As an oculoplastic surgeon, I inject fillers and botox along with perform eyelifts and other facial procedures. Often, patients ask me what can be done to reduce aging. These are the top 5 most important things to do in my mind. It is critical to understand these 5 points. Most young looking people tend to do these things. (Good genes also help alot as well). That being said, I have seen siblings who look very different as one sibling does these five youth promoting activities whereas the other does not. In Denver, our lifestyle I believe promotes these things so it is in a sense easier to follow but this should serve as a good reminder of things to do to avoid a blepharoplasty or eyelift with me later in life!
1. Avoid sun damage to your skin and use tretinoin based skin cream
90% of aging is sun damage. When you are out and about in Colorado skiing, hiking, running or plain enjoying life be sure to have sun block on. Slow damage to the skin from tanning not only prematurely ages the skin but also increases the risk of skin cancer.
Using a tretinoin based skin cream helps to replenish and refresh the skin surface by increasing cell turnover. It will make your skin look younger. Remember you need to stay out of the sun with it because it gets inactivated by sunlight. (another reason to avoid the sun)
2. Exercise regularly and drink plenty of water
Exercising regularly bring blood flow to the skin and helps remove free radicals that can age the skin and body. It is not necessary to exercise for long or hard amounts. A simple 20 minutes a day will help to improve the blood flow to skin. Also hydrating with water helps to keep the skin supple and smooth. Additionally, water is an important compound in healing for the body along with skin repair. Remember, excess exercise will actually age you faster as it increases the levels of free radicals and breakdown of the body.
3. Do not smoke
If you are reading this article and are smoking two things are clear. Number one: You need to focus on just not smoking because that is aging you much more than anything else. Smokers age at an accelerated rate. Second: If you are unaware if smoking is bad for you, you have not seen the news in the last 20 years. Smoking constricts blood vessels, decreasing blood flow to the skin. Also, smoking increases free radicals which increase the aging and breakdown of skin and muscle tissue.
4. Use Botox
Botox is a great adjuvant for stopping premature aging. It prevents wrinkle formations and helps to reduce descent of lateral brows from a botox brow lift. If you are getting regular botox treatments four times a year, you are taking an extra step to preventing aging. Botox is particularily helpful for aging in the crows feet, forehead, 11s, and chin line. Once the lines are there, you can't remove them with botox permanently but you can certainly prevent them from coming with the regular use of botox. In my denver office where I treat patients with botox, a significant number of patients are in their 30s and get botox for prevention.
5. Eat like a cave man
What I mean by this is avoid processed foods. Processed foods such as sugar and starch increase free radicals and promote aging. If you limit what you eat to what you could harvest or catch in the wild, you will be eating a very natural diet that is healthy. Processed foods have a great deal of chemicals and additives that increase aging.
These five steps will allow you to slow down the aging process and look younger. It is impossible to stop the aging process as we know but we can aim to slow it down and live a healthy fit long life looking the best that we can possibly be. When aging does occur there is a large warchest of fillers, botox, and surgery that we have to reverse the signs of aging.