2 Minute Skin Care

I am an expert on skin care. Or more appropriately, I am an expert on skin damage. I’m an anesthesiologist (the physician that puts you to sleep and wakes you back up again for surgery.) In the operating room when someone has a procedure or surgery then, surprise, surprise, you need to disrobe (ie get naked.) It became increasingly obvious that sun worshippers had terrible skin. But, one thing was always obvious---the swimsuit line. The area that was protected from the harmful effects of the sun was pristine-not just less leathery. Not just less marred. Not just less tan. But very natural and faultless. As I looked more into it and searched for the reason, it became obvious that it really was just that---those areas of the skin were protected from the sun. That’s it. Sun protection. This observation led me to try to figure out if it really was that SIMPLE.

So How Did I Get Here?

Skin care has always troubled me in some way. I didn’t know it. But it did. (No guy every really knows it.) Your father never sat you down to talk to you about anything face related except shaving. Face care and grooming was always left to the girls. My mom had a cabinet full of stuff and then by default, as age allowed, my sister had her own cabinet full of stuff.
I, like all of you, never had a cabinet full of stuff. Moreover, I’ve never wanted one. Then comes the wife with her cabinet full of stuff.
But, I digress...
My first incident of troubled skin was in kindergarten.

Learning by Burning

Kindergarten: When I returned from Florida, where I visited relatives, I told everyone not to touch me because I had a sunburn. I sacrificed being first in line so as not to have people rub up against me. (known to my daughters as Little Richie Rust stories.)

Junior Year High School: End up in Florida, once more, for spring break and wear pants and a long sleeve shirt. I refer to it as foul weather gear when around my sun worshipping friends. Still get a burn.

Freshman Year College: Friend suggests going to a tanning bed and I spend 45 min in a bed with new bulbs. I get so burned that my skin blisters and peals. This lasts the better part of a week.

Senior Year College: Roommates (I live in a house with 7 other guys) wonder how come I’m so pale. “You need some sun,” they say. I out smart the sun and my roommates by buying a cream to make my legs darker---no one is fooled but me.

Marriage 101: Get married and numerous times my wife notices me getting burned when out and about. On a 45 min drive to some-where to buy some-thing my left arm is sunburned from resting near driver’s side window. Right arm by contrast is still pale. She wonders why I don't use a daily SPF.

First Year Medical School: Turn 24 and begin to despise birthdays. For the first time I see the fallacy of celebrating getting older. This is nothing to be happy about, let alone celebrate. I don’t have any real aches and pains, just realize my mortality. Birthday presents are still cool, though.

Second Year Medical School: Come December I tell my wife not to do anything for my birthday. She says okay but still bakes a cake. Birthday presents are definitely still cool.

Third Year Medical School: Clinical rotations start. Patients and nurses call me Doogie Howser after child prodigy character.

Graduate Medical School: Turn 28 and start to feel the effects of age. My aches and pains are more apparent. Surprisingly, your body really does make noise when you get up in the early morning. I thought this was just some goofy thing you see on TV. I start to worry about the lines on my face. Surely these can’t be wrinkles.

Internship: Walk from hospital to parking lot and get pink cheeks for being in the sun for less than 7 minutes. My wife wonders what I did all day, “I thought you were supposed to be at work.” I remind her I’m pallid.

Anesthesia Residency (PGY1): Hate my Birthday and turn 30. After numerous discussions about my pathologic fear of birthdays, my wife throws a surprise birthday party for me. Friends, family, old acquaintances show up to wish me well. Nice. If people didn’t still say I looked so young I would be upset. (Thank you Neil Patrick Harris.)

Anesthesia Residency (PGY3): My wife starts to put creams and products on my side of the vanity. And, vanity causes me use them. It’s tough to use them regularly. I feel emasculated but need something to help with the aging that I know is coming.

Private Practice: Doogie Howser comments persist....then one day I notice they stop.

The Program and Products Proven to WORK

These products are for men, specifically men who are concerned about their aging face, but who don’t want to be hassled by an elaborate, time consuming skin care routine. As an MD producing skin care products, I am in the unique position of specializing in anesthesiology, not dermatology. Everyday, I see naked people in the operating room. Their unmentionable areas-as smooth as a baby's bottom-are in stark contrast to the sun-damaged skin on other parts of their bodies, and provide undeniable evidence of the incredible benefits of barrier protection. Produced from this unique "undercover" viewpoint, the products and information presented will tell you about what I call the ABCs of men's skin care. Instead of expanding on all the possible skincare pseudoscience, I have detailed three proven, and peer reviewed wrinkle preventatives and cures-vitamin A, Barrier protection, and vitamin C (ABC).

Years of seeing the benefits of sunscreen never really registered in my mind. Everyone in the OR always mentioned the drastic differences between the leathery exposed areas and those that were hidden from the sun. One day after my wife thrust some smelly cream at me saying, “Use this. It will help protect your face,” (The translation, I later found out, was, “You look old.”) I decided to see what really worked. The best way I knew how-research. There’s not much out there. True randomized clinical studies that tell what creams, pills, diets, etc. really work are not very common. Probably because these doctor folk are a little more interested in curing cancer. And, a lot of the products probably don’t do anything better than any others.
There is no such thing as eternal youth. And, if someone throws around words like exfoliation and botanicals, then they most certainly have sold you a bill of goods. So, what works? Dermatology textbooks and peer reviewed medical journals show that sunscreen is the single most important thing you can do to maintain a youthful look. Then, creams containing vitamin A and Vitamin C are both proven to reduce wrinkles. After that, it’s all marketing to women about how to get Botox in a bottle and ‘maintain a youthful glow.'

Men don’t want a complicated routine, but it appears the only proven routine is just that---uncomplicated.

I’m not sure women want a complicated routine. But, they have sought out more. The promises of looking youthful are easy to believe, especially with the social pressures put on women. We all want to believe in a fountain-of-youth that can be had a bottle. No matter what the cost. But the truth is cosmetic companies are selling them more than a cream; they’re selling beauty, sex, wealth, exclusivity, and excitement.
Now, I’m not the only person who has read this information, journals and textbooks, and thought it amazing that people spend a boat-load of cash on stuff that probably doesn’t work. Again, people believe because they want to.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a hands-off approach when it comes to cosmetics. They don’t review new cosmetics or conduct any safety tests. These are not considered drugs of any sort even though some are marketed as such.
So do these products really work? When seeking scientific data for retail products, the claims are many but the information is hard to find. The reason is that it just isn’t there. No need to conduct peer reviewed well thought out studies when the active ingredients are mostly plant extracts and vitamins not regulated by the FDA. Any study quoted is usually internal and measures a person’s perceived benefit. That’s their fall back when asked to produce by the Federal Trade Commission. No false advertising here---all these people say it worked on them when they used super-cream X.
An ugly truth.
So, what is the answer?
There is a vacuum of information in an expanding men’s market. The continued problem is that no one is speaking to the normal guy. The guy who wants a flip top tube that can be taken to the gym, without anything else cluttering up his bag.
Any dermatologist, cosmetic surgeon, peer reviewed journal, or text book states that the number one thing you can do for your skin is a daily moisturizer with sunscreen. This simple information is hidden in the $16 billion a year skin care market.
The reason I didn’t care for my face daily was that the task was daunting. I didn’t want to spend the time and the energy that I saw all the other women in my life spend. I just didn’t have it in me. Also, I felt kinda girlie with all the sweet smelling gunk. Moreover, I was vain. I wanted to look young. I didn’t want to look old. Give me those college days and no gray hair. I want to turn back the clock. But it felt so wrong to do it the way I saw on TV, in the aisle at the store, and from my wife.

But the truth was easier to swallow.

The routine was easier to follow.

And, the results are proven.

Lets not define skin care as how many creams you use or how much time you spend. Lets define skin care the way we want to. The way that makes sense. The way that lets us benefit the most from all the products out there. Let’s define it as what we all really want---to look younger. Less wrinkles. Isn’t that what we all really want? Protect your skin from aging and lessen wrinkles. If we define it this way then the answer is as easy as A, B, C.

If you look on-line at amazon.com or other retailer, you will find wrinkle creams in the hundreds of dollars. This is a proven moisturizer with SPF and Vitamin C all in one bottle for a fraction of the cost.

■	Proven results with multiple studies from multiple publications Studies
■	Benefit from basic skin care that works--saving time and money
■	The best one cream system, no elaborate routines or multiple products
■	No shameful Tutti Fruitti smells or crazy grape seed, avocado extracts
■	Truly works--product is designed from the studies proven to reduce wrinkles