No-Tox Cosmetic Acupuncture
Until now, options to eliminate wrinkles and look younger included filler injectibles which could lead to hardening of one’s features (duck lips and exaggerated cheekbones), Bo-tox, in which toxins are injected directly into your face to temporarily paralyze the muscles (expressionless face), and expensive, cosmetic surgery – all which alter the original look of YOU.
A toxin-free alternative to eliminating fine lines and wrinkles
Cosmetic Acupuncture merely regenerates your own muscles and collagen to naturally return you to your original appearance so you still look like YOU, only younger!
Traditional Chinese Medicine has long held that your outside reflects the status of your health on the inside. It is the delicate balance of Yin & Yang and the free flow of Qi & Blood through your meridians that can help keep your face and skin vibrant and glowing. Most Western cosmetic procedures only address the outside and some may be bad for your health. It makes sense that the most effective way to get and maintain a youthful appearance is to work from the inside out or, work on both the inside and the outside. Cosmetic Acupuncture does just that. Treating imbalances inside the body that cause aging and it effects(wrinkles, sagging, etc.) in conjunction with treating the face using acupuncture is simply the best anti-aging medicine available.
It’s probably safe to say that most people could care less whether the procedure improves their health or whether it is healthy at all. However, choosing Cosmetic Acupuncture as your cosmetic procedure allows you to get the best of both worlds. Along with improved overall health there is the possibility for you to receive the following results:
- Improved elasticity of facial muscles and improved collagen formation. Collagen is one of the main proteins in our skin that gives it strength and elasticity.
- Skin becomes more delicate and fair
- Reduction of wrinkles
- Erasing of fine lines and reduction of deeper lines
- Reduction of sagginess
- Lifting of droopy eyelids
- Clearing or reduction of age spots
- An overall rejuvenation that is not confined to your face. That means you’ll feel better all over – or that your health has actually improved!
A study in The Journal of Clinical Acupuncture shares that, with cosmetic acupuncture, 90% of clients have marked improvement in their faces and experience an overall rejuvenation that is not confined to the face.
So as it declines with age, our skin sags and wrinkles. The potential to improve collagen formation comes from the fact that the acupuncture needles cause little micro-traumas in the skin. When the skin perceives a trauma, fibroblasts of collagen and elastin come to the site to heal it. The body’s wound healing process involves collagen and elastin. Think about how a cut heals to make your skin whole again. It’s the same process.
So there is the possibility that your collagen and elastin stores get more abundant from the needling. Reducing collagen breakdown and increasing its supply is the only way to minimize wrinkling and sagging. Unfortunately as we age our skin loses it capability to replace damaged collagen so we need to have “procedures” to help boost collagen repair. Additionally, the facial needling brings more Qi and Blood to your face. According to the theory of Chinese Medicine this will create a more vibrant appearance, enhance the health of your skin, and nourish facial muscles.
So what is a treatment like? The practitioner uses special face needles for the cosmetic part of the treatments. They are inserted very shallowly into the face painlessly. The goal is to place the needle through the epidermis into the dermis and no further. In Chinese Medicine this is referred to as “shallow needling”. The combination of epidermis and dermis can be about 3 mm thick. Placing a needle 3 mm or less into the skin is considered fairly shallow by many practitioners of Chinese Medicine. Our goal is to impact the dermis with these needles, to create those micro-traumas that encourage the activity of fibroblasts of collagen. Needling only into the epidermis, which has no regenerative properties, may help the skin look temporarily different but our goal is to get more long lasting results.
The Cosmetic Acupuncture system is a series of 10 treatments. They are scheduled twice a week for 5 weeks. Your body needs time for the treatments to create a longer lasting result. And it takes time for collagen and elastin to repair and rebuild. That can take at least 4 weeks. Some people may need a few more than the usual protocol of 10 treatments. It depends on the state of your general health, your skin, and how much wrinkling or sagging is already present. That is something you will talk over with your practitioner as your treatments progress. After you complete the series, it is recommended that you do maintenance treatments 1x monthly or a minimum of 2 treatments every 6 months to maintain the results you have obtained.
Cosmetic Acupuncture treatments cost $105 each. We can help you determine if your health insurance covers acupuncture. You will also be given nutritional advice, skin care recommendations(like doing a moisturizing mask at least once a week), or using other at home skin care items like a jade roller. The impact of time passing can be minimized by our good treatment of ourselves. It takes some time and effort to keep looking young just like it takes time and effort to have a fit, healthy body. Who better to care for than ourselves?
Yours in health,
Rick J. Bernard, L.Ac.
