Tag: aging

Does Collagen Prevent Age-Related Thinning Hair?

Post author By DTMag Intern
Post date August 12, 2021

Noticing your ponytail thinning, could it be a lack of collagen?

Are you finding one too many loose hairs in the shower?

Many women experience hair thinning as they enter their middle age. Hair loss can be stressful, but it is often treatable. Collagen may be the secret weapon you need in your hair-care arsenal. Continue
reading to learn how collagen helps prevent age-related hair thinning.

What Causes Age-Related Thinning Hair?

As women get closer to their 40s and 50s, hair loss becomes more common. In middle age, hair loss is often caused by genetics and changing hormones. During menopause, your estrogen
levels will drop, which gives rise to testosterone. The drop in estrogen levels causes hair to become thinner and grow more slowly.

What is Collagen?

Collagen is a structural protein. It is the most abundant protein in your body and is a major component of connective tissues that make up your tendons, skin, and muscles. With age,
collagen production slows, which can cause the hair to become dull and brittle. Collagen is widely used as a supplement to promote hair health.

Why Does Collagen Help Thinning Hair?

Collagen has been linked to overall hair health. Collagen Acts as an Antioxidant Antioxidants protect your hair follicles from damage caused by free radicals. Oxidative stress
weakens the hold your scalp has on your hair, which accelerates hair loss. Collagen acts as an antioxidant, helping to fight free radicals and protecting your hair from environmental stress.

Collagen Provides Amino Acids

Your hair is primarily composed of keratin, which is built by amino acids. Collagen provides three amino acids including proline, glycine, and Hydroproxyline. Your body converts collagen
into the necessary amino acids, providing your body with the tools to support healthy hair.

Collagen Encourages Healthy Hair Roots

Collagen increases the elasticity of the middle layer of your skin, the dermis. The structure of the dermis keeps your hair roots in place, helping prevent hair fall. Additionally, collagen is
responsible for replenishing damaged skin cells, which improves the hair-growth cycle.

Conclusion

Hair thinning is a natural part of the aging process. The good news is there are plenty of solutions to combat hair loss. Collagen fights against free radicals and provides amino acids that
are crucial to your hair’s structure. Taking a daily supplement with collagen may prevent age-related hair thinning and boost your overall hair health.

By: Cassidy Kolczun

Tags 40s and 50s, aging, antioxidants, Cassidy Kolczun, changing hormones, collagen, Hair, health, supplements, tissue

Beauty

Top Tips For Taking Better Care Of Your Hands

Post author By Downtown Magazine
Post date June 15, 2020

While many of us were already aware of the importance of regular hand washing to prevent the spread of dirt and germs,

the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic certainly brought it into the spotlight. As a result, we all know how vital it is to wash our hands regularly and have discovered new ways for when and how to do it properly. Still, it doesn’t hurt to know more tips for taking better care of our hands. After all, we use them every day for a variety of purposes, so why not treat them with respect!

Only wash with lukewarm water

Coldwater and soap is still an effective way to wash your hands, but lukewarm water is certainly the best temperature to properly kill germs and remove dirt. Hot water can actually dry out your skin and remove useful natural oils from our skin. In addition, teach kids about using the right temperature in order to prevent them from scalding their hands with hot water. Some modern faucets have temperature limiters and also contactless operation, so maybe now is a good time to update your kitchen and bathroom fittings.

Use only premium soap

Many experts said that antibacterial soap isn’t necessarily better at removing germs than any other type of soap. Therefore, go with a quality brand that moisturizing properties in their soap in order to prevent skin from drying. Certainly, the use of hand lotion can decrease dryness, but using moisturizing soap from the beginning is a better move for your hands. Consider handmade options from local manufacturers that aren’t full of so many binding ingredients that dry out the skin. Also, remember to wash your hands for around 15 seconds, taking care to reach the wrists, backs of the hands, in between the fingers and even underneath the fingernails. Hand sanitizer is okay when you’re outside and on the move, but don’t overdo it as frequent use can strip away good bacteria and even make you more likely to get sick.

Protect your hands as much as possible

It’s not only the use of hand lotion that helps protect our hands when we’re living our lives, but also gloves! Especially during the coronavirus pandemic, it’s vital to use gloves when riding public transport or touching door handles for restaurants, hotels, shops, etc. As well, when cleaning the house or washing the dishes, use gloves that will protect your hands from all the chemicals and hot water you’re likely to be in contact with when doing these tasks. If there are several people living in your home, it’s not a bad idea to give each person their own hand towel in the bathroom, as this helps to prevent germs from spreading to each other.

General tips for healthier, better hands

Consume foods and drinks with plenty of antioxidants, such as berries, green vegetables, green tea, and even dark chocolate.

Perform exercises that involve stretching your wrists and each individual finger. Ball your hands into fists, then relax, and repeat this several times. Also, grab a stress ball and work with over the course of the day.

Drink plenty of water to help flush out toxins from your skin.

Don’t forget to put sunblock on the backs of your hands to lessen wrinkles caused by UV rays.

Remember your nails! A manicure is a great way to freshen up your nails and keep them in good shape. Refrain from biting them (very unhygienic) and always cut them in a way that follows the curvature of the fingers. You’d be surprised how good your hands will feel when you treat them the right way.

Tags aging, antioxidants, care, dark chocolate, dial, fingers, foods, green tea, hands, manicure, nails, Soap, sun damage, wash

Beauty Featured

Healthy, Vibrant Skin Tips for Summer

Post author By Luigi Rosabianca
Post date May 26, 2020

As we enter into the summer months, it’s only natural to start spending more time outdoors, in the sun, and enjoying all that fresh air. And while people make the assumption that it is the winter months that are the hardest on your skin, in reality, all that sunshine, warmth, and humidity can be just as harsh on your skin – especially the delicate skin on your face. So, how do you make sure that you keep your skin looking healthy and vibrant all summer long?

Here we’ll take a look at some summer skin tips that you can use to create your own skincare routine. You’ll get almost immediate results and you’ll find that lovely healthy glow will stick with you all season.

Sunscreen Is an Absolute Must

One of the best ways to prevent damage, dark spots, dryness, and the early signs of aging is to ensure you’re wearing sunscreen each and every day. Sunscreen is a vital step in ensuring your skin stays healthy. And don’t forget, sunscreen isn’t just a summer thing; rather it is necessary year-round.

As for what level of SPF protection you need for your face, the American Academy of Dermatology recommends SPF 30 or higher. If you happen to have very fair skin and/or burn easily when in the sun, then you’ll definitely want to get something higher than SPF 30. Because people tend to sweat a lot in the summer, and swim, it’s also a good idea that your summer sunscreen is waterproof.

Keep in mind there are a few tips for applying sunscreen. First you want to be sure you are applying a liberal amount, and that you reapply every two hours while out in the sun. If you happen to be sweating a lot or you go swimming, sunscreen needs to be reapplied after you dry off.

Use a Lightweight Moisturizer

Another tip is to use a lightweight moisturizer on your face. This is especially true if you have oily or combination skin as you are probably producing extra levels of “greasiness” thanks to sweating in the hot sun. Gel and water-based moisturizers are an excellent option as they sink into the skin right away and don’t leave a heavy or greasy residue, yet they offer optimum levels of moisture.

Be sure to look for one with hyaluronic acid as it works to draw moisture to your skin and lock it in. It also gives an instant plumping look to any fine lines you may have and leaves your skin looking healthy and glowing.

Embrace What a Hydrating Serum Can Do for Your Skin

A hydrating serum is another fabulous product to have in your arsenal as this works deeper than your moisturizer and can perform a different task. Serums can help to offer deep and lasting hydration, calm the skin, help to reduce the early signs of aging, calm any redness and aging, reduce skin irritation, and more.

Exfoliate Your Skin

The final tip is to make sure that you exfoliate your skin on a regular basis so that you can reveal that fresh, glowing, and healthy skin. Ideally it should be a gentle exfoliation, as you don’t want to be using anything too harsh or potentially damaging to your skin. There are both physical and chemical exfoliating treatments you can use at home, so make sure you’re using just one at a time, not both.

Your Road to Healthy and Glowing Skin

By following these simple tips and including them in your daily skincare routine, you’ll find that you are able to reveal that most beautiful, healthy, and glowing looking skin this summer.

Tags aging, American Academy of Dermatology, beautiful skin, beauty, chemical exfoliating, dark spots, health glow skin, Hyaluronic Acid, lightweight moisturizer, skin protection, SPF protection, summer skin tips

Lifestyle NYC

How Much Sleep Does Your Teenager Need?

Post author By Luigi Rosabianca
Post date April 3, 2020

When it comes to the science of sleep, there is plenty of contrasting information that can easily confuse. For a long time, people have been conditioned to believe that people need around 8-10 hours of sleep every night. Some people also believe this to be a myth.

Parents are already on edge about dealing with the hormonal changes their teenagers are going through but they also have to make sure that their children are getting enough shuteye for a healthy body and brain.

Sleep is a human right. In fact, three female inmates won a lawsuit against the County Sheriff’s Office in Alameda over sleep deprivation.

The sleeping patterns of teens are different than those of children. Changes begin at around 13 years old. Aside from hormonal changes, several factors can cause sleeping problems. For instance, bad habits are already formed before this age, when they are around ten years old. It is tough to wean them away from these bad habits when they get used to the rhythm.

Other factors include

The pressure and stress at school
Homework or the busy schedule
Stress
Social life
Digital devices

However, you should never resort to giving sleeping pills to children. Even the FDA sounded off a warning about the dangers of being dependent on insomnia medication. With that said, if your child was injured as a result of overprescribed sleeping pills, contact a medical malpractice firm like seattlemalpracticelawyers.com

How Many Hours Should Your Teens Be Sleeping?

According to the Sleep Foundation, teens are not sleeping enough, particularly on school nights. A study revealed that less than 2 in 10 teenagers are getting 8 ½ hours of sleep on weekdays.

The “circadian rhythm,” or the internal body clock, rapidly changes during puberty. For instance, your child may have been tired by 8 PM before puberty, as we age drowsy time can be much later towards 10-11 PM

Most experts agree that your teenager needs about 9 to 9 ½ hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. The primary reason for this is cognitive maturation, which is the second development stage. Sufficient sleep will help them with brain progress and optimum physical health.

However, do not worry if your adolescent can’t seem to sleep before 11 PM, it’s normal for the biological pattern to shift during the teen years.

For example, melatonin or the “darkness hormone,” a substance that helps people fall asleep, is produced by the adult body at 8 PM, your teenager will not have increased activity of melatonin until around 1 PM

Unless the problem can be linked to sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, or insomnia, it should not be too much of a challenge for them to tire without resorting to medication. You can invest in a hybrid mattress to promote drowsiness. Several natural sleeping aids will also help them get to dreamland faster.

Why You Should Not Ignore Your Teen’s Sleeping Patterns

Sufficient sleep is crucial to release the necessary hormones for the growth spurt of your kids.

Most people are not aware that the body’s vital organs will also rest while you are sleeping. If you are off to dreamland, your heart rate will fall, as well as your blood pressure. It is also a time when your kidneys and liver will try to recuperate.

You need to undo their bad habits and introduce new patterns before turning in for bed on a school night. During weekends, you should also make sure to wake them up within two hours of their regular weekday schedule. It will help them get up on time on Monday morning.

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Tags aging, sleep, teenager, teens

Doctors Featured News Nutrition NYC Wellness

CM Chin Calls For Emergency Assistance To Frontline Senior Center Workers

Post author By Alice Teeple
Post date March 18, 2020

In charge of feeding and protecting the most at-risk population to COVID-19, providers ask for emergency resources and guidance from the City

Today, Council Member Chin sent a letter to the Department for the Aging to elevate a number of requests and concerns from senior providers at the frontlines of the effort to combat the spread of COVID-19.

As New York City grapples with this global health crisis, senior service providers have been taking on a herculean challenge to deliver essential services while protecting the most vulnerable groups impacted by the virus: our City’s seniors, particularly those who are immuno-compromised or have underlying health conditions.

However, without clear guidance from the City, community groups have been forced to make tough calls on their own to shift their work plans to address evolving needs and meet unprecedentedly high demand.

In the face of much uncertainty, Council Member Chin is joining providers to urge for clear assurance from the City that providers will not be penalized if they are unable to meet contract deliverables, a plan to distribute additional resources such as face masks, and a commitment to reimburse providers, many of whom have been dipping into their already strapped budgets to pay for to-go boxes, gloves, hand sanitizers and thermometers.

In the letter, Council Member Chin said, “Our community based organizations have been stepping up in bold new ways to continue their services with the least disruption. They should be rewarded, but many are adjusting their staffing and protocols to meet unprecedented demands while existential fears about their organization’s survival loom over their heads. Our City should be doing all it can to lift the barriers hamstringing these organizations from doing the work being asked of them.”

While DFTA has announced a two-week delay of the Home-Delivered Meals RFP, Council Member Chin is asking for a full pause on the RFP and any other pending procurements.

Attached is Council Member Chin’s letter to the Department for the Aging.

Dear Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez:
As New York City grapples with the global health crisis before us, senior service providers have been rising to the occasion and exceeding expectations to deliver essential services while protecting the most vulnerable groups affected by COVID-19 – older New Yorkers, particularly those who are immuno-compromised or have existing health conditions – from infection. As Chair of the Committee on Aging, I am calling on the Department for the Aging to immediately administer additional funding and resources to the senior service
system, waive all penalties related to utilization rates and other contract deliverables, reimburse providers for emergency expenses, and delay the Home Delivered Meals RFP.
Our community-based organizations have been stepping up in bold new ways to continue their services with the least disruption. They should be rewarded, but many are adjusting their staffing and protocols to meet unprecedented demands while existential fears about their organization’s survival loom over their heads. Our City should be doing all it can to lift the barriers hamstringing these organizations from doing the work being asked of them. At minimum, providers need clear, written assurance that DFTA will not penalize them if they
are unable to meet contract deliverables, and these guidelines should continue through the end of this Fiscal Year on June 30, 2020, as well as assurance that they will continue to receive full reimbursements for existing contracts, even as the nature of these programs shift or come to a halt entirely. We must have their backs.

A crisis of this magnitude allows zero room for ambiguity. Without clear guidance, providers are left to their own devices and forced to make tough calls overnight to adjust their work plans as needs evolve. A lack of clarity and support puts the safety of seniors, staff and volunteers at risk. There has been little guidance from the City on protocols such as wearing face masks, and how staffing will be made whole if staffers are sent home to
quarantine. Further, there has been limited direct guidance from DFTA, with the agency sharing procedures from the federal CDC and state health department though failing to provide additional instruction specific to the programs it knows best. And with many groups further dipping into their already strapped budgets to pay for to-
go boxes, gloves, hand sanitizers and thermometers, they need a commitment that they will be reimbursed for these expenses, and for DFTA to expeditiously share more of these resources directly with providers, especially to supportive senior housing.

Over the past week, providers have taken on a herculean amount of work, and time and time again, they have risen to the challenge. The crisis we are confronting has made the fight for adequate home delivered meals funding all the more salient. While I thank DFTA for moving the RFP, a two week delay is not enough. I am
asking for a pause on this and any other pending procurements. I also request that emergency funding be made available to ensure that providers are reimbursed the full cost of home-delivered meal services. At this state of emergency, we cannot continue to risk insolvency for the providers of this, or any, critical service.

DISTRICT OFFICE:
101 LAFAYETTE ST., SUITE 903
NEW YORK, NY 10013
212-587-3159
FAX: (212) 587-3158
CITY HALL OFFICE:
250 BROADWAY, SUITE 1762
NEW YORK, NY 10007
(212) 788-7259

It is resoundingly clear that New York City’s seniors and senior service providers deserve the utmost attentionand support. Now more than ever, your partnership is critical to providing clarity and direction throughout this period of instability. If you have any questions or want to discuss further, please reach out to Marian Guerra, my
Deputy Chief of Staff, at mguerra@council.nyc.gov.

Margaret S. Chin
Council Member, District 1

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Tags aging, coronavirus, Council Member Chin, Department For The Aging

Beauty Doctors Featured NYC

AGING BEAUTIFULLY

Post author By Downtown Magazine
Post date January 19, 2020

Dr. Marina Peredo shares tips on skin treatments from age 20 to 60 and beyond.

EN VOGUE|TIMELESS BEAUTY MARINA PEREDO is a board-certified dermatologist with over 25 years of experience and has been labeled a “super-doctor” by the New York Times, as well as a Top Doctor by Castle Connolly. She believes that dermatologists can have a direct impact on a person’s confidence, and she brings her concept of aesthetic artistry to a whole new level at her modern practice, Skinfluence, in Manhattan.

Downtown: Can you explain the aging process of the face?

Marina Peredo: The contour of the face changes and causes shadow patterns to develop. Your triangle of youth begins to invert as your features begin to drop. Dependent on your genetics and lifestyle, people will age very differently, and these changes can go from drastic to nonexistent.

DT: What are your thoughts on aging beautifully?

MP: I believe that anyone can age beautifully when proper care is taken. In my opinion, facial beauty is derived from seven criteria: facial shape, forehead height, eyebrow shape, eye size and inter-eye distance, nose shape, length and height of lips, and skin clarity, texture, and color. These features require constant maintenance to be properly maintained.

DT: When you say maintenance, what does this entail?

MP: Maintenance can be anything from applying sunscreen before leaving the house to getting laser treatments, which can help prevent skin cancer in the future. If you’re investing in skin treatments and not applying sunscreen, you’re not truly helping your skin.

DT: How would you suggest women and men in their 20’s take care of their skin and help enhance the youthfulness of their skin?

MP: During your 20’s and even your early

30’s, one of your skin-care concerns may be breakouts. But, keeping your skin hydrated and protecting your skin from the sun will prevent your skin from aging quickly. Protection from sun damage is the ultimate preventative anti-aging technique and is incredibly easy to work into your daily routine.

DT: When we reach our 40’s and 50’s, what do you suggest?

MP: Combination therapy is key to whole-body rejuvenation. Most often, fillers, volumizers, and toxins are combined with radiofrequency, lasers, or ultrasound to improve skin laxity and age-related volume loss.

DT: We hear that facelifts are not as required as they were 10 years ago. In your 60 and 70’s, do you recommend a full facelift?

MP: In your 60’s and 70’s patients may benefit from a facelift. How you’ve maintained your skin in your younger years will determine whether you need to invest in a full or mini facelift. At any age, proper skin-care can and will be costly, so make sure you are going to a board-certified dermatologist or plastic surgeon before you consider getting a procedure done.

DT: Give us one tip that many people do not know to help us age gracefully?

MP: Sunblock, sunblock, sunblock. Also, invest in a good skincare at a young age.

DT: What do you love about your job?
MP: Making women feel great about how they look, which is an amazing confidence builder!

Dr. Marina I. Peredo, M.D., F.A.A.D, is a board-certified dermatologist with 20+ years of experience. She is currently an Associate Clinical Professor of Dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Dr. Peredo strives to bring out the beauty that is already present, by employing a less is more philosophy, and stressing the importance of consistent skincare.

Skinfluence New York
Dr. Marina Peredo
212-754 -6363