Lifestyle Choices

Broken veins

Broken veins are just visible skin blood vessels which are not really broken but just standing out more obviously because they are permanently dilated. They are usually the result of years spent out of doors and are typically seen on the face of farmers and sailors or those with pale skin who live in unsuitable sunny climates. Sometimes the incautious use of powerful steroid creams will cause these blood vessels to appear or make them much worse, or they can accompany skin diseases such as rosacea. When there are just a few they can be destroyed using an electric needle, but when they are so numerous that the whole cheek is redder than normal, it is not so easy. You may find that green foundation creams are useful as a background because the combination of green and red softens the colour and makes the usual foundation cream and powder more efficient.

Facial wrinkles

Short of a face-lift which pulls the skin taut by taking in a tuck behind the ears or elsewhere, very little can be done for deep lines and wrinkles that accompany the passage of time. Very fine lines on the face can be minimised by adequate moisturising because this keeps the upper horny layer of skin cells plump and well hydrated and makes the surface appear smoother. They cannot unfortunately affect the deeper wrinkles which result from the breaking down of fibres much deeper in the dermis. You can sometimes disguise them by painting down the line a lighter than skin colour eraser cream. This should be applied over your usual foundation using a fine brush and then the colour is blended into the surrounding skin so that the relative light colour within the line makes it less obvious to the eye. Many modern cosmetics contain ingredients which act as sun-screens and it could be argued that their continued use on the face for many years will protect against solar damage. If it can be so argued than I have no doubts that it surely will be argued by the copywriters, and we shall see much greater emphasis on skin ‘protection’ in the next few years. The contention can hardly be denied if we agree that solar damage is the principal cause of aged skin. However, it will be many years before we really know whether protection of the skin using sun screen cosmetics does indeed lead to a lessening of the wrinkles of old age. It has to be said that there are no alternatives to competently performed plastic surgery. It may be difficult to find a surgeon who can do this but the best method still remains the general practitioner who may be able to refer you to a local consultant plastic surgeon who is prepared to operate privately.

Laser Face-Lifts

A worrying development is so-called ‘painless’ plastic surgery using ‘cold’ lasers. Lasers are fashionable and exciting and are becoming more extensively used in medicine and surgery. Argon and Ruby lasers selectively burn blood vessels. People with extensive ‘port wine’ birthmarks on their faces can be helped, but the treatment is still being evaluated and is certainly not as miraculous as those afflicted might have hope for. You must remember that the very thin beam of powerful burning light only treats tiny areas at a time and as all the laser does is to burn with heat, there may be white scars left behind. Only time will tell whether the results justify initial enthusiasm.

Reputable women’s journals have recently carried advertisements for ‘Cold laser face-lifts’. The laser light used is of such low strength that it cannot be felt upon the skin. The beams are applied to so-called ‘acupuncture points’ and the practitioners claim that it “smooths out skin lines, firms contours and tones up muscles”. The experimental basis for such claims has little relevance to face-lifts in humans. It may be true that the bathing of cell cultures in laser light, or the irradiation of chronic ulcers of the skin has demonstrated that the behaviour of tissues can be changed somewhat, but something as simple as altering the temperature can have similar effects. To make the jump from an observation that laser light has certain effects on growing cells in culture, to a claim that you can perform painless face-lifts is entirely unjustified. There is no scientific evidence that cold laser therapy used in this way brings about any objective physical change in the facial skin and all such claims should be viewed with the utmost suspicion. These techniques are used to lure the foolish into parting with large amounts of money and it is sad to see advertisements appearing in reputable women’s magazines. Also to be shunned are all advertisements that claim to rejuvenate skin using “living cells” “bioextracts”. “massage” and other such esoteric nonsenscs. These are all designed for the rich and foolish or perhaps also rather sadly for the poor and foolish.

Acne and ‘Spots’

Acne has been covered in detail in a previous chapter but remember that all pimples and spots on the face are not necessarily acne. Sometimes a transient rash on the face is treated effectively with steroid cream but often the cream is used for much longer than was intended. The effect of this is to make the skin redder, thinner, and covered with tiny spots and pustules. When the cream is stopped the face gets even worse and the unfortunate sufferer is tempted straight back to what is causing the rash. This condition is known as ‘peri-oral dermatitis’ and is less often seen now that the general public are more conscious of the dangerous effects of powerful steroids on the face.

THE LIPS

The lips may be dry and scaly as part of a general tendency to dry skin or to eczema. Another cause is too much lip licking and this is seen particularly in children. Very rarely, dry, sore lips are the result of allergy to lipstick or even to something placed between the lips such as the mouth piece of a musical instrument or hair and paper clips nibbled by office workers. Oranges, artichokes and mangoes can have a similar effect. Soreness at the side of the mouth may be because dentures do not fit well and a gutter is formed through which saliva continuously trickles, making the skin wet and soggy. Thrush infection behind dentures may extend to the corner of the mouth and cause soreness and redness. Severe iron deficiency causes soreness of the lips and corners of the mouth, but is rare nowadays. Old people, particularly those who have spent a life-time out of doors, develop fixed, scaly patches on the lips which are really the same as the scaly patches seen on the face when the skin has been damaged by the sun. A lump developing on sun-damaged lips or a crack which fails to heal must be viewed with suspicion because it may indicate skin cancer.

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