- Joined
- Apr 8, 2013
- Messages
- 11
Hi Guys,
I have already posted my first thread in this forum, discussing the potential benefits of a ten-year old medical procedure which holds the promise of stopping and even possibly reversing hair loss. This thread is to share my experience in testing what look to be the most effective methods for skin rejuvenation.
Unlike most of you, I am not a body builder but a person who has discovered that we can intervene on our physical and mental condition radically by bringing into play lifestyle changes, powerful biochemistry and modern medical technology.
To also better situate this thread, I am not young anymore, but somehow cannot manage to wrap my mind around that fact. Actually, I refuse to age and cannot recognize myself at all in any of the effects of aging. It feels like I fell asleep and woke up my father's age, and want to go back to sleep and wake up again thinking it was all a dream.
I fact, I am about as wacky and youthful of mind and heart of anyone you may have met. So it really doesn't suit me to shift into decay mode when I am full of hopes and dreams. To this end I have been engaged for the past year on an anti-aging campaign, which is starting to make me look 15 years younger already.
It all started with large doses of DHEA and a crash diet which made me lose 35 lbs in 3 weeks. Yeah, I know this isn't the sort of diet one should do, but it sort of happened without really trying: I was traveling where the food was lousy and just couldn't work up an appetite. Also, I think I wasn't even hungry as my body was gorging on its fat reserves which rapidly dwindled. It did work well, as I haven't regained any of it in over a year.
Here is where the problems began. My face also lost quite a bit of baby fat. I was a bit broad faced, so this was welcome, except my skin is not young enough to retract, leaving me with fresh wrinkles I had never had before. I used to look younger than my age, and all of a sudden I looked ten years older than my age. This means that today, since this event last year, I have lost around 25 years appearance-wise, going from looking 10 years older to looking 15 years younger.
I'm a guy, and didn't want to resort to cosmetic surgery or a facelift for several reasons. It seemed sissy, and I expected the results to be artificial and unnatural looking. Also it is way expensive plus there is surgical downtime and a lengthy recovery. In any case, I didn't want to consider this, so I didn't.
This left the route to exploring what other methods are out there, and lord there are so many it makes your head swim, then proceeding by elimination and following promising leads. I narrowed these down to several, to finally come to a few which provided valid results.
Given my condition, clearly creams were out of the question, at best providing some tensioning effect or giving glow but this was never a lasting solution as they had to be reapplied daily and they cost quite a lot. I was seeking a lasting if not permanent solution, and this narrowed down the possibilities a great deal.
From online investigation and reading many forums and patient reports, it became clear that one methods provides permanent results, but it is most delicate in its methods so that only the best trained professionals should be entrusted with one's treatment. It is called Fractional C02 Laser. It is a more powerful method than Fraxel Laser which has reduced benefits.
Let's be frank, the thread title says RADICAL skin treatments, and this one is exactly that. I found a top physician with many years of dermatological treatment of hospital patients with every kind of laser, before launching into this. There are a few horror stories floating around about the results of these very powerful devices in the hands of poorly trained clinic technicians.
The way it works is similar to that of a deep chemical peeling. Such methods using acids were developed to treat people with serious skin conditions which o other treatment could help. They were placed in a special burn ward after having aggressive chemicals burn their skin to the 3rd degree. Then they were cared for like burn victims for a period of about 6 months in hospital. The result was the stimulation of entirely new collagen growth, and fresh new skin. But the patients went through hell.
The first CO2 Lasers did pretty much the same thing, only with a light beam instead of a chemical. The results were nearly as destructive and the down time was also very bad. The skin regrowth was also similar, but maybe not quite to the level of that of deep chemical peels. Then enters the Fractioned technology...
Fractioned CO2 Laser is a method of applying deep burns into the skin, but doing so only in regularly separated pinpoints of a thin laser beam. The beam penetrated deep into the skin, at a predesigned distance chosen by the doctor and determined by the intensity and duration of the "zap".
Given their separation, these microbeams only burn through 8 percent of your skin, with each pinhole surrounded by healthy flesh allowing far faster healing and scar formation than with broader burns. This means that your down time is only around 5 days, in my experience.
I have had around 10 such sessions, and must say they are very effective. The tensile effect is immediate, the doctor gave me a mirror and I could see the skin retract as he zapped me, looking like a plastic bag being heated up and shrinking. This retraction is permanent, taking in loose skin for keeps. Also, within days, your sub-derma is stimulated and you start to develop what I can only call "baby skin" which looks extremely fresh and young. For it is just that, the sort of skin which you grow when a young child, but which usually doesn't come back unless seriously injured.
The Advantages
It drastically reduces sagging skin. It can keep away wrinkles by not having enough skin to wrinkle. It can even retract hooded eyelids, although over more time as their thin skin cannot withstand too intense a laser beam. It removes scars and blemishes. If gives you fresh new skin and a very youthful appearance. Downtime is limited.
The Disadvantages
It is quite painful. You must rub Lidocaine cream on your skin in every area to be treated, and even this doesn't help much. The more intense the laser, the better the effect, the more pain you feel. I suggest you take pain pills before a session. Despite that, it hurts a lot, but I ask my doctor to dial the laser to the maximum he has ever set it. In fact he has usually broken his record with me. At worse my legs dance the jig while he ends the session, but then it is done.
It is also smelly. Each laser zap comes with smoke and a whiff of burnt pork smell. It stinks of burnt flesh, which will make more than one patient freak out if they don't expect it. After a while you get used to it, but it isn't pleasant. I have left a session with my entire face, hands and neck done, and the doctor's office was filled with a smoky haze. You get the picture.
The next day you inflate considerably, looking like you are wearing a padded mask from the production of the Broadway musical CATS. In fact you don't look human at all, and could easily win a casting for a movie about Alien visitors. This only lasts for two or three days, but it sure takes getting used to. Your family will freak out if they see you, and I've shown friends photos and they won't believe that it is really me.
On day 4 your face is covered with dark red scabs which rapidly flake off and fall, leaving fresh baby skin. This is the time when you are deflated once the swelling has receded, but your face is covered with crusts. They usually fall off within a day or two. Your skin remains reddish wherever treated, and you must stay out of the direct sun and also keep away from too much indirect sunlight, so that your pigmentation doesn't cause permanent marks.
I hope this feedback on how this works and what it is like to get it done is helpful to at least some members here. I know most body builders are young, but hey guys, if you keep at it you'll all become one day the fittest oldies out there. Some of you must be veterans, with years of muscle under your belt. And with weight loss, who hasn't had some loose skin that's hard to get rid of? Finally, it works great for anyone with scars or sun damaged skin. Sound familiar?
Cheers,
Hunk Chunk
I have already posted my first thread in this forum, discussing the potential benefits of a ten-year old medical procedure which holds the promise of stopping and even possibly reversing hair loss. This thread is to share my experience in testing what look to be the most effective methods for skin rejuvenation.
Unlike most of you, I am not a body builder but a person who has discovered that we can intervene on our physical and mental condition radically by bringing into play lifestyle changes, powerful biochemistry and modern medical technology.
To also better situate this thread, I am not young anymore, but somehow cannot manage to wrap my mind around that fact. Actually, I refuse to age and cannot recognize myself at all in any of the effects of aging. It feels like I fell asleep and woke up my father's age, and want to go back to sleep and wake up again thinking it was all a dream.
I fact, I am about as wacky and youthful of mind and heart of anyone you may have met. So it really doesn't suit me to shift into decay mode when I am full of hopes and dreams. To this end I have been engaged for the past year on an anti-aging campaign, which is starting to make me look 15 years younger already.
It all started with large doses of DHEA and a crash diet which made me lose 35 lbs in 3 weeks. Yeah, I know this isn't the sort of diet one should do, but it sort of happened without really trying: I was traveling where the food was lousy and just couldn't work up an appetite. Also, I think I wasn't even hungry as my body was gorging on its fat reserves which rapidly dwindled. It did work well, as I haven't regained any of it in over a year.
Here is where the problems began. My face also lost quite a bit of baby fat. I was a bit broad faced, so this was welcome, except my skin is not young enough to retract, leaving me with fresh wrinkles I had never had before. I used to look younger than my age, and all of a sudden I looked ten years older than my age. This means that today, since this event last year, I have lost around 25 years appearance-wise, going from looking 10 years older to looking 15 years younger.
I'm a guy, and didn't want to resort to cosmetic surgery or a facelift for several reasons. It seemed sissy, and I expected the results to be artificial and unnatural looking. Also it is way expensive plus there is surgical downtime and a lengthy recovery. In any case, I didn't want to consider this, so I didn't.
This left the route to exploring what other methods are out there, and lord there are so many it makes your head swim, then proceeding by elimination and following promising leads. I narrowed these down to several, to finally come to a few which provided valid results.
Given my condition, clearly creams were out of the question, at best providing some tensioning effect or giving glow but this was never a lasting solution as they had to be reapplied daily and they cost quite a lot. I was seeking a lasting if not permanent solution, and this narrowed down the possibilities a great deal.
From online investigation and reading many forums and patient reports, it became clear that one methods provides permanent results, but it is most delicate in its methods so that only the best trained professionals should be entrusted with one's treatment. It is called Fractional C02 Laser. It is a more powerful method than Fraxel Laser which has reduced benefits.
Let's be frank, the thread title says RADICAL skin treatments, and this one is exactly that. I found a top physician with many years of dermatological treatment of hospital patients with every kind of laser, before launching into this. There are a few horror stories floating around about the results of these very powerful devices in the hands of poorly trained clinic technicians.
The way it works is similar to that of a deep chemical peeling. Such methods using acids were developed to treat people with serious skin conditions which o other treatment could help. They were placed in a special burn ward after having aggressive chemicals burn their skin to the 3rd degree. Then they were cared for like burn victims for a period of about 6 months in hospital. The result was the stimulation of entirely new collagen growth, and fresh new skin. But the patients went through hell.
The first CO2 Lasers did pretty much the same thing, only with a light beam instead of a chemical. The results were nearly as destructive and the down time was also very bad. The skin regrowth was also similar, but maybe not quite to the level of that of deep chemical peels. Then enters the Fractioned technology...
Fractioned CO2 Laser is a method of applying deep burns into the skin, but doing so only in regularly separated pinpoints of a thin laser beam. The beam penetrated deep into the skin, at a predesigned distance chosen by the doctor and determined by the intensity and duration of the "zap".
Given their separation, these microbeams only burn through 8 percent of your skin, with each pinhole surrounded by healthy flesh allowing far faster healing and scar formation than with broader burns. This means that your down time is only around 5 days, in my experience.
I have had around 10 such sessions, and must say they are very effective. The tensile effect is immediate, the doctor gave me a mirror and I could see the skin retract as he zapped me, looking like a plastic bag being heated up and shrinking. This retraction is permanent, taking in loose skin for keeps. Also, within days, your sub-derma is stimulated and you start to develop what I can only call "baby skin" which looks extremely fresh and young. For it is just that, the sort of skin which you grow when a young child, but which usually doesn't come back unless seriously injured.
The Advantages
It drastically reduces sagging skin. It can keep away wrinkles by not having enough skin to wrinkle. It can even retract hooded eyelids, although over more time as their thin skin cannot withstand too intense a laser beam. It removes scars and blemishes. If gives you fresh new skin and a very youthful appearance. Downtime is limited.
The Disadvantages
It is quite painful. You must rub Lidocaine cream on your skin in every area to be treated, and even this doesn't help much. The more intense the laser, the better the effect, the more pain you feel. I suggest you take pain pills before a session. Despite that, it hurts a lot, but I ask my doctor to dial the laser to the maximum he has ever set it. In fact he has usually broken his record with me. At worse my legs dance the jig while he ends the session, but then it is done.
It is also smelly. Each laser zap comes with smoke and a whiff of burnt pork smell. It stinks of burnt flesh, which will make more than one patient freak out if they don't expect it. After a while you get used to it, but it isn't pleasant. I have left a session with my entire face, hands and neck done, and the doctor's office was filled with a smoky haze. You get the picture.
The next day you inflate considerably, looking like you are wearing a padded mask from the production of the Broadway musical CATS. In fact you don't look human at all, and could easily win a casting for a movie about Alien visitors. This only lasts for two or three days, but it sure takes getting used to. Your family will freak out if they see you, and I've shown friends photos and they won't believe that it is really me.
On day 4 your face is covered with dark red scabs which rapidly flake off and fall, leaving fresh baby skin. This is the time when you are deflated once the swelling has receded, but your face is covered with crusts. They usually fall off within a day or two. Your skin remains reddish wherever treated, and you must stay out of the direct sun and also keep away from too much indirect sunlight, so that your pigmentation doesn't cause permanent marks.
I hope this feedback on how this works and what it is like to get it done is helpful to at least some members here. I know most body builders are young, but hey guys, if you keep at it you'll all become one day the fittest oldies out there. Some of you must be veterans, with years of muscle under your belt. And with weight loss, who hasn't had some loose skin that's hard to get rid of? Finally, it works great for anyone with scars or sun damaged skin. Sound familiar?
Cheers,
Hunk Chunk
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