IPL Magic

Intermitten Pulse Light is a magical thing.

It’s one of the most non-invasive — yet truly dramatic — avenues for “breaking up” those little veiny spidery things we get on our skin — like on our face and/or chest — and it lasts a long, long time.

Beryl Reker, my new guardian angel, is also the Paramedical Aesthetician at Dr. Joel Meyers’ Spa in Longmont.

She performed 3 IPL treatments on my face, neck and chest — and now my face, neck and chest truly looks years younger — the skin is lovely and clear and looks like it’s never suffered a gazillion summers of sunshine.

Here’s a bit more about IPL directly from Beryl’s office:

“Intense Pulsed Light^TM (IPL) skin treatments using the photorejuvenation process represent a breakthrough in age-defying skin care. This technique treats skin damage non-invasively — there is no disruption of the skin’s epidermal surface. IPL treatments address the effects of photoaging, brown spots, vessels, and sun damage with low risk of complications and no recovery time.

“IPL is the gold standard for photorejuvenation. This FDA-cleared, patented technology provides dramatic results for a variety of benign conditions, including age spots, sun-induced freckles, symptoms of rosacea, birthmarks, unsightly veins, acne scarring and other blemishes — even unwanted hair.

“Why choose IPL over other treatment options? Laser resurfacing and deep chemical peels often send patients into hiding, as they wait for redness and swelling to subside. Microdermabrasion addresses skin irregularities, but is not effective against all complexion problems including redness, flushing and broken capillaries. Face lifts and other surgical procedures are far too invasive for younger patients and “baby boomers” who simply want to revitalize their appearance without recovery downtime.”

It’s yummy. It’s relatively affordable and it’s effective. So sayeth my friends and family when they view my “new skin.”

Men We Love: The Iron Yogi

He’s dubbed the Iron Yogi. And the name definitely fits, considering he’s a body builder who does yoga. Not too many of those around.

“I’m a purple cow. I’m different,” says Peter Seamans. “There are no other body-builder yogis out there.”

Seamans, 51, who lives primarily in Boulder, but also in California, Costa Rica and Hawaii has been a local figure in fitness and yoga for 30 years.

At 21, Seamans says he was like “John Belushi, without the fan base and paycheck.” After an epiphany at the rec center, Seamans lost 40 pounds and broke his addictions to alcohol, drugs and food. Four months later, he was working in a gym and the members began asking him to train them.

“I was training people before the term ‘personal trainer’ was coined,” he says.

Seamans has since won numerous drug-free and master’s bodybuilding championships (he’s never done steroids). He is undefeated in every competition he has ever entered, was named the National Physique Committee Trainer of the Year in 1993 and had the world’s largest following with 2,000 seats per month when Spinning first took off in the ‘90s. And that’s just scratching the surface.

Now, Seamans is back in Boulder and running his own studio, Iron Yogi, 2516 Broadway, suite 300, Boulder (www.ironyogi.com).

Seamans trains people with free weights, kettle bells, dumbbells, fit walls and Gravity Training Systems. He also teaches his own version of Vinyasa yoga, called Turbo Vinyasa, and Turbo Bar, which is a class for women that targets the butt, thighs and abs.

We wanted to learn more about this powerful “purple cow,” so we asked him five questions — plus one. We then asked the same questions of his friend and student Laura Posen, 41, of Boulder. All we can say is, Iron Yogi indeed!

1. Out of all of the people you’ve trained, who has been your favorite and why?

Peter: Deepak Chopra and Anthony Robbins were both amazing experiences. But honestly, being a guy who seems to connect more with the female population, helping women lose weight and reshape their bodies is what really makes me tick. The confidence, vitality and opportunity for self-realization that comes with such an experience are the real gifts. I am both humbled and honored to be a part such a positive life change.

Laura: Me, of course! But in all honesty, I think Peter’s favorite client would be a woman who after two years training with him, transformed her body so completely that she became a pro-figure athlete.

2. If you could have a superhero power what would it be and why?

Peter: Mind control, so I could get people to stop thinking and enter the present moment.

Laura: Peter already is a superhero with the power to transform bodies and inspire people to lead healthy lifestyles. If he could gain another super hero trait, I think it would be to heal people with touch.

3. What is your most cherished possession and why?

Peter: My white marble Quan Yin statue. Quan Yin is Chinese and literally translates to “she who hears the cries of the world.” This Buddhist goddess (no, I’m not Buddhist) reminds me daily that compassion, understanding and sensitivity are the keys to our evolution.

Laura: Peter’s most cherished possession is his good physical health because if you don’t have your health, nothing else matters in life.

4. Why do you love living in Boulder?

Peter: It’s eclectic, free-spirited and friendly. I feel both proud and fortunate to live in a community where people place such a high value on wellness and self-realization.

Laura: Peter loves living in Boulder because at any time of the day, he can visit Whole Foods and have at least 15 people he knows come up to him and say, “Hi.”

5. What is the most important thing your parents taught you?

Peter: The three A’s: adventure, affection and authenticity. Every day should be an adventure — and it is. Love is something to be felt and expressed freely. And always be yourself, no matter what others think or say.

Laura: Be comfortable with who you are as a person.

6. What is one thing we would never guess about you?

Peter: I love chocolate.

Laura: Underneath all the hard, toned muscles is a very soft, kind soul who truly cares about helping people.

— By Annie Brokaw

In the garage

I never claimed to know anything about cars. My father — a scientist — was not the kind you’d find tooling around under the hood. My mother — a nurse and an artist — can craft anything and mend wounds, but cannot change a tire.

I’ve spent my entire automobile life counting on mechanics and boyfriends to change my oil and tell me where that blue smoke was coming from. I’ve dreaded buying a car any time I’ve had to because I knew I had the mark of a sucker on me. I am afraid of my car. As much as I count on it to get me to work and the store and other states, I had no idea what lurked beneath the white metal exterior.

I have, however, claimed that I wanted to learn more about my car.

I’d wanted to know how to change the oil and for what purpose. I fear the day I’m stranded by the roadside because I don’t even know where my jack is, much less how to use it. And I was paralyzed by my inability to do anything about one pesky burned out headlight. It was long past time to take charge and understand exactly what was going on inside of my heavy machine.

Enter Club Workshop.

I stumbled upon the ad on Craigslist for “Auto Maintenance 101.” It might as well have boasted, “Stop being silly, Leah. Take the mystery out of this once and for all!”

Club Workshop is the brainchild of Steve Garran, who together with his wife, Laura, opened the 16,000-square-foot Denver space in September of 2008. An active hobbyist, Steve Garran quit his stressful IT job to follow a dream. That dream involves an auto bay with a lift; a woodworking shop; a metal working shop; and more.

“I realized there wasn’t a place like this where you could do it yourself,” Steve explains.

Laura interrupts, laughing, “You needed a bigger garage.”

This is certainly a bigger garage.

Mike Kiehl is my teacher today. The former repair shop owner grew tired of running his own place and decided to come to Club Workshop. He now spends his days helping members of the club with their projects and teaching classes to folks like me. The auto classes are always small — three to five members max — and today there are three of us total, all women seeking to know more about the machines we depend upon.

Mike puts a Subaru on the lift. Carefully we inspect the undercarriage and all the parts and pieces located there. We discuss why and when to rotate tires. We remove the oil from the car. Once the Subaru is back on land, we finish the oil change and soak in all there is to know about what rests beneath the hood.

Later, when I open my own Toyota I could effectively point out every belt, hose and tank. I can even tell you what they all do.

“I think it is empowering for women to know the basics,” Laura Garran told me in our first e-mail.
I couldn’t agree more. Next time I come back to Club Workshop, I think I’ll learn how to weld.

—By Leah M. Charney

What I Don’t Know About Skin

What I don’t know about getting — and keeping — healthy (and therefore beautiful) skin — could be put in an expanded, 25-volume set of Encyclopedia Brytannica, apparently. Not that anyone knows what that is.

If you’ve read previous A New Face blog posts, you know that I tripped upon a Paramedical Aesthetician named Beryl Reker — who has the skin of a 30-year-old and who is in her late 50s — and she’s taught me a thing or 1,200 about everything I’ve been doing wrong to have health skin (and everything I’ve simply not been doing).

I posed this question to her recently: What can a girl on a budget — say, less than $500 — do to secure and retain healthy skin?

Here’s her answer — I could do a lot, apparently.

This list is not necessarily in order of importance — but is more meant to be a comprehensive approach to skin health and beauty.

1.

Genetics plays a roll, but if that’s working against a person, nutrition and health habits are the number one thing.

2.

Effective Sun block, reapplied every two or three hours, even if one just begins using it,  can make a dramatic difference in skin. (See previous post for what “effective” entails — it’s not your average, over-the-counter sun block — and makes a world of difference to skin health.) 

3.

Retin A was originally developed to treat acne, but we learned that Retin A users’ dermis becomes thicker and stronger. Retin A use for just six weeks shows significant difference. It’s a fast-acting medication. 

4.

The average person’s skin “sheds or turns over” every 28 days in you’re in your 20’s. It takes 45 days by the time you reach 50. Get educated about true skin health – the clock can be turned back! Skin health can return to that 28-day cycle.

5.

Regardless of age, a 30-year-old or a 50-year-old needs to protect their against free-radicals. Vitamins A, B, C,and E are effective in neutralizing the free radicals that break down healthy cells. Think of the old “Pac Man Game.” It’s like those free radicals go into tissue and munch on healthy cells. A good antioxidant on skin neurtralizes free radicals, so those free radicals are not munching on healthy cells.

What you ingest, however, doesn’t necessarily reach skin in processing. It’s critical to treat the cells bi-directionally by eating healthily and treating your skin topically to reach the cells directly.  

However, a 50-year-old will want to physiologically change tissue – restructure the tissue – to strengthen and thicken. At 50, it takes 45 days for skin to turn over — the cells are dead and absorb light rather than reflect light.  The goal is for the skin to look luminescent which is what happens when light is able to reflect off the epidermis.

 

 6. 

There is quite an arsenal of effective ingredients out there that will get your skin in good shape.   Here are a few: 

Peptides – are small and are able to penetrate to the deeper layers of skin.  They signal the body that new collagen needs to be produced. 

Growth Factors – these are proteins that promote the organization and maintenance of cells and tissues within the body.  They play a major role in the healing of skin damaged by the sun’s ultraviolet rays (sun damage by UVA= aging skin!) 

GLX Technology – an advanced fusion of clinically demonstrated benefits of glycolic acid and natural antioxidants.  Again, protection, prevention and correction.

L-Ascorbic Acid, Hyaluronic acid, Arbutin, Kojic Acid, Aloe, Lactic Acid, Alpha Lipoic Acid – all are powerful, all are accessible to the average person.

Vitamin B3 in the form of niacin. Niacin thickens all 3 levels of skin and renders added protection. Vitamins A, B, C, and E are all important for the integrity of the skin. You don’t need an expensive moisturizer. Moisturizers simply hydrate skin.

The bottom line is that in a clinical formula, a combination of these powerful ingredients will help you turn back the clock.  A qualified clinician will be able to evaluate your skin and develop a program specifically for you.

 

 

Beryl, Great Skin, My Treatment(s)

One of the steps — in the several-steps-process — that I’ve taken over the course of this “2009 Summer of a New Face” — involves chemical peels.

I’d never had a chemical peel until this summer — and, after 2 “mild” and 2 “medium” chemical peels, I’ve got to admit — I love the skin I’m in.

My arms look youthful, smooth and “light,” for lack of a better adjective. Beryl Reker, Dr. Joel Meyers, M.D.’s Paramedical Aesthetician, thought that a couple of chemical peels would return my sun-, wind- and age-damaged arms to their used-to-be-lovely state.

She was right.

In this ongoing blog, I’m writing mostly about Beryl and her magic. One sheet of information she gave me explained the differences in chemical peels. I thought it enlightening — you might also.

Here it is in its entirety:

Chemical Peels

There are three main types of peels. Light peels are most commonly performed using alpha hydroxyacids. These are naturally occurring acids found in fruits and other foods. Alpha hydroxyacids have proven to be effective in treating dry skin, acne, liver or sun spots, diminishing fine facial wrinkles, decreasing pore size, and improving skin texture. Light peels are usually performed in a series of six to eight peels, each peel two or three weeks apart. This type of peel leaves the skin with a red glow that only lasts for a day or so.

Medium peels are usually performed with trichloroacetic acid. These peels are only performed once every couple of years. Medium peels have the same benefits as light peels and in addition remove larger wrinkles and precancerous skin lesions because of deeper penetration. The draw back is that a medium peel makes the skin on the face look like severe sunburn for one week. If one has multiple precancerous skin lesions this is better than using Efudex, which makes the face look sore for six to eight weeks. A person having a medium peel must stay in for one week to recover from the procedure. This type of peel is also better than liquid nitrogen because it treats small precancers that are too small to be seen with the naked eye. Like a medium peel, liquid nitrogen also takes one week of recovery time but is only good for treating larger precancerous skin lesions.

Deep peels with stronger chemicals get rid of large wrinkles and can have results as dramatic as a face-lift. This type of peel has a recovery time of 1-2 months. This peel is being done less since the introduction of laser resurfacing.

All Sun Blocks Are Created Equal: NOT

If you read the previous post, you’ll know about Beryl.

If you know Beryl, you also know that you very much want her skin.

In this blog, we’re going to visit and revisit Beryl a bit. Why? Because she’s got the very best skin I’ve ever seen on a woman “over 40.”

What the hell. I’ve attached a photo of her — before she “did” her skin — and after.

She’s Dr. Joel Meyers M.D.’s skin “wizard,” and here’s a bit from when she and I conversed about sun block, why and when to use it, and how I’ve managed to blow what should have been a decent contribution to my retirement fund on years of inadequate sun block.

Me to Beryl: What are the TOP THINGS women (or anyone) can do — that cost little to nothing — to preserve the life of their skin?

 Beryl (this is a partial answer; come back for continuation of this conversation):

“Genetics plays a roll, but if that’s something that may be working against a person, then nutrition and health habits are the No. 1 thing.

“Using sun protection effectively is equally important. First, putting it on just once in the morning — unless you’re really going to sit in an office all day long — won’t do it. 

“Sun block needs to be reapplied every two to three hours if you’re out in the environment. I’ve seen it: Having someone start using a good sunblock can make a dramatic difference in their skin.

“There are two kinds of rays: UVA, the aging rays — and UVB rays, the burning rays.

“Most over-the-counter sun blocks contain chemicals — not minerals. A “chemical” sun block will allow the UVA — or “aging” rays — through. Zinc and titanium dioxide is a mineral combination in some sun blocks that reflect both UVA and UVB rays away from your skin. The combination is like putting a film on your skin that reflects the rays away. Whole Foods and REI are more cognizant of sun blocks and the minerals in them.

“Here’s what the number means on sun block:  If you burn in 10 minutes and you put an SPF 30 on, you’re protected 30 times as much as if you put nothing on in that 10 minutes against UVB (burning) rays.  However, activity, i.e., sweating, swimming, etc., reduces the effectiveness of the original application. 

“It’s important to reapply sun block so that you’re building protection – even if it’s chemical. It protects you from being burned.

“Look hard for minerals in a sun block. Blue Lizard is one of them, which you can order online. REI has a zinc oxide sunblock. Look for mineral percentages of 9 or 10 and over.

“Also, if you put a chemical sunblock on, you have to wait 20 to 30 minutes before you’re protected. The mineral protects immediately.”

Yikes. No more Walgreens-brand block for me.

Boulder’s Got Talent

Check out our seen on scene photos from the Boulder’s Got Talent show at the Spice of Life Events Center on July 9.  The event was put on by Lunch and Network. (Photos by Marty Caivano.)

Broomfield’s Great American Picnic

Check out our seen on scene photos from Broomfield’s Great American Picnic at County Commons Park on July 4.  (Photos by David Jennings.)

1940s WWII Ball

Check out our seen on scene photos from the 1940s WWII Ball at the Boulder Airport from June 13. (Photos by Jonathan Castner)

Meet Beryl: You’ll Want Her Skin

This blog is all about physically — I’m not kidding — turning the clock back 15 years.

This story will culminate in a feature of me getting a bunch (4 – 6) cosmetic procedures done over the summer, including a face lift and surgical removal of “eye bags” –

But first came Beryl.

Beryl is Dr. Joel Meyers, M.D.’s “Paramedial Aesthetician,” but don’t let that phrase scare you.

Forget that phrase.

She’s known — by her colleagues, her boss and her clients — as “Beryl, Have You SEEN Her Skin.”

Before Dr. Meyers would do any work on me, he insisted I have a consultation with Beryl. I met her and said, immediately, “Whatever you’re doing — I don’t care if you sleep standing on your head or drink cod liver oil for breakfast — I’m doing IT.”

So we’re going to talk a lot about Beryl. She’s a walking encyclopedia of all things concerning “unbelievable — and mostly unknown — skin health.” I thought I knew and had read just about every damn thing on the planet about healthy skin.

I’d read nothing, apparently. I didn’t know, for example, that 90% of the sun block we buy doesn’t do 50% of what it needs to do to protect skin from the sun’s damaging rays.

I never thought about how having one’s hands unprotected on a steering wheel — over the course of decades — is the one, biggest age-escalating thing we all do (that makes those age spots appear like SIRENS one day.

Skin health and cosmetic counters and minerals and a whole slew of things are coming up here on “A New Face.”

Stay tuned.

Cathie

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