Their findings are reported in the Feb 4, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Findings

Findings from this new analysis confirmed that the risk of breast cancer associated with estrogen plus progestin use goes down significantly once these hormones are stopped. In addition, they found that the increase in breast cancer risk seen with longer use of estrogen plus progestin is even higher than previously estimated. A woman continuing E+P hormone therapy after about 5 years doubles her annual risk of breast cancer.
The study findings suggest that the decline in breast cancer risk seen after hormone therapy was stopped was unrelated to the drop in mammography use during those same years. “These findings support the hypothesis that the recent reduction in breast cancer incidence in the United States is predominantly related to a decrease in combined estrogen plus progestin use,” said Dr. Chlebowski.
“Postmenopausal women and their physicians should consider these findings when weighing the risks and benefits of combined estrogen plus progestin use, especially if they plan to take the medication for more than five years” said Dr. Chlebowski.

Summary

• Combined estrogen plus progestin longer than 5-years nearly doubles subsequent breast cancer risk each year.
• The marked decline in breast cancer risk soon after stopping hormones is not related to changes in mammography use.

• These findings support the hypothesis that the recent reduction in breast cancer incidence is primarily related to a decrease in estrogen plus progestin use

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