2021 is a new year, a reset hopefully in more ways than one. My Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal had a supplemental journal “The Science of Aging.” I love it.
My first foray into anti-aging was a few years ago. I had a patient, who I had known for a long time, who had looked old. His skin was acne scarred and wrinkled. We tried many things to improve his skin quality without luck. “This is just aging. We can’t fix it.” But then I saw him at a follow up visit a year later, and he looked remarkably better. So I asked him what he had done. And he spoke of his telomere length and how he had a treatment to increase the telomeres. In English, telomeres are part of your chromosomes, and as you age and breakages increase, the telomere length shortens. There are thoughts this correlates with accumulating damage in your organs, tissue, and skin, which makes you age. The results were visible and impressive. I did not follow his lead, though I was impressed by the results. My fear was what else may these treatments do? Do they add fertilizer to growing cancers? Do they cause any other health issues? I just do not know enough.
One of my co-residents from Stanford is out in Tennessee. He did additional training after our plastic surgical training in anti-aging. In his practice he routinely tests for levels of hormones and cortisol, and he puts his patients on medications and herbals to improve their health. It makes sense. Healthy bodies look better. Healthy bodies heal better.
So now we have a supplement in our Journal. The Science of Aging Symposium was “birthed by the desire to facilitate open science discussions between researchers in related but diverse fields” to connect practitioners and innovators, clinicians and researchers.
Topics discussed in the following blogs:
- Twins & Telomeres: comparing the telomeres of one twin in space vs one twin on Earth
- Fat and hyaluronic acid
- Microbiome and mitochondria
- Environmental inflammaging
- Psychologic aspects of aging
- Applications of these new scientific developments for our aesthetic patients.
Given I am a plastic surgeon, so much of what I treat is due to breakdown of our tissue from aging, poor habits, and inflammation. I see fat transfer and the stem cells improve the quality of skin. We know what we eat – and the probiotic and microbiome revolution – has a great impact on our body.
Read on for what we are learning now.