NEW ORLEANS - Doctors say it is the number one anti-aging skin cream. Yet many people wrongly believe the side effects make it impossible for them to use.
But this cream has been the doctor's favorite for many years.
Forty- year-old Denise Scioneaux says the cream worked for her.
"My skin has changed tremendously. Now, I can actually see my complexion coming through," Scioneaux says with a smile.
Forty-nine year old Cindy Touchstone says it changed her look.
"When they hear how old I am, they are like, 'no way,' I'm like 'yeah,' " explains Touchstone.
And even 29-year-old Amy Normand says she looks younger now than she did when she started using it at 23.
"The texture of my skin is really smooth, pigmentation seems like it is a lot better. I just feel like I look a lot more youthful than I am," said Normand.
These dermatology patients are using a retinoid. A prescription cream or gel that is a vitamin-A derivative, that comes in many different strengths with many different brand and generic names.
"Topical retinoids are the most important drug of the 20th century and the 21st century and for ever more. They are very anti-cancer. They are anti-aging and they were invented for acne. They are a miracle for acne," explains Metairie Dermatologist Dr. Nia Terezakis, a clinical professor of dermatology at both Tulane and LSU Health Sciences Center.
The far reaching effects of retinoids almost seem too good to be true, but they are proven by time and science
-They clear acne , pimples and blackheads
-Shrink pores and rids them of debris
-Make skin smoother
-Get rid of fine lines and wrinkles and improve deep wrinkles
-They prevent pre-cancers and maybe even skin cancers
-It builds and repairs collagen in the skin, making it thicker
-Strengthens and protects blood vessels under the skin so you're less likely to bruise as you age
-Reduces sun spots, melasma, old acne scars
-Activates repair systems in skin
-Evens out pigment and texture
-Repairs and prevents sun damage
-Helps rosacea
-Makes you have younger DNA
So why is the number one anti-aging medicine, originally approved nearly 40 years ago for acne, with more than 2000 independent, scientific studies demonstrating its safety and effectiveness, shunned by many patients?
"They are the most misunderstood drug; people are afraid of them," said Dr. Terezakis.
She has been mixing her own retinoids and using them daily since the 1970's and she says patients should not be turned off by the peeling, flakiness, or irritation they get at first.
"The retinoids do make you flake and you perceive that as dry, but what that's doing is getting rid of your old cells your new cells are plump and juicer and pink," explains Dr. Terezakis. That's why people who are using retinols have such a glow on their skin. Even if they are peeling you have a glow because you have repaired your DNA."
In fact doctors say your skin keeps getting better over time, so much so, that people should start using it as teens for pimples and not stop. Dr. Terezakis has before and after pictures of men and women from childhood to their elderly years showing how retinoids help wrinkles, melasma, spots and freckles from the sun, skin diseases. Wrinkles and sagging are mostly are caused by the sun and this medicine helps tighten the skin.
Even in studies on the wrinkled, hairless rhino mouse show that his skin looks smoother from retinoids.
Doctors say they can work with you to build up tolerance to get you used to the creams.
"If you start slowly, two or three times a week, and increase it slowly, that irritation will go away. It's usually for the first three to four weeks and then it's gone," says Metairie Dermatologist Dr. Patricia Farris.
"We have patients who have only been able to use the mildest form of it once a week or twice a week who eventually are able to use the strongest form every night," said Metairie Dermatologic Surgeon Dr. William Coleman.
While many doctors say only put it on clean skin at night without diluting it with other moisturizers, others say until your skin gets used to it, it's okay to use other products.
"So we tell our patients to put a light weight moisturizer. We're using certain oils these new Argan oils that are coming out, these omega-3, omega-6 oils. We're having patients put these oils on in conjunction with the retinoids we're not finding any decrease in efficacy but a tremendous improvement in the compliance because patients get less irritated," explains New Orleans Dermatologist Dr. Mary Lupo.
She likes using a vitamin-C serum in the morning with your sunscreen and using your prescription retinoid at night, waiting 30 minutes then putting on your peptides, like the ones in Oil of Olay Pro-X Wrinkle Smoothing Cream.
Doctors say a light scrub can remove the initial flakes and they say only use a small amount of your prescription retinoid, but spread it everywhere, the face, neck, eyelids, lips, chest , hands and arms, everything exposed to the sun.
"The key to using Retin-A is to use little bits. Even though initially the tube is expensive, you can make it last six or eight months," said Dr. Coleman.
What's key is let your dermatologist customize the right brand and strength for you. Maybe you need to start with an over-the-counter product with the much weaker retinol in it at first. But is you get irritated, don't get discouraged and quit. If you quit, then start using it again, you'll have to build up tolerance all over again.
"There is probably no one product that over time will prevent aging than the retinoids will," said Dr. Lupo.
Insurance will pay for retinoids if they are used for a medical condition like acne, but not for sun damage and wrinkles.
(Editor's note: Dr. Patricia Farris is not related to Medical Reporter Meg Farris)
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