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Caring for Dry, Cracked Hands

Our hands are used frequently throughout the day, so it’s no surprise that they tend to get worn down easily. Dry, rough or cracked hands are a sign of lack of moisture, and need to be cared for to avoid open, cracked wounds or pain associated with the dryness. We are constantly washing our hands and stripping our skin of its natural oils, so it’s important to take steps to replenish that moisture whenever you can. Here are a few tips to rejuvenating your dry hands:

Exfoliate your hands often. We forget about our hands when we’re focusing so much on our face, but the skin on our hands is actually thinner, and therefore more susceptible to sun exposure and the aging process. Exfoliate your hands once a week to remove dead skin cells.
Moisturize your hands over night by applying vaseline or another heavy, moisturizing ointment to your hands before bed. Wear gloves over your hands to bed to avoid spreading oils around, and by the time you wake up, your hand will have soaked in all the ointment. This should leave your hands feeling soft and hydrated.
Wear gloves if you’re doing outdoor work or are exposed to irritants throughout the day. It’s also good to avoid hot water and other harsh agents that can irritate and dry out the skin, including harsh soaps.
Moisturize, and moisturize again. In addition to moisturizing overnight, moisturize your hands throughout the day and add it in as a step with your daily washing and moisturizing routine. We often neglect our hands, but they need our care as much as the rest of our bodies.

Be sure to invest in quality moisturizers and ointments for cracked hands. Here’s a few ingredients to look for:

Mineral oil
Petroleum jelly
Lactic acid
Glycerin and dimethicone
Hyaluronic acid

All of these help the skin absorb and retain moisture.

If your dry skin is getting out of hand, Zimmet Vein & Dermatology can help you get it under control. Contact us today to schedule an appointment and begin restoring your skin.

Shrinking Pores: Is it Possible?

We all yearn for smaller pores and clearer skin- but is it really possible? For the most part, the size of your pores and the way your skin looks and feel is genetically determined. Physically, you can’t truly make your pores smaller. You can, however, make your pores appear smaller, and keep them clean to improve the look and texture of your skin.

What Are Pores?

Pores are technically openings of hair follicles, each containing a sebaceous gland that produces your skin’s oils. If the sebaceous glands are bigger, as they typically are on the nose and forehead, your pores are larger. Besides genetics, several other factors can affect your pore size:

Dead skin cells and trapped sebum (the oil from the sebaceous gland) get trapped and cause pimples, expanding pore size
UV rays can weaken collagen, which keeps pores tight
Collagen loss with aging can open pores
Trauma to the skin from picking at or squeezing pimples can also enlarge pores

How Can I Minimize the Appearance of Pores?

The key to keeping pores looking smaller and less noticeable is keeping your skin clean and pores clear. There’s many ways to do this:

Avoid heavy makeup containing ingredients like mineral oil- this can irritate pores and make them look bigger
Wash your face before bed with a gentle cleanser to prevent buildup
Cleanse your face before and after working out to rinse off sweat and other buildup from pores
Exfoliate one to three times a week or every day if you have extremely large pores or very oily skin
Dermatologists can prescribe powerful exfoliants or acid peels for those with extremely stubborn pores

If you’re dealing with large pores and can’t seem to find a solution, Zimmet Vein & Dermatology can help restore your skin. Contact us today to make an appointment.

5 Foods That Naturally Burn Fat

In the struggle to lose weight, it’s always good to come across foods that will naturally give us more energy and increase our metabolism. There’s many foods that have an incredibly high thermogenic effect, which means you literally start burning calories as you chew them. Add these to your diet, and you’re sure to start seeing results.

Lean Meat: Protein is a main player of the thermogenic effect- you burn 30% of the calories the food has just during digestion.
Green Tea: Four cups of green tea a day can help you shed up to eight pounds in six weeks due to EGCG, a compound found in green tea that speeds up your metabolism.
Hot Peppers: Capsaicin, the compound found in peppers that makes them so hot, heats up your body and starts melting calories. Add these peppers to your diet raw, cooked or in powers and add them to daily meals.
Whole Grains: When your body breaks down whole grains, you burns about twice as many calories as you would breaking down processed foods.
Salmon: Rich in omega-3 fatty acids, fish like salmon leave you feeling fuller longer and promotes an efficient metabolism. The monounsaturated fats found in salmon can also help increase your metabolic rate.

While you’re on the road to weight loss, don’t forget to add these team players into your diet to naturally burn fat and increase your metabolism.

If you’re struggling to lose those last few inches, Zimmet Vein & Dermatology offers body contouring that can help you reach your goal measurements. Contact us today to schedule an appointment.

Simple, Everyday Tips for Weight Loss

Most of us struggle with the daily battle of losing weight, and while dieting and crazy meal plans always seem like the new trend in battling bulge, in reality, there’s many simple, everyday tricks you can use to start shedding pounds. Losing weight is about more than changing your diet, it’s about changing your lifestyle. With these daily tips, you’ll start to crave sweets less and watch your weight drop:

Focus on water. Drinking orange juice or something similar at breakfast is fine, but for the rest of the day your focus should be on choosing water above juice or soft drinks. It’s also been shown that sugary drinks don’t promote a sense of fullness, but water can. Keep a bottle of water with you all day and be sure to finish it a few times over.
Eat five or six small meals a day. As opposed to three big meals a day, eating five or six small meals helps keep the body’s insulin steady, reducing hunger.
Bring in the color blue. Have you ever noticed that no restaurants or fast food chains embrace the color blue? That’s because it’s widely known as an appetite suppressant. Use blue dinner plates, set the table with a blue tablecloth or just simple wear blue when you eat. Similarly, avoid reds and oranges, as they’re known to increase appetites.
Serve from the stove. Instead of putting dinner into serving dishes and serving at the table, serving directly from the stove can help you eat 10% less. Also, pack snacks in small containers or bags. Eating from large containers increases appetite.
Be active in the morning. Working out in the mornings, whether it’s a jog, dancing around your living room or early morning yoga, helps reduce your motivation for food for the rest of the day.

By taking small steps to adjust your lifestyle, you can be healthy and fit without crash dieting. If you’re struggling with weight loss and need help shedding those last few pounds, Zimmet Vein & Dermatology offer body contouring treatments that may be right for you. Contact us today to schedule an appointment.

Waxing, Threading or Tweezing: What Works Best?

Some of us are born with perfect eyebrows. The rest of us just aren’t so lucky. When it comes to the art of shaping our brows, not all of us can hold a tweezer steady or are comfortable with hot wax. The three main ways of shaping brows include waxing, threading and tweezing- but, what method works best? Depending on your comfort level, your skin and a few other traits, they might all work for different reasons, or maybe your best just plucking them at home.

Waxing: Waxing at home is incredibly dangerous for your skin and health (see our blog post on that, here) but having a professional wax your brows is a great method of having someone else do the dirty work. If you’re uncomfortable putting your brow shape into someone else’s hands, remember that profession estheticians will always ask you what kind of shape you’re looking for and options for brow shapes before coming at your face with hot wax. Some downsides to waxing is that, well, it hurts a little bit. Depending on your pain tolerance, waxing may just feel like a pinch or it could make your eyes water. In any case, the pain should never be excruciating and experienced estheticians won’t have the wax too hot for your face. If you have sensitive skin, waxing may leave you red and blotchy for a while after your waxing. This is nothing to worry about and should go away.
Threading: Threading is a natural option; threading doesn’t involve chemicals and is done with 100% cotton thread. Threading involves using thread to precisely remove a clean line of hair. Hair usually takes longer to grow back and the process involves mild pain, similar to tweezing a few hairs at once. The problem with threading is that while its popularity has grown in the US, many professionals are still inexperienced with it and can mess up- which can cause pain and uneven brows.
Tweezing: Tweezing is a long process, but makes for very specific and detailed shaping. Tweezing is also convenient because, as long as you’re not making drastic shape changes, you could tweeze your brows from home, simply getting rid of unwanted stray hairs. Tweezing has its own threshold of pain, but since you’d probably have control of the tweezers, your pain level is up to you. A downside of tweezing at home is that it’s not guaranteed by a professional. Many professional establishments will tweeze eyebrows, but most wax or thread, or use tweezing on top of either to get smaller hairs. Another downside of tweezing from home is that it’s very easy to pluck- and then you only have yourself to blame for your lack of brows.

Whether your prefer a professional opinion or to do them yourself, your brows need careful care and consideration when being tweezed, waxed or threaded. At Zimmet Vein & Dermatology, we understand the importance of even, clean brows and offer professional shaping services. Contact us today to make an appointment with one of our experienced estheticians.

Stretch Marks: Causes and Treatments

Both men and women are susceptible to obtaining stretch marks from rapid weight gain or loss. Often stretch marks occur with pregnancy and crash dieting. When skin doesn’t bounce back after being stretched, stretch marks occur in the dermis, the elastic middle layer of skin.

When it comes to getting rid of stretch marks, there are a wide variety of treatment options. Over-the-counter creams and lotions exist to soften their appearance, but often surgical procedures give the best results. These procedures include:

Dermabrasion
Chemical Peels
Laser Surgery

Reducing the appearance of stretch marks can also be done with some at-home remedies. Commonly used natural remedies for stretch marks include:

Rubbing aloe vera directly on stretch marks
Drinking plenty of water to maintain skin elasticity
Rubbing lemon juice on stretch marks, allowing it to soak for about 10 minutes and then rinsing.
Massaging olive oil onto the affected area
Applying cocoa butter a couple times a day to stretch marks

The best way to prevent stretch marks is by maintaining a normal weight and taking good care of skin- moisturizing, cleansing and drinking plenty of water. If you’re worried about stretch marks associated with pregnancy, talk to your doctor about prevention options.

If you want to resurface your skin and bring back its youthful elasticity due to stretch marks or other concerns, contact us at Zimmet Vein & Dermatology today to make an appointment.

4 Ways Our Skin Changes as We Age

Aging is inevitable, as much as we all would like to avoid it, and the natural changes that occur in our bodies are also inevitable. The same goes for your skin; it changes greatly as the years go on. There’s plenty of precautionary steps you can take to prevent premature aging and other signs of aging skin, but eventually gravity and the natural processes take over and wrinkles begin to show. There are a few tell-tale signs of aging skin and ways to help your skin stay healthy and youthful as long as possible:

Skin gets drier: Dry skin and excessive itching is common with age. As you age you lose oil glands, which naturally moisturize your skin. It’s important to keep moisturizing your skin with lotions as you age. Always apply a healthy amount of a good quality moisturizer to your entire body after a bath or shower to prevent early dryness. To further prevent this, don’t take too hot of baths or showers. Mildly warm water is best for skin — anything too hot will dry it out quickly, even if you’re moisturizing afterwards.
Skin thins: As you age, skin becomes thinner and blood vessels are more noticeable. Your skin loses some of the fatty layer that lies under the epidermis (your outermost layer of skin) as you age. Thinning skin can cause easy bruising and breakage. It’s important to take appropriate care of thinning skin and use caution — a shallow cut could cause major bleeding. Sun exposure breaks down this fatty layer in skin quicker, so to prevent early thinning use sunscreen and cover up when exposed to the sun.
Sagging occurs: Gravity takes hold after years of aging and drags us down — most noticeably in our skin. Skin will begin to sag and droop. This is also partially due to the thinning of the skin. Decreased amounts of fat, collagen and elastin causes skin to hang instead of being taut. The best way to prevent sagging is to start taking good care of your skin when you’re younger.
Wrinkles begin to form: Everyone’s most feared sign of aging, wrinkles begin to develop around area of the skin that experience frequent movement. Thick and filling moisturizers will help prevent premature wrinkles, and later in life Botox® and filler injections are also an option to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

If you’ve begun to notice signs of aging and want to take measures to restore your skin, Zimmet Vein & Dermatology can help you bring your skin back to its youth. Contact us today to make an appointment.

Health Issues That Affect Your Skin

Besides skin disorders, there’s many other health issues and habits that can affect your skin and how it looks. Daily care of skin is always important, but even with these bad habits and health complications, skin may still take a beating. Your skin is your largest organ and requires a great amount of care- if you experience sudden skin issues or prolonged upsets, see a doctor. Some habits and health concerns that affect your skin include:

Lack of Sleep: Getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night is essential to keeping away dark circles, puffy eyes, and pale skin. How you sleep can affect your skin too. Sleeping in the same position for years almost ensures you’ll get wrinkles.
Stress: Being under stress causes your body to produce cortisol, a hormone that causes blood sugar levels to rise. This causes wrinkles, acne and facial dryness to occur. Stress can also make existing skin conditions, like eczema, worse. Try to relax: setting time aside for yourself every day to just breath and reflect can do your psyche and your skin a world of good.
Pregnancy: Pregnancy causes a lot of changes in a woman’s body, and her skin is no exception. Stretch marks can occur in most women and, though they should fade after delivery, some are stubborn and seem impossible to get rid of. Moisturizers, vitamin A creams and laser therapy all work to reduce the appearance of stretch marks. Acne is also common in pregnant women as their hormones are in excess. To avoid breakouts as much as possible, stick to a regimen of washing your face everyday and using oil-free moisturizer.
Intestinal Issues: When there’s problems with your intestines, skin problems can usually be a tell-tale sign. If you’re suffering from acne, it may be because you consume a lot of dairy and milk products and your intestines aren’t digesting it properly.
Liver Disease: If your liver isn’t breaking down toxins effectively, they can be eliminated from your body in other ways, such as through your skin. As excessive toxins build up deep under the skin, issues like dermatitis, eczema, rashes, premature aging, hives, rosacea, and psoriasis can occur.

If you’re experiencing skin issues and feel it may be related to your health, inform your doctor as soon as possible. At Zimmer Vein & Dermatology, we have the tools to restore your skin back to its natural beauty. Contact us today to make an appointment.

Compression Stockings: Who Can Use Them?

When legs are affected by a vein condition such as edema, phlebitis, or thrombosis, painful side effects can occur. Pressure, swelling, aching, leg heaviness, and fatigue are all common side effects of these vein issues- but there’s a way to prevent and alleviate these symptoms. Compression stockings use pressure to guard against further progression of vein disorders. These stockings are much tighter than traditional tights, starting very tightly at the ankle and slowly becoming looser towards the thighs.

Compression stockings work by putting great amounts of pressure on the legs, constricting blood flow. The blood is forced through narrower circulatory channels, increasing arterial pressure, letting more blood return to the heart and less to gather at the feet. The best candidates for compression stockings are those looking to alleviate or prevent vein problems. Common vein disorders that compression stockings are helpful for include:

Edema: This is when blood pools in the feet due to poor circulation.
Varicose Veins: These veins occur due to vein weakness and can cause inflammatory veins and a great deal of pain.
Deep Vein Thrombosis: This occurs when blood flow decreases, causing blood to pool in the legs and forming a blood clot.
Lymphedema: When a body part swells due to over-accumulation of lymph fluid, lymphedema occurs.
Phlebitis: When infection, trauma or inflammation occurs, veins can clot and become inflamed, Phlebitis occurs.
Pregnancy: Leg veins can be greatly affected during pregnancy- hormones released during pregnancy puts pressure on the Vena Cava, the major vein returning blood flow to the heart.

If you’re affected by any of these issues and are looking to solve your discomfort, Zimmet Vein & Dermatology can help. We have many options of compression stockings and vein treatments to help restore your leg health. Contact us today to get started.

Chemical Peels: What You Should Know

During a chemical peel, a chemical solution is applied to skin, causing it to “blister” and then eventually peel off, leaving the skin underneath typically smoother and less wrinkled. The result afterwards is typical to that of a sunburn: minor redness and irritation, peeling and then scaling that occurs after several days. Medium-depth peels may develop blisters that break, crust, and fall off over a period of two weeks.

Typically, chemical peels are used to:

Reduce fine lines
Treat wrinkles
Improve the appearance of scars
Hide age spots, freckles and dark patches
Enhance the look and feel of skin
Reverse mild sun damage

The outcome of your chemical peel depends on your skin and the extent of your damage. Fair-skinned patients typically have better results from chemical peels. Those with darker skin may have good results, but also run the risk of having permanent discoloration of their skin. Sagging skin, bulges and deep wrinkles don’t usually respond well to chemical peels and may require further cosmetic procedures to treat effectively.

After your chemical peels, someone will need to drive you home. You may experience some pain and discomfort, so it’s important to take proper care of your skin once you’re home:

Cold compresses can help relieve any burning associated with your peel.
Bandages may be needed on parts of your skin that were treated — keep these on to your doctors recommendation and change as needed.
Pain medication may be necessary after your procedure — try over-the-counter painkillers.
The sun should be avoided for several months after the chemical peel, as your new skin will be very fragile and susceptible to UV rays.
Be sure to talk to your doctor about the proper moisturizer and other skin products to use on your new skin.

If you feel like a chemical peel may be right for you, Zimmet Vein & Dermatology offers a variety of peels and refreshers to bring back youthful skin. Contact us today to get started.

Location

Austin, Texas

1500 W. 34th Street
Austin, TX 78703

512.485.7700