‘Health is what you eat, do and think’
We all have heard the term ‘holistic’ as well as ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ applied to medical treatment, the foods we eat, the products we use and other areas affecting our overall health and wellness. The widespread growth of the holistic, natural and organic skincare industry has created many exciting opportunities for new products, treatments, and services. The fact is that the definitions, standards, and regulations are still vague and confusing to many people, so opportunities for misleading and exploiting consumers have also grown.
At EVOLV Plastic Surgery and Medical Aesthetics, we have always believed in and attempted to apply the concept of the ‘mind-body connection’ and the practice of holistic aesthetics to our patient treatment programs as well as our own lives because we feel it is essential to achieving optimal results and improving overall health and well-being. The holistic concept evolved from the universal natural laws that state that a whole is made up of the sum of its parts and that the parts cannot function optimally if the whole is not functioning properly. Conversely, if there is a problem with one of the ‘parts,’ the entire whole is affected.
In applying the holistic concept to aesthetics, we believe that one cannot treat the skin or areas affecting our beauty aesthetic as separate from the internal or entire body health. The skin is the largest organ of the body, and in performing its many functions it is affected and influenced by our internal health and mental function.
In holistic skincare, a person’s skin is a reflection of his or her inner state of health as well. If the eyes are the ‘window to the soul,’ it can also be said that our skin and our skin health directly reflect our overall internal health and wellbeing. We commonly see patients with skin conditions such as acne, sun damage, excess pigmentation, rosacea, and premature aging, all of which reflect chronic inflammatory conditions that are also intimately related to our internal health status and stress levels. Simply treating the skin or treating disease, as is practiced in traditional medical skincare, may result in short term improvements. Without addressing the cause of the problem, in most cases, chronic inflammatory conditions, optimal and long-lasting improvement will never occur.
In addition to personalized medical skincare programs, we apply the holistic aesthetics principal at EVOLV by promoting the following:
– Manual lymphatic drainage or MLD for increasing lymphatic flow and detoxification.
– Cleansing with a skin brush such as the Clarisonic to improve circulation, exfoliate dead skin cells and remove plugged oil.
– HydraFacial MD treatments to gently exfoliate impurities and toxins and stimulate new cell production.
– Accumax oral supplements to provide plant-based nutrition extracts that reduce acne inflammation.
– LED red light photomodulation (ProPanel and LIghtStim) and broadband light (BBL) that directly reduce inflammatory acne bacteria and reduce inflammation while stimulating collagen and elastin growth. The light bed lowers overall body inflammatory conditions and improves blood flow.
– Treatment programs from Metagenics and Vitamedica with proven oral supplements such as specific probiotics Treatment programs from Metagenics and Vitamedica with proven oral supplements such as specific probiotics anti-inflammatory natural products.
Another exciting application of holistic aesthetics is in understanding the integral connection between improving the appearance and how we feel or quality of life. Many often misunderstand the motivation of patients seeking aesthetic improvement as driven by simple vanity. Although all of us, young and old, want to look better, there is much more to the relationship between appearance and internal wellbeing. Numerous studies have proven that an improvement in external appearance or beauty results in an increase in our internal ‘feel good’ brain hormones dopamine and serotonin, resulting in improved confidence and quality of life benefits. This relationship, of course, depends on the aesthetic treatment or surgery creating results that are balanced and consistent with each patient’s natural appearance and ethnicity. This is just one example of how improving the external ‘aesthetic’ can result in an improvement in ‘internal’ health or well-being…. the ‘mind-body’ connection of holistic aesthetics.
Holistic aesthetics recognizes that the mind and body unite as an integrated and connected unit where one affects the other and work together to achieve harmony and optimal health. Holistic aesthetics emphasizes the therapeutic model of prevention and optimal function in order to achieve each patient’s maximum health and wellness. Holistic aesthetics is not a trend but is based on the unique combination of highly effective and clinically proven modern products and procedures, ongoing education and research, the science of energy and a commitment to understanding and respecting the body in order to achieve the best possible outcome for each patient.
We encourage anyone interested in more information on the exciting and growing concept and application of holistic aesthetics to schedule an appointment with our professional staff at EVOLV Aesthetics and find out why we are so excited about what we do!
Frank Barone MD FACS