Oxidant Supplements
Holistic Approach to Cosmetic Surgery
As boomer lead the way in cosmetic surgery, one doctor looks to holistic solutions as part of the treatment.
There is a stong likelihood that you are someone you know has had cosmetic surgery. People over 55 are helping doctors who do that take home a ton of money. There are plastic surgery offices all over the country, including in places like Colorado, where cosmetic surgical procedures are popular. So at bloomer boomer we are asking questions of the people who may know the most. We sought out a unique doctor practicing in New York she is Shirley Madhere, unique in that she practices who specialty a lot different than most. Dr. Madhere, first thank you for joining us and it seems us baby boomers might be looking more at cosmetic surgery.
Andy: Today we The market research firm global industry analyst projects that a baby boomer fueled consumer base seeing the keep signs of aging the bail or make a big push for anti aging products from about 80 billion now to more than 114 billion by 2015. So at bloomer boomer here we have been asking questions of the people who may know the best of surgeons who do the work. We sought out a unique doctor practicing in New York she is Shirley Madhere, unique and that she spends her surgical work with anti inflammatory and anti oxidant supplements and foods. Dr. Madhere, first thank you for joining us and it seems us baby boomers might be looking more at cosmetic surgery.
Dr. Madhere: Thank you for your interest and I would agree with you. I think you’re absolutely right that baby boomers definitely are looking into plastic surgery among other things for what I like to call age management. I suppose anti aging is possible.
Andy: Well that’s a good distinction there. Let me ask you, talk a little bit about that point you just mentioned. As far as… not anti aging but just describe how one might approach that.
Dr. Madhere: Well I definitely believe and I also think that many of my patients believe that no one really is interested per se in reversing their age or negating the experiences that they’ve had to get them to the point where they’re able to say, You know what, I love myself and I think I look fabulous but I think I just like to tweak a little bit so I also hear from my patients that they like this wrinkle or they don’t mind to see fine lines. But maybe one or two thinks that’s just sagging or discoloration on the skin or little resisted pocket of fat that’s something that they’d like to improve upon or get rid of. So in that sense, I think that people these days are a bit more realistic about some of their aesthetic goals and rather than completely erasing everything, removing all lines and going back to the way that they looked in pictures 20 years ago. I think people are saying you know what? I appreciate that at that time and even though it may not be possible for me to go back to that exactly, I’d like to look better for my given age. I’d like to go to… yes I suppose to look as if I’m 50 or 60 and trying to look 20 again. I think given some of the images that we’ve seen in the media, some people are beginning to recognize that the concept of total age reversal is not something that can necessarily be easily achieved certainly from the outside alone and my practice philosophy of holistic plastic surgery.
Andy: The holistic part of it then would include more than just going under the knife, it sounds like?
Dr. Madhere: Yes, and it includes really a recognition and the willingness to work with the idea that beauty and certainly longevity of results, optimal results, and feelings frankly coming from within. So, that way I believe that using a holistic approach actually tries to embrace and taken to account, many dimensions of wellness, so it isn’t just physical or medical wellness, it’s also spiritual and psychological and emotional and all those things really do contribute to the whole person. Rather than coming in and saying well, you know listen this pocket of fat is really bothering me. What I do is I try to look at everything if they will, ok, what it is about, the pocket of fat that got it there in the first place, and if there’s something that we could do deeper, then what I could do on the outside I could help you to emulerate that.
Andy: And I think seniors especially baby boomers aren’t ready to let go of our youth as well emotionally and so that also, no doubt, has an effect on our perceived physical appearance
Dr. Madhere: I love what you just said because there are 2 points that I’m going to pick up on the statement that you just made. One is the whole concept of perception, self perception and what I have been finding with my baby boomer patients is that there is very much a strong sense of self perception. And the other concept that you mentioned about releasing or letting go of our youth, I think actually that happened with only to a certain extent. Yes, I find that many of my baby boomer patients are able to reconcile or negotiate with the idea that well, you know aging is a natural process, it’s a natural and beautiful phenomenon however, that being said, I believe I should be able to do it gracefully. So, yes it’s an acceptance of aging as a natural phenomenon that is and can very much be a beautiful thing and yet there’s also the acceptance or the desire to watch… be able to do it in a way that may not necessarily capture youth in terms of the number but certainly helps to reignite that trend, given that that’s for life and that energy that we often associate with being youthful. And certainly looks can be youthful but senses of humor and wit and personality and demeanor, those can also contribute to youthfulness. So, I think it’s a combination.
Andy: I suppose people sense of their self reflects on their attitude and how the sense of willingness to project their sense of humor, it comes from within and maybe their sense of perception of their appearance to others.
Dr. Madhere: Absolutely, there are many studies that actually state exactly what you just summarize. And recently, what I find interesting is there was a study out of UCLA and I think it was called be Happy your genes may thank you for it. Basically what the study found is that people who have high levels of happiness and well-being… actually that level of happiness actually will show to have favorable effects on their gene expression. Now, you can’t change your genes but you can certainly perhaps the new science would have one thing that you can perhaps change or modify the expression of those genes. So, that’s amazing. And if that were to be better understood and accepted by society at large then that opens up an entirely new field of age management because then age management wouldn’t only be about cosmetic procedures and Botox and fillers and plastic surgery and liposuction. I mean wow! What if we could pair that with doing other things that not only would help us to feel great but could potentially prolong our lives as well. That’s amazing.
Andy: Yeah, it is very fascinating and I suppose perhaps for someone really decides on what they want to have done, they need to look inward a little bit to see how they’re gonna move forward afterwards.
Dr. Madhere: I agree. At least when I try to prepare when I prepare my patients for surgery, the holistic approach that I uses the best one. So it involves a thorough history. Examining all those dimensions of wellness that I mentioned… the physical, the psychological, the spiritual, the medical, clearly. Obviously an efficient physical exam is important as our nutrition, stress management, exercise, mentalities, spirituality, support system, if you’re going to have an operation that takes 4-6 hours and you’re going to need help during your recovery. What kind of support systems do you have in place? And also takes them into account motivation. What are your set goals? Why do you want to do this and better look differently? What’s that all about? So, Yeah, looking inwardly has a lot to do with what’s going on the inside because it extremely effects how we feel on the outside and certainly how we feel affects how we look and how we look speaks volumes to other people about not only yourself but how we think about the rest of the world.
Andy: And of course there’s the societal pressure in terms of… as an example the job market, what it is and the preference of the youthful appearance if someone’s looking for work. That must play to a degree.
Dr. Madhere: Most definitely. There’s actually a study recently that looks at the job market and the appearance and it seems that based on a questionnaire that employers about, the end result essentially propose that employers were not necessarily looking at youth but to your point, they were looking at youthfulness. So the whole perception of looking well is perceived by the employer as… oh this person has energy, and if this person has energy to look well and be fit and take care of himself in investing their appearance then they must certainly have enough energy to do the kind of work that I’m going to be paying them for. It’s interesting how that perception even by employers even though it is perhaps sub conscious place in our everyday life. And when people say to me sometimes when I meet them at cocktail parties or charity events, they’ll say.. oh plastic surgery the, that is so vain. On the contrary, beauty 101 and plastic surgery really have less and less and very little to do with vanity. It’s about wellness and perhaps survival of the fittest.
Andy: And what I hear from you is that you aren’t necessarily gonna be a proponent of someone who would… does a total make over to the point that they may not even be recognizable from their former self.
Dr. Madhere: Well, I guess there are some people may want to be unrecognizable. Well, that goes back to motivation. So, if a patient comes to my office and sits down and asks for our consultation, well frankly I just wanna complete total make up I don’t want to look like myself. I’m going to dig deep and try to figure out what that’s about. Why don’t you want to look like yourself, you do not like yourself? Is there no level of self love, because if you don’t like yourself and don’t love yourself, I’m not really sure if psychologically you are the most appropriate candidate for working with me. And that does not necessarily mean that they will get a bad result but really try to take so many things into account. And for me if someone can benefit, I just don’t wanna look like myself at all and is curious about it, that would raise a bit of a red flag for me and cause me to dig deeper and try to find out what their motivations are and whether or not there are expectations are realistic in that I as a plastic surgeon would be able to help them achieve.
Andy: Now, our demographic is there are people over 55, how much of that is a part of your practice?
Dr. Madhere: That is a significant part of my practice. I’d say… the demographics, women and men over 55 probably cost to a good 40 or 50% of my practice currently.
Andy: And the motivations must be all kinds of reasons, I suppose.
Dr. Madhere: Yes, all kinds of very interesting reasons. My male executive will say, I’d like to maintain the competitive edge so they’ll come in and want to do various things and some of the female boomers will come in and say. You know what I love this about myself or that… or this has always bothered me and I think it’s time to do something about it. Or people who are interestingly enough approaching retirement and say, listen, I’ve worked very hard, I’ve taken care of my children, everyone’s in college. It’s all about me now. And so they’d like to do something special for themselves. The motivations are the reasons for presenting to my office and having a conversation with me are totally open and I’ve heard all of the motivations and it’s actually inspiring. Some of them are really inspiring.
Andy: Would there generally be, again it’s personal decision, but are there generally subsequent procedures that someone may do later on?
Dr. Madhere: According to … Let’s see… in my practice and actually this is consistent with the statistics by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the top 5 surgical procedures in the… I think 51 to 65 plus age range are Blepharoplasty, which is eyelid tuck or eyelid skin removal followed by face lift then liposuction of various localized fatty deposits of the body then it would be a tummy tuck and lastly probably fat injection or taking fat from one part of the body and re-injecting it into another part of the body. And those are the top 5 surgical procedures… of the non-surgical procedures which have seen a significant of several thousand fold increase from 10 years ago in the plastic surgery world then those include Botox and Dysport and Hyaluronic acid based fillers and chemical peels and all those things that basically are for cosmetic purposes but do not involve surgery or scalpel. The top 5 in that age demographic again 51 – 65 plus. The first and foremost will be Botox and Dysport. And those are the same that help to smooth out the dynamic or active facial muscle lines on the face. 2nd would be the fillers, the 3rd would be laser skin resurfacing, the 4th would be chemical peels and the last one would be laser hair removal. So those are the things that are definitely the types of procedures both surgical and non-surgical that are interested or interesting to the baby boomer population whereas patients in their sort of 20’s and 30’s, they’re dealing slightly different surgical procedures such as breast augmentation and liposuction.
Andy: For someone who wanted to get some more information. You did cite a few studies in… are there places that they need to go and find out about costs and..
Dr. Madhere: Certainly, they can completely go to my website if they’re interested in plastic surgery and the holistic approach to plastic surgery and my website is drshirleymadhere.com no periods, it’s all one word drshirleymadhere.com. And for statistics when they also go to the Aesthetic Society or the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, asaps.com. And by the same token if one is looking for plastic surgeon in their town they may also go to the Plastic Surgery Society or asps.org. I think importantly, the most important thing is to… what I mention to my patients all the time, whether one is considering plastic surgery or just minor cosmetic procedures, I think the most important thing is to know yourself, know who you are, know who you are and then if you do have questions and you’re committed to doing something and investing in yourself and your wellness through plastic surgery, then certainly take the time to speak with someone, go in to an office, have a consultation and then figure it out together.
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