Monday February 26, 2001

Ask Dr. Jan

Q: I have a question for you about my eyes and my forehead there. Could you tell me what I could do about the wrinkles? A: There are generally two causes for wrinkles. One is the sun, the other cause is muscle action. For those above your eyes those on your forehead that's muscle action and I think botox which is botulism toxin will work very well for those. What botox does is paralyze the muscles and that smoothes out the wrinkles in the face. The wrinkles around your eyes will require two things. One is the eyelid procedure to remove excess skin and then a light skin peel to get rid of the fine wrinkles.

Q: Dr Jan now that I'm getting older I've noticed that these dark circles under my eyes aren't really going away no matter how much sleep I get. A: The dark spots may be a combination of heredity, sun damage and aging. A couple things I've tried are certainly skin peels and that can give some improvement. But all in all probably the best thing for those dark spots is makeup.

Q: Dr Jan I'd just like to know how I can get rid of my love handles? I ran a lot, lost a lot of weight and I'm just kind of curious on how to lose the love handles. A: People get focused on doing sit ups here, without paying attention to the inferior portion of where their lats are. The best way to address this is liposuction. Because what it will do is clean out your waist in the back and therefore give you that waist that works all the way around. It'll work wonderfully for you because you've already got that six pack thing going.