A Reflection of Inner Health
With Australia’s ageing population becoming increasingly focused on not only feeling good but looking good, it is now more vital than ever that health professionals, including skin care professionals, remain at the forefront of preventative, integrative and anti-ageing medicine.
To this end, I recently attended the 10th Annual A5M Anti-Ageing and Aesthetic Medicine Conference held in Melbourne. Dedicated to advancing longevity science, medicine and technology to detect, prevent, and treat ageing-related diseases, A5M (of which I am a member) also promotes research into methods that slow the human ageing process and promote wellness into older age. This three day conference, which featured a number of different workshops, was delivered by both medical and non-medical experts who specialised in areas that include integrated medicine, aesthetic medicine, medical sciences and allied health sciences.
Discussions focused on:-
- How to incorporate healthy ageing into aesthetic and cosmetic treatments and protocols
- The theories of ageing and their impact on the skin and appearance
- The role of hormones, detoxification, nutrition, lifestyle, stress, metabolic disorders and chronic diseases in aesthetic medicine
It was agreed that skin ageing is a natural process that may be aggravated by environmental factors, lifestyle and poor nutrition. It was also noted that the links between healthy lifestyle and healthy ageing, as well as internal and external health, are well established and increasingly researched in the scientific world.
Further discussions focused on the fact that traditional skincare strategies are concerned with only three elements; getting rid of dead skin, increasing cell turnover and building collagen structure. The belief is that these strategies have the potential to drive greater wellbeing when the nutritional depletion, hormonal imbalances, stress and lifestyle factors that cause these symptoms are considered and treated.
Recognising and treating metabolic imbalance, nutritional depletion and oxidative stress can have a major positive effect on a patient’s aesthetic appearance and wellbeing. So, analysing traditional skincare strategies, recognising the aesthetic signs and symptoms of metabolic imbalance and asking the right questions to discover nutritional depletion are critical elements that doctors, cosmetic surgeons and all allied health professionals need to focus on. This will provide patients with a deeper wellbeing, leaving them looking good and feeling good.
Following these five pillars of anti-ageing is recommended:-
- Take regular aerobic exercise
- Consider your diet and nutrition levels – What we eat and how much we consume influence how long and how well we live
- Lead a relaxed healthy lifestyle
- Take supplements – These provide nutritional building blocks required by the body for optimal functioning and give protection against free radical attacks caused by poor dietary habits, lifestyle and environmental pollution
- Hormones – Hormone therapy has shifted the ageing paradigm