Letter from Dr. Green

I had the privilege of meeting Suzanne Somers after her talk a couple weeks ago at the Chicagoland Health and Beauty Expo. All I can say is WOW! She is one amazing woman. She spoke so eloquently and was so engaging I hardly realized she spoke for over an hour. She touched on all of the major aspects of staying healthy in these times. And let me tell you she was right on. She touched on the sugar in your diet, the stress in your life and the influence of big drug companies in today's healthcare system, which she aptly referred to as our "disease care system."

She did all of this in an entertaining way and all in the context of hormone balance, which she and I both believe is essential. She called Anti-aging physicians courageous for going against the norm and seeking out what is really the best medicine. As for me, I call her courageous. She has taken a lot of criticism for these health beliefs she is promoting, and I applaud her for giving bio-identical hormones a large voice, (and a pretty face.) She has done a lot of her own research, and while she is not a doctor, you can learn from her approach to health care. Take your health seriously. Understand that our health care system is not very good at prevention. Be proactive and find out what is right for YOU. I recommend her new book "Ageless" as a starting point for the issues on hormone balance. See where it takes you. If you would like a more technical and comprehensive book I suggest EVERY WOMAN read "What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You about Breast Cancer" by Dr. John Lee and Dr. David Zava.

If you are interested in learning more about Anti-aging medicine and bio-identical hormone balance, I am building my practice to do those things for men and women. (Yes, men go through a hormone change too.) I have three programs to address individual needs. I have a weight loss program, a Healthy Hormones program and a more inclusive Healthy Body program depending on your specific health needs. If you or someone you know would be interested, it would be my privilege to be your Health Coach.

Sincerely,
Dr. Green

Vitamin D-It's not just for bones anymore.

Nutrition Tip

Usually my nutrition tip has to do with something you put in your body, and to be sure, you should be putting Vitamin D in your body, but another good way to get it is to get a little sunshine. You see, your body converts sunlight to Vitamin D in your skin. Recent studies have shown that up to 80% of people who live in Northern latitudes are Vitamin D deficient! Are you one of them?

Vitamin D is not just a vitamin. It's actually a pre-hormone called 1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol. Boy that's a mouthful, no wonder they just call it vitamin D. It has hundreds of functions in the body and research is finding more each year. We all know that Vitamin D is essential for bone formation. That's an easy one. But did you know that lack of Vitamin D is implicated in Multiple Sclerosis? I bet you didn't know that the incidence of MS rises as you move North on the globe.

Vitamin D functions by activating or deactivating over 100 genes, and those genes are involved in preventing diseases! A study that came out in the prestigious medical journal "Lancet" showed that people with high blood pressure who were exposed to UV light 3-6x/week had a significant drop in their blood pressure! And that their Vitamin D levels increased by 162%.

A study from the University of Wisconsin showed significant correlation between low blood levels of Vitamin D in Alzheimer's patients with poor performance on cognitive tests. Alzheimer's patients who were put on high doses of Vitamin D have been observed to do much better.

This brings me to my next point. It is very easy to get a blood test to check your Vitamin D level. I do it on almost all of the patients in my "Healthy Body Program." You can ask your doctor to check a 25-hydroxy Vitamin D level. It should be between 40-65 ng/ml.

We are finding out that like many other vitamins, the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) is much lower than it should be. The RDA is usually figured out based on the amount of a vitamin you need to prevent a deficiency disease. In the case of Vitamin D, to prevent Rickets. While we may prevent deficiency with these RDA doses, it is not enough to be optimum. In my practice, I want optimum levels for healthy aging and long health span which means healthy bones, healthy nerves, cancer prevention, and avoidance of viral and bacterial infections all of which are accomplished in part by good Vitamin D levels.

Vitamin D is truly essential in larger doses than we previously thought and will contribute to health in ways that the drug companies don't want you to know. It is inexpensive, especially for those of you who live in sunny areas. You can get all of your vitamin D in about 20-30 minutes of sunlight per day. The deficiency problem is multifactoral.

1. Those of us who live in the north do not see enough daylight in the winter to get our share.
2. The northern latitudes have a longer angle to the sun in the winter which means the rays are not as strong.
3. We have been so scared about the sun that we all wear sunscreen now, which stops your body's ability to make Vitamin D.
4. Even those of us in sunny climates tend to spend too much time indoors.
5. Levels of Vitamin D that were previously considered "healthy" are not Optimum, and were measured on so called normal subjects who were probably deficient.
6. Dark skin people do not make as much Vitamin D from sunlight.
7. As we age, our skin is not as good at converting sunlight to Vitamin D, so you need to supplement more.

So, go get some sunlight. 20 minutes will not give you cancer, and it actually mat prevent it. Studies show a decrease in melanoma recurrence for melanoma patients who get sunlight. The current dosage recommendations are at least 2000 IU/day. If you are concerned, have your blood level checked. You can also start my "Healthy Body" program and we will check your level.

Want to know how vitamins can help your skin?

Dr. Green and Suzanne Pecoraro, medical esthetician will be talking about just that on Saturday March 31 at The Vitamin Shoppe. Learn what vitamins can help you from the inside out and what vitamins will help topically. Also learn which foods are full of the best skin enriching vitamins and nutrients.

There will be a raffle for a FREE facial and other great prizes as well as samples for everyone.

DON'T MISS IT!!

When:
11AM Saturday March 31
Where:
Vitamin Shoppe 2747 N Clark St- Upstairs

LightCare Medical Spa BOTOX Club

Some of you may say, "Botox and wellness don't mix." While Botox truly is not for everyone, we have plenty of clients who exercise regularly, eat organic, and get a little Botox to ward of those facial lines.

To make the process easier for everyone, we started the "Botox club." Membership spreads out the financial burden for people who want to look less stressed, or a little younger.

Instead of paying all at once, we spread the payments out over the three months in between treatments. It also saves you money when you sign up for the year.

For only $99/month/area* you can eliminate stress and frown lines and actually prevent new lines from showing up.

SIGN UP TODAY!

*restrictions apply, must sign 1 year membership

Vegetables Are Coming Back!

Homegrown Wisconsin is now taking orders for shares of their delicious organic summer and fall vegetables. If you are not familiar with the concept of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) it gives you locally grown organic vegetables. This helps the farmer, the environment, and YOU! You get the vegetables less expensively than at the supermarket, and the farmer makes a better profit than he would selling to the grocery store. It's WIN-WIN-WIN.

This is what you do: You click the vegetables above for a link to the web site. Sign up with Homegrown Wisconsin. You pick LightCare Medical Spa as your pick up location (2834 N Halsted.) The vegetables are shipped every Wednesday from June to October. You pick them up at LightCare from 4pm-8pm. Then you go home and make some delicious, nutritious meals for you and your family or friends.

Letter from Dr. Green

Dear Friend, We've got some exciting news!!

I'm excited to announce that Radiesse has joined our team of cutting edge aesthetics as an option for filling deeper facial lines, like the smile lines from the side of your nose to the corner of your mouth.

I've listened to your most common complaints and examined all of the dermal fillers on the market. I chose Radiesse for several reasons. For one thing, its very easy to use technically. It comes in hygienic, pre-packaged syringes and flows easily. But, more importantly, it lasts longer than most of the other dermal fillers on the market. The tracking has shown that it will last at least six months, and recent studies reveal that you can see the effects for more than a year!

This is great news for YOU.

The reason it lasts so long is that it is made of a different, naturally occurring substance than other facial injectables. Some fillers use collagen, which requires a skin test to make sure there is no allergy or other skin reaction. It can be tedious to get a skin test and have to wait four weeks before you can get the treatment.

There are also dermal fillers made of hyaluronic acid (HA)that do not require a skin test . This substance is naturally occurring in your skin , but some sources actually come from rooster combs. "HA" is very safe and effective. Unfortunately it lasts only 3-6 months because it works by attracting water from your skin to the area where it 's injected. When your body reabsorbs this material, the water redistributes and the effect goes away.

The reason Radiesse lasts longer is because it works differently.

Radiesse is made of calcium hydroxylapatite. That's a long word, but it is simply a form of calcium found in your body, mostly in bones. It has been used for decades to help people with things like vocal chord paralysis, or urinary incontinence. It was injected into those delicate places to fill the tissue and allow normal function.

More recently it has been studied as facial filler. As opposed to attracting water to the area where it is injected, Radiesse acts as a "scaffold" and stimulates your body to grow more collagen in the area. Over time the calcium and the new collagen take longer to degrade than the hyaluronic acid. It is this reason that people get over a year of results from just one injection!

Although Radiesse has been used as a facial filler for a long time, it recently got FDA approval to be used this way. Prior to the FDA approval, facial lines were considered an "off label" use of a product safely used in other areas. I chose to wait for the official FDA safety approval for facial use, and I'm glad I did.

We've already seen the impressive results on patients. Its visible immediately, and it's so safe my own mother had it done! I, obviously, take good care of my Mom, but she doesn't partake of every treatment I offer. After she read the description and saw before/after pictures, she definitely wanted it. Her comment afterward: "Wow!" And I agree.

To celebrate this new member of the LightCare team, we're offering a special for the first 10 people who sign up to look younger with this great new filler .

The standard pricing for Radiesse is from $750-$1000 per syringe for a treatment. Most people need one syringe, depending on how deep the lines are.

To introduce this exciting newly approved cosmetic innovation to our patients and their network of family and friends, the first 10 people who sign up for the Radiesse filler will get each syringe for $600. This saves a minimum of $150. Plus you get up to a year of looking younger!

There's just no arguing with the nearly instant dramatic results.

So, call Kristina and make your appointment today to be one of the 10 lucky people to get the discount!

Sincerely,
Dr. Green

What is Radiesse™

Radiesse™ is biocompatible, non-toxic, non-allergic, gel-like filler, used for soft tissue augmentation. It reduces the appearance of wrinkles, skin folds, and depressions around the mouth and nose, and also fills in some scarring. Previously known as Radiance, Radiesse™ has been proven beneficial to those that would like to avoid the side effects of bovine and other implant materials.

It works best for the lines around the nose and mouth as seen in the "before and after" pictures above. I find this is the most common area patients complain about. It works for scars or to make cheeks more full, It can also be used to minimize the appearance of jowls and other irregularities.

How does Radiesse work?
Once injected, Radiesse immediately adds fullness to your face giving you an immediate visible result. Radiesse contains microspheres made of a natural material called Calcium Hydroxylapatite in a water based gel carrier.

See Dr. Green & Suzanne Somers!

Chicagoland Health and Beauty Expo
March 3rd and 4th

Come hear Suzanne talk about bio-identical hormones for yoursef. Dr. Green will be at the Center for Healthy Living Booth for the entire weekend. He will also be one of the featured physicians at Suzanne Somers' talk! Her talk was sponsored by Diplomat Pharmacy, our favorite local compounding pharmacy. At the booth we will be doing body composition analysis as well as a raffle for a FREE anti-aging assessment or a FREE Botox treatment (each are $400 values) as well as other prizes. Stop by and see him at:

Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center
1551 Thoreau Drive
Schaumburg, IL 60173

Print out the bottom of this email for a 2 for 1 entry when you present it at the ticket taker

Artificial Sweeteners

Nutrition Tip

Every day someone asks me about diet drinks or artificial sweeteners. Without going into too much detail, I would like to take issue with a couple of them and then give you an alternative.

Aspartame (Nutri-sweet) is much sweeter tasting than sugar. The problem is that Aspartame is an "excitotoxin" which over stimulates brain cells leading to changes in neurotransmitters, headaches and even mood swings. I recommend avoiding them for that reason. What is even worse is that they have been found to stimulate appetite. So while you are drinking your diet drink, you eat more. Where's the sense in that?

Splenda is sucralose, which is a chlorinated sugar molecule. The makers claim the bond is so tight that it will not release the chlorine. I am not convinced. If that chlorine molecule is released there is some theory that it can replace the iodine molecule which naturally occurs on your thyroid hormone leading to thyroid problems. In the worst case it could release chlorine, which is a known toxin and carcinogen, into your system. I think we have enough toxins entering our system. No need to introduce one voluntarily in the name of a sweet taste.

If you do need to add sweeteners to foods or drinks. I recommend Stevia. It is a safe and plant based sweetener that you can find at your local health food store.