The worst part about hitting your middle years is what happens to your skin: It starts revealing all those years you treated it like it was as durable as rawhide.
While Tina Neese works on improving her mind, body and spirit, she realizes it’s just as important to give her face some tender loving care.

As a beach fanatic, she’s also concerned about the impact years of sun worshipping has had on her skin, and she’s worried about her pores enlarging.
“I notice that my face is feeling drier, too,’’ she said. “I don’t have a real facial routine. I only use face soap.’’

She made an appointment for a skin consultation with Pat Hill, a nurse practitioner and skin specialist at Still Waters Medical Spa, to get the skinny on pampering her skin.

“From a medical standpoint, your skin is your largest organ,’’ Hill said. “You worry about your heart, but many women don’t worry enough about their skin.’’

They should. This year an estimated 1 million new cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed, and 2,000 people will die from skin cancer, according to theNational Cancer Institute. Skin cancer aside, Hill said, “The way you look in the mirror affects your self-esteem.’’

Your reflection shouldn’t make you blue, with so many ways to keep you your skin glowing. Eating healthy foods, drinking plenty of water and getting enough rest go a long way in bringing out your inner beauty. There’s also an explosion of products and treatments that can combat and even reverse the signs of aging, she said.
Hill spent an hour analyzing Tina’s skin and talking to her about adopting routines and habits to improve her skin’s appearance and to keep it looking healthy.

HERE’S WHAT THEY FOUND:

1. A skin scan that uses lights similar to black lights revealed that Tina’s skin is dehydrated. Recommendation: Start with a professional facial to cleanse, exfoliate and moisturize the skin. At home, she needs to drink more water, and needs to use a pharmaceutical-grade cleanser and moisturizer on a daily basis.

2. Her pores are enlarged, and some are congested with oil. Recommendation: She can use a facial polish to minimize pores, or go for a chemical peel or microdermabrasion treatments to reduce their size. She should use mineral-based cosmetics to prevent clogging.

3. Nothing turned up during a search for skin irregularities, which would reveal potential skin cancer. But the scan did show brown spots dotting Tina’s left cheek. For now, the spots are only visible under the lights, but they’ll eventually work their way to the surface. These age spots are caused by sun exposure. Tina most likely got them while driving. Recommendation: Photorejuvenation or Intense Pulse Light, or IPL, skin treatments to diminish them, and she should use a moisturizer with sunscreen along with extra sunscreen block when she goes to the beach.

4. Tina doesn’t have a problem with crow’s feet, but the area between her eyebrows and eyelids is sagging a little. Recommendation: Botox injections above her eyebrows would open her eyes.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR TINA:

Bella will continue follow Tina on her journey of self-improvement. Next, we’ll check in on Tina’s new skin regime and show how she lost weight walking on a path her husband carved out on their property.