Right about now that New Year’s Resolution enthusiasm might start falling off.  I’m noticing, for example, that it’s getting easier to find a parking spot at my gym.  My own resolution (to use my power exam tables to always move a patient into a good position for my back before I begin a procedure) didn’t get done 100% of the time yesterday. My nurse gave me a gentle reminder and it helped.  We know what’s good for us, let’s stick it out.  We need to support each other, and I’m hoping this post helps to support you.  I care, and if improving your diet was your 2012 New Years Resolution, hang in there, your skin will reward you.

‘You are what you eat’ and now, more than ever, there’s mounting medical evidence that this is true for your skin.  You probably have at least one skin problem that you’d love to fix – include diet in your treatment plan.  Really???  YES!

We know:

• Acne improves on a fruit & veggie rich diet low on junk, sugars, meats & dairy,
• Psoriasis in now linked to the same diet risk factors as heart disease and diabetes,
• Beauty is rated more highly when a person has beta carotene rich skin (which comes from eating orange and green leafy veggies),
• UV skin damage is lessened when skin is loaded w/ dietary antioxidants,
• Non-melanoma skin cancers thrive when you eat a high fat diet,
  

Dermatologist’s Diet Advice For Healthy Skin

Eat organic and fresh because nutrients start breaking down the minute food is harvested.  Organically grown foods have more to begin with (they ‘are what they eat’ too).  Click here to read Diet Recommendations for Healthy Skin

Eat lots of beta carotene foods because they make you beautiful (and healthy).  My absolute favorite nutritional ingredient for beauty is beta carotene because it functions like a self-tanner, giving your skin a beautiful golden glow.  I always eat a healthy dose of carrots, winter squash or dark green veggies to keep my pale skin naturally ‘bronzed’. Believe it or not it works!  Click here to read Skip The Tan And Eat Your Veggies For Beautiful Skin Color

Eat lots of omega 3 rich foods because they rock for fighting inflammation.  Inflammation is the instigator of all sorts of mischief from psoriasis and acne to heart disease and strokes.  The modern western diet is low in omega 3 and high in it’s evil counterpart Omega 6.  Tip the balance in your body and see how different you look and feel.  Click here to read Age Beautifully, Fight Cancer and Prevent Heart Disease By Adding Flax Seeds To Your Diet

Eat your vitamin D.  Don’t damage your skin with sun exposure in pursuit of this important vitamin.  This is the one vitamin I actually take in capsule form.  Click here to read Are You really Getting Vitamin D From The Sun Or Just Nuking Your DNA?

Eat a diet that has more veggies than anything else to reduce inflammation (including skin inflammation like rosacea, acne, eczema, psoriasis).  We diet geeks believe that a plant based diet loads your body with vital, bioavailable nutrients in exactly the form that your human body is designed to use.  No multivitamin pill can compare!  Click here to read The Alkaline Mediterranean Diet, A Magic Wand For Overall Health And Beauty

Eat naturally fermented, probiotic rich foods every day to keep your digestive track healthy.  I suspect that this little secret is one of the biggest under-appreciated necessities for physical health.  Your digestive track helps you absorb the right nutrients and excrete any harmful toxins in your food (like mercury).  My favorite probiotic food is naturally fermented kefir because it’s loaded with beneficial probiotics. Click here to read Kefir, The Best Probiotic For Healthy Skin.

Eat less refined carbs, dairy and junk food to prevent acne. Yes, we dermatologists finally have diet advice for you if you suffer from acne.  Click here for 4 Diet Changes That Can Help You Improve Your Acne, Dermatologist’s Advice

Eat foods rich in natural spices! Yes, I’ve never posted on the subject of spices and health, but the scientific evidence is mounting. Spices are starting to join the ranks of healthy diet super heroes.  Some of the best are turmeric and cinnamon.  I try to cook with turmeric every week and I add cinnamon to my morning cup of green tea matcha.  I promise to post on spices later this year.

So, let’s stick it out with our New Year’s Resolutions.  We know what’s good for us.  I’ll use my power tables and demonstrate excellent ‘self care’ at work.  If diet was your resolution, hang in there.  You’ll like the results on your skin, I promise you!

Photo: Thanks and Gratitude to TheBittenWord

The Best Diet for Healthy Skin In 2012 is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

My favorite healthy lifestyle blogger, Debby, The Healthy Librarian has a great post that’s a must read for all of us. In her sound, rational medical librarian way she always keeps her fingers on the pulse of the ‘real’ medical literature for diet, exercise and lifestyle.  She brings the ‘fat trap’ discussion back to the real issue and points out the obvious solution.

Debby’s ‘nail on the head’ solution is one that rarely get’s ‘air time’ in main stream media.  It’s also a solution that, based on real medical studies, works miracles for your heart health, belly fat woes, aging mental acuity, diabetes and cholesterol problems, cancer risks and even erectile dysfunction (yes really, cardiovascular disease has been associated with erectile dysfunction).

Cruise over to her site and digest what she has to say.  I’d even recommend subscribing to her site because her articles are all 100% valuable.  Let the Healthy Librarian be your medical librarian for the sound healthy lifestyle advances that come out in the ‘real’ medical literature, it’s what I do.

Click here and the link will take you to her site and her post on the ‘Fat Trap’

The Best Diet For Weight Loss in 2012 is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

5 Tips For Staying Healthy This Cold and Flu Season

Yes we should all wash our hands, use hand sanitizers when we can’t etc, but making lifestyle changes that keep our vitality robust, now that’ my kind of thinking!  What are you going to do for your body to make it through the cold and flu season as healthy as possible?

Great Self-Care Advice for Cold and Flu Season is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

You are what you eat, your skin included. Use it to your advantage when it comes to fixing your skin problems.  There’s no shortcut.  Your human body has adapted over time to get the nutrients you need from the foods you eat.  No bottle of processed vitamins, minerals or ‘magic nutrient’ will substitute for a poor diet.

As a dermatologist, people ask me all the time for a a ‘dietary bypass’ that will fix their skin, hair and nail problems – and there just isn’t any. The answer’s in this photo of produce that I just brought in from my garden.  Whole foods, fresh, preferably grown organically, have what it takes to do the job.  There’s no better time than now to head out to the grocery, farmer’s market or garden and make it your daily goal to eat a rainbow of just-harvested produce.

Dermatologist’s Diet Advice for Healthy Skin

Eat organic and fresh because nutrients start breaking down the minute food is harvested.  Organically grown foods have more to begin with.  Click here to read Diet Recommendations for Healthy Skin

Eat lots of beta carotene foods because they make you beautiful (and healthy).  My absolute favorite nutritional ingredient for beauty is beta carotene because it functions like a self-tanner, giving your skin a beautiful golden glow.  I always eat a healthy dose of carrots, winter squash or dark green veggies to keep my pale skin naturally ‘bronzed’. Believe it or not it works!  Click here to read Skip The Tan And Eat Your Veggies For Beautiful Skin Color

Eat lots of omega 3 rich foods because the rock for fighting inflammation.  Inflammation is the instigator of all sorts of mischief from psoriasis and acne to heart disease and strokes.  The modern western diet is low in omega 3 and high in it’s evil counterpart Omega 6.  Tip the balance in your body and see how different you look and feel.  Click here to read Age Beautifully, Fight Cancer and Prevent Heart Disease By Adding Flax Seeds To Your Diet

Eat your vitamin D instead of damaging your skin in the sun for this important vitamin.  I admit, this is the one vitamin I actually take in capsule form regularly too.  Click here to read Are You really Getting Vitamin D From The Sun Or Just Nuking Your DNA?

Eat a diet that has more veggies than anything else to reduce inflammation (including skin inflammation like rosacea, acne, eczema, psoriasis) and load your body with vital, bioavailable nutrients in exactly the form that your human body is designed to use.  Click here to read The Alkaline Mediterranean Diet, A Magic Wand For Overall Health And Beauty

Eat naturally fermented, probiotic rich foods every day to keep your digestive track healthy.  I suspect that this little secret is one of the biggest under-appreciated necessities for a healthy body.  Your digestive track helps you absorb the right nutrients and excrete harmful toxins (like mercury).  My favorite probiotic food is naturaly fermented kefir because it’s loaded with beneficial probiotics. Click here to read Kefir, The Best Probiotic For Healthy Skin.

Eat less carbs, dairy and junk food to prevent acne. Yes, we dermatologists finally have diet advice for you if you suffer from acne.  Click here for 4 Diet Changes That Can Help You Improve Your Acne, Dermatologist’s Advice

Eat foods rich in natural spices! Yes, I’ve never posted on the subject of spices and health, but the scientific evidence is mounting. Spices are starting to join the ranks of health super heroes.  Some of the best are turmeric and cinnamon.  I actually take a turmeric capsule every day (because I haven’t figured out how to cook with it on a daily basis) and I add cinnamon to my morning cup of matcha.  I promise to post on spices in the coming year.

You are what you eat, healthy skin, hair and nails included.  Use it to your advantage.  Aim for beauty by eating a rainbow of fresh produce everyday.  Then look in the mirror and brace yourself for the difference!

Vitamins For Healthy Skin is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

The idea that our jobs are more sedentary is one more piece to this obesity epidemic puzzle.  My job is no exception, and it’s been extra sedentary with the new EHR (electronic heath records system) conversion of my previously ‘paper’ medical practice.  Our sedentary jobs are just one part of a bigger and worrisome cultural picture though.  As I see it our entire lives are more sedentary and convenient, our food is so easily had and filled with sugary and fatty things that we crave, we’re bombarded with come-ons to buy more unhealthy food, taken up escalators and elevators, want parking spots right in front of our destinations, averse to walking our errands… and we relegate physical activity to 30 or 50 minute workouts.

Add to this a March post in the NY Times titled ‘Fat-Stigma Spreads Around The Globe’ and it’s all even more troubling.  According to a new anthropologic study there is “a new globalization of fat stigma” including “places where plumper, larger bodies traditionally have been viewed as attractive, according to a new report in the journal Current Anthropology”.  We’re all going to really beat ourselves up now!  Not only does extra weight impact our health, our cultural scorn will cause additional emotional pain, yet our modern life so easily leads to weight problems.

I think this obesity epidemic is our biggest cultural lifestyle issue and tackling it as an individual can be overwhelming! Me and my EHR muffin top are recommitted to doing something about it and I think we all can.  The way I see it, we should make changes were we can, one step at a time (no pun intended).  Things like saying ‘no’ to the come-ons for foods (and drinks) that are ‘bad’, walking our errands more, taking the stairs, eating the ‘right’ things, working out more-starting where we can and moving on from there.

I’ve had 2 months of stress with my medical office electronic health record (EHR) conversion misadventure and slipped off my healthy living practices…… and my 52 year old body has this shocking EHR muffin top to show for it! This past weekend I decided enough with the stress excuses, I’m back on my ‘program’ and I  feel physically 200% better already. Like most of us, my job is minimally physical, I love my job and it’s not going to change, so I’m tweaking the rest of my choices.

Cardio: I’m determined to do 2 spin classes or 1 mile lap swim workouts  each week and one brisk 50 minute walk (that’s 3 50 minute cardio sessions).

Functional Fitness: It’s gardening season so I’ll get some functional fitness in too on the weekends.  Gardening gives me a great leg workout.   An added bonus is my 3 consecutive hours of ballroom classes once a week which are now pretty ‘frisky’ and give me a moderate work out.

Flexibility and Strength Training: I’m also determined not to miss either of my yoga classes too, and if I can get in one more practice at home I get extra health points (click here to read why yoga rocks your fitness).  I’m also lifting weights and doing squats once a week (which are not my favorite).

Diet: It’s back to the Alkaline Mediterranean Diet (click here to read about it) with tight control over that teeny tiny top part where the treats fit in (and that glass of wine has to squeeze in there too, even if I live in the wine country!).

Join me!  Spring is a great time to renew our commitment to our physical health.

The Obesity Epidemic and My EHR Muffin Top is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

I know this isn’t a dermatologic topic, but it’s so important that I have to get the news out.  I found this medical study while reading Happy Healthy Long Life , one of my favorite blogs.  It’s written by a healthy-lifestyle advocate and medical librarian who gets the ‘hot off the press’ scientific articles the minute they’re published.  This Alzheimer’s study is big news and just the beginning of the Alzheimer’s and lifestyle connection story.

The take home message is that if beauty, diabetes, heart disease and weight management weren’t motivation enough, we can now add Alzheimer’s to our reason’s for committing to a healthy diet and fitness regimen.

The bottom line is that the same lifestyle recommendations you know you should follow for your heart now apply to your brain.  This means:

1. No smoking.  (A good idea for your skin’s beauty too!)
2. Get regular cardio exercise.  My goal is 3 sessions of 50 minutes of cardio for a grand total of 150 minutes per week.
3. Eat a heart-healthy diet that’s predominantly low fat and plant-based with a minimal amount of refined sugars or grains. There’s a lot of diet misinformation in supermarkets and circulating in the media.  I created my Alkaline Mediterranean Diet to help myself and my patients understand what I think is the healthiest way to eat.  It now looks like my Alkaline Mediterranean Food Pyramid is good for our brains too.

For more on my diet and healthy lifestyle recommendations:

Age Beautifully, Fight Cancer and Prevent Heart Disease By Adding Flax Seeds To Your Diet

Dermatologist’s Recommendations For Natural Skin Healt; Kefir The Best Probiotic For Healthy Skin

Natural Skin Health; Dermatologist’s Diet Recommendations For Healthy Skin

Photo: Gratitude and thanks to AlphaTangoBravo/Adam Baker

Why Diet and Exercise MAY Help Prevent Alzheimer’s and Dementia is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

Yoga keeps me able to bend over my patients, and because I love my career, that makes yoga nothing short of a life-saver for me.

My patients know this and for those of you who were thinking about starting yoga based on our conversations, now is the perfect time; my beloved yoga teacher Kashi is offering a new intro to yoga class series. This is one of those rare opportunities to get the ultimate introduction to yoga from a real master.  She’ll start you in such an organized and logical way that you’ll have an amazingly solid yoga foundation. If you’ve struggled with yoga before it’s because you didn’t get this foundation. Here’s your chance to set that right and reap the life-long benefits of yoga that are so talked about!

When Kashi does a  yoga intro series it’s just plain fantastic.  It starts Feb 27th and runs for 6 weeks.  It’s a great way to emerge from winter ready for spring.  Prepare to re-experience your body in a new way.

Click here to get more info on the yoga intro series at Devi Yoga Center.

Kashi teaches a type of yoga called TriYoga.  In TriYoga, we spend most of the time moving in ‘flows’ between yoga positions, thus strengthening both our large muscle groups and the smaller supporting muscles of our joints.  The positions also stretch the body and the breath is choreographed into the ‘flows’ allowing it to become meditative as well as good for the lungs.  It’s been unbelievably good for me.

For those of us extremely rational, western scientific types, yoga is now scientifically proven to improve key elements of our health.  I did a medical literature search looking at all the scientific studies on yoga and you can see the results here on my post The Health and Anti Aging Benefits Of Yoga. The bottom line; yoga is good for you, no matter where you are age-wise or health-wise. A good yoga teacher can tailor a class to meet where your body is now and help you to slowly improve it’s vitality, flexibility and strength.

Emerge from this winter with a new vitality.

If you found this interesting you may want to read:

Does Chocolate Really Cause Acne?

Skip The Tan And Eat Your Veggies For Beautiful Skin Color

Dry, Cracked, Brittle and Splitting Fingernails; Dermatologist’s Tips

Photo attribution: Gratitude and Thanks to Lululemon Athletica and Gilles Gonthier

Introduction To Yoga Class Starting In Sebastopol is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

One of my favorite bloggers just did a great post on the subject.  She describes the transformation in a married couple that she knows.  They made a significant change in their diet and, well you just have to read the story.  It’s absolutely inspiring!  Click on her article’s title here and jump over to Happyhealthylonglife.com for a great read:

When Even Your Pharmacist Notices How Healthy You Look….

Photo: Gratitude & Thanks to Natalie Maynor

Can changing your diet make you more attractive? is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

I use my medical and scientific knowledge to find what lifestyle and diet changes are important for your skin health.  Often what’s good for your body is good for your skin and my blog articles reflect that.  Judging from the questions and comments that I receive on Facebook and Twitter my readers think so too.

My Best Natural Skin Health Posts for 2010

4 Diet Changes That Can Improve Your Acne

Skip The Tan And Eat Your Veggies For Beautiful Skin Color

Age Beautifully, Fight Cancer and Prevent Heart Disease By Adding Flax Seeds To Your Diet

Are You Really Getting Vitamin D From The Sun Or Just Nuking Your DNA

The Health And Anti Aging Benefits Of Yoga

The Alkaline Mediterranean Diet; A Dietary Magic-Wand For Overall Health And Beauty

I’m obviously a big proponent of a healthy diet and lifestyle.  I love keeping up on the medical and scientific literature as it sorts through the alternative health movement and substantiates some of its health claims.  I also am constantly watching my patients and listening to their stories to see for myself which diet and lifestyle choices seem to work and which don’t.   It’s fascinating and important information, and in my opinion, it beats just writing out potentially dangerous prescriptions for all of our skin problems.  Sensibly bridging western medicine and alternative health I think has value, and it’s my goal with these blog articles.

Photo: Thanks and Gratitude to Patrick Hoesly

My Best Posts of 2010 on Natural Health, Healthy Lifestyle and Healthy Skin is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog

The best foods for healthy skin are

• fresh fruit, veggies and nuts
  
• preferably organic
  
• eaten in abundance throughout your day

It’s important to ‘eat a rainbow’ of colors because the colors in produce represent different important nutrients and antioxidants. These are natural and important ingredients for healthy skin; eating a diet filled with them is your best strategy for answering the query: how to get healthy skin.

Taking handfuls of vitamins and supplement pills can’t compare-you just have to ‘eat the rainbow’.

As a dermatologist I treat skin disease, but all the medicine in the world can’t make up for the effects of an unhealthy diet.  I’ve written a number of articles on diet and foods for healthy skin:

Diet Advice For Healthy Skin From Dermatologist Dr. Cynthia Bailey

Natural Skin Health; Dermatologist’s Diet Recommendations For Healthy Skin

4 Diet Changes That Can Improve Your Acne

Skip The Tan & Eat Your Veggies For Beautiful Skin Color

Age Beautifully, Fight Cancer & Heart Disease By Adding Flax Seeds To Your Diet

The Alkaline Mediterranean Diet- a magic wand for overall health and beauty

So…. head to your local farmer’s market, your garden or the grocery store and stock up on the beautiful rainbow of produce there.  Then eat it; cook with it, slice it up or just wash it then pop it in your mouth.  Your skin will glow and you’ll feel as good as you look.

Photos: Gratitude and Thanks to Yummyporky and Jenny Downing

Fall Foods for Healthy Skin is a post from: Dr. Bailey's Skin Care Blog