That’s logical – fairly easy to accept. But did you know that inflammation and food sensitivities are related to several chronic diseases that span from head to toe? Here’s a partial list:

• Arthritis
• Fibromyalgia
• Migraine, Tension Headaches
• Acid reflux, GERD
• ADD, ADHD
• Diarrhea, Constipation, IBD
• Crohn’s Disease
• Asthma\Eczema, Dermatitis, Hives, Rash
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

So if you suffer from any of these conditions, simply changing your diet could help minimize your symptoms.

Sounds easy, right? It is, but not without some commitment.

At the recent American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine Vegas 2010 meeting, I had the opportunity to learn a little about the process for identifying food sensitivities. Essentially, you’ve got to take a blood test, which will identify the reactive foods that may be exacerbating your symptoms. Then for the next several weeks, you eliminate those foods from your diet – entirely. Finally, you begin adding those foods back into your diet one at a time to see if any of them specifically trigger your symptoms.

The company rep I spoke with, Dana hollingsworth at Sage Medical Laboratory, explained that testing can come with a high price tag, but it’s something they help with by checking with your insurance provider.

My little girl’s eczema has finally cleared up, but I wish I had known about this years ago. Blood work seems a whole lot kinder than the “scratch” allergy test (a series of razor cuts on your back).

Want more? Check out the Sage Medical Laboratory Web site.

As an adolescent, we generally “get” why we get acne. But as adults, we’re often at a loss, wondering what’s the cause and, importantly, how to get rid of it. And so-called “solutions” abound. In fact, just last week Dr. Oz had a guest on his show to share certain so-called skincare “secrets.” One of those secrets? You can improve acne by introducing collard greens into your diet.

It seemed pretty sensational to me, so I turned to an expert who shared some very interesting facts with me about the most likely cause of acne  - hold on to your pants here – Milk.

The No-Milk Diet

According to Dr. William Danby, a respected dermatologist in Manchester, NH, while eating collard greens can certainly help to create a more balanced and healthy diet (especially if, at the same time, you cut some of the junk food out) and be reflected in your skin, the biggest skin fix often comes from eliminating dairy from the diet.

“The reason that milk products cause acne is because milk contains hormones that ‘turn on’ oil glands.  The cows that give the milk are pregnant and milking most of their lives,” he says.

Here’s how it works:

Acne is the result of pores that are plugged by the overproduction of cells that line the pore. Dr. Danby describes this as a “traffic jam” in the pore. Why does it happen? Hormones.

Dr. Danby says that we have three hormone sources: “The first is ovaries or testicles; the second is the adrenal (stress) glands; and the third is dairy products.”

“These three,” he says, “‘stack up’ on each other, and when the amount of hormone present is enough to plug up the pore, acne is started.”

(Huh. Very interesting…!)

So why do some people get acne and others don’t? Turns out, we all have a different hormone threshold. When hormones pass your individual hormone threshold, the result is acne.

“Many young women pass this threshold just before their period every month,” says Dr. Danby. “Others stay above the threshold for years because of milk and milk products.”

Still others may pass the threshold when they experience high stress levels.

According to Dr. Danby, if you remove dairy from your diet, you will likely be able to get your hormone levels down below your personal threshold. The result? With time, you’ll have less acne.

Importantly, your hormone threshold is also influenced by your family history. “So if one or both of your parents had acne, your threshold will be lower, making acne risk higher,” points out Dr. Danby.

Hormone-Free Milk?

But what about hormone-free milk? If you’re anything like me (and I happen to be the mother of two young girls and am concerned with premature puberty due to growth hormones in meat and milk), you probably stock your refrigerator with hormone-free milk. Perfect, right? Not so, says Dr. Danby. There’s no such thing as hormone-free milk, so you don’t want to continue this in your diet either.

“The confusion is caused by a company that sells a hormone (BST or rBGH) for injection into cows to make them produce more milk,” he explains. “Some milk producers have made the point that they do not use this injection by advertising that the milk is ‘hormone-free.’”

In other words, that hormone-free milk you’re buying doesn’t contain the injected hormone, but the fact still remains: All milk has the cows’ natural hormones in it.

So what’s a girl (or guy) to do?

We’ve got a couple of options. First, there’s Dr. Danby’s No-Milk Acne Diet. This diet has three different phases, the final phase in which you gradually reintroduce dairy to your diet.

He’s also got a No Dairy Low-Carb Diet, with extensive menus that identify high calcium sources.

How’s that for an “all natural” solution?

For more information or to contact Dr. William Danby: www.acnemilk.com

~Eliza

But inquiring minds want to know: What’s it going to cost? The jury is still out, Dr. Schlessinger says. (Stay tuned…!)

A knife-free browlift? It certainly looks that way with the new ultrasound lifting technology (Ulthera). According to Dr. Hema Sundaram, the differentiator with Ulthera is that it doesn’t just tighten — it lifts, creating a nonsurgical brow lift. But, she says, topical anesthetic won’t do any good in managing treatment-related pain because with this device you’re heating the deeper tissue. Her recommendation? Valium, Tylenol 3 and a chauffeured ride home.

Injection Insights

From the early days of wrinkle chasing to recent years of revolumizing, today’s variety of fillers puts us in a position to further evolve our approach to facial rejuvenation with fillers, says Dr. Sundaram. With up-and-coming new products Belotero (for superficial volumizing in the dermis) and Prevelle Lift for deep subdermal lifting (to contour and sculpt), we will soon have even more options to tailor fillers of various characteristics to individual patients.

Dr. Steve Dayan, an expert beauty analyst, was on one of this morning’s panels and suggests that the primary focus in aesthetic evaluation begins with the eyes… Widen the eye aperture, fill the cheeks and reshape the masseters for a natural, ideal beauty.

TIP: Dr. Dayan’s injection solution for minimizing swelling and bruising in the cheek area? Blunt-tipped cannulas. But, he also cautions, there is a learning curve. He admits it took him 5 or 6 times to get it right.

(According to Dr. Joe Niamtu, you can get yours through Dermasculpt in Miami, Fla.)

When injecting the masseters to reshape or to treat TMJ, says Dr. Dayan, have the patient bite down, then put two injections right into the belly of the muscle (one on each side). But cautions Dr. Sundaram, think twice before treating public speakers, actresses, and even pilates instructors who rely on these muscles and will notice even the slightest weakness in the area.

A Few Facts

A fun fact (among many) provided by Dr. Haines Ely, “You don’t bleed with ice cream.” You got it! Eating ice cream helps bleeding to stop. He’s tested it and found it to be true (and has a super-smart physiological explanation too!). Another great excuse for stocking the practice refrigerator with Ben & Jerry’s. (Staff, hands off!)

In the first known study of its kind, Dr. Schlessinger is endeavoring to personify “Ms. Cosmetic Surgery” in a demographic survey of more than 400 women. Is it the so-called “trophy wife,” or is it the Courtney Cox-type character of “Cougarville”? Dr. Schlessinger, we can’t wait to hear your results…

Dr. Greg Buford talked with us about facial rejuvenation in his younger population. Medical skincare, facial injections, and lasers, Oh My! And don’t forget the lashes (Latisse) as part of her treatment protocol.

There were tons of other great topics and speakers, so check back for the second half of the Day 3 download.

Till tomorrow…

~Eliza

At the top of the list? You guessed it: Botox versus Dysport.

Dr. Corey Maas presented the results of a double-blind clinical study comparing Botox and Dysport injected into crow’s feet — Botox on one side; Dysport on the other. Using the validated Merz scale to measure change from baseline, results showed a significant  improvement after 30 days in crow’s feet on the side of the face that received Dysport.

So Dysport’s the winner?

Not so fast, says Dr. Heidi Waldorf, who points out that in her practice she uses each neurotoxin strategically: Botox for eyebrow elevation and Dysport for crow’s feet to minimize the number of injections required for effective results in the crow’s feet area. But, she also cautions, while individual neurotoxins might be better used to achieve various results, don’t mix and match products because of the risk for mistaking one for the other.

Another hot topic today was the treatment of melasma. According to Dr. Waldorf, treatment can be “A toss of the dice.” Dr. Manjula Jegasothy advises to begin treating melasma with the easiest thing first (eg, hydroquinones vs the laser), especially in the darker skinned population.

The bottom line: “Don’t over treat,” says Dr. Vivian Bucay. “It doesn’t have to be perfect because it’s coming back.”

On another popular note, several experts outlined their cosmeceutical preferences.

Dr. Jeanine Downie gave us her personal selection of go-to sunscreens:

• MD Forte Aftercare SPF 30
• Neutrogena Dry Touch
• Neutrogena Sensitive Skin

Dr. Downie’s top picks included Vivite Vibrance, Revaleskin Intense Recovery, Lumixyl, Olay ProX Wrinkle Soothing Cream, and others.

Those on the “don’t work” list included Hydrolyze and anything with gold and mercury in it.

Stay tuned for the complete listing provided by the experts on this panel.

See you tomorrow!

~Eliza Drewa

The fact is, today you can Google the competition for a refrigerator… or a cosmetic surgeon, right on your hand held, according to panelist Art Huntley.

Our expert panel offers this advice to keep your reputation at its best:

1. Get your Google Place – Claim your business space on Google
2. Set up a Google Alert for your name and/or practice – Dr. Joe Niamtu explained the benefits of putting an alert on your own name to know when and if a negative or detrimental comment had been made about you.
3. Register for doctor review Websites (eg, Yelp, Angie’s list — Just Google Joe Niamtu, DMD. Those are the sites you want to target!).  Apparently, there are options to ‘erase’ negative comments on Yelp, but not without some cash changing hands and an ‘elevated’ involvement on Yelp!
4. Register and have a presence on key social media sites: Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube.
5. The concept of the online service, Reputation Defender (www.ReputationDefender.com) was explained by the Course Director and Founder of Cosmetic Surgery Forum, Dr. Joel Schlessinger:  “This service can improve your reputation by increasing the amount of positive content about you, essentially drowning out the negative content. While this may not be perfect, it is a good thing if the bad stuff is starting to become a trend. Of course, it is always best to listen to the negatives in order to make sure you don’t have a bad apple on your staff or you aren’t missing important cues!”

The idea here? To establish your own presence in social media sphere.

And don’t forget, says speaker and online expert Marcus Schmidt of InfoGoup, when you’re online, remember that it’s a two-way conversation. “Social media is a cocktail party. You don’t walk in an announce yourself. You listen to various conversations and decide which ones you want to join.”

The bottom line? One bad apple doesn’t have to spoil the bunch. You can — and should — control your reputation online by ensuring the good outweighs the bad.

Wrapping up the day, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals hosted a wine tasting after the day’s sessions. Bringing in a pinot noir wine maker (et fille, www.etfillewines.com), they stood out from the standard industry sponsored event in several ways:

1. They’re not selling anything. They don’t expect to have a product on the market until 2014. Their injectable fat dissolver, targeted to the submental chin area, is currently in Phase II trials in Europe.
2. According to the company, they support and attend industry meetings to solicit feedback and collaboration in the developmental phases from the aesthetic experts themselves (you!).

Interestingly, and perhaps anticipating an industry trend, the company’s injectable product is a prime contender for the growing male patient population: It targets low fat volume and there are no tell-tale signs that you’ve had any work done.

What else could a guy ask for?

Wrapping the first day up, in an injection session that featured Botox, Dysport, Restylane, Perlane, Radiesse, Juvederm and Asclera, residents and dermatologists were taught by Dr. Jason Michaels, Dr. Candace Spann and Dr. Joel Schlessinger along with supporting casts of Drs. Vivian Bucay, Mark Darst, Joe Niamtu, Manjula Jegasothy and Curt Samlaska. Peels offered by NeoStrata and Ulthera demonstrations were also a part of the daily venue and a CME session on neurotoxins run by Dr. Corey Maas.  All part of just the first half day of lectures and demonstrations and time to party at the end on the town!

Stay tuned for more from this year’s CSF…

Joan Rivers

I love Joan Rivers. She’s the perfect example of what cosmetic surgery can achieve: Smooth, lineless skin, a youthful brow position, full lips, button nose…

But that’s not to say that I want to look anything like her. For most of us, it’s not the “plastic” look we’re after, but one that is more natural.

If there’s one woman who’s “face” I consider a model for aging gracefully, it’s Kim Catrall (great skin, but looks her age). I still haven’t figured out if I’m an outlier, but I’ve welcomed those lines I’ve “earned” over the years. Youth has it’s own set of challenges, especially in the workplace where a line-free face is equated with a lack of experience, and hence, a lack of credibility. (Milestone birthday? Bring ‘em on!) So for me the issue isn’t a few lines on the face, but achieving a balance between looking my age yet still looking fresh faced.

The key? First and foremost, skin quality. Simply taking steps to get your glow back can work wonders. In fact, as I age, my skin continues to look better. It’s never looked better, period. And it’s not just a result of good genes. It’s a fact I largely attribute to the staples in my daily skincare regimen (stay tuned for my products in a future blog posting!).

Of course, creating a comprehensive program by adding a neurotoxin (Botox, Dysport) for wrinkle control and a filler to add that volume we lose as we age, would get you the very best results.

Even if there’s nothing else you do, be sure to wear a daily broad-spectrum (UVA/UVB) sunblock. As I tell my little girls, if you don’t wear your sunscreen, you’ll get old-looking skin!

~Eliza

First, from my own perspective: The last time I imbibed, I walked out of my doctor’s office thinking about Botox differently. I didn’t just have “Botox,” the product, I just had a mini browlift, the procedure. Yes, with a needle instead of a scalpel (isn’t that what we all want?!). Granted, you’ve got to have a doctor who understands the brow muscles, how they’re balanced, and how to effectively manipulate them to create that little lift you’re looking for (yes, “little”; if you need a drastic lift, you’ll have to settle for the scalpel!). Just an arch in the eyebrow (a symbol of youth and beauty) is good enough for me!

From a doctor’s perspective, I spoke with a facial cosmetic surgeon about this issue just yesterday who was able to put into words the whole “your Botox isn’t working” phenomenon to me. According to Joe Niamtu, DMD, in Richmond, Va, the frozen Botox face is a thing of the past. We don’t want that artificial look that has your friends and neighbors whispering about your latest trip to the cosmetic surgeon. What we want is “creative animation.” Translation: Instead of visible facial paralysis (which sounds so very attractive, n’est-ce pas?), doctors are now strategically injecting muscles to allow for limited movement, which creates a softer, more natural look, and — guess what — costs you less in the end too (less product, lower cost).

As for my affair with Botox, there’s no shame here. My chin (and brow) held high…

Dr. Kurt Wagner, one of the youngest board-certified cosmetic surgeons in 1967 Beverly Hills, shares his first-hand accounts with celebrity clientele. Wagner says that he performed a facelift on Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, and Yul Brynner were also patients.

As far as changes in the cosmetic surgery industry since then, Wagner acknowledges the advances in his profession over the decades. “More people are doing procedures in their offices and… there are more people practicing cosmetic surgery, and most of them are better trained,” he says. And whereas Wagner prided himself on being a doc of all trades, nowadays practitioners tend to specialize in different areas.

The impact of technological innovations?

“Today there is less scarring, for example, because we use endoscopes to make smaller incisions,” he says. Lasers, unheard of in Wagner’s Hollywood heyday, have become a favored tool of the trade, and there’s been an increase in the number of materials used as fillers. Wagner himself is currently working with a company developing methods to extract stem cells from fat for use in fat grafting (transfer). Today’s holistic approach to the patient has also transformed the cosmetic surgery field, he says.

“It’s not enough to do a facelift now. You have to be concerned with what the patient does after they leave the table. They have to learn to eat better, to live better, to have better skin—it’s about continual maintenance,” he says.

Want the entire story? Pick up a copy of our Summer issue on Newsstands today!

There’s an ongoing debate about the look good-feel good relationship. The problem with the “If you look good, then you feel good” statement is that most of us think of it in terms of cause and effect.

Fact: Just because you might look good doesn’t mean you feel good.

Fact: To this post-modern girl, looking “good” is an individual measure (yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder) and multiple factors (not just looks) determine so-called attractiveness.

Fact: While the artwork in the pages of New You may portray ideal physical beauty, the real people in our pages are, well, real. They’re not privileged; they’re not perfect. But they are happy; they are more confident. Their tweaks and trims make them feel good — even if those changes aren’t obvious.

Fact: This is one of the biggest fallacies of cosmetic surgery: Real people don’t want to look plastic. The goal is to have subtle, natural-looking changes.

Fact: A very small group of people in the media spotlight generate most of the misperceptions of cosmetic surgery. So forget celebrity (or at least categorize it as “for entertainment only”) and think instead of real people who have acne scars corrected, sun damaged skin improved, or massive breasts reduced/deflated breasts filled in (amongst many other options in your local cosmetic surgeon’s office).

Bottom line? It’s definitely a personal pursuit — one that no outside person has the right to judge another for. And when you do it for you, and with a qualified and talented doctor, chances are you’ll feel good and look even better.

Talk about multi-tasking!

And why not? We are the working women of the world who balance career, home, family and NEED to make sure that we take some time for ourselves too! Whether it’s a full-on surgical procedure (breast augmentation, tummy tuck, facelift) or a noninvasive one (medical-grade exfoliation, acne scar treatment, facial injections), when you work with the TFI concierge to schedule your trip to the Windy City, you can enjoy insider access to the best restaurants and area events to enjoy before your procedure and you can stay in some of Chicago’s most luxurious hotels (at a very attractive rate) during your recovery period.

How’s that for a vacation?

Chicago, here I come!