The Skinny on Your Fat August 12, 2008

Your body produces new fat cells only until you reach your early teenage years! During puberty, fat cell production ceases and that’s it – that’s the total number of fat cells you are stuck with for life. Then, when you gain or lose weight, your body doesn’t make new fat cells, rather the fat cells that have been produced in your childhood increase as you gain weight or decrease as you lose weight.

When you diet, exercise or use any other weight loss method, your body burns fat for energy – decreasing the size (not the amount) of your already existing fat cells. Extra energy not burned or used in your body (like when you skip the gym) is stored in adipose tissue. Adipose protects and cushions the organs in your body. The “fat” that many people dislike on their bodies (in the form of love handles, big thighs, or flabby bellies) is not fat per se, it’s adipose tissue.

Presently, liposuction is the only FDA-approved way to remove or destroy adipose, i.e., fat cells. Therefore, the best candidate for liposuction is someone who has one or more areas of fat collections (reserves, bulges, rolls, or whatever other unpleasant term you prefer) that are disproportionate to the rest of their body. Any other diet or weight loss method can only shrink the size of your existing fat cells.

Since liposuction physically removes adipose, post-liposuction weight fluctuation – loss or gain, is less apparent in the treated area. However, if you gain considerable weight, those untreated areas may suffer by gaining more fat since there are physically more fat cells there. Therefore, if you remove fat via liposuction – after the procedure you will gain and lose weight proportionally with all the fat cells that are left in your body – in other words, if your weight gain used to go to your thighs and after lipo those fat cells are no longer there – your body will distribute them evenly throughout the rest of the fat cells in your body.

So beware! Weight gain post-lipo may create new and undesirable “problem areas” that you never knew you had!

The New Face Lift August 8, 2008

I LOVE this quote: “Plastic surgery should whisper, not scream. Today, instead of tightening the neck, there is a re-suspending of the muscles in the face,” said Dr. Darrick Antell, a New York City plastic surgeon.

The face lift trends of today are more about re-filling and re-surfacing – and much less about tightening, pulling and tucking the skin. “The result is a much more natural look that’s fresher and younger, rather than lifts of days gone by that scream tight, frozen, and emotionless (think Joan Rivers!). Although personally, while I think the naturalization of face lifts is great; the overabundance of Botox is filling in for the tight, taut, frozen look.

So smaller, more frequent, nips and fills are being replaced by the grand face lifts of yesterday. The other benefit of this is the recovery time, since there are less bruising and lower complication rates.

The “midface” is the focus – the midface starts at the corners of your mouth, up diagonally towards the corners of your eyes. Think *cheekbones.*

When your face ages, fat is loosening and descending to sit lower in your face, resulting in facial features that look longer and squarer in shape. Younger faces tend to look angular or tapered. That’s why the most important aspect of a facelift is to improve facial shape while limiting signs that a surgical procedure has been performed. How do you do this? By manipulating both fat and muscle – the focus has significantly moved away from skin tension (although of course it is still important – no one wants a sagging face plumped with fat) and concentrates on contouring the face.

The best plastic surgeons are the ones that have mastered manipulating both the muscle and the fat in the face. The muscle in the face (musculoaponeurotic system [SMAS]) is addressed by repositioning underlying facial muscles as well as reducing excess skin. Fat and tissue contribute almost equally to your facial appearance as does the underlying muscle and the overlying skin. So depending on your face, fat will have to be added (via a fat transfer), reduced, or redistributed.

On the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Dr. David Rosenberg, a plastic surgeon, has a goal for the face lifts he performs – to give his patients “an age appropriate rejuvenation where they look absolutely fabulous for their age.” Dr Rosenberg continues, “It’s not as much a pulling back of the skin as it is a muscle correction. In the cheek, I go under the fat pad and re-support it to a place where it was earlier in time to recreate a younger looking cheek. I go under the muscles along the jaw line and neck, and re-support them back to a more youthful position.”

Current reports are saying face lifts are up 14% this year. What do you think? Are you one of the people that will inflate these statistics in the years to come?

PLASTIC SURGERY August 7, 2008

Hot topic of the (and every) moment – I know. All the Hollywood stars (and starlets) are sporting the new “face” – and body. Madonna’s face is on the cover of New York with pencil sketches all over it identifying what work she’s allegedly had done. Articles everywhere are revealing the similar “work” of Naomi Cambell, Elizabeth Hurley, Demi Moore and Michelle Pfeiffer. What have they done? Face Lifts? Liposuction? Injections? How did they get it? What are the options?

Soon, I’ll be discussing all the latest techniques – both surgical and not, along with other tricks, options, treatments, fillers (such as Restaylane and Juvaderm), creams, and products so that the secrets are revealed to putting YOUR best face forward.

I’ll have information direct from the hottest NYC plastic surgeons – in their own words. The new techniques they are using today – how they are different from the ones of the past, new options ranging from the most expensive to the most affordable – and everything in between – for face, skin, body – everything.

Stay Tuned!