How to Reverse Age Holistically
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free skin care · Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:36 pm

As I was talking with SeanySeanUK about the importance of approaching age reversal in a holistic way and what tools we can use for that, I thought it was worth to start a new thread about this.

I hope it is ok to post in this category section of the forum.. It is about 'DIY tools' such as using affirmations (and afformations during facial exercises, using energy selfhelp tools such as EFT, TAPAS accupressure etc) anyway, but a lot has to do with the philosophy behind these tools, so as an introduction to the holistic approach of skin rejuvenation, I want to post an interview with a renowned holistic minded dermatologist that I translated from Dutch with the help of google translator.

I've always been intrigued by his philosophy on skin rejuvenation from the moment I read this interview,
so here it is for you:

INTERVIEW ABOUT ANTI_AGING WITH HOLISTIC-MINDED DERMATOLOGIST KARAVANI:

"You come just in time," says Dr. Ilan Karavani, "I'm just about to bury my fish."

Doctor Karavani is an internationally renowned dermatologist. If there is a television announcer who is notable still looking young and smooth, then the chances are big that (s)he's already payed a visit in Karavani's twenty-something constituent clinic. In an article about the fight against skin aging, we *had* to interview him.

But it promises to be an unusual conversation. "This fish," he says, as we stand in his garden and he shows me the just deceased one he fished from his pond , "has overeaten itself." The fish skin looks indeed as if it's cracked. "A good illustration," he says, " of what I am about to tell you. A dead fish is not as beautiful as a living fish. Beauty and health go hand in hand."

While I am trying to overcome my first surprise, he squeezes a glass of carrot juice - his breakfast- and then he grabs the magazine of Touring Secours, browses to the appropriate page and highlights the head of a piece: "Healthy food, a lot of exercise, a positive outlook and live longer." "That is a correct conclusion," he says, "but how does it exactly work? That is never stated anywhere. "He takes sheets of paper, three colored pencils, drawing diagrams and starts to tell us his viewpoint on aging.

ILAN KARAVANI: "Look, the condition of a skin cell is not separate from the condition of the cells in the rest of your body - roughly a liver cell or a lungcel. The only difference is that the skin is on the outside and we we measure our beauty and aging from that. If our liver was on the outside, a whole lot of people also would want plastic surgery on their liver, you know ? General health and beauty go hand in hand, and it starts with the health of your cells. And that depends not only from what you eat but also how you live, who your friends are and what you keep yourself busy with."

HUMO (interviewer): Euh?

KARAVANI: "You certainly did not expect this, huh? You wanted a story about creams and surgery, but those serve only for restoration works and what you achieve with that is never really that good, because it is not consistent with who you are. You can see it often, don't you think? A face that makes you think: she looks young, but something is not quite right. "

HUMO: Doesn't making such faces defines your job?

KARAVANI: "That is the picture that you have. I view skin rejuvenation holistically. Everything is connected to everything. A cell can not live without blood. Blood carries oxygen, food and information - information from the nervous system in the form of hormones amongst other things. Seventy times per minute that is being delivered to a cell. If the cell received unhealthy nutrition, lack of oxygen and incorrect information then it shrivels and dies off. Is the nutrition healthy, the information positive and if the blood pumps the cell full of oxygen, then it looks pretty, it is alive and it can divide and multiply itself.

"For the oxygen supply, the lung and heart and vascular system has to run well. You need to exercise alot, they say in Touring Secours, but that's not the point. Yogi masters don't go jogging. It is important to breathe properly, and they control their breathing perfectly. They can control their cells to that extent that they can increase the temperature in their lefthand with five degrees while the temperature in their righthand lowers five degrees. " And our hearts, we just need to take good care of. Love makes your heart beat. If you're in love tomorrow, your skin will look better in no time. That's why good relationships with your environment is very important. In Monaco there is a big heart hospital. You know why? Because dominating others is not good for your heart, and it are mostly managers who are affected by heart attacks.

"Eating healthy, what is that? Minimizing waste build! So choose food that is as close as possible to the natural ingredients you need. Very simple. And: eat little, and select food of good quality. The body in fact needs very little food. All waste and everything we eat too much, the cells have to drain, and with this we overload and age them. What they can't dispose, the body has to save and with that we poison our system. We would stay longer young and become much older if we were eating much less. Did you know that a person eats an average of one hundred tons in a human life? That is way too much.

"We stock out of fear: the fear that Mother Nature wouldn't provide enough for us. A basic trust in life and the universe and having the confidence that we will not be wronged, it is elementary. It has repercussions to the last cell. "Then there is the information from our nervous system, our thinking. Everyone talks about the positive outlook, even Touring Secours. Just a matter of having a good laugh and saying "Be happy!", they say. But that is not so. It's about knowing what your position in this world is, knowing what you can mean to this world and bring it here, and how you can pass that on until the last cell to yourself.

If you are not doing all of the above, then yes, you will age quickly - take for instance : people who eat few fruits and consume pasta's, alcohol and other fermenting substances, are often affected by drooping eyelids. Then you have to correct and match: pills for the heart and blood vessels, omega 3's, antioxidants, creams ... All quick fixes that you do not need if you take good care of your cells. Moreover, it is a drop in the ocean compared to what good food and good living does. Nothing works as powerful as a healthy blood flow that reaches your cell at seventy times per minute. "You still look strange, but I tell you, within a few decades this holistic approach to my profession will be commonplace."

HUMO: It is all very spiritual what you say and most spiritual people are averse to face lifts and botox injections. You combine two worlds that are often very conflicting.

KARAVANI: "It is very simple. I tell you how to maintain your house - that is the holistic approach. If you do not properly maintain your home and it creates a leak somewhere, you can call on me as a plumber and then I'll restore your plumbing leak. A plumber- if he sees your rotten pipes, will say: "Madam, you must take better care of your home." If you say: "Leave me alone. I'm busy, I have no time for that house, "then the plumber goes home and next time he'll fix the leak again, no?"

HUMO: So you are a 'priest-plumber' ?

KARAVANI: "Why not? If a lifting is successful, it may well be that because of that, you dare to make contact with your fellow man. Maybe it helps you to win the love of first one and then several people, so you step out of your isolation, slowly open your heart, your breathing deepens and your heart rate improves. The profession of priests and plumber go hand in hand. "

HUMO: What creams do you recommend for patients who come for anti-aging advice?

KARAVANI: "With cosmetics and wrinkle creams, you can only correct wrinkels up to a millimeter deep. If you want effect on deep wrinkles of several millimeters deep, then you have to graduate to medicines: injections, fillers and lifting. "

HUMO: You have renewed the skin biometrics with your insight: you have developped a computer program that can measure in detail how the skin ages, what treatment is appropriate and what the best cream is you can use.

KARAVANI: "Yes. Such measurement is essential. If you want to play tennis, you can not wear high heels either. With creams it's the same. I get people here who are outraged that their expensive cream doesn't make their skin more beautiful. But if you have oily skin and you smear a rich cream on it , then you get acne and you create a problem on top of it, no matter how expensive the cream is. The biggest gain you get from a cream is one that is perfectly adapted to your skin and your problem. You must first know under which category your skin falls. And that is not as classified by the perfume industry as: either dry, or fat, or a combination or sensitive. That is far too imprecise. I have more than a thousand different skin types in my computer. The computer measuring wrinkles, pores, skin structure, moisture content, evaporation rate, pigment, rosacea, temperature, the functioning of the skin barrier ... "

HUMO: Are you the only one in Belgium with such a computer?

KARAVANI: "There are a sixty-some allover the world. But the future for me is that in each perfume/ cosmetics shop such a computer will be available, so that everyone can measure their own skin, and this way know which creams will work efficiently. Then no one ever has to rely on advertising, and try out five pots of cream before finding the right one. If it is good then the entire cosmetics industry will change . Anyway, I'm first of all busy with improving the software. "

HUMO: People often think the more expensive the cream, the better. Is that correct?

KARAVANI: "The main difference between cheap and expensive creams is comfort. And the ingredients are often a little purer. It's just a matter of luxury. But if you just want results and nothing more, you're also served with a basic cream. "

HUMO: And which basic creams are they then?

KARAVANI: "If you want to counter aging, there are a few things important.
A: remove the dead cell layers by a scrub or - in extremis - a fruit acid peeling. Then soothe the skin, for example extracts from chestnuts. Then relax the skin with Myokine, for example. And finally, preventing the aging of the skin with substances that have proven to improve the functioning of the cells. These are tretinoin - only available with prescription- and its derivatives for the industry: retinol and retinaldehyde. The antioxidants, including vitamin C and E are known, have proven to have effect. And the latest antioxidants - the soy extracts, green tea, and a whole range of other substances - also seem to work. And then there are also ingredients that stop pigment spots caused by aging. "

HUMO: What do you do?

KARAVANI: "I scrub every day and I use vitamin C. I pay special attention to my lifestyle. The 'one bullet-idea' of the past -that with one therapy per problem, you can solve everything - no longer exists. It is a comprehensive approach. I've adapted my practice to the holistic approach. "

HUMO:I still find it strange that you are so spiritual, and yet have one of the largest anti-aging clinics in Belgium.

KARAVANI: "Look, I am of Jewish descent, the grandson of a famous rabbi. I was preordained to become a rabbi himself. Untill my sixteenth I was trained for that. I eventually opted for science, but for me it is a very logical thing to unite the two.
"Now, I've lately been reorienting and focused myself more on what I think I should do in this life. I get rid more and more from what does not belong to me. We have for instance significantly reduced the invasive procedures in our practice. We have developped other techniques.

Most faces actually have no excess in skin, but a shortage in fat, they are say, run down. We now often fill faces with their own fat. I also still do some big surgery, but with each treatment belongs a leaflet that says the bigger picture is that I assume that it really hasn't got much point in lifting or filling if you do not also decide to change internally. I want to offer a comprehensive program, a long-term approach that really works anti-aging. We can really rejuvenate, we can turn the clock back as long as you watch your diet, your breathing and correct thinking and dealings with people."

"Did you know we are almost of the same age? You didn't think so, huh."

As we say goodbye, I remain amazed about his forty-six years old but perfectly smooth, wrinkle-free face.

free skin care · Wed Jan 13, 2010 4:19 pm

A very interesting read Kandy! Thank you so much for starting this thread.

Have you read the "Japanese Skincare Revolution"? Cinzu Saeki, at 65, visualizes attractive men to evoke that "in love" elixir that Dr. Karavani also refers to. She considers it a supplement for healthy skin. She is also a very holistic practitioner and the book offers suggestions for diet, relaxation and even prayers of gratitude as important for achieving beauty. She has a simple but a bit time consuming skin care routine.

I love this quote from an interview..

"I would like to rephrase "anti-aging" as "beautiful aging" to show a positive way of mind, because 'anti' makes it sound as if you want to deny your fulfilling life upon reaching the age when you can reflect on it. 'Beautiful aging,' which expresses appreciation for your life and aging beautifully toward your dreams, sounds much more wonderful."

I look forward to responses from other like-minded ladies and gents!

free skin care · Fri Jan 15, 2010 8:59 am

Kandy wrote:

Sean, that's great you have your diabetes well under control now! I'm also impressed with what the raw food diet can do. I'm not 100% raw either, but eat more raw and organic than before, including green smoothies in the morning. I lost weight too.

Yeah, me, too. And I discovered it accidentally, I didn't even mean to try it and had never heard of it, but tried it accidentally and partially for a week, and lost some cellulite permanently. That was my first cellulite breakthrough. I just remember waking up one morning at the end of that week and my thighs were suddenly like 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch smaller! I couldn't figure out for the life of me what had caused that rapid change or what I had done differently that week...until about a year later when I stumbled on a book on the raw food diet, and then I made the connection.

In case it helps anyone, what I do is closest to the 80-10-10 approach, or the low fat raw vegan approach, except that I allow myself to eat up to 15% fat (rather than 10%), I eat double the greens (more like 1.5 - 2 lbs per day), and I consume salt and juices, as needed. I've tried the higher fat or what is called the gourmet version of the raw food diet (the versions that are higher in nuts and lower in fruits), and those didn't work for me nearly as well as what I am currently doing. My skin is really amazing and so much better with the pounds of fruits and vegetables I'm eating, and with making sure I'm getting the right balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. Also, all that beta-carotene in greens is a nice internal sunscreen--I tan both way faster but ironically it's much harder for me to burn now, so I totally believe those studies that things like pomegranate extract and taking vitamin supplements can increase the skin's own natural SPF.

I've been doing various version of the raw food diet for about five years. For 4 of those years, my sister and family thought I was totally crazy! Then, one day at work, my sister, who's an anesthesiologist assistant at a major trauma hospital, heard that some doctor in her hospital had a patient with colon cancer and referred that patient to a raw food practitioner. I think that act opened her mind, and so eventually she tried eating more raw. And she, too, was floored by the results: she lost weight and has WAY more energy. Which is saying a lot, because she's very skeptical and a pessimist by nature, whereas I'm an optimist. My boyfriend and I realistically thought it would be about 2 decades before she ever came around to even trying it, but there you go!

I, too, wonder whether it would help with other people's diabetes. And I have a friend who cured herself of endometriosis on it.

Interestingly, there is a famous professor at my university where I work who thinks that people can't live on raw food. I had a student reporter, who was in this professor's class, come interview me for radio piece she was doing. As part of the story, she tried to eat as raw as possible. After a week, she was floored and impressed by the results: she was only 20 years old, but she had way more energy and lost the bloat in her face. Even her mother noticed over Skype and commented and asked what she was doing to look so good! Now she actually believes me and thinks her professor is wrong Smile

I always kind of hesitate bringing up or saying that I'm raw, since I'm a scientist and don't want to sound crazy and lose my credibility (and there is a lot of "info" on the raw food diet that's out there that's just blatantly scientifically wrong and makes me cringe when I hear it)...but at the same time, I feel compelled to tell people. I still do feel uncomfortable bringing it up most of the time, 'cause I have to admit, it really does seem half crazy. Lol.

So thanks, Kandy, for bringing this up. Smile

free skin care · Fri Jan 15, 2010 10:40 am

Sorry but I have to say that the blood type diet and the accompanying lectin agglutination hypothesis, as popularized by that book, is a myth. We studied blood types and lectins in my undergraduate immunology class. Sure, absolutely, lectins do play a role in role in immune cell response and there are small differences in immune system functioning in people with different blood types, and that is known and universally accepted by doctors and medical researchers. However, to go as far as to claim that they have wide-ranging effects as to determine our digestion and mean that different people should be eating totally different diets, well, the weight of evidence shows that that is incorrect.

As far as scientific evidence goes, D'Adamo cherry-picked evidence to support his theories, and ignored that most scientific evidence doesn't support his hypothesis. I'll give two pieces of scientific evidence to counter the Blood Type Theory, and then I'll shut up Smile

First, the vast majority of dietary lectins are handled by the body in the exact same way, regardless of blood type; it is the exception, rather than the rule, that dietary lectins are processed differently by people with different blood types. Yet, D'Adamo recommends that people's diets vary vastly depending on their blood type, rather than only slightly, which would be the natural conclusion if the lectin agglutination hypothesis were indeed correct. Plus, he then says incorrect things like milk intolerance is due to lectins, when we know scientifically that the primary determinant of lactose intolerance is simply not producing the lactase enzyme.

Second, the development of the ABO alleles is estimated at 4.5 - 6 million years ago, when all human ancestors were in Africa eating the exact same diet, which directly contradicts D'Adamo's assertion of blood type evolution. This evolutionary finding actually coincides with the divergence of the human species from other primates, but anthropologists all agree (and this is one of the few things that they all agree on and is not controversial) that this was way before the divergence of the human species into tribes with different diets--e.g., nomads, hunters, gatherers.

I suspect people get better results from the Blood Type Diet it because it encourages them to eat better.

Okay, I'll stop there, but I just wanted to say that the overwhelming body of scientific evidence does not support the blood type diet.

free skin care · Fri Jan 15, 2010 10:48 am

SeanyseanUK wrote:

No one is 100% O, or 100% A/B as we are a combo of our parents (who can be two different blood groups).

Actually, this is incorrect, too. It's not that you are an average of your mom and dad's blood types, rather you get one blood type allele from your mom and one from your Dad. You are either O, A, B, or AB; there are no inbetweens.

Okay, getting this off the table, everything else Sean said, I agree with Smile

free skin care · Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:43 pm

There's (too) much to say about everything that has been posted here..and everything that still needs to be posted...such an important topic imo.

so, for now, in terms of a raw food diet (which i've been doing 100% (with some caveats which i'll explain later, either in this post of in another)since 1980...i have some very positive things to say... and also 'warnings' (things i've considered need balancing in eating raw...and i think may help people who may be considering 100%,or so,raw.)

for one thing, most currently popular raw food 'gurus' have not been eating this way for any, imo, signifigant length of time, and many of them are also relatively young..and their needs are different from those of us who are more, shall we say,'aged well'.

for one thing(and this is of necessity abrieviated)according to TCM.. (which would never recommend a raw food dish/meal, let alone a raw diet)...raw food is particularly difficult for spleen function (which in TCM includes the pancreas...so spleen/pancreas goes together in TCM ..as does the kidneys/adrenals)and although i've been conscious of this for years (and have been consistently reminded of it by my TCM practitioners)..and have tried to balance this, imo, reality, with foods that support spleen function (I've been told hemp seeds and sea veggies fit into this category..not 100% sure about this though)i still, at this point in my life, have to be concerned about spleen deficiency.

Also..according to ayuvedic medicine (traditional medicine from India)...there are 3 'doshas' or categories of types of individuals based on emotion, physiology, the way the mind thinks, etc.....and the dosha called 'vata' would be the one that would do worse with raw food (and as with all traditional systems...ayuvedic tradition recommends a primarily cooked diet for all doshas..but especially stresses the importance of cooked food for vata types)...and as we age, we all become more vata-ish, even if we constitutionally have a different dosha (just like winter is more vata than summer for all of all irregardless of our basic constitution). Gabriel Cousens, an allopathic and ayuvedic practitioner, who has a raw food (living food)retreat recomends using herbs that would balance the different doshas...and includes them in his recipes.

all i fit in for now.

i really appreciate this thread.

free skin care · Sun Jan 17, 2010 4:22 am

jasminerosey wrote:

There's (too) much to say about everything that has been posted here..and everything that still needs to be posted...such an important topic imo.

That was an eye-opening post for me... And I appreciate someone with your knowledge (which is not from googling the info but living the lifestyle) has so much to say but must cram it into a readable post.
The best thing about your post though is that it gives people like me key-words so I can start to explore this whole new world of ayuvdedic medicine. For instance, I appreciate how good a raw diet must be but something deep-seated within me finds it unattractive. So I took a test from http://www.whatsyourdosha.com/ (and for the knowledgeable this site may come across as 'Ayuvedic for Dummies' but I found it a good starting point!) and of course my dosha turns out to be Vata (should eat warm food).

Anyway Jasminerosey, thankyou for taking the time to share your knowledge with us.

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