That’s the idea behind Dr. Michael Mosley’s “The Fast Diet,” a weight loss regimen requiring two days per week of 500 calories for women and 600 for men.  After his doctor informed him he was pre-diabetic and overweight, Mosley decided to investigate lifestyle changes he could make instead, which led him eventually to intermittent fasting as a way to control calories.  He spent months researching the latest medical findings on intermittent fasting; testing it on himself and watching his cholesterol and insulin resistance go down along with about 19 pounds of fat.  The process was documented in a popular BBC documentary and was run as a three part series on PBS available online at http://video.pbs.org/video/2363162206.

On the two days of fasting, adults can consume the restricted calories, which amount to 25 percent of a

normal adult’s daily food intake, in one mid-day meal or spread across the course of the day but protein and lots of fruits and vegetables are highly recommended.  The other five days supposedly require little willpower and backers of this diet claim dieters can eat whatever they want in a guilt-free.

Some Facts You Should Know

Intermittent Fasting Is Based on Years of Research:   Animal studies on the subject go back over 80 years and human studies just over five or six years.  11 clinical trials have been conducted on human intermittent fasting.

“Starvation Mode” is a Myth:  Based on a study done in the 1950s, a group of young men lived on approximately half their normal calories for six months, which caused a dramatic loss of weight with body fat dropping to five percent, where they started to experience significant problems. Cutting half the normal calories for a period of six months is a radical fast for an extended period of time while cutting back your calories for two days a week is a completely different experience.

Intermittent Fasting Helps You Lose Fat, not Muscle:  Studies suggest that when you do intermittent fasting you lose almost exclusively fat.  With a standard diet you lose about 75 percent fat and 25 percent muscle while intermittent fasting causes a drop of between 85 and 100 percent fat.   If you’re going to diet, you don’t want to lose muscle because the muscle is metabolically active.

Intermittent Fasting is not Juice Fasting:  Juicing removes the fiber and fiber reduces your risk of bowel cancers – indeed, all sorts of cancers – and it keeps you satiated and stabilizes your glucose levels.  Once you juice fruits and vegetables, all of the fiber is removed and what remains are vitamins and fructose.

Dementia is a Nutrition Issue:  Mice prone to Alzheimers and dementia normally develop dementia at the age of one, which is about middle age for a mouse. When they’re in a fasting state, they extend to about two, which is the equivalent of a 90 year old human.  Mice placed on a fast food diet develop it at about four or five months, sometimes six months. The impact of junk food is not just on your body, but on your brain.

“The Fast Diet” is Still a Work in Progress:  Researchers know that intermittent fasting is most beneficial for people who are overweight or obese.  They also know that if you are successful at losing weight — really at losing fat, you will reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and dementia. The question is, does it do something beyond weight loss and there’s some evidence it does, but it’s not overwhelming at the moment.

The treatment takes about one half hour and patients can relax knowing they will feel a warm comfortable sensation, very much like a warm massage.  The treatment does not require any cooling agents or numbing cream and it can be done over lunch time or anytime during the day without worry about returning to normal activities.   Patients of all skin types can be treated safely and comfortably.

What is most compelling about this type of treatment is not only are results often visible after the first treatment, but as you work through the series for your face, neck, or body, the final results continue to improve as Venus Freeze stimulates the body’s own ability to grow collagen and optimizes the cellular functions of the skin, effectively leading to a delay in chronological aging and a possible partial reversal of photo-aging.  Essentially, with each treatment, you are investing in the future health of your skin and delaying the aging process.

The Venus Freeze is approved by the FDA for facial wrinkles and creases, and approved by Health Canada for temporary reduction of cellulite and skin tightening.  The long term results for cellulite are still being investigated and are very exciting because the Venus Freeze reduces the volume of fat cells while tightening the skin.

I will be announcing a special for the Venus Freeze in the coming days just for my clients.  Look for it in your e-mail!

Also, Venus Freeze will be featured on “The Doctor’s Show” soon!

Now, I have a new and improved version of this sunscreen.   It goes onto your skin clear.  Yes, there is zero whiteness.  It is not heavy at all.  It is the lightest feeling sunscreen that I have felt.   It is  free of  all oil, alcohol, fragrance, paraben, and  paba.    It is sensitive skin friendly.  You can put it over your make-up.  It is water resistant for 40 minutes. It is broad spectrum, SPF is 50+, UVA & UVB protective.  It also has antioxidants of Vit C, Green Tea Polyphenols and Resveratrol. Best of all, it does not have the sunscreen smell.   It costs $38.20 for 4 oz.

Please come in and try it!

Sunscreen pops in your head first, but many other products can also help.

Sun and other environmental stressors cause our bodies to produce free radicals, which in turn break down collagen and thereby cause our skin to wrinkle, spot, and sag.  What can we apply to our skin to help prevent free radical damage?   Vitamin C!    That’s right… Vitamin C is an antioxidant that absorbs free radical chain initiators and shuts down propagation of free radicals that break down collagen.  Vitamin C also helps lessen hyper-pigmentation, reduces inflammation, and boosts the efficacy of sunscreen actives.

Not all Vitamin C skin care products are equally effective.  Vitamin C is hard to stabilize.  As soon as Vitamin C comes into contact with air and light, the Vitamin C begins to break down.  Thus, Vitamin C products must be stored in airtight containers.  Vitamin C products stored in tubes or glass jars with droppers will lose their potency as soon as you open the container.  Also, many types of vitamin C exist, and the best type of Vitamin C for skin care products is L-Ascorbic acid.

At Honolulu Cosmetic Laser, we have Brighten, our product containing pure stabilized L-Ascorbic Acid in a patented system, which provides an enhanced means of delivering L-Ascorbic Acid into the skin.  In addition to the Vitamin C, Brighten also has growth factor TGF-beta-1 that may play a significant role in stimulating collagen growth in order to help reduce the telltale signs of aging.  In a recent clinical study, after 60 days, patients experienced a 30% increase in collagen and 50% decrease in lines and wrinkles.

For this month, Brighten is on sale for $95.50.  (Regular price is $114.60)

If you are interested in experiencing the beneficial effects of Brighten, please call 808-469-1997 or e-mail honolulucosmeticlaser@gmail.com to schedule an appointment.     HAPPY EASTER!

For people who use botulinum toxin on wrinkles between the eyebrows and on the forehead lines, two new treatments will be available in the future.  One is a botulinum toxin cream. Yes, that’s right: not an injection but a cream!   You’ll have to come to the doctor’s office to have the cream applied, but you won’t have to have a needle injection.  The cream will also help in areas where a lot of punctures are needed to have any effect, such as the neck.

The second treatment is a device that freezes superficial nerves.  The treated nerve hibernates, resulting in the nerve’s temporary inability to make the corresponding muscle contract.  You immediately see results with forehead lines smoothed out and lines between your eyebrows erased.  It was pretty impressive.  I do not think it will be used for the other areas that botulinum toxin can be used.  The company assures me there is no long lasting harm to the nerve.

These two procedures are currently being evaluated by the FDA for approval.

Please check out the new specials this month.

What are cannulas?  Well, they are blunt tubes to deliver the fillers in your face.  Needles have sharp points that can pierce blood vessels leading to bruising or worse : obstruction of blood vessels.  With cannulas, there are no sharp points to cut into vessels, so that filler product can be more safely placed into the facial tissue.  Moreover, since cannulas  are not sharps , there is no pain on injection.

Thus, studies have shown diet can contribute to acne.  These are the foods you should avoid if you want to decrease your acne:

1. High glycemic foods such as baked goods, processed foods and foods that contain sweeteners such as corn syrup, maltodextrins, dextrose, glucose and artificial sweeteners.
2. Milk and any dairy products such as cheese and ice cream.
3. Iodine and salt – These are foods that contain MSG and a lot of salt: snacks, chips, egg yolks,  seaweed and condiments such as ketchup and barbecue sauce.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented + fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking, so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
–Marianne Williamson

What do these  three products have in common?  They are all forms of botulinum toxin A that help relax muscles and thereby smooth out dynamic facial wrinkles and creases.  They all do the same thing, but the difference with Xeomin® is that the extra proteins found in Botox® and Dysport® have been removed.

What does this mean? As a result, in comparison to Botox® and Dysport®,  Xeomin® is  a more purified form of botulinum toxin A.

Compared to Botox® and Dysport®, with Xeomin®, your body has a lower chance of producing antibodies to the botulinum toxin.  When your body produces antibodies to the botulinum toxin, over time the botulinum toxin becomes less effective.   Thus, the more pure botulinum toxin found in Xeomin® will continue to work for longer periods of time.

Is Xeomin® safe?  Xeomin® has already been safely used in 20 other countries on 240,000 people .  In European studies, onset of Xeomin® was 2 days and the duration was 110 days.  However, everyone is different so the onset may take up to 7 days,  and the duration may range from  90 to 120 days.

My office is one of a few selected by Xeomin’s manufacturer to roll out Xeomin® in the United States.  If you want to try Xeomin®,  please call 808-469-1997 or e-mail honolulucosmeticlaser@gmail.com to schedule an appointment.