4 Ways to Stop Varicose Veins

6a00e55255b4628834017d4321224b970c-200wiVaricose veins are caused by pressure from the blood in the veins.  When there is prolonged pressure from standing upright, hormonal changes, and weakening of the elements of the vessels, the valves begin to break down, causing the veins to appear on the surface of the legs.

There are several ways to relieve the pressure. Putting your legs up in the air on a desk or doing a shoulder stand and other upside down Yoga poses throughout the day are also very helpful, if you are careful about your spine.

Eating a diet rich in bioflavinoids, and taking bioflavinoid supplements, helps prevent and improve disorders of the veins, blood vessels, and capillaries.   

When prolonged standing cannot be avoided, be sure to wear comfortable shoes with good arch support. Some walking or movement of the legs periodically will help the pumping action to return blood. Your stockings should not bind anywhere. Any signs of pain or tenderness in the veins should immediately be reported to a physician, because of the possibility of venous thrombosis, with a clot that could break loose and block blood flow in vital organs like the lungs, heart or brain.

Top Four Tips for Healthy Veins from the Holistic Dermatologist:

  1. Wear good, supportive shoes, elevate your legs above the heart regularly throughout the day, and/or wear compression stockings at a pressure suggested by your doctor.
  2. Take horse chestnut extract standardized to contain 50-90 mg of aescin, 2- 3 times per day. Avoid with pregnancy, kidney or liver disease.
  3. Eat a diet rich in vitamin C and bioflavioids, or supplement them, in order to strengthen the blood vessels.
  4. Seek medical care if veins become hot, tender or rashy.

To your health,

-Dr. Alan M Dattner, MD
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 diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.


Does the sun cause skin damage and skin cancer?


6a00e55255b4628834019101aecae8970c-200wiPREVENTION

I’ve discussed measures for preventing sun damage and skin cancer previously in my blog.  As I’ve said, as a holistic dermatologist, I believe prevention really is the best medicine. 

So now let’s discuss exactly what happens when sun hits the skin. Packets of light energy known as “photons” hit chemical structures in your cells and activate them so that they transform chemically, often causing them to combine with chemicals next to them.
This includes causing chemical changes in the cells’ DNA, which can eventually change cells into to skin cancer.

SUNSCREEN

When you apply a sunscreen, the energy from the sun is absorbed by that sunscreen chemical, changed, and then released as a hopefully less harmful energy. Sometimes it comes out as a different wavelength of light.
If the effects of that energy can be safely spread around and absorbed by the skin chemicals, there is little harm done.

LINES OF DEFENSE

Now think of it like a football game. The football represents the packet of light energy from the sun. When the team hikes the ball, the opposing team attacks, the front line acts as a barrier, and the football is passed back and forth by the team in the rear to keep it from being attacked.

The more the team behind the line passes it back and forth, the less likely a player with it will be attacked. We have a number of antioxidants in our skin both naturally present and from our diets and what we apply. If they are sufficient, balanced, and work well together like good linebackers, none of the team members will be attacked.

ANTIOXIDENTS

Antioxidants will help protect us to a degree, and work together with other forms of protection including sunscreens. One such external anti-oxidant is resveratrol, made from grape seeds and other plants. It can be ingested or applied to the skin or both, and there is evidence that it reduces sunburn cells and other measurements of sun damage in both mice and men.

There is even a patent for the use of resveratrol as a sun protectant, although one could argue that such use is apparent rather than unapparent, as required for being patentable in the first place.

Other anti-oxidants include vitamin C, Lipoic acid, glutathione, other biovflavinoids, carotinoids, and selenium. It is worthwhile to include these in your diet.

To your health,

-Dr. 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 diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.


Want Beautiful Skin? Look inside…

6a00e55255b462883401901b96b474970b-320wiFrequently, people come to me wanting to know how to make their skin beautiful. What I tell them is that the skin is a direct reflection of what is occurring, both inside you and in the world around you.  Among other functions, the skin is an organ of excretion, which takes over when your other organs of excretion are overwhelmed.

Your skin reflects when you are “toxic,” excreting what the rest of the body cannot.  What I want you to really get from this book is that the best way to maintain a healthy, youthful exterior is to care for the whole person.  This is what I help people learn to do as a holistic dermatologist.

To your health,

Dr. Alan M. Dattner
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.