Wrinkles: What is Your Body Saying

Wrinkles are more than a sign of aging. They tell you a lot about your state of health. Ignore its messages by trying to eradicate them at your peril. After all your mission is a futile march against time. It is also precious time and resources wasted on expensive, symptom-focused treatments and creams.

A more effective long term way to have a good relationship with your face is to learn what your body is saying with those undesirable lines.

But first let’s explore the easy and the obvious ways to have a line free face.

We all agree that wrinkles are caused by skin dryness and dehydration. So lets explore the possible cause that is easiest to remedy. Surface temporary dryness can be caused by the incompatibility of your skin regime to that of your environment. To remedy this you need to understand the characteristics of your skin in relations to the weather conditions. Then use the proper skincare to supplement the deficiencies of your skin and climatic conditions. For information on skincare and the environment go to http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2009/05/enjoying-weather.html Presto Chango beautiful skin! If this is not the case then read on further to look at diet.

The second easiest to fix cause is diet. Make sure your diet includes enough moist foods for your body type. For example ; If you are very Vata with a busy mind and schedule along with a natural slimness then a treat of popcorn needs to be accompanied with a glass of milk or an herbal tea. See more about diet and Doshas at http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2009/04/ayurvedic-doshas.html Foods recommendations for Vata are at http://our- metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2009/07/foods-for-vata.html Foods recommendations for Pitta are at http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2009/06/foods-for-pitta.html Foods recommendations for Kapha are at http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2009/06/food-for-kaphas.html

If you are doing proper skin care and drinking lots and your skin is still dry then you need to go deeper. If you notice wrinkles, dark circles, and puffiness around the eye area, it can indicate your problem is a struggling kidney. Dehydration can signal an overloaded or a weak functioning kidney. Many clients find drinking water just means more visits to the toilet. If the kidneys are working optimally, it will recirculate water throughout out the body. Only acidic water will be excreted.

"The kidneys are sometimes called the roots of life. They are very important in determining a person's level of vitality and length of life. All sexual energy comes from the kidney, any sexual or reproductive dysfunction can be traced to them", Mantak Chia.

Gentle ways to detox the kidneys are an herbal formula with ursa ulva (visit Roger @ Thuna's or your herbalist) and Chi Nei Tsang (massage the area below the left ribs. For more information go to http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2011/01/chi-nei-tsang-what-is.html).

If you suffer from chronic redness, then this can be an indication that the cause of dehydration is either poor or slow blood circulation. The area is red due to inelastic capillary walls that remain dilated or is overwhelmed with toxins in the blood. Usually the blood stream is higher in toxins when the organs are too toxic to function properly and therefore are off loading onto it. It carries the excess toxins to the skin and muscles where symptoms try to communicate the situation.

If you have vertical lines between the brows (third eye area) along with a golden hue to your complexion and/or chronic acne then your problem could be a stressed out liver. It may be congested and cannot filter out impurities and toxins properly. Doing a spring liver detox with herbs is an easy way to help your liver work better. Massaging the area at the bottom of your left ribs can help to gently stimulate the liver to purify.

If skin is dull with large areas of fine lines and with a tendency to break out in the forehead and along the jaw line can be a symptom indicating poor colon function. Dehydration of the skin can be caused by constipation. To stimulate peristalsis and move bowels with healthy regularity add fibre to diet, walk after meals and relax your colon with daily stomach massage. A gentle and effective way to add fibre to daily diet is Genestra Herbal Bulk. Made with the hulls of the psyllium. Massage of your tummy is easy when you know where to massage and if you have the tummy tool.


A horizontal line at the bridge of nose and vertical lines at the corners of the month can indicate a tendency for a poor functioning Pancreas. The pancreas does not just metabolize sugar with insulin production but produces digestive enzymes. Best way to remedy this is to decrease sugar in your diet and massage the middle at the bottom ribs on left side.

So dry skin is not an isolated outcome of aging so much as holistic outcome of a poor or unaware lifestyle and stress. So be wrinkle free long term by exploring the symptoms as per above as cries for detoxification and change from your organs.

The Autumns of Our Lives

It is still August but the weather has turned cool and dry. This Vata energy affects how we feel and look. Vata time is about change and transformation.

Those of us who are naturally dehydrated know how to cope with the dry skin. But those of us entering this time of our life may resist the change from youthful adulthood to midlife maturity can learn from Plato who advises, “He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden.”

While those of us, who are naturally more Vata, welcome change, the cooler, lighter fall energy can create unbalancing affects our physical body, our thinking and feelings. Fall can cause Vata skin to look more dehydrated, thin and dull.

For the younger oilier Kapha skin types, this cooler weather can cause more congested and blemished skin.

And for the sensitive Pitta skin types the internal dehydration can trigger outbreaks of Rosacea and eczema.

Get immediate relief with a change in your skin care. Increase skin cell hydration with the regular use of serums and slow down the moisture loss by increasing the richness of your moisturizer
Then change your diet. The physical nourishment of richer foods and skincare can help balance that spacey feeling and hydrate our bodies. Eat warm moist foods to lubricate from inside out. In this transitional time eat warm salads and grains. Choose nourishing stews with root vegetables.
To further rejuvenate take strengthening herbs like Ashwaganda and Ginseng. You can get individualized formulas from your Ayurvedic or Traditional Chinese Doctor. You can take Ashwaganda in tablets alone or in formulas like Healthy Vata

If you prefer Ginseng, you need to both understand your own body constitution and the different types of ginseng. The safest one to take without advice is Canadian Ginseng. The smaller sweeter roots are best for Pitta types. The larger, older roots are best for Vatas types. The best way to get them is to go to a Chinese herbal store and select your roots and have them cut into slices. Then you can make tea by dropping 4-6 slices into a cup of boiling water and let it steep for 20 minutes.

If aging or Vata imbalance is a concern then Autumn is also a good time to detox your kidneys. In Ayurveda kidneys are considered a Vata organ and can influence our emotions negatively with worry and fear. According to Caroline Marie Dupont in her book, Enlightened Eating, we can support our kidney function by developing our ability to process fear, letting it flow through us while retaining the lessons.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine the kidneys determine how well you age. My Traditional Chinese Doctor recommends caring for the Kidneys start in your Thirties to ensure healthy aging.

Kidney detoxifiers are available at most health food stores. My favourite is Kidney Support from Alpha Science Laboratories . It is very effective and easy to do. Just take 2 tablespoons until the bottle is done.

Caroline Marie Dupont advises on maintaining kidney health with a diet high in vegetables and low in fat, salt and animal protein. Drink an average of 8 glasses of water - pure spring water, or purified water from distillation or reverse osmosis.

When aging is just out of control

When aging is just out of control -- your control

As boomers, we have a choice of chasing youth by merely looking younger with magical serums and plastic surgery or by staying healthy and relevant by understanding the importance of the relationship between ourselves, mind and body, with our environment.

Recently I have begun a series of Micronized Current (Micro Current) facial treatments. I had been too busy through the winter to do my annual Intense Pulse Light (IPL) treatments to buy myself enough time to accept the “old lady” in the photographs.

While Micro Current is less invasive than the medical procedures, I recognize that it still is merely a means to looking younger.

As I age and learn to respect the limits of my body, I am more observant of the physical changes created by the external environment, the nourishment I devour and the fluctuations of my relationships and interactions with others.

I started my Micro Current treatments in March. The treatments’ success in lifting my sagging skin is evident in the disappearance of the deep wrinkle in my nasal labia fold (those aging brackets on each side of our mouth) and the wider look of my eyes. Compare my photo of a year ago with the one here.

While I have more dramatic “before” photos due to weight loss and the addition of one more year, the change is still noticeable. More anti-aging advice—don’t lose weigh after forty as skin is not so resilient. But no worries – you just need to work harder.

This weekend, I have suffered dehydration due to hotel living and a lack of sleep due to the strange bed. I have also been eating all my meals in restaurants or the Whole Foods buffet table. Therefore I ended up with edema which was my already weak kidneys’ way of saying the food was way too salty and fatty.

When the edema was gone I was left with a tired look, making me feel depressed and that my efforts to find time to get in for my Micro Current Facials and my extra moisturizing skincare were futile.

On Sunday morning I am awaken by a fluttering of the drapery in my hotel room. It was the turbulence caused by the tail end of a tornado in the American Midwest.

Did I tell you that I was also in the middle of a stressful personal life as I had grown impatient with a life partner that doesn’t know the existence of planning and “ was in the middle of helping” him see the light?

And I was commuting to one of our locations due to unexpected staff absentism to cover client appointments. I who always lived near work because I find commuting stressful.

While all this was happening, a client’s photographer husband asks to photograph me as he thought I would make an interesting subject. He proudly shows the photographs he coached me to pose in. But alas!--I only saw a middle-aged woman.

The Micro Current has helped me looked better, and yes even younger. And that definitely made me feel better to know that I could have some control over the speed of aging in my appearance. But the photograph told me that it was not the whole answer!

Therefore the anti aging choices we make ---whether they are safe and natural like Micro Current or more invasive like injecting Bovine toxins into our foreheads or a snipping skin around our eyes or faces – need to expand to include our lifestyle and environment.

To successfully perform and look younger, we need to balance the drying effects of a windy or cold environment, a stressful event and hard to digest dehydrating foods. If we have weak organs like kidneys or flawed circulatory system we need to follow habits that strengthen them.

But again no short cut to a fix -- medication by the way like recreational drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and coffee will negatively affect your day to day appearance along with your long-term health.

So start you anti aging by designing some healthy routine for yourself with the help of the appropriate health professionals.

No moisturizer, please, it’s summer

No moisturizer, please, it’s summer

As the heat wave arrives, I find it uncomfortable to moisturize in such humidity. But I know that proper care of my skin from now and throughout the summer will determine my satisfaction with my skin at the beginning of September.

Those of us who live in climates that have changing seasons will find challenges in our health and beauty at different times of the year. We in Canada are pretty good at caring for our skin in winter. We hydrate to prevent dehydration of our skins and protect our skins with a rich moisturizer.

But many of us just bare it all when the warm weather comes. Now the weather is unseasonably warm and wet, it is causing us to feel discomfort even when applying natural sunscreens.

But the warmer more humid weather has brought other changes. The increases of insects and molds have resulted in higher incidents of disease in plants and animals. Compared to the Ontario Government warning to gardeners of the rise in lyme disease due to the increase of ticks, our skin problems seem trivial.

The changing climatic conditions have created acne even in those of us who have never experienced it in our adolescence. Skin sensitivity leading to rosacea, which was mainly the concern of fair skinned people is now pervasive for our multicultural population.

The advice of the government to prevent lyme disease is to cover up when gardening. That too will help with the above skin problems.

Moist skin is healthy skin. Moist skin meaning plump skin cells fill with water and protein that are gently cushioned by a light oily fluid with the skin’s surface protected by a waxy oily film to slow down moisture loss (trans-dermal water loss). To keep skin cells healthy and hydrated it is important we protect them from over exposure to the sun as well.

Your skin feels moist so why moisturize?
Your moisturizer and your sunscreen feels uncomfortable so why moisturize?

The answer to both is to maintain optimum moisture in your skin cells. When you are perspiring profusely, the skin cells deep in you skin are probably not as plump as they should be. Therefore it is important that you supplement your skin cells with a hydrating serum. On dry days an application of a light oil further reduce the “crêpey” appearance of dehydration. Then apply a light (less oily) moisturizer to have longer term moisture protection and a flawless looking skin all day.

A sunscreen will not just prevent sunburn and lessen the chances of skin cancer but extend your youthful appearance. When you injure your skin cells as evident in sunburns and tans, you lessen the plumpness of the cells. This not only gives you a poorer looking complexion leading to acne or sensitivity but also exposes your dermis, the second main layer of your skin, to damage. A compromised dermis produces dehydrated skin cells with poor quality and lower levels of collagen and elastin which leads to premature aging of the skin. The sun damage to the dermis doesn’t just make us look old but creates a blotchy and red complexion with enlarged pores giving our skin, an orange peel texture.

Moisturizing and protecting your skin in the summer also lessens the disappointment in your skin when the weather becomes cooler and dryer in the fall. At this time skin conditions like dryness, sensitivity (rosacea) and acne increase. While the weather can be blamed, the real cause is the chronic dehydration in the deeper layers of the skin happening all summer.

Not convinced? Then look for proof in nature. The closer our ancestors lived to the equator, the oilier our skins genetically. The abundance of oil like a moisturizer prevents moisture loss through heat and also gives natural sun protection. Therefore darker oilier skin types are more resistant to photo aging.

In Canada, the weather pretty well gives all of us a time of year when our skins are thriving happily. But at 50-75% of the time, our skin’s are out of their element. At these times we need to compensate with our skincare. In the winter people with darker skin types need to take more care in hydrating their skin before moisturizing to compensate for the cold dry weather, while in summer those of us with fairer skin tones need to add more oils and sun protection to our daily skincare routines to compensate for the warmer weather. But even those of us with darker skin tones need to keep our skins moist in summer to balance our skin conditions with the ever-changing humidity and temperature levels of the season. Another occasion we all need to give our skins more moisture in the summer is when we have been out in the sun or wind too long.

So I would like to leave you with good advise I have paraphrased from my dental hygienist, “You don’t need to moisturize all of your skin. Just the parts You would like to keep looking good”.