Avoid Seasonal Skin Complaints With Winter Rejuvenation

Along with emotional issues such as mood swings and the urge to hibernate, the dark winter months also bring changes in the look and feel of an individual's skin due to the wind and coldness of the late fall and winter months.

Cold weather can wreak havoc on a person's skin, including dry chapped lips, wind-burned cheeks and shedding skin from exposure to different temperatures. Women spend countless hours trying to reverse those harmful winter effects with lotions, skin sloughing and trying to increase the humidity in their houses. And all of that drying and rubbing can speed up the aging process, eventually producing wrinkles and loose skin.

So what's a someone to do if they live in the wintry northern part of the United States? Barring hibernation, there are ways to bring skin back to life, firm up any sagging issues and even reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

As we age, we may begin to experience sagging skin around the neck and jaw line, new wrinkles on our faces, and even unwelcome excess skin from working to get back into shape and dropping some weight after that winter hibernation. This increasing inelasticity in our skin is a natural part of aging, but it's not necessarily a change we need to live with forever.

Over the years, men and women have tried to combat these kinds of skin issues with injections of invasive treatments like Botox or even surgical facelifts. The results can sometimes lead to a less than satisfying appearance, because these procedures can occasionally leave an unnatural appearance and obvious signs of facial work.

More recently, however, laser technology has been developed to refirm skin safely and effectively, without pain, without cutting into the skin and without the need to take time off to recover. These lasers, like those used by major laser centers, combine infrared heat with radiofrequency waves to reshape the collagen in your skin. It's the collagen that holds the shape of your skin contours, and the skillful application of laser energy can stimulate healthy collagen remodeling inside your skin. With this tool, a clinician can tighten sagging skin and fill in wrinkles with your own natural substances around your eyes, mouth and cheeks; along your jaw; and at the brow line.

The skin tightening treatment employs a special high-technology head on the laser device that enables the energy to safely penetrate your skin, heating the collagen to allow it to take on more defined shape over a period of time. At the same time, the deep heating generated by the treatment tightens the skin tissue. The special head actively cools the surface of your skin while it heats the area beneath the skin, so it minimizes or entirely eliminates any discomfort that might otherwise result from the heating process.

The clinician even can adjust the amount of cooling to correspond with each individual patient's sensitivity to heat. The result is a comfortable treatment that starts restoring a more youthful appearance by increasing the elasticity and firmness of the collagen in your skin. With the collagen free to remodel itself, it naturally fills in wrinkles and begins to return sagging skin back toward its original contours.

The best news about laser skin tightening is that it allows you to avoid injections and plastic surgery. It's completely non invasive - your skin is never punctured or cut. Therefore, the risk of infection that is always present with surgery is avoided with laser treatments. And, again, unlike surgery, laser skin tightening does not require a recovery period.

Every patient responds a bit differently to laser-refirming treatments, but clinics with skin-tightening specialists spend time identifying your individual needs and any concerns that may exist prior to the treatment. The goal is to ensure your safety and comfort throughout the process, and the treatments are virtually painless.

Depending on the extent of refirming required and your particular skin structure, laser tightening usually entails three to five treatments, scheduled three to four weeks apart. You may begin noticing the difference after the very first treatment, and by the time the regimen is completed, you are likely to experience lifting of sagging skin; reduction of fine wrinkles; and skin that in many cases is smoother, more luminous and toned. Most patients return twice a year for supporting and maintenance treatments. At home, you can help ensure long-lasting results by applying special skin-care products, like Vita-Pure Infusion Serum.

Once you firm up your skin with noninvasive treatments, you'll be able to neutralize the effects of winter ski vacations, prolonged winter weather and exposure to a less-than-skin-friendly climate.
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