Chapter One
Beautiful Skin for Life
Wrinkled, sagging skin is not the inevitable result of growing older. It's a disease, and you can fight it. You can look your best, feel your best, and enjoy beautiful skin and optimum health every day of your life, provided you start right now. And you don't need expensive, invasive plastic surgery to do it. After nearly two decades of scientific research, I have discovered a revolutionary, all-natural approach to preventing the signs of aging by putting nature's most powerful nutrients to work for your skin.
In my dermatology practice in Connecticut, I use cosmeceuticals to treat a whole host of skin problems, from acne, uneven pigment, dark circles, and poor skin tone to fine lines, sagging skin, and loss of radiance—problems that often come with age. My hundreds of patients come from all walks of life, from teenagers to grandfathers, from soccer moms to celebrities, and I'm proud to say that they consistently leave my office with great results. You can, too. By following my program, you can have smooth, radiant, youthful skin well into your forties, fifties, sixties, and beyond.
Of course, beautiful skin on the outside begins with good health on the inside. Think about it: have you ever seen an unhealthy person with a flawless complexion and a radiant glow? Of course not. Beautiful skin doesn't come in a bottle. Although your skin may appreciate the care and attention you lavish on it from the outside—creams, gels, and gentle soaps—it will suffer dearly from the damage you cause on the inside if you don't get enough sleep, smoke, drink too much alcohol, don't eat properly, and don't take essential vitamins, including A, C, and E.
Good Nutrition for a Great Complexion
My daughter Catie is only two, but she's already on her way to a lifetime of good health and beautiful skin. Every morning for breakfast, she climbs into my lap, asks for her special toddler-sized "Catie fork," and digs right into my breakfast, a morning meal of grilled salmon, fresh blueberries and strawberries. No sweetened cereals or toaster pastries for Catie. In fact, she likes my breakfast so much that some days I leave for work hungry. Our unusual breakfasts are just one part of the health and nutrition plan I've developed during 15 years of research into what keeps our skin and bodies young and vital. My interest in nutrients and healthy foods may seem unusual in a dermatologist, especially at a time when surgery, laser, and other high-tech treatments are the focal point of much of the work done in my profession.
I like to think I've always been a little ahead of the curve. In today's world of health food superstores and daily fitness workouts, it may seem hard to believe that doctors were once resistant to accepting nutrition as a critical part of preventive medicine. But back in 1979, when I entered medical school at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, the study of nutrition (and the beneficial effects of exercise, for that matter) was virtually unheard of.
My own fascination with nutrition was sparked during my undergraduate days, before I entered medical school. I had always suffered from sallow, acne-plagued skin, allergies, and fatigue, so I started reading everything I could find on the subject—which, at the time, pretty much meant everything written by Linus Pauling, Ph.D., a strong proponent of vitamin C, and nutritionist Adele Davis. I began experimenting with vitamins on my own, and the results were gratifying. My skin and allergies improved, and I had much more energy.
After graduation and a short stint in the army, I became director of the Connecticut branch of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I continued to keep a careful eye on nutrition research, and I was particularly intrigued by anecdotal evidence that muscular dystrophy patients seemed to improve by taking high doses of vitamin E. I began looking into vitamins as therapeutic agents for chronic, incurable diseases.
When I entered medical school, however, my interest in nutrition made me an eccentric. My classmates thought I was nuts because I popped vitamins after meals and bundled up to go running in the dark, cold mornings of Michigan winters. In those days, medicine meant intervention, not prevention, and our professors brooked no equivocation. I'll never forget the afternoon I arrived for a lecture to find my classmates passing around a sheaf of papers and trading furtive whispers in one corner of the classroom. At first I thought they had a contraband copy of an exam. It turned out to be a research paper on homocysteine, vitamin B, and heart disease prevention—research that would be widely accepted in the medical community 15 years later and go on to help save lives. But at the time, we students understood that such a thing had to be hidden from our professors. Any show of interest meant that we weren't serious medical students.
Fortunately, I wasn't deterred by medical school, and my own experiences only fueled my interest. As a firm believer in the powers of vitamin C, I kept my energy high during my grueling class schedules by taking powdered doses mixed with juice throughout the day. One day, after a particularly long run, I came home with a badly sunburned face. On a whim, I mixed a bit of the vitamin C powder with water and put it on my face. It soothed the irritation immediately. Although it hardly qualified as a scientific experiment, this was my very first evidence that vitamin C could help stop inflammation.
The Cosmeceutical Alternative
When I entered my first residency, at Yale University, I began to investigate the role of nutrients in health and disease seriously. I continued my research at the Henry Ford Medical Center in Detroit. By then, doctors and scientists in many areas of medicine had recognized the importance of nutrients in both healing and maintaining good health.
I have been conducting scientific research into the use of nutrient cosmeceuticals in skin care for nearly 15 years. My firm belief in nutrients is at the foundation of my work. I am very concerned about the disappointing results of some of the invasive treatments that are widely used to correct the problems associated with aging skin. Before coming to me, many of my patients have chosen to undergo surgical procedures, such as face-lifts and dermabrasions, to correct skin problems. They were unprepared for the inherent limitations of such surgical techniques, and they were disappointed by the outcomes. For people with dark or even pale brown skin, for example, scarring and uneven pigment problems are common after surgery or laser treatments. Face-lifts can produce a tight, artificial effect, no matter how skilled the surgeon. And I confess I'm often astounded by the amount of money my patients have spent on products that offer little more than gorgeous packaging and expert marketing.
During the course of my research, I uncovered a wider range of skin care options. I've developed a groundbreaking approach based on nutrient antioxidants, a concept we'll explore later in this book. Antioxidants can impede and even repair the damage to skin cells that comes with aging. Soft, radiant, younger-looking skin is the gratifying result.
The term cosmeceutical refers to a skin treatment that provides added benefit beyond a simple cosmetic or moisturizer. Cosmeceuticals are not considered a medication and therefore are not regulated by the FDA.
My cosmeceutical program includes these components:
* Vitamin C esters
* Alpha lipoic acid
* DMAE, an acronym for the nutrient dimethyla-minoethanol
* Tocotrienols, a high-potency form of vitamin E
* Alpha hydroxy and beta hydroxy acids
These components are gentle, all-natural, noninvasive—and best of all, they work. By combining my cosmeceutical program with healthy living habits, you can achieve beautiful skin for the rest of your life.
Excerpted from The Wrinkle Cure by Nicholas Perricone. Copyright © 2000 by Nicholas Perricone. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Copyright © 2000 by Nicholas Perricone. All rights reserved.
