An honest, direct and thoughtful interview about beauty and age with Dr. Colette Camenisch, Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery Expert and Founder of Clinic Beethovenstrasse in Zurich, Switzerland.

The 30ies are usually the years, when girls transform into women. This not only comes with maturity and confidence, but naturally also with facets of hormone imbalances and skin aging. I met Zurich’s number one beauty expert, Dr. Colette Camenisch, who has been a pioneer in aesthetic medicine for a decade. For many years Dr. Camenisch has been a medical partner at Zurich’s renowned private clinic Pyramide am See (where she still practices upon request as a consultant), before she opened her own practice Clinic Beethovenstrasse in Zurich’s City Center. Her eye for details, aesthetic and accuracy as well as her very positive energy is not only visible on the results she creates for her patients, but also by entering her beautifully designed private practice. In an interview Dr. Camenisch tells us her secrets on what we can do in our 30ies to remain looking – and feeling – 30 in our 40ies:

Dr. Colette Camenisch:

• In order to keep your skin fresh and healthy your organs have to work perfectly : the liver and kidney are responsible to detox your body. By eating on a regular base and drinking water or fresh herbal tea (at least 1.5 up to 2.5 liters a day) you help the body to cleanse it from toxic waste products.
• To keep your body healthy you have to sleep at least 8 hours a night and exercise : nothing new! But you have to keep in mind that the elder you get the more you have to give your body time to rest, relax and regenerate as well on the other hand side, to strengthen the body by a particular muscle training: strength/weight training, intensive Yoga (Hatha yoga for example), Pilates etc. This way you increase the blood circulation in the muscles and in the organs. You stabilize the musculoskeletal system.
• Facial Yoga: does it really work? Yes. It does. But first you have to learn to exercise the facial muscles. Not that easy. The musculus zygomaticus major for example is a muscle responsible to lift up the midface. The strengthening of this muscle helps to reduce the sagging of the submalar region; the part between the eyes, the nose and the upper lip. We have 26 mimic facial muscle…so the training means 30min time and effort per day.
• Vitamins and micro nutrition t. Many patients have asked me, if a healthy meal, like fresh fruits and vegetables is enough to supply the body with vitamins and important trace elements. My answer to this is: Yes and no. If you eat biological tested and approved products and you live a stress less and harmonic life, then this would probably be enough. Unfortunately external factors such as traveling a lot and working to much have a negative impact on the daily usage of vitamins. Your body needs much more vitamins in order to keep the system healthy. I recommend 1g Vitamin C per day, enough Vitamin D (specially in Fall/Winter) Zink and Selenvital and a free radical “eater” like Coenzym Q10. But in the end every patient is unique and the treatment should be perfectly adjusted to each individual. That’s why I work with specialists, who test the vitamin status in the blood.
• To fine-tune our wellbeing, we should have the hormone level of our bodies already checked in our 30ies, because the self production of the hormones decreases year after year. And we should be aware of filling the storage before the “bottle is empty” and the body starts to suffer. So hormones like DHEA, pregnenolon are worth to check on a regular base.
• Our skin needs sun; it helps to synthesizes Vitamin D a very important Vitamin and its’ also the primary stage for a lot of hormones. But an excess of sun influence destroys the skin structure and makes the skin look old and inelastic. So skin protection between 30 to 50 SPF is a MUST. Every day before you put your Make up on.
• Avoid Smoking. It is not only destroying the lung tissue it also closes the smallest artery’s (bad micro perfusion) in every tissue. The decreased micro perfusion in the upper layer of the skin is leading to a grey and sallow skin quality. The skin ages much faster: wrinkles and folds drawing the facial features.

Apart from our lifestyle, there are little helpers in the world of aesthetic medicine, that we can use for slowing down our aging process. Which treatments would you recommend?

• Skinboster therapy with hyaluronacid or with the fantastic new Beauty skin activator (blood serum injection) with your own blood serum.
• Volumenizing the sagging part in the midface area, refilling the tear troughs and the nasolabial fold with hyaluronic acid or lipofilling (fat transfer).
• Use serums with EGF (epidermal growth factor) and hyaluronic acid to heal and nourish your skin.
• Reduce tear trough deformities with a special hyaluronic acid; makes you look young and fresh.
• Reduce the glabellar fold between the eyes with Botulinum toxin A already in early stages.