I received this email from a reader:

At age 52, I have been using Copper Peptides for almost one year and added Retin A, two months ago…. I don’t believe in store or commercially bought anti-aging products anymore, but find the research and track record of Retin A and the seeming trustworthiness of Dr. Pickart (CP’s) hard to resist. Both claim to “remodel” skin, and I wonder whether I’d be missing out, long term, not to use them. What do you think?

Nowadays many women, like my reader above, are reaching for the latest discoveries such as Copper Peptides and Retin-A, two patented products promising unique, unrivaled benefits. Retin A chemically exfoliates, while copper peptides assist in wound healing and recovery. Both promise to “remodel” your skin, and they do—after a fashion. But once you understand the science behind it, you’ll see there are easier, cheaper, and healthier ways to do the same job. How do I know? Because I’ve been doing it for the last fifteen years with great results.

What is Retin A?

Let’s take a more careful look. As the product’s name suggests, it is a retinoid, a chemical compound derived from Vitamin A, and is only available by prescription. This by itself sends up red flags for me. Read the rest of this entry »

Skin belies aging like no other organ. It takes all the blame, while in fact it only reflects what it covers. The skin is the outermost organ of our body. Its purpose is to cover our deeper structures and first of all, the muscles. Read the rest of this entry »

Your Skin is not Underwear

In his YouTube video, Effects of Facial Exercises on Your Skin, Dr. Schultz states that instead of benefiting your face, facial exercises will make you lose tone and encourage lines and wrinkles.  He cautions that stretching and twisting of the facial muscles will eventually stretch the skin’s elastin to its final limit so that it can no longer snap back, like an old pair of underwear.

Not really a good analogy! There is an unbridgeable difference between the elastin fibers in your face and the elastic band in a pair of old underwear. Your skin, the largest organ of your body is living and constantly regenerating, but an article of clothing can only degenerate.

It’s not Like a Paperclip Either

The doctor asserts that by creasing or folding the skin, you are damaging the collagen, and doing so will simply wear out your skin, like bending and unbending a paper clip until it breaks. However, it is not so much that collagen “breaks down” under the influence of exercise, but that the body produces less collagen with poor diet and the effects of aging. My approach: Boost the body’s capability to produce useful collagen via raw foods. Read the rest of this entry »

You know that old saying. A Watched Pot Never Boils… Facial exercises do work, but I need to warn you not to watch too closely. Many women have, with a zealous and discerning eye, looked so closely at their faces once they began my Rawsome Flex program, that they start to see things that they had never noticed before.

Don’t Look Too Carefully

You started doing facial exercises. Chances are, you’ll want to see exactly what’s happening, day to day. But things won’t happen fast enough, if you’re impatient. When you start to scan every aspect of your features under a magnifying glass they become… well…magnified!

Even worse, over-scrutinizing might actually convince you you’re moving backwards. Why? Because you’ll get too familiar with the terrain. You’ll start to notice a flaw here, a discoloration there, maybe a line you hadn’t seen the day before. Meanwhile, since you’re just a few sessions in, you’re understandably not seeing drastic progress yet. Read the rest of this entry »

Some argue against facial massage, facial exercise and especially against dry-brushing, on the ground that facial skin is extra-sensitive. A better way to state the truth: Facial skin is different. Check it out: Under a microscope, you’ll see the cells making up the top layer of the face are generally smaller than skin cells. Read the rest of this entry »

Nothing gives away your age like your neck. The neck region, or décolleté, often gets neglected. In younger years, its skin tone and musculature are more in-sync with the face, lending a youthful, graceful look. After 40, an almost imperceptible decline leads to fat deposits under the chin, weakened muscles and loose skin. And you can double that trouble if you’ve lost weight rapidly. We’ve all seen, and some of us have had, that turkey wattle. Weight loss, sun damage, diet, and heredity all play major roles in how our necks age. Women do seem to care meticulously for their faces, yet all too often that caring stops at the chin. Read the rest of this entry »

I get feedback from many women around the world who are very excited about my facial exercise program: Rawsome Flex: Beautifying System of Facial Exercises and Raw Foods, available in paperback and as an ebook. One of the challenges that some women are facing—pun intended—is fitting the exercises into their daily routine. When you already have a full schedule, setting aside another 20 to 30 minutes each morning and evening seems overwhelming. Have no fear, help is on the way. Read the rest of this entry »

There are several benefits to taking the time to chew your raw foods thoroughly. One, of course, is ease of digestion. Chewing helps produce saliva, which contains enzymes that are needed to help break down our food. Also, chewing reduces the size and surface area of our food so that the enzymes can do their job of breaking down the foods more efficiently. After all, it has been said that the stomach has no teeth. But proper chewing of an abundance of raw foods benefits more than just digestion. Read the rest of this entry »

Face it!…Your face is your fortune…or your frustration. That face in the mirror—is it all you want it to be? All it could be?
Your face is you…Your face reflects how you feel. Let’s get honest—how are you feeling? Aging?…Tired?…Sad?…Distressed? Read the rest of this entry »

One Lady wrote me: “Hi Tonya, I just read your article about facial exercises. I was wondering if rebounding on a mini-trampoline would be good or bad for facial muscles. I have heard that it has an anti-aging effect, but I also heard that aerobic exercise can cause sagging. What do you think?” Read the rest of this entry »