Holistic Dermatology and Natural Skin Care: What is it?
Natural Skin Care Challenges the Normal American Diet
What is natural skin care? [Part 4]
As I mentioned in part three of this series, inflammation is a key issue in skin disease, as well as many other conditions. To treat skin naturally, one must discover the cause of a patient’s inflammation. When I do that, I have a chance to get the individual to remove that provocation, or help his body’s own systems to do so.
Those systems include organs of excretion like kidneys, liver, intestines, lymphatics, and lungs, cells that do clean-up work, and chemical “machines” known as enzymes, which have the ability to break down specific unwanted substances.
If some of my treatments bear similarity to each other, it is because we live with a number of cultural and environmental imbalances that take a similar toll on a wide variety of individuals in a variety of ways. Awareness of this is natural skin care. Not only are individuals unbalanced, but the norm for our whole society is unbalanced as well.
To your health,
Dr. Alan M. Dattner, MD
Holistic Dermatology
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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
Gray Hair and Stress
“You’re giving me gray hair!” a cry that I’m sure I was not the only one who heard this from their mother when their difficult behavior caused her stress. True or not, it all sounded a little like a folk tale, until now. New studies from the laboratory of Dr. Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University show that chronically elevated levels of the stress hormone adrenaline damage the DNA in specific ways that could lead to a spectrum of conditions from gray hair to tumor formation.
The damage was shown to break down p53 protein, the protein that protects the genome against cancer by helping potential cancer cells either repair their cancerous nature, or self-destruct.
Holistic Dermatology
New York, New York
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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
Eat More Pomegranate for Beautiful Natural Skin Care
Pomegranates are back on the shelves, and hopefully, back in our hearts! I have just spotted Pomegranates on the shelves of my local produce stores at rock bottom prices, meaning they are in season nearby. They contain valuable anti-oxidants that are well known to protect the heart.
What’s news is that they also have been shown to have protective effects on the skin. Dr. Hassan Mukhtar, who I met over 10 years ago when he presented his findings on the anti-oxidant protective effects of green tea extract, EGCG,recently published studies on the protective effects of pomegranate extract against Ultraviolet (UV) radiation damage. His group’s studies, published in 2005 showed that pomegranate extract inhibited UV damage in cultured human skin cells by inhibiting the changes in two molecular pathways associated with cancer (known as NF-kappaB and MAPK).
More recent studies showed that feeding Pomegranate extract to mice protected against a wide variety of biological markers related to UV light induced development of cancer. This information is important because it substantiates the mechanism by which pomegranate protects against skin cancer induced by UV light. Some of those mechanisms of UV damage also contribute to aging of the skin. So data is emerging suggesting that food derived anti-oxidants such as pomegranate may protect against both skin aging and cancer.
You can pick up pomegranates at your local produce store and enjoy them as a snack or desert. I eat them with an old dark sweat shirt or apron on, and not my favorite light colored clothing, as the red juice from the seeds has a tendency to squirt and stain when you cut them open. It may take you a few tries to get used to the slightly tart taste.
The seeds are the size of corn kernels, and have hard seeds inside. The white pulp around them is slightly bitter, but is also loaded with anti-oxidants, so I eat some of that along with the delicious red juice in the seeds. I make sure that the seeds have the rich purple color, and toss away those that have turned brown, in some sections of the fruit.
Pomegranates have been revered for thousands of years in the Middle East. If you travel to those lands, you will notice the familiar round shape with a wide, protruding stem in paintings and jewelry. Perhaps they were revered because of benefits seen in those who ate them over generations. It’s exciting to know studies simply confirm that you now can protect both your skin and your heart by enjoying this tasty fruit.
To your health,
Dr. Alan M Dattner, MD
Holistic Dermatology & Natural Skin Care
New York
Natural Skincare: Have a Sweet Holiday…
favors overgrowth of yeast in the digestive tract, which leads to leaky gut, absorption of allergens from food, and inflammation of oil glands.
To your health,
Alan M Dattner, MD
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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
9 Beauty Foods for Natural Skin Care: Broccoli!
Here’s an article published by iVillage in which I was quoted:
To your health,
Dr. Alan M. Dattner, MD
Holistic Dermatology & Natural Skin Care
New York, New York
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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
Want Beautiful Hair? Never do these two things.
At a really interesting seminar on hair disorders, speakers covered basic biology, rare disorders, and common conditions affecting the hair. The hair shaft, made up of strands of protein, is covered by a “cuticle” of overlapping scales which protect and hold together the shaft.
Over-Brushing
Activities such as over-brushing removes the scales making up the cuticle and allows the shaft to come apart, making the shaft frizz and become weak. Scratching the scalp or hair has the same effect. The result is broken hairs and the impression that hair is not growing. Some conditioners and combing products are available with special lubricants
which reduce friction and reduce the removal of the cuticle scale.
is too close. The overheated water turns to steam inside of the hair shaft, forming tiny gas bubbles which cause the “cuticle” to burst off. It was really fascinating to see this close up with a scanning electron photograph showing a lot of bulges from the gas bubbles forming in a wet, heated hair. Hair treated this way looks frizzy, smells burned,
and breaks easily.
To your health,
-Dr. Alan M. Dattner, MD
Holistic Dermatology & Integrative Medicine
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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
Got Varicose Veins? This herb could help.
Pressure from standing upright creates pressure in the legs and leads to enlarged leg veins. This pressure makes the valves in the veins ineffective, in effect turning the little systems of blood veins in the body into one long vein. This pushes fluid out into the
tissues, causing swelling of the legs and varicose veins.
Reversing gravity by elevating the legs is a great natural treatment. Another natural treatment is the use of horse chestnut extract, which contains multiple bioflavinoids including a flavinoid called escin. Horse chestnut products are standardized based on escin concentration, as this is considered to be the active ingredient. It has multiple beneficial effects. The other bioflavinoids present in the extract work synergistically with the escin.
As a bioflavinoid, ascin strengthens the capillaries and blood vessels. It prevents leakage of material through the capillary walls by supporting the layer of cells that form the inner lining of the blood vessels. That reduces the amount of leg swelling from leakage of fluid. It also has constrictive effects on the vessels.
Elevation of legs and horse chestnut use are just a few of the ways to support leg varicosities. Since there are other steps to take, possibilities of slowing the process if action is take early, and dangerous consequences if clots form in
these vessels, it is important to get evaluated by your physician when leg vein problems begin.
To your health,
-Dr. Alan M Dattner, MD
Holistic Dermatology & Integrative Medicine
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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.