Acupuncture for Skin Care in the News

Cosmetic Acupuncture, Facial Acupuncture, Facial Enhancement Acupuncture, Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture, Acupuncture Facelift, AcuFacial – these are some of the terms being used to describe when an acupuncturist uses needles to benefit the skin – and recently, all these types of acupuncture for skin care are getting a lot of coverage in the news.

Most recently, Good Morning America did a segment on AcuFacial, a new treatment from Shellie Goldstein, a New York area acupuncturist.

Goldstein says,

“We are taking your face to the gym, we’re exercising it.  We have muscles in our body, we have muscles in our face, there is no other procedure that actually exercises the muscles and improves circulation in your skin.”

“The biggest thing has been my skin looks so clear and I rarely wear any makeup on my face, I have a nice glow to my face, my eyes don’t look tired or puffy,” she said. “I’ve noticed a lot of tightening especially in the jawline area, lift around the eyes … people look at me and say something is different but they don’t really know what and it’s all from the AcuFacial.”  – Alyson Halter, AcuFacial patient

So, how is what we do here at In-Symmetry, The Acupuncture Facial, different?

Other types of acupuncture for skin care are performed only by an acupuncturist – who is generally not a licensed esthetician and is not using professional skin care products.

The Acupuncture Facial is different because it is performed by two different practitioners who are experts in their field.

Rachael Webb, LAc, FEA and Elizabeth Markham, LE have developed what may be the most effective anti-aging treatment around.  Together they both focus on enhancing the health of your skin – one from the inside, the other from the outside.  By balancing the body’s systems internally, and using professional skin care products externally, the patient feels beautiful inside and out.

“As within, so without.”

Through this collaboration, each practitioner is allowed to excel in her particular area of focus.  Rachael does the acupuncture.  Elizabeth does the facial.  Together they are producing remarkable results, and patients are loving it.

Read more about the details of the treatment here.

Call In-Symmetry today to schedule your Acupuncture Facial – before we fill up!

 415-875-9020

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The Acupuncture Facial

What is The Acupuncture Facial?

It’s the newest collaborative beauty treatment from Rachael L. Webb, LAc and Elizabeth Markham LE.  Together we work at In-Symmetry Wellness Spa where we help professional women feel beautiful inside & out by integrating ancient and modern skin care.

Our goal is to use the ancient art of acupuncture to harmonize the body’s systems on an internal level, rectifying the psyche and the emotions, so that true beauty – that integral part of who we know we are on the inside – can shine forth from within.

This goal is achieved by our exclusive Acupuncture Facial.

This two-part treatment, includes a 90-minute Acupuncture Session to address imbalances in the body’s systems, along with focused micro-needling of the face to target fine lines, age spots, acne, acne scars, and other skin care concerns.

The acupuncture needles inserted into the face are very, very thin – like a cat’s whisker, or a strand of hair.  They activate and tone the facial muscles under the skin, and help facilitate the flow of blood and nutrients to the areas of focus. This increased blood flow can also stimulate the fibroblasts in the area.  Fibroblasts are one of the cells found in connective tissue that produce collagen and elastin.  Collagen gives your skin strength, and elastin enables the skin to stretch and bounce back to it’s original shape.

Micro-needling uses teeny tiny intra-dermal needles.  These needles are so small that I cannot hold them in my hand, and must use tweezers to insert them!  This type of needling creates precise micro-channels in the upper most layer of the skin, further stimulating the production of collagen and elastin in the specific areas you want to focus on.

After your acupuncture session, you’ll go into Elizabeth’s room for a 1-hour Customized Facial using Phyt’s Organic Skin Care line.

The PHYT’S skin care line has been manufactured in the south of France for over 35 years. From its inception the philosophy behind the line was to create a skin care that was totally natural. A product line that is manufactured with 100% natural origin ingredients.

Since the micro-needleing has opened the micro-channels in the specific areas you want to focus on, these organic skin care products can penetrate the skin deeply and more effectively, yielding better results faster!

You may remember when I talked about the ladies of Rodan + Fields using Chinese Medicine in their modern skin care practice when I wrote about them here.  This is the same technology as their AMP MD Roller that also creates micro-channels in the skin.

The difference is that in our Acupuncture Facial treatment, the needling is focused on the specific areas you want to address, and when Elizabeth selects the appropriate professional skin care products for you, they only target those specific areas – leading to better results faster.

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Chinese Medicine + Modern Skin Care

A good friend of mine just introduced me to Rodan + Fields – the two amazing women behind Proactiv, a product that has helped countless men & women achieve clearer skin, not to mention increased self-confidence!  Now they’ve started a new company (Rodan + Fields) and one of the things that makes them unique is that they are using Chinese Medicine in their modern skin care treatments!  Talk about Integrating Beauty!

Rodan + Fields has started using a special roller as part of their ANTI-AGE AMP MD System.  Here is a video detailing the way their AMP MD Roller works:

The AMP MD Roller is “constructed of surgical-grade stainless steel acupuncture needles to safely and comfortably create precise micro channels in the upper-most layer of the skin.”

In Traditional Chinese Medicine this type of a roller was part of a practice known as “skin needling.”  Today these rollers are often called Derma Rollers.

Derma rollers, designed with a hard spiked surface, are used to vigorously roll across the skin to promote the circulation of qi and blood. They are useful in the treatment of qi and blood stagnation and deficiency including muscle spasms, scar therapy, cosmetic acupuncture, hair loss treatment, stretch mark removal and dermatological conditions. (Courtesy of The Journal of Chinese Medicine)

This is a more traditional looking Chinese derma roller:

 

 

Lead Dermatologists are using Chinese Medicine in modern skin care!!

It IS happening!!

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Fillers: Quick Fix vs. Long Term Results

Via Total Beauty:

“All of us are looking for a quick fix that’ll make us look and feel better,” says board-certified cosmetic surgeon Dr. Fardad Forouzanpour of Beverly Hills Cosmetic Surgical Group. “But quick fixes often come with risks.”

Fillers like Juvederm and Restylane help plump up your lips, get rid of your laugh lines, and fill in your cheekbones. “These are quick fixes,” says Forouzanpour. However, you have to make sure that the doctor you’re going to is respectable and can guarantee the quality of the injections.

Forouzanpour says that when people try to get fillers on the cheap, there’s a good chance of things going wrong. He points to one case where doctors in Florida were injecting animal products from China because they were cheaper, and injected too much — so much that the client ended up in the hospital. He notes another horror story, where a woman who went to Mexico to get Juvederm fillers “got injected with who knows what and she ended up with scars, lumps, and bumps,” he says. “And you can’t correct something like that, because we don’t know what the injection was.”

The better option: Exilis
Forouzanpour recommends a nonsurgical procedure like Exilis, an FDA-approved radio frequency treatment that helps tighten the skin through heat. The collagen in the skin becomes tighter, thereby reducing fine lines and wrinkles. “It’s nothing like surgery,” he says. “While it doesn’t give you the same result, it does give a nice, refreshing look to the skin. And there aren’t side effects.”

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The even better option:  Acupuncture

Facial Acupuncture uses tiny intra-dermal needles to create micro traumas that can facilitate the production of collagen and elastin.  The needles are inserted inside the wrinkle or crease to bring increased nutrients, via the blood and energy, to that specific area.

Collagen is a protein produced by our bodies that is responsible for our skin’s durability and resilience. Elastin is responsible for the elasticity of our skin. Sun exposure and aging degrade and decrease the production of our collagen and elastin. Acupuncture helps to stimulate the body’s natural processes of cell reproduction and growth. Needles are also placed in the muscle motor points to re-educate the muscles back to their original placement, thus the face looks more sculpted, more youthful and lifted.

How long does Facial Acupuncture last?  It’s kind of like a snowball, the more you do it the better it looks – this is particularly true in the beginning.  This is why most Facial Acupuncturists usually require a patient to commit to 10-12 sessions in order to see results.  The side effects of Facial Acupuncture?  Many patients report decreased stress, better sleep, improved digestion, decreased depression and/or anxiety, reduced hot flashes, and increased energy.

For more information email:  integrating beauty@gmail.com

Courtesy Marisa Belger