Best Practices to Preserve Healthy Skin (Podcast)

In this episode, Dr. Elizabeth Roche explains that the most important habit for healthy, youthful skin is daily broad-spectrum sunscreen of at least SPF 30. She recommends a simple skin care routine that you can stick to and discusses the most important ingredients to look for in skin care products. She defines free radicals and oxidation and shows how antioxidants protect cells. Lifestyle choices matter too, and she will discuss both what to avoid and what to incorporate for health skin.

Elizabeth Roche M.D. MedSpa · Best Practices to Preserve Healthy Skin

John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher. I’m here today with Dr. Elizabeth Roche, founder of the Elizabeth Roche M.D. MedSpa in Bergen County, New Jersey, a medical aesthetics center committed to providing people with the most advanced procedures available to restore youth while preserving the beauty and functional health of your skin. Today’s topic is the best practices to preserve healthy skin and a youthful appearance. Welcome Dr. Roche.

Dr. Roche: Thank you, John.

How To Preserve Your Skin

John: So, Dr. Roche, what are some of the recommendations that you have, that you advise your clients of, in order to preserve their skin?

Dr. Roche: Well, I think one of the best things to preserve skin is to wear a sunscreen every day. The sun, the UV rays, are the biggest culprits of breaking down collagen, and it’s all about keeping our collagen fresh, new, tight. The UV rays, there are two types, one is the UVB rays and they’re out during a bright day. We’re aware of them, and those are the ones that brown us or burn us.

There are also UVA rays, and the UVA rays I consider the aging rays. Those are the ones that are going to make it really old. So, they are out, even on a cloudy day. They penetrate through the clouds, they penetrate through glass, they go deeper, they go deeper into the dermis, and they break up your collagen.

And collagen is a very important structure in our skin. It provides the scaffolding to make our skin tight, youthful, less wrinkles, less sagging. So it’s really important to use a broad spectrum sunscreen every day covering UVB and UVA rays. I’m inside the office all the time, I put it on. So, that’s the number one anti-aging practice that you can incorporate.

How to Use Sunscreen Properly

John: And is that the main thing in terms of proper sunscreen usage, is just to use it every day, or is there more to it than that?

Dr. Roche: Yeah, well use it every day. Put it on. It should be at least an SPF of 30. If you’re going to be outside and active, then you need to reapply it every two hours. And depending if you’re playing sports or if you’re in the water, you’ll need to reapply it more frequently. But especially for women, you make sure you put your sunscreen on, you wash your face, you apply your moisturizer, then put your sunscreen, and then makeup.

And I know it’s kind of hard to reapply that sunscreen again over your makeup, but there are many different types. There are mineral makeups that are in a powder form. You can just give yourself a sprinkle. But if you’re really concerned about preserving your skin, start early and use sunscreen every day.

Daily Skincare Routines

John: What else do you recommend in terms of a daily skincare routine?

Dr. Roche: So, I like to keep the skincare routines simple, but consistent. If you make things too complicated, you’re not going to stick to your routine. So, I have a morning and an evening routine. In the morning, as I just said, cleanse, moisturizer, sunscreen, makeup. In the evening, you want to wash off all of that, the pollutants, the makeup, everything you’ve accumulated throughout the day. So, good cleanser.

Then I use the evening time to treat my skin. When you’re resting, your skin can absorb things better, so I use my antioxidants and treatments that are going to make a big difference in my skin. Good antioxidants are vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A. They help fight the free radicals that occur in the skin.

What Are Free Radicals?

John: And what are free radicals?

Dr. Roche: That’s a great question. A lot of people use the term free radicals. So, what free radicals are, in the natural metabolism of our body, whether we’re breathing, digesting, it creates these cells that have been used, so they’re free radicals and they are missing an electron. These free radicals go and they start attacking other cells and they want to steal those electrons and make these healthy cells now damaged.

That process is actually called oxidation. If you use antioxidants, that prevents that from happening. And it has been shown that the best antioxidants are vitamin C, vitamin E, and vitamin A. They work in conjunction a little bit differently. Vitamin C and vitamin E are very giving molecules, so they will actually give up their electron to prevent these free radicals from attacking your cells.

And vitamin A such as Retin A, retinoids, all of those retinols, they help on the other end.

If there is damage that has occurred, then they will go in and help the cell turnover. They will kind of get rid of those damaged cells. So, when you use a vitamin A, you may find your skin a little bit flaky, but that’s a good thing. You’re getting rid of the dead dry skin cells and you’re encouraging new cell turnover.

Lifestyle Changes to Improve Your Skin

John: What are some other lifestyle practices that you recommend, to promote healthy skin?

Dr. Roche: So, it’s not only what we put on or what we do, it’s also certain things that you should avoid. And as I said, the sun, big culprit, but there are other things that you want to avoid. Smoking is a very big ager of the skin, smoking, alcohol and sugar consumption.

So, smoking will cut down the circulation of your skin. And when you cut down the circulation in these little capillaries, you’re cutting off nutrients, you’re cutting off oxygen.

Smoking causes the skin to look dull. It makes it look yellow. Sometimes it exacerbates the sun damage that can occur. It can also lead to skin damage, such as cancers and such. The repetitive movement of smoking, the pursing of the lips, can cause wrinkles around the mouth. So, that’s one of the big culprits of breaking down collagen and elastin. And we just talked about how important that is to build that up. So, it just goes in and breaks that down.

The other one, alcohol. Alcohol dehydrates you. And when you have dehydration, it’s a diuretic. It’s a known diuretic. And when you have dehydration in your skin, you look dull and just dried, and the skin doesn’t look plump and youthful. It also increases androgen production, and androgens are what create sebum, or oil, and that can lead to blackheads, whiteheads, acne. So, it’s really important to avoid alcohol if you’re prone to breaking out.

And it causes inflammation, and sugar is a big one that causes inflammation too. The inflammation causes redness, you look puffy, it looks red. So, these are all things that you should try to avoid in your diet or in your daily intake to have healthy skin.

Alcohol And Skin Care

John: In regard to alcohol, are we talking about just the overuse of alcohol or really any alcohol that you drink?

Dr. Roche: Really any alcohol, you go out and you have just a couple drinks one night and the next day you may find that your skin doesn’t look as good, look as vibrant, and it also can cause sleep disturbance. And if you have sleep disturbance that causes stress and you just don’t look as healthy as you would. Everyone I’m sure is going to, not everyone, but people drink now and then. But of course, more alcohol is going to cause more damage. But if you can limit that, that would be ideal.

Things That Can Benefit Your Skin

John: So, you’ve talked a little bit about some of the things that you need to avoid. What are some of the things that maybe you should add to your regular routine in order to promote healthy skin?

Dr. Roche: Sure, yeah. Some things that you should eat, actually a healthy diet. You can eat your antioxidants as well as put them on your face. So, some foods that have antioxidants are foods rich in vitamin C; citrus fruits, the berries, blueberries, strawberries, vitamin E foods that are rich in vitamin E are like avocados and nuts. And another is green tea, which contains polyphenol, which is a naturally occurring plant-based antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.

So, taking a lot of green tea, hydration, it’s really important to drink eight glasses of water a day. That is just going to make your skin look plump and youthful. The skin cells have a lot of water in them, and you want to keep them very well hydrated.

And then other things to do are to get exercise every day. It increases your circulation of the skin, brings nutrients and oxygen. It helps you sleep better. So that helps reduce stress. So, just these healthy common-sense lifestyle changes or lifestyle habits make a big difference in the complexion, in your appearance.

When To Start a Skin Care Routine

John: When do you recommend starting all of these healthy skin habits? Is this something that you wait until you’re a little bit older as we age, or is this something that people should be starting really young?

Dr. Roche: Yeah, I tell people the sooner you can start it, the better. So, start putting sunscreen, even on your children, but start these habits in your twenties and you’ll age better. Both your skin, your body, your mind, but it’s never too late to start. So, if you’re starting in your thirties, forties, fifties, even at 60, 70, the more you do these things, the better for your skin and appearance and you’ll just feel better overall. So, it’s always a good time to start.

Reversing The Effects Of Aging On Your Skin

John: Can you reverse some of the effects that you might’ve seen earlier in life by starting these routines?

Dr. Roche: Absolutely. People will start using some of the products, the antioxidants or just the sunscreen alone. All of these things can reverse the signs of aging. And if you listen to some of the other podcasts we have, you’ll learn about how to reverse these signs of aging with devices and other modalities that we have in the office here.

John: Alright, well that’s really great information, Dr. Roche. Thanks again for speaking with me today.