Phuli Cohan, MD
It’s a little known fact but we wear our hormones on our face!
You can get all of the face work and Botox in the world but hormonal health is how to keep your skin looking as young as possible.
Too little hormones will leave you looking (and feeling) tired. Estrogen, testosterone, thyroid, Growth Hormone, melatonin, and the adrenal hormone DHEA (the most abundant hormone in us), keep our skin bright, supple, moist and less wrinkled.
The small creases that crowned my upper lip convinced me to become an anti-aging medical physician. When I was a mere 43 years old I was plucked from the audience as an example of “premature aging.” To my surprise, the lines on my face told the story of what was happening inside…my thyroid was underactive, my adrenal glands were too stressed to make enough DHEA, my ovaries were not making much estrogen and testosterone, and growth hormone and melatonin were no longer pulsing in me. I was literally drying up.
Here’s a brief list of what happens to your skin and hair when certain hormones are too low:
Low Estrogen: fine lines form around your mouth, your skin and eyes become dry, your hair thins, crow’s feet form, and forehead wrinkles multiply
Low Testosterone: causes facial wrinkles to increase at a faster rate
Low Thyroid: you’ll notice dry, scaly skin, thinning eyebrows–especially the outer brows, your hair becomes brittle and thin, and your face/eyelids can look puffy
DHEA: the plus side of low DHEA is less leg and underarm hair, but with that your skin and hair is depleted of its natural oils, losing sheen and healthy glow
Melatonin: in addition to poor sleep, low melatonin makes you look generally older than your age
Growth Hormone: lack of growth hormone causes your upper lip to thin and makes the jaw line look smaller. It also causes deeper skin wrinkles.
Hormones have been given bad press but it’s time to set the record straight. Did you know that the WHI study which damned hormones did NOT show any increase in breast cancer in women taking only estrogen? Only the women in the WHI study who used synthetic progesterone (Provera) had an increase in cancer.
Despite the safety of natural hormones, the media hype surrounding this 2001 study caused hormone backlash. Millions of women stopped all forms of hormones causing epidemics of bone loss, insomnia, depression, and sexual dysfunction, not to mention a lot of sad skin and bad hair days.
Ask your doctor to measure these hormones:
DHEA-S, for adrenal DHEA
TSH, free T3 and free T4 Thyroid hormones
IgF-1 for growth hormone
Sex hormones such as Estrogen and Testosterone are safe to use if you use bioidentical forms, in a balanced way, (always use progesterone with estrogen). Never eat estrogen, take it by the skin. Melatonin and DHEA are available over the counter in most pharmacies.
European studies have shown that using bioidentical estrogen by skin lotion, balanced with natural progesterone was safe. Educate yourselves and your doctors about safe uses of hormones so that you can look and feel even better after 50.
More information about Dr. Cohan can be found on her website, www.phulicohanmd.com