Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Welcome to the Irish Pharmacy podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Total Health and Haven Pharmacies. There are 127 of our independently owned pharmacies located all over Ireland so that we can bring trusted local care to you in your community. And now on the go with this podcast, my name is Sheena Mitchell. I'm a pharmacist from Milltown Total Health Pharmacy. In each episode, I'll be chatting with one of my pharmacist colleagues from the Total Health and Haven Pharmacies, where they will blow your mind with all of the amazing information that they have. We aim to bring you reliable and useful health information that you can listen to conveniently at a time that suits you. Today I'm joined by Joanne Hines from Joanne Hines Total Health Pharmacy in Alro County Mayo. In this episode, we talk all about skincare During the per menopausal and menopausal time.
Speaker 1 00:00:57 A drop in estrogen can play absolute havoc with our skincare. And Joanne has a wonderful way of explaining this, which helps us to understand what we can do to improve our symptoms. We chat about everything from acne to skin sensitivities to hyperpigmentation wrinkles, and also Volvo skin changes. Joanne gives loads of advice on all of the different types of products and skincare help that is out there, but most importantly reminds us to keep it simple because it's no good when it's just sitting at home in a jar. We chat about all of the modern advances that have come about in recent years, or certainly more popular to help us look better and feel better, including things like retinol Botox, fillers and how attitudes to these kind of treatments have dramatically changed perimenopause and menopause time of a woman's life is one that you cannot keep your head in the sand about. It happens to all of us, and knowledge is power and Joanne certainly brings plenty of that today. Hi Joanne and welcome to the podcast today. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank
Speaker 2 00:02:07 You so much, Sheena, for having me.
Speaker 1 00:02:08 It's very exciting. Loving all the pharmacist chats, <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:02:13 I love hearing them. They've been great podcasts so far. Gina, well done. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:02:16 Can you tell me a little bit about ball robe? Obviously my mother's a Mayo woman, so I, you know, I do love the area.
Speaker 2 00:02:23 I have to say Mayo for Sam. No Mayo person can't but be saying that cuz we're still in the championship at this stage. Um,
Speaker 1 00:02:28 Never give up <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:02:30 We never give up <laugh>, but you nearly get a heart attack every time you watch them. But hey, it's been a rollercoaster. So I'm from Ball Rob and my parents from BA Rob and my grandparents from Ba Robia, you know, ballon Rob is my people. And uh, I've been here in business for 28 years this year and I absolutely love it. Lovely, lovely people. And we've kind of grown old together, lots of us. It's a lovely small community really connected to each other. The West of Ireland, apart from a little bit the rain is the loveliest place in the world to live
Speaker 1 00:02:57 In your pharmacy. Do you, you find that there's any particular areas that, you know, you've a special interest in? Obviously today I've brought you on to talk about skincare and more specifically to do with perimenopause and menopause. Do you enjoy offering services and that kind of thing, particularly
Speaker 2 00:03:13 Since the pandemic we find we're getting asked a lot of questions. It's the nicest part of any of our jobs is going out there and interacting with people. I love to talk about the menopause and skincare. So I suppose this is a, a perfect mixture of both.
Speaker 1 00:03:27 It's a big topic, but I know you're very well informed. So what happens to your skin during perimenopause and menopause and even for people who aren't aware of kind of what perimenopause is, you know, it's, it's it's bandied around a lot now. Yes. And maybe people don't understand what kind of that period of time is. Well,
Speaker 2 00:03:47 I'll tell you an interesting story. I, I was in work yesterday and I was saying that I we're going to do this podcast day and I was chatting about the menopause and how people don't think about them. When you're in your thirties, you think the menopause is a decade and a half away. Those older women there, they're nothing to do with me. But one in a hundred women would have the menopause before the age of 40 and one in eight will have it before the age of 45. And given that the perimenopause can last and think from a few months to four or five years before the menopause, you can have a, a good few women in their thirties having peri and menopausal symptoms. And that's why I really want this information to get out to the younger generation. So by the time they start having symptoms, they realize what's causing them and then how we can fix them. I actually really think menopause should be taught in school. Uh, so that then that knowledge is in you before you come this far. Because by the time people are looking for menopausal information, they often have put in through a good few years of problems. So the first thing I would say is, you know, um, if it's relevant to you, fantastic. And if you have younger friends, get them to listen about the menopause so that when the changes come, they know what they are, they know what's happening. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:04:54 Yeah. Because a lot of the changes can really knock your confidence and absolutely, you know, affect your mental health and people are struggling unnecessarily. Yeah. It's avoid, I
Speaker 2 00:05:05 Remember it when it happened me and I didn't realize it. Uh, this was a, a good few years ago, I used to go to the doctor and saying, there's something wrong with me. I don't know what it is. I'm not able to cope like I used, I can't remember things, da da da da da. But once you know what it is, then you say, right, this is what it's now how can I deal with it? You don't feel you're getting Alzheimer's at, you know, young age. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1 00:05:25 Yeah. Okay. And what effect does all of this have on your skin? So
Speaker 2 00:05:29 As I said, we could spend hours talking about the menopause, but skin, skin is the biggest organ in the body. We kind of think as just the, the wrapping on our bodies, but it's the biggest organ. It's about three times the size of the liver and weight. So it's a big organ and it has lots of function apart from wrapping our body. It keeps the moisture in, it regulates our temperature. It uh, protects us from infection. It is touch sensitive, it creates vitamin D lots has gone on. But the three layers of the skin, we have an outer layer, which we see. It's the one that gets tanned and that's sometimes very fine like on the skin or kind of thick on the, so of your feet. We have a middle layer, I kind of call it the mattress. This is the kind of the cushioning of the skin and we have a lower layer that kind of has the fat in it.
Speaker 2 00:06:11 So that's the three layers of the skin. And as you get older, particularly hit the menopause, the mattress layer squishes down like an old mattress from, from being nice and big and plump. So in the first five years after the menopause it drops a third and in the next 15 years it drops another third. So a 70 year old L lady will have a mattress. It's only about as third as thick as she had before she hit the menopause. So that's why your skin gets kind of thin looking. And the top layer, which used to change every month about once a month you get a whole new layer of skin. But when you get older it takes nearly three months to get a new layer of skin. So you're left with this old cells on your skin. So your skin looks a little bit dull and tired on the top layer and a little bit thinner on the middle layer. And then the bottom layer is just not as fatty either. And actually this is the unfortunate thing about the menopause, the fat on our faces tends to fall outta the places we want, fall into the places we don't want. So you end up with kind of fat on the lower part. And that lovely big apple cheek, uh, fat that we had when we were younger just isn't as much there anymore. I don't know, that's just not fair. It's
Speaker 1 00:07:11 Not, you still
Speaker 2 00:07:11 Have the fat just not in the right spots.
Speaker 1 00:07:13 <laugh>. Yeah, it's, and I was thinking there when you were saying about the mattress, at least with the mattress you can flip it over and get a few more years out of it. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:07:21 Wouldn't that be great <laugh>?
Speaker 1 00:07:24 But
Speaker 2 00:07:24 Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:07:25 It was,
Speaker 2 00:07:25 It was just that idea that it's just not just sponge as thick as before, but anyway,
Speaker 1 00:07:29 You're right about the fat on your face because you see that as you get older, you know, you start to see more prominent black circles under your eyes and that's actually just cuz the fat's just coming down down. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:07:42 <laugh> sadly it is. Yeah. And then actually another interesting thing is that, um, we lose a little bone mass as we hit the menopause and we always think of our, our bones and our, our our spines and all the rest, but we also lose it around our chin. So because of that, the skin around our chin tends to be a little bit looser because our chin is a little bit smaller. So again, that gives you that sense of the slightly falling face. Yeah. Wow. That's all bad news. I, I don't wanna give all bad news, but it's the facts. That's what happens. Our skin as as we get a little bit older. Yeah. And we can do things about it, but, but uh, we actually, we need to do things about it. That's probably the first thing I'd say. You just can't get away with not doing skincare and expecting your skin to look well once you hit the perimenopause or the menopause.
Speaker 1 00:08:24 Okay. Obviously that mattress kind of flattening. Mm-hmm. It's holding less moisture. Exactly. Yeah. So is it a case that your skin is just drier and how do you combat that or
Speaker 2 00:08:37 Absolutely. Your, your skin is very dry on all layers, the fatty layers and it's good the, there's this important ingredient in our skin called hyaluronic acid. It's made by the skin in response to estrogen. So estrogen is doing all of this. So when we have estrogen in our body, we create a lot of collagen, we create elastin, we have good blood supply to our skin and we create a lot of this hyaluronic acid and all of them create a sense of that plumped up mattress. And with the loss of estrogen, we create less hyaluronic acid. Now hyaluronic acid, amazing, a small amount of hyaluronic acid in your skin will hold a lot of moisture to it. And that gives us that sort of moisturized skin. And when you lose it, you need to replace it. So there's lots of serums out there with hyaluronic acid. They're not as fantastic as having them deep down in your skin, but they, but they do help. So moisturizing is really important on uh, skin as it gets into the menopause.
Speaker 2 00:09:33 Let's start with the number one where sunscreen, if, if I could go back to my 20 year old self when I, with my freckly skin thought I would put on a bit of baby oil and I would become brown, which obviously doesn't work, but I actually did that. I think it's so funny now that I'm, I'm looking at myself but at that time I thought that would work. But if you could go back to your 20 year old self, you'd say wear sunscreen. We need to wear sunscreen. That's the number one tip is get a moisturizer with sunscreen in it.
Speaker 1 00:09:58 SPF wise, 50 for the face. I'm always hard Mark,
Speaker 2 00:10:01 Ideally 50, ideally 50. But I suppose even if you had 30, 30 or 50, I say fine, you know, and something that's nice to wear. I always say with skincare you've got to like doing it and I don't want to make it complicated. There's none of this three and four times a day once a day, morning and evening even. But you can't make it too complicated or people just want to, we busy lives. So it's gotta be simple and not complex and and ideally once or twice a day should be as much as we would do it.
Speaker 1 00:10:28 And it's hard to navigate that area at the moment because obviously menopause has been spoken about so much more, which is a really good thing. But companies have become aware of this and a lot of them are obviously producing a lot of products and have been with hyaluronic acid and collagen in them. I wonder for people feeling overwhelmed when they're looking at the shelves. Like is there a difference between the lower price product and the higher price? Is that to do with how nice they are to use rather than the delivery of the ingredients in them?
Speaker 2 00:11:04 Um, a bit of both. So the number one thing I will say is you've got to use them now some of the lower price products will work and I'm going right down to just aqueous cream and silcox space and some people can get these on their medical card and things. They will work if you use them. They're just possibly not as pleasant to use. So if you use them, they will work. If you find them unpleasant to use, you might not use them. And now cream will work if you leave it in the jar. So if you wanna get it simple, wear sunscreen. And this is another one, stop washing too much if you're going to have a shower and I give this advice but I don't take it turn down the temperature. I love a shower so hot it would possibly burn people but that is no good for my skin.
Speaker 2 00:11:48 So turn down the temperature. Think of yourself at the kitchen sink with your fairy liquid and your greasy plate. You wash it in hot water, take all that grease off. But on your skin what you're doing is you're taking our lovely fatty oils that are moisturizing your skin and you're washing them off your skin, which is not what we want to do. So with your shower, turn down the temperature, you know all these talks of these sea swims which are good for your health and they are, but again, wouldn't be for me if you turn down your shower for the last 30 seconds to cool, you get all of that invigorating and immunity benefit as you would from a sea swim all in your own shower.
Speaker 1 00:12:22 And I learned this through running recently. I was listening to a podcast on running and it said that if you have a colder shower as cold as you can after a run, it speeds up your recovery time. No end. So your muscles repair better and yeah, it's all about stabilizing your core temperature. Yeah, but <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:12:41 Anyway,
Speaker 1 00:12:42 No one likes a cold shower. No, no.
Speaker 2 00:12:44 But it, it's only 30 seconds actually the, the study say 30 seconds enough, you don't have to two or three minutes, just 30 seconds at the tail end of a shower. We'll do lots of what you need to do and get a soap product that is gentle or a moisturizing soap product. That is the key. Cause we're probably going to concentrate in our face cuz that's what we talk about, you know, how we look. But in effect, the skin on all our bodies is gonna get drier, you know, and that also needs to be looked after. So turn down your shower, get a gentle washing product and get a product you like to use. Yes, we can recommend lots of products with extra ingredients and super, but you've got to like to use them and they have to eat within your price budget. So using them every day is the key. And and being gentle on your skin outside that. And the sunscreen, did I say the sunscreen?
Speaker 1 00:13:29 You might have mentioned it maybe <laugh>, but I'm laughing now cuz I'm thinking about all the products I have bought that are sitting up there unused and I'm like, well they didn't work clearly because I haven't Yes. Opened them. Yeah. Something I've been talking about recently a bit is a condition called melasma, which is hyperpigmentation, which comes from exposure to the sun. And as you were talking about there, we weren't all as sensible when we were younger and you kind of prayed the price for that. As you get older there are products containing things like salicylic acids, which can help to reduce the impact of pigmentation. But sometimes it, you do just have to go to a dermatologist. But the SPF thing, you're right to really overemphasize it.
Speaker 2 00:14:14 Going back to when we were, we didn't even have much makeup. But I, I look at this generation and they're fantastic. They have all their products, they have all their makeup. So if this generation could get the idea where's sunscreen by the time to get this age, they'll have this skin that is so much, uh, better looking because apart from the lack of Eastern causing the problem, the UV on your skin is also reducing your collagen. That mattress and smoking is another thing that, that in increases the damage to that. So there're the, the three things obviously it's just one more thing you shouldn't be smoking for, but the sunscreen is a thing that will take a whole layer out of skin damage for your face. So yeah.
Speaker 1 00:14:55 Do wrinkles and menopause come together?
Speaker 2 00:14:59 Well I guess it's down to just what's happening. So we have skin that's drier, dry skin looks more wrinkle. Now they're the more fine wrinkles. Then we have the mattress that is now squashed and therefore those grooves happen. And then we have the fat moving. So as you age, the fat moves into those folds between the tip of your nose and the edge of your mouth and between the edge of your mouth and your chin. And, and if you ever look at any of those ab that make you look older, they're the two areas that well they'll tell 'em to do. They'll put a wrinkle in between your nose and your mouth and your mouth. And that's just because of the movement of this. As we lose estrogen, it's all about the estrogen. Estrogen is what's doing all this. Now there's a funny thing that happens around perimenopause more than menopause is that the little imbalance in your hormones.
Speaker 2 00:15:46 So as the eastern drops, sometimes the testosterone levels haven't dropped as much and you'll end up developing skin conditions that you haven't seen for 20 years. You might start getting some spots very distressing to be end up with acne spots in your, in your forties. You can develop rosacea, which is a really common uh, redness and pimping of the skin with Irish people. I think open one and eight people may have it and you can develop pigmentation issues. They all happen just around that change. And that is a common issue. Acne in perimenopause distressing because of course you now have to treat acne on skin that's potentially sensitive and dry and you're healing cause you're hitting, the menopause is reduced. So those spots take about twice or three times as long to heal as they did when you were in your teens. It is a known problem, easily treatable, but just this is a change.
Speaker 1 00:16:36 There are a lot of issues that arise from this drop in estrogen and you know, we then go on to treat the complications such as acne and pigmentation and wrinkles. Can we, and this is I suppose the role, so just to explore the role of estrogen. We're seeing it being prescribed so much more free frequently now. Yeah and a lot more liberally. I suppose that is because people rightly have less tolerance for what they now understand is the perimenopause and menopause.
Speaker 2 00:17:10 What I would generally say is, uh, H R T is prescribed to treat menopausal symptoms and a benefit of H R T would be improved skincare, but it wouldn't be generally thought of as the main reason to go to H R T. You know, you wouldn't go because I don't want to get a wrinkle, I'm gonna go on H R T. You generally have menopausal symptoms and as an added benefit, your skin may benefit from being on H RT but it wouldn't necessarily be seen as a reason to start it. But once you have estrogen, generally people's skin can look better when they're on H R T Eastern affects all our bodies. We, we think of it I suppose as, as purely sort of affecting our reproductive organs. But it affects our brain, it affects our skin, it it affects our digestive system. It affects a lot as we lose it. We are affecting lots of different areas.
Speaker 1 00:17:57 In terms of supplements, we know about the likes of soy products, which are I suppose chemically similar or structurally similar to estrogen and can mimic the effects of estrogen. Do you put merit in those kind of products?
Speaker 2 00:18:12 Absolutely. I think eat well to stay well is probably what I would I would say. And we would all recognize that our health is reflected in our skin. So we have have a healthy body. Uh, you'll generally have more healthy glowy skin that reflects not only what we eat, our supplements and our exercise and I suppose there's lots more talk about looking after our gut guys, our good guys and our gut. So soy product seems to be very good for the skin. Um, there is this legend that in, in Japan they rarely talk about the menopause cuz they eat so much soy products that they have lots of that, uh, phyto phytoestrogens in them. And again, multivitamins at this age in your life would be certainly no harm. I'm not necessarily going to promote one over the other. But looking after your health, eating well will reflect your skin and, uh, ease symptoms.
Speaker 1 00:18:57 Another part of your skin, which no one wants to talk about, but ultimately it is your external genitalia for a woman, your vulva, yes. That is as affected as the rest of your body when it comes to, you know, the loss of integrity in your skin and it can cause different issues and discomforts
Speaker 2 00:19:16 Actually this is an area that has at least has come on in leaps and bounds it sounds like in, in understanding this is an issue and it's an issue that affects women from the age of their perimenopause. Late thirties all the way up to a hundred years old. So once all of the cells there which are particularly responsive to estrogen, uh, dry out and become thin, then we end up with uh, a discomfort, a dryness, a re repetitive urinary tract infections, um, a painful intercourse. They're all that and it's such a delicate area that many people just put it up with it and never speak of it. So there's lots that can be done about it. It it, in England now they actually give intravaginal estrogen over the counter without a prescription cuz they consider it so safe and also such a necessary product for many people. So yes, absolutely it's an area we can deal with if you feel you need to deal with discomfort or um, anything that's there, there is treatment for it. That's the best part. And people are getting it all the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:20:16 It's another area that sometimes too much product can be damaging. Like there are a lot of products that are useful for other pH imbalances that maybe shouldn't be kind of chronically used. Well,
Speaker 2 00:20:31 Back to my washing thing, not too much over washing an area that, particularly an area like that which is naturally designed to look after itself can wash away a lot of the natural pH and the balances that are in there. So generally not useful. If we find somebody coming into the shop repeatedly asking for thrush products, we'd say, hmm. Uh, particularly if they're of a certain age. Maybe this isn't thrush, maybe it's just that the whole area is irritated from being dry. Um, and then we will generally take them aside and say, have you thought about this? Have a chat to your doctor about this. It might be an area you can think about. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:21:01 Yeah. And as you said, even just for people to know that there like it is easily treatable so don't suffer. It's easily
Speaker 2 00:21:07 Treatable. Yeah, absolutely. And, and at least people are having conversations about it. What should your skincare look like when you are in the perimenopause or the menopause Now, I suppose some people will have come into their skincare at this point in their life where they kind of were getting away with doing very, very little. And that's, that's fine. Your skin was kind of looking after yourself. But once you get to this point, we need to moisturize the skin because it is dry. And the moisturizing does two things apart from putting moisture in the skin. It also seals moisture in the skin because once you let the skin get dry, it cracks open a little bit and then it can get irritated. Menopausal skin has a tendency to be itchy. Sometimes it's itchy with no visible reason for being itchy. But that's just the loss of estrin again causes this underlying itch and moisturizing it will help.
Speaker 2 00:21:57 Doesn't always solve that itch all the time, but it will help you. Dry skin is by its nature much more likely to be itchy and allowing the skin's integrity to be dry and kind of broken also leads you more likely to get infections and things like that. Insect bites potentially will become a bigger issue. You know, you can, cellulitis can happen when you get a little bit older. So any little habit you have of just moisturizing your skin top to toe, particularly your face because that's, that's what we show the world. But top to toe is always, always good for you, good for your skin, good for maintaining the integrity of the skin. If you have a shower every day, use a nice product, something that's slightly oily to wash your skin and maybe moisturize afterwards. When you're using a, a skin cleanser, particularly even if you've developed this adult acne, you want a cleanser that's gentle, gentle, gentle is the key. Maybe a cleanser you don't wash off. So a cleanser you just wipe off. You know that sort of gentle moisturizing cleansers can be good on your skin when you get older and then you have to, you have to moisturize. Yeah. As moisturizer. What sunscreen did I mention? Sunscreen,
Speaker 1 00:22:59 <laugh>. I see a theme.
Speaker 2 00:23:02 <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:23:04 I always remind people as well, mostly because we're all eczema sufferers in our house and it's exactly what you said there about a moisturizer or emollient trapping the moisture in your skin. So when you get out of the shower to patch your skin dry gently and get the moisturizer on within three minutes, it's like a race. Yes. To try and get cream on <laugh> to try and trap any moisture that's there any kind of water in the skin layers to help keep them boosted. But yes. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:23:31 And and of course um, we're great for doing something when the skin is bothered and then we forget about it. So a lot of times if people come in with dry or eczema skin and I say this is what we need to clear it. And I said, your skin is going to take a minimum of 28 days to re layer itself. So even if this is cleared in a week or two, you have to keep protecting that skin to let it get better.
Speaker 1 00:23:53 What you said about the skin taking longer to I suppose rejuvenate. Yeah, it does. I have recently found over the counter rationale serums.
Speaker 2 00:24:03 Ah, fantastic.
Speaker 1 00:24:04 Just, yeah, so retinol is fantastic for this. Yes, it's,
Speaker 2 00:24:09 And actually a nice little bit of information is there is retinol products available on prescription as well, which are about four or five times, maybe even 10 times stronger. But the latest study has said the over the counter lower dose works just as well as the higher strength with much less chance of it irritating the skin. So the retinol is the serum you should be reaching for. Not only does it help the moisture going into the skin, it helps to take away a little layer of that older dead skin that's needs to be taken off to get that sort of fresher look. But with it, you probably should also still moisturize. You know, the retinol is going to do the job, it's the serum, it's the hard worker, but again that you've got that dry skin you need to moisturize and it'll also lessen the chance that the retinol will cause you any irritation.
Speaker 1 00:24:55 Yeah. Cuz I usually pop it on and then about 10 minutes later pop my moisturizer on over it. Do you
Speaker 2 00:25:02 Know you are being very good Chino? Well don't
Speaker 1 00:25:04 You? I say that I haven't actually used my retinol in about three months, but <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:25:08 It's on the shelf looking very well,
Speaker 1 00:25:10 It's beside my bed. It's gotten that far. Like I'm like, use me. And I was religious for a while and it was really working. Yes, it is interesting cuz it kind of makes blemishes and things come out of your skin for the first month or so.
Speaker 2 00:25:23 <laugh> does take time. I, I suppose that's the key with retinol. If you wanna see the benefits for retinol, you really need to say between now and Christmas, I'm gonna use it every day and I'm going to, towards the end of that I'm gonna start see grape results. But, you know, dipping in and out of it isn't really going to do you any good. No,
Speaker 1 00:25:39 Noted.
Speaker 2 00:25:39 Well, not not as much good as you could get outta it. Yes. Yeah. And that's why it has to be simple. I mean, I, I'd hate somebody to come out out of the shop with like 10 products or eight products. It really has to be simple, a simple gentle wash so that you don't strip the oils of your skin. Um, a simple serum, a simple moisturizer with sunscreen. Um, and, and just that's it. Keep it simple. We're busy. We, we, we start with great intentions. If we make it easy, we might continue it.
Speaker 1 00:26:08 Yeah. And there's a lot more value for money if you're getting products that you actually are able to use to use and use. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:26:17 It's true.
Speaker 2 00:26:21 So, um, I guess the other area and, and it's, it's very, uh, acceptable now once it was kind of the only, the rich and famous to do it, but there's lots of cosmetic procedures now and, and medical procedures that can be done to look after your skin. So, uh, I suppose the most dramatic of them would be the facelift. And that certainly done well, can look fantastic on people, but it is quite a dramatic thing to be adding into your life, but on, on an easier thing. And you'll see it much more common. The retinoids we covered, uh, they certainly should be part of it or Botox or fillers. Now Botox is a, something you inject into your skin by a professional and it paralyzes the muscles so that when you use expressions on your face, you don't tend to deep wrinkle and it gives your face a much smoother line.
Speaker 2 00:27:03 Fillers are commonly hyaluronic acid is a common product. Again, just replacing that into your face in parts which have now kind of sagged and laser treatments are, are commonly used for skin that has pigmentation issues, uh, redness caused by rosacea. And these things are all available, uh, to people and they all have some great results. I suppose most of them have temporary results. That's the little unfortunate thing. So whether you have fillers, Botox, or laser, you probably will have to go back in a period of time and have them again. But they're widely available and if if it matters to you and you wish to have them done, they they can have some great results.
Speaker 1 00:27:42 Yeah. And the thing I think traditionally it was thought that it was obvious if you got things like this done or that it was very fake. But that's simply not the case. Practitioners now are just using it to restore your skin condition to what it was, maybe pre menopause or whatever, you know? Yes.
Speaker 2 00:27:59 Well look, as a society, we're much more aware of how we look and we demand to look better for longer. I I actually was very recently looking back at an old photograph of my relations and who were my age and they all looked about 95 dressed in black, kind of drawn <laugh>. And that was kind of how people accepted. They just, they, they just were as they were. But we live in 2023, so we'd like to look well, we demand that we live well longer and we would like to look well in it. I think everybody's entitled to that, you know, if these procedures are available and you wish to try them, they have long history of use now, you know, there are some side effects for some people, but most people get on absolutely fine with them.
Speaker 1 00:28:39 I suppose the opposite. A much less invasive way to kind of improve general skin care and just wellbeing during menopause and even improve energy levels like diet and exercise. It does always all come back to the most boring topic of diet and exercise. No one wants to hear it. I know. Cause it's not an easy quick win. And we can't necessarily pay someone 50 quid to go no done.
Speaker 2 00:29:05 And the the the two other ones where you can't pay somebody 50 quid is sleep and stress. So those are probably the four pillars that we'd be looking at. And and sleep is the unfortunate one because as, as you hit into the perimenopause and menopause, our sleep is so disturbed that we end up tired. Uh, and that can often reflect on our skin and stress. Stress again, probably reflecting our emotions and our anxiety that comes from perimenopause and menopause that increases our cortisol levels. Uh, and that again can easily be reflected on our skin. So when somebody says, what should I eat in, in a diet? I generally say, we all know what we should eat, but generally it should be fresh and colorful. That's as probably as much as I could say, keep it as fresh, keep it as colorful and cut down your fats and your processed foods.
Speaker 2 00:29:51 It, it's less complex. That's, that's as simple as I can make it. But that's it. The other thing I I thought was interesting is our digestive, um, bacteria, which now we realize are so important for so many things, but somebody made a comment once that said if you, if you eat pizza all day, you will feed the bugs that like pizza. So you'll end up with a gut full of pizza loving bugs. And if you eat fresh food, you basically are feeding the bugs that like the fresh food so you end up with a better gut diversity if you give it diverse fresh food. Does that make sense? So you end up growing the bugs that are good for you, not necessarily needing to take a probiotic to look after your gut. If you eat the food that grows the best bacteria, you'll end up with the best bacteria.
Speaker 1 00:30:28 That makes sense. But I just wish those bacteria could be friends with the pizza bacteria, <laugh>. I feel like there should be room for everyone. <laugh>. It's an inclusive environment. I
Speaker 2 00:30:41 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:30:46 I know we'd all love, as I said, a magic actually. We all want a magic pill, don't we? We want to do whatever we want to do and we want to have our glass of wine and we want to stay our plates scrolling on our phones and we want to not exercise, but we want it all still to be having us looking fantastic and all the rest. And I guess that's the unfortunate thing. We do need to put a a little bit of the, the good work, but a any bit of work, if you can put in some of it
Speaker 1 00:31:08 And small steps, every
Speaker 2 00:31:08 Little helps is the old, the old adage. Yes. Every little helps.
Speaker 1 00:31:11 Yeah. And you're right though, because if we're willing to spend money on it, money is limited. Whereas our time and effort is something we can maybe control a bit more. And there's a lot of things there that you've suggested that don't cost money, that it's just reframing the mind and maybe investing in herself. But you
Speaker 2 00:31:29 Do not feel Sheena. Well, I know me. I really want to go in and say, it's like buying the gym membership. You feel like by purchasing it, you've gotten fit. When you haven't, if anybody is going in to buy these skin products, I want you to say, to give yourself a promise. I'm going to use them, I'm going to go in and I'm going to invest in those, but I am going to get to the bottom of those jars and get them finished and then see how the effect is on your skin.
Speaker 1 00:31:53 Yeah. And talk to your pharmacist if you're overwhelmed or confused because Yes. And actually not just the pharmacist. Our teams now are so full of knowledge and get such good training and
Speaker 2 00:32:04 They love talking about it. They literally come in and said, they get a buzz at, oh my God, I met this person and they had this problem and I talked about this and all those. They, they really do. Yeah. They get a buzz about talking to people.
Speaker 1 00:32:13 Yeah, like that's exactly, you feel good when you help someone and we have the products and the expertise and sometimes as you said, it's simplifying it for people and you Yeah, I need to do more of that to myself in my own life. Yes. Talk about things you don't use, keep buying books that I never read. But anyway, <laugh>, it's been a complete pleasure having you on today, Joanne, thank you so much for sharing. Thank you so
Speaker 2 00:32:37 Much, Sheena. It's always
Speaker 3 00:32:38 Delightful to meet you and chat to you. Thank you
Speaker 4 00:32:40 Very much. If you enjoyed this episode of the Irish Pharmacy podcast, please do leave a review, follow and subscribe to the show to hear more health information from your local community, pharmacist from the Haven or Total Health Pharmacy groups. Thank you.
