Ep 195 – Inflammaging

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Sign up for a wholesale account today at truthtreatmentspro.com and receive 10% off your first order. That's truthtreatmentspro.com. Hello and welcome to ASCP's SD Talk. I'm your co-host Maggie Stasek in ASCP's education program manager. And I'm Ella Crespin, licensed as-detician, certified organic simulator, ingredient junkie, and content contributor for associated skin care professionals. Inflamaging or inflammation and aging is the new scientific term you need to know. Have you heard of it? Yep, yep. So this term was coined in 2000 by researcher Claudio Franceschi, but is only now starting to catch on as a scientific term in the aesthetic community. And it's partly due to the amount of stress rendered as a society, and low grade chronic inflammation leads to aging and disease. And I think this was also the inflammation in 2000 with this. This was also like the slow pivot of the industry from certain types of treatments too. This was an interesting perspective. It was a different time where it was like burn it off, turn it over, and then it's like, well, this might be actually ageing. But let's talk about inflammation, inflammation 101, if you will. So it's impossible, of course, in today's world to avoid stress, be it environmental or physical. But when stress is exerted in the body, the body reacts. Have you ever read the book? The body keeps the score. Now, never, I think that's the name of it. Don't quote me on that. But let me give you the gist basically, saying like the body remembers different times in your life. It remember, it has a memory like muscle memory. It knows exactly where to go. And according to research from the Rockefeller University, the skin has a memory and it recalls inflammation kind of the same way. Have you ever given someone a chemical peel and a hot spot arises? Yeah. Because it remembers, oh my gosh, I have a hot spot like up by my eye anytime I get any kind of treatment, even in somatic, my skin goes, I know what this is because I had like a really sub part peel in a class. What's interesting is that's how heat rash works. So if you have had heat rash, one time, you're now more susceptible to heat rash, even if you're not that hot, and will always respond and react the same way moving forward. The body keeps the score. It makes sense. The body learns from these situations and then it adapts to defend itself from future perceived assaults. The skin, of course, is a complex system of immune cells, like lunger hand microfages and dindric cells, and they all work together like, hey, remember this, they all work together to launch a quick response against what they think is an assailant. This is one of my favorite ways to talk about acne, but we'll save that for another part. But anyways, while repairing these tissues, it just comes right back like, hey, this feels like home to me. I know exactly what to do. And everybody exhibits signs of inflammation differently. And obviously, we know what inflammation looks like. Redness, irritation, sensitivities, dryness. This is going to crop up like rosacea, eczema. It could even be allergy. You mentioned acne as an example. And aging comes in the form of obviously damaged skin cells. This is going to be disruption to the barrier. And you could have aging in the form of depleted collagen and elastin, depleted hyaluronic levels and loss of facial fat, which we don't often talk about or think about when we're discussing aging. But of course, that's something that happens when we see the sagging jowls and depletion and buccal fat. Until you have to pay it for two vials or two syringes of filler because you're like, oh my gosh. And they're putting it in weird places now too. Yeah, yeah, it's very interesting. Yeah. One time I was going through such a stressful time like on that note, my face, my like when I'm going through stress, when I'm having inflammation, I swell. I swell at first because that's what my body remembers. So we better like, you know, on the airplane, when they put that thing around their neck and they go pull the cord and it's going to go, yeah, on Tommy Boy, the movie. Yeah. So that it's protected itself like bubble wrap. But then after the water goes down, my skin is a wreck, a wreck, so I have to be very careful. Well, not all inflammation is bad. Acute inflammation has the opposite effect and can be anti-aging. And that's really the basis of all the treatments that we're doing in the treatment room if you think about it. So you often hear the phrase break it down to build it up. So our inflammation or our exfoliation, if you will, this is exercise for the skin. So when we create that acute inflammation in the skin, like our chemical peels, our microdermabrasion, any minor exfoliation, even laser is that acute inflammation so that the skin responds to build backup. Minor damage, this can lead to remodeling of the collagen and last in fibers. And again, all that exfoliation, the chemical peels, meddling laser is examples of this. Okay. So you said remodeling and it reminded me of an analogy. So with remodeling, think of acute inflammation, like knocking out a wall and then sanding or putting up a new one or painting or something like that, where a chronic would be like knocking down a house, then putting up a brick, turning around to getting a brick and then you turn around and that brick's gone again. That's what chronic would be. Like there's no progress for the rebuilding because it's just constantly in a state of, and so if it's constantly in that state, there's no limit to the opportunity for a lot of normal, vascular things, for example, or skin health to travel from basal layer to stratum corneum and such. So it's just, it kind of messes everything up. So acute, good, chronic inflammation, not good. Hold that thought. We'll be right back. DMK is the world leader in paramedical skin revision education. With certification programs designed to give licensed professionals a thorough understanding of the skin and an in-depth study of the DMK concept of remove, rebuild, protect, maintain. Created by the botanical visionary Dene Montague King, DMK offers skin revision training and education for all ages, skin conditions and ethnicities in more than 35 countries harnessing the body's innate healing mechanisms to change the health of the skin. Learn more at deneamking.com. That's d-a-n-n-e-m-k-i-n-g.com. 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So it's important, I guess, thinking of this conversation in a consultation, acknowledging some of those things. I know we've talked about different ways to identify lifestyle, what they're not saying. This is as something to consider and translating not to from consultation to treatment room, taking a little bit more time. So they may present with acne, but in the treatment room, maybe a massage or something else, maybe the best course of action for them because of the trigger. Or if they're presenting with lackluster skin, maybe a chemical peel might not be the best course because their immune function is compromised already due to the chronic inflammation, but hydration or remineralizing or something like that might be a little bit a better, again, course of action. Do you think? Yeah, well said. Absolutely. So how do you know if you or your clients are a victim of inflammation? Oh, victim. How do you know? Well, you burn easily because your rebounding is not as quick. So it's like, go for it because the attention is somewhere else. But it also takes a long time to heal because imagine your body is running on less gas. It doesn't have time to fill the gas tank back up and get prepared, for example. Yeah, I think that's a good indicator. You're not healing after a treatment or even after you wound yourself. I do all the time. And your skin damages easily. So if you were excoriating or you accidentally scratch yourself and then hyperpigmentation, then you could be a victim of inflammation. You are experiencing inflammatory skin conditions like cystic acne, eczema, psoriasis or rosacea. And then of course, loss of volume in the skin and then other aging issues like wrinkles, pigmentation. These seem to have come on suddenly and not making a lot of sense. Also, dryness and infection. The skin is an organ. When you're under stress, this is what I described to my clients. Your body can't differentiate all the time where it's going. The skin is like the largest organ, the most supportive, but also the most neglected. It's going to go your efforts, your currency. Your healing currency is going to go to vital organs because your heart's beating faster. You need to filter out some kind of talks and whatever you're just going on. It's going to go to those firsts with pulling resources away from the skin. Yeah, makes good sense. So to avoid inflammation and I'm sure these are things are hopefully you're telling your clients in consultation and during treatment. Obviously, all the important things and we often avoid them, eat healthy, get sleep, control your stress, load up on those antioxidants both internally and topically. And then number one, use your SPF. And we've talked about that before. I say I apply head to toe. And we've talked to another podcast about self care and all these things are so important. And we've discussed how it can be hard and we come up with excuses for why we're not getting sleep or controlling our stress. But this is ultimately how you are avoiding inflammation in the body and therefore avoiding aging. Find something that brings you joy before bed. Something that makes you laugh or makes you smile so that you're not what let me let me explain. I explained to you for my personal experience. I was going through a spell where I was not getting sleep. I was not and I was grinding my teeth on what the heck is going on here. And I realized I was watching like murder, mystery, solved to go to bed. So I was going to bed like who'd done it first fall. And how could they do such a thing second of all? And I was having dreams throughout the night. So now also I would watch Real Housewives or you know the other real classy stuff. And I had stressed out anxiety before going to bed. So now I watch documentaries to fall asleep and I sleep a lot better. Smart. Yeah. To take supplements like natural geographic or something. Yeah. Whatever it is or something from BBC. Well smart. So think of that too like right before that I'll give you some and then throughout the day find things that give you joy. Now listeners we want to hear from you. How are you helping your clients battle and flamaging? We want to know your tips. Share with us on social media through Instagram, Facebook or by emailing GetConnected at ASCPSkinCare.com. Thank you for listening to ASCP SDTalk and as always for more information on this episode or for ways to connect with Ella and myself or to learn more about ASCP check out the show notes.