EndlessMauve

DOES NOSE GROW WITH AGE?

When I posted about nasolabial lines, I remembered another issue caused mainly by the spasmed upper lip levator muscles. Growing nose 👃

My nose is quite wide, so, of course, I got interested in what happens to the nose with age. And when I started getting more nosy 😂🤣😅 about anatomy, physiology and aging of our body - one main question popped up:

Our body is a very complex smart machine, allocating its resources very wisely and accurately - why would it grow a nose with age? 🤔

The anatomical structure of the nose is quite simple:
1️⃣ Nasal bone
2️⃣ Frontal process of maxilla
3️⃣ The tip of the nose - is not bony, and consists of cartilage and fibrofatty tissue

The pear-shaped bony inlet of the nose increases with age due to active bone resorption. The nasal bones, like the bones of the upper jaw, are by nature, spongy, porous, and the most unreliable (in terms of age-related destruction) 😏 So this inlet, to which our nose has been secured all these years, is getting wider and wider with age. What does the rest of the nose do? It starts hanging, the tip begins to look down.

Also, when the small muscle that lifts the upper lip and wings of the nose gets in chronic tension as a result of active facial expressions, it gets shorter and stays like that. Only the side of the nose is shortened. This visually makes the nose longer, and it often starts overhanging, as important lymph vessels go along this area. If they are squeezed, all the excess fluid, unable to escape, starts accumulating in the tip of the nose. When saturated with liquid, cartilage and especially❗️fibrofatty tissue, swells, increases in size.

By relaxing the muscles, and lowering the wing of the nose to its normal place, we get an amazing effect - the tip of the nose rises above the columella (separates the nostrils), the nasolabial ridge decreases, the nose becomes smaller, sleeker, more elegant. 👌

NASOLABIAL FOLDS

I would define 2 parts of nasolabials:
Upper nasolabial ridge (starts at the nose wing): the reason is spasmed - shortened little tiny muscles raising the upper lip (levator labii superioris) Sometimes it is so tense you can see the 2 little bumps on both sides of the nose. Shortened upper lip levator muscle also causes sagging in the lower eyelid area.

Lower nasolabial folds have a couple of causes:

Bone deformation:
1️⃣ zygomatic bone turns inwards pulled by the tense chewing muscles, pushing all the tissues to the center of the face
2️⃣ maxilla - upper jaw sinks in (especially with mouth breathing)
3️⃣ receding chin caused by mouth breathing, bad posture ( this was my case, and I will show my own progress shortly)

Weakened zygomatic muscles. However, training and toning these will only make nasolabial folds deeper. The key is to restore the healthy tone of the muscles that take all the load (depressors, chewing)

Of course, the skin no matter how tight it is will start sagging - all the support is lost. But it is not the skin that needs to be fixed. The popular “triangle of youth” all over the internet, showing that, with age our skin starts sagging, and the triangle goes upside down. Skin starts sagging because it loses bone support, because fat pads under the skin get displaced, and because there is edema in the tissues (excess liquid in the interstitial space - tissue space) that worsens the situation making the tissues heavier and the folds more defined.

What to do?

🟢 Posture correction (here I go again 😂) it will align the head vertically with the rest of the body, will eliminate malocclusions, believe it or not, will change the jaw position, will release the excess load on certain neck and face muscles.

🟢 Relieve muscle spasms on the face

☝️ Missing teeth, any inflammation in the mid and lower face, too much filler in the lips cause nasolabial folds as well.

This post is about first generation retinoids, used in beauty industry (gen 2,3,4 are medications)

Retinoids are derivatives of vitamin A that interact with receptors in the cell nucleus and act only on living skin cells (only a living cell has a nucleus 👍🏻). Retinoids easily enter the cell nucleus, passing through the layer of dead skin cells and the epidermal barrier because 1️⃣ retinoids are soluble in fats 2️⃣ they have small molecules.

Retinoids, interacting with nuclear receptors (similarly, steroid hormones and thyroid hormones do), make cells function in a certain way - corneocytes will multiply faster, sebocytes will produce less sebum, fibroblasts will produce more collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid - we get smooth beautiful skin on the outside 💃💃💃

From all the forms of retinoids TRETINOIN is biologically active - can bind to cell receptors and FORCE skin cells to do everything listed above. Products with tretinoin work here and now. (e.g. Obagi)

RETINOL and RETINAL are not bio-active - in order to work, they need transformation into tretinoin. They have an indirect effect, without coming into contact with nuclear receptors. When applied to the skin, tretinoin is synthesized from them. Skin cells will not react to them instantly. Our skin will decide for itself how to use this substance - ignore or transform it into a bioactive form. With retinol and retinal, we leave our skin the right to choose (e.g. The Ordinary)

RETINYL RETINOATE, a new smart flexible molecule - sends a signal to the receptors, and, after going through its transformations, starts to work (Medik8)

RETINYL PALMITATE - the precursor of retinol, a retinol depot - up to 80% of the retinol reserve in the skin is stored in the form of retinyl palmitate. Provides a very mild effect, mainly antioxidant.

What is your experience with retinoids? 😊

60% of women think that they look younger than their peers, while their peers think the same way, only about themselves. We look at ourselves in the mirror - chin up, eyes opened wide, lip corners up. Others see us in motion, at many different angles, not always good, and the focus is not so much on the face, but the whole picture, the body (especially during the pandemic 😷)

I don’t like to set relationship between the number and the way a woman looks. Not only it is inappropriate, but also useless. How we will look is not programmed in our DNA. Nobody actually knows what a 40 or 50 year old “should” look like.

Our body literally imprints in itself the patterns of approaching old age!
The shoulders curl inward, chest sinks in (goodbye beautiful breast), the stoop appears. The constantly hunched back makes the neck stretch forward even more, and the smart body strengthens it with a hump at the back; if there is a hump, there always will be a double chin - weight has nothing to do with it.

The rib cage presses on the lungs, the abdominal cavity and organs. The superficial frontal fascial line shifts down, the tummy sticking out forward, and knee rolls getting more and more prominent.

With incorrect posture, there can be no correct breathing - the chest diaphragm is synced with the pelvic diaphragm (pelvic floor) they both move synchronously with each breath and it is very very important for women’s health and youthful looks.

Yet, the number 1 problem is how to tighten the skin?! 🤦‍♀️ (that has been robbed of proper nutrition for decades)

Girls, ladies, beauties - our body is very responsive! Let’s work with basic and so common (observe the women around you) dysfunctions that cause compensatory reactions on the face.

The fact that there is no gene responsible for aesthetic aging is a good thing - that means it’s in our hands 👌

When you decide to eat mindfully after the holidays, but your life is one big holiday 🙈☺️

If you already tried all known methods, and the frowns are still there, pay attention to this factor:
dural membrane tension

This is the main! root cause of tension formation in the frontal bone, in the metopic suture in most women - that causes 11 lines (frowns), hollow forehead and sunken eyes.

Dura mater is a tough membrane made of connective tissue that surrounds the brain and then the “tube” goes along the spinal cord down to the sacrum.

Dura mater connects skull - spine - pelvis.
It is tough, (as the name suggests - dura) not very elastic or flexible, which means if there is tension/pulling in one spot, the compensatory reaction will happen in another area.

Dura mater is attached to the sacrum in the pelvic region, back of the neck (C2, C3) and in the skull one of the points is crista galli and frontal crest (picture in the carousel).

What can cause dural membrane tension:
⭕️ Deep emotional stress (this is how our sympathetic nervous system reacts)
⭕️ Constantly tense back of the neck
⭕️ Tension, asymmetries in pelvis
⭕️ Epidural anesthesia (especially in case of dural puncture)
⭕️ Injuries

I will never get tired of repeating: Condition of our pelvis and back of our neck directly affects our forehead and eyes❗️ And the central part of our face. Release tension in the neck and pelvis - this, without even touching the face will open it up, restore youthful dimensions.

I will be posting techniques and exercises in my IG profile on posture correction and body alignment.

In March I am planning to launch the course on the most powerful and effective osteopathic and manual rejuvenation techniques that work very well with deeper structures.

Frowns, or 11 lines - vertical creases formed between the eyebrows - the problem of so many, it used to be mine as well 🤨

Mechanisms of their formation:

⭕️ Tension in corrugators
⭕️ Tension in the frontal bone, specifically in the metopic suture area and as a result bone movement and deepening in this area.
⭕️ Combination of both.

Look at the picture in the carousel, it shows this area very well ▶️

Why corrugators get tense:

Facial expressions - in my opinion, 99% of the time when people bring their brows together, it is really unnecessary 😣

Another thing - "inherited" wrinkles. I often hear: the wrinkles on my forehead are exactly the same as those of my mom/dad/grandparents.

Wrinkles cannot be inherited! As a child we read the facial expressions of our loved ones, and from them, learn to express our emotions. Eventually getting the same wrinkle pattern. Which we can successfully break!

Corrugators can get spasmed when the tension from the frontal bone and metopic suture is passed to them. If there is a lot of tension in this area it gets hollow, the forehead line is not rounded anymore. By the way, if there is a big deepening in this zone and Botox is administered, the excess tissues will hang over the eyes.

I am going to post a good technique for relaxation of corrugators and metopic suture.
If you do this relaxing technique, combine it with taping, microcurrent therapy, control your facial expressions - your frowns should disappear.

IF they do not go away, or come right back - that means the tension is not superficial❗️

Emotional state, constant stress that causes tension inside our body, deep emotional blockages that have not been worked with.

Tension in dura mater (lat. hard mother) - this is super important for women, how our youth and health depends on it - is a topic for a separate post.
@ Toronto, Canada