Skins has been described as the body’s largest organ and it does so many things other than stop us falling apart. It keeps bugs out and our insides in. It helps regulate our temperature. It regulates our internal water and excretes toxins. Combined with small levels of sunshine it even creates Vitamin D which is essential for healthy life. It tells us a lot of information about the outside world in terms of heat, texture, pressure and pain. It helps us attract members of the opposite sex, both with looks and smell! It even tries to keep the sun from doing too much damage to us too….

And this is where we have a problem. For the last 40 to 50 years or so it has been fashionable to have a ‘tan’. It certainly wasn’t in Victorian times when the only regularly tanned were the farm workers who spent all day in the sun and couldn’t avoid it. The fashion then was for ladies to look pale and ‘wan’ to display their delicacy and  their need to find the right man to look after them. About the time when package holidays became popular there appeared to be a growing need to show off to those back home how good the holiday was by how much sun there was out there. Demonstrated best by how golden brown you could look. Interestingly this trend has continued long after anyone was able to get a tan at home with a sun bed!! For unfortunately very little money. Best not to get me started on sun beds or we might be here all day.

So lets get this straight. Ultraviolet light is bad for your skin. It makes no difference where the ultraviolet comes from and very little difference which type it is A or B.

In fact the reason it goes brown is a desperate attempt by your skin to protect itself from further damage. Pretty much all of the features of the ageing face can be put down in part to photo-ageing. i.e. damage related to exposure to ultraviolet light.

Now I am not trying to suggest that if you lived permanently in a cave excluded from ultraviolet light, then you wouldn’t age. That is obviously not true, but you would age more slowly. Yes you would!

So what would I suggest, apart from living in a cave, to help this problem? Well firstly can we all start preferring paler skin? If not white then at least a little less brown…..? Also fake tan is great. and no I don’t have any shares in fake tan products.

Secondly don’t go on holiday and lie on the sun loungers all day. Just don’t. From the neck down I am not too bothered, but those bits will give the game away later. So at the very least keep you face out of the sun as much as possible. Hats! Yes I like hats, and there are a huge variety but I just prefer those that keep the most sun of my face (apologies to my wife and daughters not withstanding!!). By the way you will get more than enough colour to your face walking to and from the sun shades and the bar!

Sunscreen. Absolutely. In fact I often tell my patients to put on sunscreen even in England even in the middle of winter and even if they are going to be inside all day. At least then if you do pop out you already have it on….

Oh yes and don’t forget the Vitamin D argument. ‘Sun is good for you because it helps you make vitamin D’. Well I have it on good authority that the amount of skin exposure you need for your daily vitamin D requirements can be had by exposing the palms of your hands to the direct sun for 5 to 10 minutes. That’s it.

The Australians are much better at this than us with their Slip, Slop and Slap recommendations and the fact that most of them are now very much more covered up than us.

So Slip on a top, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat!

If you have ignored this advice in the past and already have significant sun damage the good news is I can help a lot. It won’t necessarily be cheap but plenty of things can be done to improve your skin.

I am not sure whether I should say this but every morning I get up and give thanks for nicotine and sunshine as they make me a fortune!!!

So please stay out of the sun as much as possible and can we all please go back to valuing good healthy pale skin???

Till next time.

For this and many other ways to improve your health, your appearance or even your longevity please call the girls on 01625 598 000 for an appointment for a FREE consultation.

© Dr Paul Cronin 2010 http://www.eternalyouth.co.uk

1. If you eat 110 calories and use 100 calories you gain weight. If you eat 100 calories and use 110 calories you lose weight.

2. Every time you gain a pound, you gain it on all the places you don’t want to gain it on. Every time you lose a pound, you lose it off all the places you don’t want to lose it from.

3. So you gradually attain a shape that you don’t like.

4. No exercise machine can target weight loss from a particular bit of the body. If you lose weight it comes off wherever your body wants to take it from.

5. It IS about diet and exercise but it isn’t JUST about diet and exercise.

6. It is much better to eat less AND do more!

7. Exercise is FAR more important than diet, yet diet is the first thing most people think about.

8. Eating FAT doesn’t necessarily make you fat. Eating more than you need of pretty much anything, makes you fat.

9. Even Super Models don’t actually look like that. Have you not heard of Photoshop?

10. Looking at food DOESN’T make you fat. Eating it might..

So we all know what we should be doing, so why aren’t we doing it? More importantly is there anything that can be done about the shape we’re in?

Well to reiterate No 5 It IS about diet and exercise but it isn’t JUST about diet and exercise.

For those unsympathetic souls who just yell ‘Eat less and do more exercise Fatty!’! I have to point out that many of my patients are not overweight and exercise very reasonably. So for many diet and exercise is not the complete answer.

Is there any way to target fat loss?

The good news is yes. The bad news is it does cost money and some ways are more uncomfortable than others. So let me tell you at least about a relatively new one which I think is the best compromise.

VASER Liposelection.

Vibration Amplification of Sound Energy at Resonance. Yep that’s what VASER stands for. What it means to you as a patient is that we can use ultrasound technology to selectively liquidise the fat in your problem areas whilst leaving blood vessels nerves and fibrous tissues intact. This means that most of the aspirate is fat with very little blood. This is why there is much less swelling and bruising with VASER than with traditional Liposuction. This allows us to perform the procedure under local anaesthetic.

We start by infusing the area concerned with local anaesthetic and medication which reduces the bruising and swelling. Next we use the ultrasound probes passed through very small 2-4 mm incisions to gently liquify the fat and make it easier to remove. This is followed by reduced pressure aspiration of the liquified fat. The amount removed depends on the amount present and the desired result. We always stay well within safe amounts of fat removal. One of the nice aspects of VASER treatment is you get to see exactly how much fat has been removed.

You still need to wear a compression garment for a couple of weeks afterwards but many people can return to work almost immediately or at least within a few days. The results can be seen very quickly sometimes even within a few days, but the final assessment is made between 3 and 6 months.

Now none of this changes the facts above, but what it does do is allow you to decide where the fat comes off, if you do your side of the deal properly.

People often ask me if the results of any fat removal treatments are permanent. I usually say that for some of them,like the one above, the results are technically permanent. What do I mean by this?

Well, I have no control over what you do once you leave the clinic. If you go home and eat Fish & Chips and Ice Cream then you will undoubtedly gain weight again and probably in exactly the same places as you always did. However once you have achieved the desired result, if you look after yourself properly with good diet and consistent exercise then it has no reason to come back.

If you would like to talk personally to me about this or any of the other procedures we do then call the girls on 01625 598 000 and book your FREE consultation now!

© Dr Paul Cronin 2008 http://www.eternalyouth.co.uk

Eternal Youth is proud to offer VASER Liposelection treatments to the people of Alderley Edge, Wilmslow, Hale, Stockport, Manchester, Liverpool, Cheshire, the North West and the whole of the UK.

So my day is not just filled with laser resurfacing, liposuction and skin tightening, We do a fair amount of gentler stuff too such as simple microdermabrasion and omnilux treatments. IPL can offer gentle improvements to photo damaged skin. We also offer our very own unique facial which is proving very popular as well as highly beneficial.

Microdermabrasion involves using a diamond studded probe with gentle vacuum to carefully scrape of a thin layer of the dead skin cells from the surface of the skin. This layer is often responsible for the slightly grey and lack lustre appearance of the skin especially if too much of the wrong sort of moisturizer is used. Removing this thin layer stimulates and refreshes the underlying tissues and brings an inner glow to this skin.

Omnilux involves the use of specialised LED arrays which emit a particular frequency of light which is know to stimulate fibroblast regeneration and improve collagen deposition in the skin. This treatment can often be very beneficial and very pleasant too. I have had the occasional one myself too as it is my machine! (The girls do report that I have occasionally been known to fall asleep under the omnilux machine and snoring has also been mentioned……)

IPL is another technique which again uses a specialized light source to gently rejuvenate skin it is a little more uncomfortable than the omnilux and I doubt you will fall asleep but it certainly works well. In fact a combination of the two can help a lot.

Unfortunately I cannot tell you a lot about our new special facial as it uses a lot of proprietary technology to be truly unique to our clinic. All I can really tell you is our patients love it and keep coming back for more. Every little bit helps.

So it is possible to achieve improvement in the skin with simple, cost effective and pleasant treatments. It doesn’t always have to hurt…..

For further advice and help with these or similar problems please call the girls on 01625 598 000 to find a mutually convenient time for your FREE consultation.

I look forward to meeting you in person.

© Dr Paul Cronin 2010 http://www.eternalyouth.co.uk

There is an interesting statistic going round which says that 94% of women suffer from cellulite and the other 6% are probably fibbing. Cellulite is a big and difficult to handle problem and every ten minutes a new cream appears on the market offering a wondrous instant cure. The bad news is that none of them work, at least not for any significant time. The really bad news is that a whole heap of money is wasted on these useless products. So what exactly is Cellulite?

Fat is usually a subcutaneous substance, i.e. under the skin. However in some people, and yes it is more common in women and increasingly common as you age, it is deposited in the lower structures of the skin itself. This skin has dense fibrous tissue in it which gives the skin its strength. When fat is laid down next to this fibrous tissue it stretches the skin above it but is unable to stretch the fibrous tissue very much. This then leads to the dimpled ‘peu d’orange’ look of cellulite.

The good news is that there are some things on the market that do help at least a bit. Velasmooth/Velashape is a combined radio-frequency and vacuum massage machine which does stretch up these fibrous bands and improve lymphatic drainage reducing the visibility of the cellulite albeit temporarily. A short course of 8 to 10 treatments followed by monthly or alternate monthly maintenance treatments can be very helpful. Thermage is a better longer lasting treatment but it is considerably more expensive. The good news is that the results can be very long lasting indeed. Check them both out.

Hairy legs are often a valid reason for feeling reluctance to wear short skirts. The adverts for depilatory creams and lady shavers show that a lot of ladies put a lot of time and money into removing this problem mechanically. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to reduce the total numbers of hairs on a more long term basis and also reduce the thickness of those which remained? Once again the good news is that Intense Pulsed Light or IPL can be very effective. Despite the fact that IPL doesn’t involve a laser it is often know as laser hair removal. It certainly is a cheap and effective method of semi-permanent hair reduction. I say semi-permanent only because it is possible for some of the hairs to regrow but most are effectively dealt with.

Thread veins are a little like varicose veins but usually much smaller. They come in two types the blue and the red and fortunately unlike proper varicose veins they can often be helped without resorting to surgery. Again depending on size and severity IPL can be used to provide significant and very long lasting improvement.

So if you have been a little slow to reveal your legs so far this year because of any combination of the above then help is at hand. Get them sorted in time for summer and get out there and show off your gorgeous new legs.

For further advice and help with these or similar problems please call the girls on 01625 598 000 to find a mutually convenient time for your FREE consultation.

I look forward to meeting you in person.

© Dr Paul Cronin 2010                   http://www.eternalyouth.co.uk

Gone are the days when a patient might stridently demand no movement from her Botox treatment. In its stead is a more refined understanding of the benefits of a gentler, more subtle approach.

We have all seen the photos in the papers of celebrities like Mickey Rourke and Burt Reynolds, and some of the more horrific examples such as the lady somewhat unfortunately dubbed the ‘Bride of Wildenstein.’ The ‘trout pout’ of Lesley Ash did unfortunately create a lot of media interest in ‘when things go wrong’, but even when things go right some people take it too far. I sometimes wish that the practitioners in question might learn to gently just say ‘No’.

There seems to be a significant contest between the thirst for glamour and those who aim for the more natural look. Breast enhancement no longer has to be ‘Jordanesque’. Lips are much better just gently plumped rather than ‘blimped’. The smooth sheen of an over botoxed brow has given way to an acceptance of a few soft lines to add character to the face, and this is all for the good.

I often say to my patients that ‘My signature’ is ‘No signature’. If someone asks where you had you botox done, we did too much. We want your friends and family to notice how well you look, how refreshed your skin appears, not how many visits you have had to the plastic surgeon.

This has lead to an increasing interest in the non-surgical alternatives, the safer, the gentler, the slightly less expensive, the distinctly more subtle. This sometimes leaves me with a little problem. Some of my best work goes unnoticed and unattributed. The ladies of Cheshire get away with looking their best without having to explain why, and for this I am perfectly happy.

One important part of this principle is that prevention is better than cure. It is easier to be subtle when you start earlier and thus there is no need for a startling transformation to occur. Botox certainly does have a preventative action for facial lines, and this happens best when started fairly early and done with reasonable regularity to prevent recovery of the muscles and further progression of the lines. Volume loss is best replaced before it has become too obvious. Lips are best tweaked gently over the years to maintain their look rather than wait for them to get too thin.

‘Less is more.’ is a very good maxim to work to. Find a doctor who understands these principles, who has a good aesthetic ‘eye’. Trust him to only suggest that which will gently enhance your appearance, and revel in the fact that no-one else knows.

It can be ‘Our secret’.

For further advice and help with these or similar problems please call the girls on 01625 598 000 to find a mutually convenient time for your FREE consultation.

I look forward to meeting you in person.

© Dr Paul Cronin 2010                   http://www.eternalyouth.co.uk

“I had Restylane touch injected into my tear troughs five months ago and had a disastrous result. I have since had three lots of hyalase administered to dissolve it. My eyes are fine but I have fluid in the malar area that seems to be a kidney shape under each eye. Is it possible that the injections have caused me permanent damage or could some Restylane still be present? I’m thinking of having another hyalase injection as since the last, three months ago swelling (fluid) is still present. I’ve never had a fluid retention problem before. “

I am sorry to hear about your problems. It is obviously hard to guide you without a face to face consultation and I presume you have already been back to the original practitioner for the hyalase treatments. As they have the benefit of seeing you before the treatment they will always be the first port of call when problems arise. You do not mention what the original disaster was but I presume if was ‘more than expected’ if hyalase was used.

It is extremely unlikely that there is any Restylane still present, especially after the hyalase injections and I personally would not recommend any further hyalase treatments. It is possible that the fluid represents some residual inflammation from all the injections you have had to the area over the course of this episode, and a degree of laxity in the skin following any swelling produced. I feel certain that these symptoms would most likely resolve spontaneously without further treatment, but I am sure your practitioner would be happy to keep an eye on you over that time.

Restylane treatments are by their nature temporary and are very unlikely to cause any permanent damage. It is always best to go to an experienced practitioner for these kind of treatments. A check on www.cosmeticdoctors.co.uk will provide a list of experienced doctors in your area.

I have been working in this business for over ten years now and I have done a lot of treatments. At my last audit in March 2010 I calculated that I had done somewhere between 12,000 and 13,000 of many different types. A lot of Botox and fillers but more recently a large amount of the more specialist end of the market with Thermage, Fraxel and now VASER Lipo.

I opened my own clinic in Alderley Edge in Cheshire over three years ago now and we have gradually built up a loyal group of patients who return on a regular basis. Our aftercare and attention to detail have fostered a large number of ‘in house’ referrals where patients have been advised to come and see us by their friends who have already been. This is a great way to build up a practice and significantly cheaper than advertising in expensive magazines.

This extensive experience does allow us to offer a very high quality of care to all our patients and does mean that all of our staff have already heard most of the questions and can reassure new patients with appropriate answers. We continue to develop our reputation locally based on the results we provide. This is very much a results based business and we can always show an extensive selection of before and after pictures to help patients chose the most appropriate treatments tailored exactly to their needs and their budget.

During a longer treatment the other day the topic came up about a recent lottery winner who won £45 million pounds, and the patient asked me what I would do if I won that much money. I am not sure it was such a good idea but I did say that I would probably still come into work and do the treatments I do as I enjoy the results we can achieve so much. I also, possibly foolishly, suggested that if I had won £45 million I would probably happily do the treatment for free!

Unfortunately I haven’t won the lottery so naturally I still do charge for my services, but I still think its fair to say that the best reward I get is the smile on the faces of the patients coming back for their review appointments. If, by providing a wide variety of treatments from the simple Botox and fillers to the more technically demanding high end treatments we can boost someone’s confidence and make them go out and have a more enjoyable and fulfilled life then I do think that is very much a job well done.

Over the next few months I will try to entertain you with a look at some of the latest developments in this exciting new field of medicine and also perhaps explain in more detail some of the more routine stuff to ensure you are fully informed.

Fully informed patients make better decisions and so I have always provided free consultations at my clinic to allow patients access to my expertise to help them in making important and potentially expensive decisions in the best way.

Please call the girls on 01625 598 000 to find a mutually convenient time for your consultation.

I look forward to meeting you in person.

© Dr Paul Cronin 2010                   http://www.eternalyouth.co.uk

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/diy-botox-video

When I reviewed the video I found it most interesting. Having done self injection of Botox myself for demonstration purposes I was aware that the biggest problem was seeing the syringe during the injection in order to make sure the correct dosage was applied.

There were several fallacies and problems with the explanation the woman gave.

She touched the top of the ampoule with her finger prior to drawing up the botox. Potential infection risk.

She said the ampoule contained 100u enough for two people but then said she used 60u herself.

She stated that Botox becomes inert on exposure to air which is untrue and potentially dangerous.

She squirted Botox into the air to adjust the dosage!!!!

Her injection technique was poor and only showed her injecting the side away from the camera. Not exactly illuminating.

Her suggested timings for the action of Botox are just wrong.

It is interesting that the video doesn’t appear to show us what she looked like two days later.

Buying Botox over the internet is never a good idea, but trying to suggest that this video can show you how to inject yourself is very dangerous. The dosage suggested is potentially far too large and the accuracy of injecting into your own face is questionable.

I only hope no-one has been foolish enough to attempt this procedure under her guidance

USE SUNSCREEN!

What do we do, however, if we come to this realisation somewhat later in life and we have already spent too long outdoors. Those of us who have spent the summers basking in the South of France or elsewhere will certainly have several give away signs of these excesses.

The skin of the face will tend to be dryer and have  a more sallow complexion. The colour  and tone of the skin will have lost its evenness and will appear more blotchy and variable. The fine lines around the eyes and the mouth will be more numerous and deeper set. It will tend to avidly ’suck up’ the moisturiser applied at the end of the day. Most obviously it will have lost its own internal glow or ‘Lustre’.

This is the effect you will notice most vividly first thing in the morning when staring bleary eyed at the bathroom mirror.

So is this all doom and gloom? Is it possible that some of this damage can be repaired?

Well, the good news is No, and Yes.

Firstly let me reiterate that prevention is better than cure and so “Use Sunscreen.” should be a mantra of the modern age. This morning I personally applied factor 50 to my face despite the fact that I was likely to be indoors most of the day. Sunscreen is after all one of the few things you can buy over the counter which does actually work……

Secondly I would like to remind you that LASER resurfacing has come on a long way since the early days of CO2 ablative resurfacing. Whilst this was in fact very effective from the outset the discomfort and downtime associated with it meant that it was only really used by the determined and the very stoical.

Several years ago the Original Fraxel device introduced ‘pixelated’ treatments whereby millions of small ‘pits’ were burned into the skin to an appropriate depth, producing the desired results with much less pain and a much faster recovery. Allowing mere mortals to avail themselves of this excellent treatment.

The pixellation does produce a partial treatment so several are needed for the maximum effect, but as the down time is only a few days as opposed to a few months it is much easier to fit this regime into our otherwise very hectic lifestyles.

It is particularly good at pigmentation, fine lines and wrinkles. It is most used for the face but it has revolutionised the treatment of neck, décolletage, and hands, areas which have traditionally been very hard to improve.

It certainly can ‘turn back the clock’ on a lot of the visible effects of aging and give you back the confidence you once had in your appearance.

If you would like to talk personally to me about any of the treatments or procedures we offer then call the girls on 01625 598 000 and book your FREE consultation now!

I look forward to meeting you in person.

© Dr Paul Cronin 2010                   http://www.eternalyouth.co.uk

Thermage

Thermage uses radio-frequency energy to heat up your own internal collagen fibres to stimulate neocollagenesis and rejuvenate the skin. It was originally introduced for the face and does a wonderful job of tightening up the jowls and lifting the cheeks and eyebrows. Recent developments have improved the effectiveness of the treatment for the body too.

Here at Eternal Youth we have just invested heavily in the new body head which when combined with the larger tips allow the procedure to be more comfortable and a whole lot quicker. This is therefore a very good solution to the ‘Mummy tummy’ problem allowing you to look even more ‘Yummy.’ In fact it can be used pretty much anywhere, providing tightening around the knees or providing a slight lift to the buttocks, and tightening up the bingo wings. There is even some degree of fat removal available too, but not to the extent of a VASER Lipo treatment.

So we now have a discrete, comparatively painless, non-surgical treatment for saggy skin anywhere which is still distinctly cheaper than a tummy tuck. Following the treatment there is no bruising or swelling in fact no visible signs at all. The tightening occurs slowly over the next 6 months which maintains absolute discretion. It certainly is unable to tighten to the degree that surgery can but it can provide a whole lot of tightening for a whole lot less risk and a whole lot less cost.

The treatments cost between £3000 and £4000 but the really good news is that unlike all other radio-frequency treatments you only need one. Yes, just one, is enough for the vast majority of patients.

So if your tummy is looking a little saggy whether from recent weight loss or a pregnancy then there is something that can be done. If your knees seem to be heading South faster than your boobs, or your bingo wings are causing you to take flight if you flap your arms around too much then help is at hand. With very little risk and no perceptible ‘down time’ this is proving to be one of our most popular treatments ever. Especially for those for whom surgery is a step too far or those who simply want to delay the need for a surgical treatment this is ideal.

If you would like to talk personally to me about any of the treatments or procedures we offer then call the girls on 01625 598 000 and book your FREE consultation now!

I look forward to meeting you in person.

© Dr Paul Cronin 2010                   http://www.eternalyouth.co.uk