The "A" Train

Only the Cool People Use Botox

Dear A Train Readers,

Sorry for the lack of recent posts, but the launch of Aqualant is close upon us and I have been scurrying around to get it out the door. But, if that wasn't enough, I had a proposition presented to our company that has pulled me away from normal daily activities. We can't release any information, but details will be coming very soon. So, posts may be more sporadic over the next few months.

I have several topics that I have drafted but, I haven't had time to verify some of the research, but here is an article that was recently posted that I felt was worth a comment.

Here's an article that was posted by a writer on women's issues at US News and she commented on the inference that a recent  Dermatology Surgery studythat concluded women that use Botox are more attractive and more likely to land jobs, dates, attention etc.

The writer comments that she can't really tell a difference in the before and after posted below. However, I see a softer look that is subtle and more attractive. Her eyebrows are lifted and wider apart which opens up her eyes to make her look more friendly.

However, Botox over done is difficult to look at. Therefore, make sure you find someone that is well trained on the ART of botox application.

I agree with the writer that its OK to use cosmetic procedures to enhance yourself, but scaring people into using the products is bad.

Fear is a big motivator in the beauty biz.

The writer admits to wanting to enhance her own self image by using a retinol cream at night (I wonder if it's Green Cream?)...

Wear Sunscreen

Unfortunately, Presidential hopeful John McCain has had another skin cancer removed from his body. His message to the American people is to always wear sunscreen and I couldn't agree more. Article link is below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/28/AR2008072801402.html

Cosmoprof

Greetings from one of the world's largest beauty shows, Cosmoprof. The show just finished up and I am heading back home today. My purpose for the trip was to find packaing for our new product, but I couldn't help but check out the other companies that sell skin care.

Cosmoprof has more of an international feel with companies coming from Italy, Australia, China and Korea.

In the past years, the rage was anti-oxidants like idebenone and copper peptides. Well, there was none of that here this year and it was all oranganic and green products.Even dermatologists were jumping into the ring with their own green line.

I attended a presentation from three prominent beauty stores and I asked the question "Do you think green/organic products are a trend or a fad?". All three buyers said it is here to stay...I disagree. Science will prevail in my opinion. Once people find out that green won't make them look younger, treat their acne and help other skin ailments, they will move onto the next big thing. On a side note, our new moisture sealant could be classified as a "green" product. However, we will not market it as such. It just so happens that the best ingredients for the product just happen to be natural.

I also attended a technical forum presented by our trade group ICMAD. I learned alot of technical boring stuff, but I asked the question to group, if the CIR had completed its reevaluation of parabens. The author of the soon to be published review was in the room and he emphatically reemphasized the safety of parabens and said without a doubt that they are (as a class) the best preservatives on the market. I know I have been promising a post on parabens, but I am going to try to get my hands on that paper to augment my post.

I had a very prominent person in the industry tell me that, "the beauty business is ugly". I now know what she meant by that statement. This is definately an industry that I am not proud to be a part of. So, today I am officially classifying Advanced Skin Technology as a part of the healthy skin business. I will let the quacks keeping pushing beauty.

Funny Skin Care Blog

The beauty world is way too serious and its time to lighten up! Here is a blog I found via our friends at thebeautybrains.com.

The author of this blog has a smart, witty style and I have totally enjoyed reading it. However, she is an advocate for ineffective organic products (I can't seem to reconcile the smart and organic part, but I am sure there is a link somewhere). Please let me know what you think, its a great laugh http://babyassface.typepad.com/

Sorry!

I never check my posted blog (i.e. I only work from the admin side of the site) and noticed that traffic had been diminishing and wondered why. Well I found out when I tried to view my live site...it crashed my browser! I found out that one of my "plug ins" was causing some issues, so I disabled it.

Next week we will be at the ICMAD Annual Meeting in New York, but I will resume posting the week after. I plan to cover transdermal drug delivery and parabens.

'Roid Kings

No, this post isn't a follow up on last week's post about topical steroids. This 'roid is referring to men who use hemorrhoid cream to make their chest and abdomen appear chiseled.

We have all known about the beauty pageant contestants using Preparation H under their eyes to reduce puffiness, but men using it on their bodies is something I can't stomach (pun intended).

As a society, I guess we have come to accept the vanity pursuits of women, but seeing it in men...is kinda like watching sausage getting made...I don't want to see it.

True, hemorrhoid medicine shrinks tissue, but that will only make your chest appear smaller. I love the dermatologist in this article who recommends that you apply cayenne pepper to thicken the skin (I wonder if that could be used as a natural male enhancement?).

Advice to guys, don't put product that is meant to be use in your posterior on your chest. Odds are you will have an allergic reaction and do you really think that women will want to put their hands on you?

Pivot Point - Vitamin D

The tanning industry isn't going to take attacks from the American Academy of Dermatology laying down. The tanning industry is also on the ropes due to new federal regulation that is requiring certain disclosures. The tanning industry has launched two new websites to attack the notion that tanning is unsafe at any speed.

The basis of their argument is that Vitamin D is necessary for humans and you can get Vitamin D from UV exposure (this is a true statement).

The tanning industry has made the sunscreen industry the evil villain behind this mis-information campaign on the dangers of tanning.

Fear is a very powerful motivator in today's times and the sunscreen industry is probably guilty of capitalizing on that fear. It is true that when people think of skin cancer they think of melanoma which can be deadly. Here is an article from Mother Jones, that makes the causal link between the increase in sunscreen sales rising with the incidence of melanoma. So even if you call into question the risk of sun exposure and melanoma, there are some facts that cannot be ignored (and if you dig deep enough in the tanning industry's literature they admit the same things).

• Excessive UV exposure does cause skin cancer. The ozone is thinning which increases the amount of UV radiation in the atmosphere. This is making humans more suseptable to sundamage.
• Non-melanoma skin cancers can become dangerous if undetected and untreated and the rate of non-melanoma skin cancers continues to rise. If these cancers go untreated, when removed, the disfigurement casued can be devastating emotionally (on a personal note, my mother in law had to have a large portion of her nose removed because of a basal cell carcinoma (she never used sunscreen or a retinoid)
• Tanning or UV exposure causes the skin to age prematurely. Who wants a facelift at 40?
• Sundamage incurred as a small infant or child can magnify the effects when your are older. Its like putting money in an interest bearing account.

So given all of these risks, the tanning industry wants to pin everything on the promise of Vitamin D. So, lets examine this critical component of our metabolism.

Vitamin D is essential for promoting calcium absorption in the gut and maintaining adequate serum calcium and phosphate concentrations to enable normal mineralization of bone and prevent hypocalcemic tetany.

It is true there are not alot of food sources that contain Vitamin D and that deficiency is widespread in the American diet today. It only takes a few minutes in the sun to generate the amount of Vitamin D the body needs. 20 minutes in a tanning bed equals 3 hours in the sun.

Therefore, making the link that tanning is healthful is absurd. The risks of sun exposure far outweigh the risk of Vitamin D deficiency when only a few minutes in the sun can get the job done. Better yet, take a daily multivitamin and when when your tanned friends have gotten their 2nd facelift, they will tell you, "you must have good genetics". You just tell them that you had enough sense to get out of the sun.

Here are the links to the tanning industry's website

http://www.sunlightscam.com

http://www.trusttanning.com

Hair Cloning

Here is an article from London about researchers taking hair cells, cloning them and then injecting those cells into the scalp to grow hair. Sound far fetched, but if the results are true (to be released next year) then this could be a huge leap forward in curing baldness.

Steroid Phobia

If athlete's use steroids, they develop nasty cancers that make them pay in the long run. If you use a topical steroid, the same thing will happen, right? Not at all.

Physicians use topical steroids to treat eczema and psoriasis, but many people use nonprescription steroids for minor skin irritations, bug bites and rashes. We often recommend a 1% hydrocortisone for people that have flare ups due to retinoid use.

True, if you use topical corticosteroids in great doses over a prolonged period, the skin can atrophy and can cause adrenal suppression. If you read the warning labels on most of these preparations, one would think you are flirting with the disaster. Even physicians can add to this phobia by instructing you to apply "thinly and evenly" or "sparingly" over the skin. This implies that you are using a dangerous ointment and to be careful.

The reality is that there is little or no risk from using a topical steroid. Most all preparations have such a low concentration of the active ingredient that patients and physicians need not worry about the short term use of topical steroid.

Since most people are scared to use too much of the cream, they tend to under-treat the underlying problem which causes the patient to use the steroid longer than needed. You should apply a generous amount to the affected area.

Study summaries:

• In a systematic review of treatments for atopic eczema, randomized controlled trials of topical corticosteroids that specifically gathered data on skin thinning and suppression of the pituitary–adrenal axis failed to show evidence of harm – although the studies were short term Study Reference
• Two longer-term studies on intermittent use of the potent topical steroid, fluticasone (Brand name Cutivate), found no evidence of skin thinning after 4 months Study Reference and Study Reference
• A study of 35 children aged 0.7–18.7 years with a median of 6.9 years of corticosteroid treatment for atopic eczema found biochemical evidence of HPA axis suppression (decreased cortisol response) only in those using potent or very potent topical corticosteroids or those who had received corticosteroids from other routes (inhaled, intranasal or oral). Study reference
• Reassuring evidence about the effects of long-term use of corticosteroids on the HPA axis in patients with psoriasis comes from a study of 46 patients randomized to 0.25% desoximetasone or betamethasone 17-valerate (Brand name Diprosone). Patients applied their medication to psoriatic lesions on approximately one-third of their body. Plasma cortisol levels were reduced to below normal levels in nine patients using desoximetasone during the study, but in none of the betamethasone group. Levels returned to normal spontaneously in four of the desoximetasone group. In four other patients, plasma cortisol remained suppressed at the end of 5 months of continuous therapy, but returned to normal within 7 days of stopping treatment. Study reference.
• In a 3-week comparative study of 40 patients using 3.5 g of either 0.05% betamethasone dipropionate cream (brand name Diprosone) or 0.05% clobetasol-17-propionate (Brand name Temovate) ointment for treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis, temporary reversible suppression of the HPA axis (low morning cortisol) was seen in eight patients – three on betamethasone and five on clobetasol. Study reference.

Some topical corticosteroids (active ingredient) Brand Name

Nonprescription

• (hydrocortisone) Aveeno Anti-Itch cream, Cortaid, Cortizone 10

Prescription Low Strength

• (hydrocortisone) Cort-Dome cream, Dermacort cream, Hytone ointment,

Prescription Medium Strength

• (betamethasone dipropionate) Diprosone lotion
• (flurandrenolide) Cordran ointment
• (fluticasone propionate) Cutivate ointment
• (hydrocortisone valerate) Westcort cream
• (triamcinolone acetonide) Aristocort ointment, Kenalog cream

Prescription High Strength

• (betamethasone dipropionate) Diprosone lotion
• (fluocinonide)Lidex cream, Lidex ointment
• (triamcinolone acetonide) Kenalog ointment

Prescription Very High Strength

• (betamethasone dipropionate) Diprolene ointment
• (clobetasol propionate) Temovate ointment and cream

Sources for this posting come from Medline (requires registration)

Weight Loss Pills Summary

I know this is not a topic of conversation on our blog, but I see a lot of parallels between skin care products and weight loss products and I felt we could help spread the word on some hocus pocus. Just like skin care there is no "magic pill" that will make your thin, but there are some things you can do outside of diet and exercise.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends using pharmacology in the treatment of obese people that have maintained a diet of 500 to 1000 calories for six months without results.

• The FDA has approved Meridia (sibutramine) with a doctors prescription which inhibits the reuptake of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.
• Also available is Xenical 120mg (orlistat) reversible inhibitor of gastric and pancreatic lipase; and phentermine, an adrenergic medication.
• Some off label drugs are antidepressants and anticonvulsants (used to prevent convulsions).
• Bariatric surger is recommended for extreme obesity.

Now we go to over the counter products.

• Xenical 60mg (orlistat), side effects tend to be gastrointestinal when consuming more than the 15g of fat recommended with the diet. Xenical studies showed similar efficacy as the prescription version with much less side effects.
• Alli 60mg (orlistat), uses the same active ingredient as Xenical, but they claim less side effects. Bottom line for Xenical and Alli is that they work, but results are modest.
• Bitter Orange- there is little evidence showing that it works, but can raise blood pressure and heart rate.
• Chitosan - scientific evidence suggests that it does not block fat absorption as advertised.
• Chromium - can work as a cofactor for insulin secretion, but not for weight loss.
• Conjugated Linoleic Acid - does not help with weight loss, but can assist people that are CLA deficient
• Fiber - most western diets are fiber deficient and a supplement can be helpful, but don't count on it for weight loss.
• Green Tea - most green teas have caffeine and caffeine can act as a diuretic effect which some people perceive as weight loss.
• Guar Gum - great source of fiber, but not recommended for weight loss.
• Guarana - ususally studied with ephedra. Guarana can have and adverse effect on the nervous system.
• Hoodia - there is little or no scientific literature supporting it as a weight loss agent.
• Hydroxycitric Acid - appear to be safe, but more studies needed on weight loss efficacy.
• L-Carnitine - studies show that is does not work as a supplement.
• Natural Licorice - improves cellular water content, but can raise blood pressure. Should not be use for weight loss.
• Usnic Acid - no supporting evidence and potential for severe side effects.
• White Kidney Bean Extract- inhibits the digestive enzyme alpha amylase which can block the absorption of starch and carbohydrates. Can have a modest weight loss result.
• Willow Bark - no evidence supporting weight loss and people with aspirin allergies should avoid.
• Yohimbine- two well controlled studies say that it doesn't work.

A table with common trade names, doses and pricing is available here.

I guess the bottom line is, you can't substitute diet and exercise. :)

Source article for this information comes from here http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/574182_1