Lipodissolve is a phrase becoming more and more common. Most of us are familiar with the term Liposuction, however, the two procedures are extremely different.  

Technically speaking, Lipodissolve is an innovative application of homeopathic medication into the “mesoderm” or middle  layer of the skin, that specifically targets localized fat and cellulite deposits. The treatment slowly dissolves fat deposits with injections of a fat-dissolving substance called Phospatidylcholine, a natural substance derived from soy bean lecithin. Phosphatidylcholine makes up 40% of our cell membranes, and is found throughout our bodies. The body naturally eliminates the residue after a Lipodissolve session over the following three to four weeks.  The average downtime is 2 -3 days. No anesthetic is required.

Liposuction involves the use of anesthesia and a cannulae (probe) that basically rips the fatty tissue from its location. A local, or sometimes general, anesthetic is required.  The process involves the harsh liquidation and suction of the fatty tissue, and can be quite painful. The downtime can be extensive, and you have to always be careful to move your pant line up and down so that you don’t end up with an unexpected fat deposit – that is, once the bandages come off.

Okay, so all that being said, Lipodissolve (my fat reduction treatment of choice), is a non-invasive way to get rid of those unwanted love handles, arm flaps, and in my case, belly paunch.  I’ve been going to the gym religiously for almost 2 years, and no matter how much cardio and core work I do, I can’t get rid of that stubborn belly fat. 

After having two Lipodissolve treatments four years ago, I went from a size 14 to a 12.  Now, I didn’t actually lose weight from the Lipodissolve, just a couple inches off my abdomen.  (Ha! - ”just a couple inches” – Just!) I’m hoping that after another two treatments, I’ll go from an 8 to a six. (YES, an 8!! – I did say I started going to the gym)  I will keep you posted of my progress.  In the meantime, here are some pictures of other people to get you motivated:

Lipodissolve B&A 2

 If you have questions, we would be more than happy to help you, just give us a call at 604-421-3111 or e-mail info@lougheedlaser.com.

Cocktails for Cause is a night of glamour hosted by Jillian Harris and Delta Laser.  The event takes place at Earls Strawberry Hill, located at 7236 120 Street in Surrey, on June 17, from 7 – 10 pm. Nira Arora, host of The Beat 94.5fm’s Kid Carson Show will also be there supporting this worthy cause!

Jillian Harris hosts “Cocktails for Cause” benefit

Jillian Harris earned the title Bachelorette when ABC viewers fell in love with her bubbly personality on the hit show The Bachelor. The Vancouverite volunteered with Big Brothers from 2005 to 2008 as an in-school mentor at Bayview Elementary School.

Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver is a registered charity and community-based organization that has been operating in the Lower Mainland since 1957. Traditionally, they have offered friendship based mentoring programs and matched boys & girls who have limited to no contact with their families with carefully screened and trained adult volunteers. Times have changed, and in response, they have developed a menu of programs to suit the diversity of the communities we serve. Although the Big Brothers movement was born out of a need to combat a growing delinquency rate, their mentoring programs now serve a much greater purpose. The notion of prevention-based mentoring programs remains the same, but the driving force behind the concept has evolved. Big Brothers now recognizes that the mentor-mentee relationship is a shared, meaningful experience for both the child and the volunteer. Everyday experiences mean BIG impacts for the child, the volunteer and the community at large.

Tickets are $50 and include Photos on the Red Carpet, appies and a red rose cocktail and an Intimate Q & A session with Jillian. There will be an EXCLUSIVE silent auction of items hand picked by Jillian. Proceeds are to benefit Big Brothers of Greater Vancovuer. Tickets are available at the clinic as well as Delta Laser, Earls Strawberry Hill or online here.  If you are unable to attend the event but would still like to make a donation, any contribution is greatly appreciated.  If you have questions, please give us a call at 604-421-3111 and we will be happy to assist you.

Watch this short video demonstration on Botox Cosmetic and see for yourself just how easy this procedure really is. 

There is no other way to make yourself look more youthful and refreshed in just minutes.

For more information, please visit our website or call @ 604 421 31211

Rosacea is a nuisance, chronic skin disease that causes redness and swelling, primarily on the face. Other areas that can be affected are the scalp, neck, ears, chest and back. Sometimes, rosacea affects the eyes. Yes, I have been fighting it too.  That is why this post is so serious (I was recently criticized on how serious my post was so I feel the need to justify).

Those afflicted with rosacea may first notice a tendency to flush or blush easily. The condition can occur over a long period of time and often progresses to a persistent redness, pimples and visible blood vessels in the center of the face that can eventually involve the cheeks, forehead, chin and nose.

Since rosacea causes facial swelling and redness, it is easily confused with other skin conditions, such as acne and sunburn. For this reason, rosacea is known as the “great pretender,” and often incorrectly referred to as “adult acne.”

Who Gets Rosacea?
Rosacea affects an estimated 14 million Americans. Adults, especially those between 30 and 50 years of age who have lighter skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, are most likely to suffer from rosacea. However, rosacea can affect children and people of any skin type.

Rosacea is often passed on in families, with women being afflicted more often than their male counterparts. Men, however, often get more severe forms of rosacea. For women with rosacea, increased flushing and blushing may occur around and during menopause.

Famous rosacea sufferers include W.C. Fields and former President Bill Clinton, both often captured on film with the classic mid-face redness and bumpiness of rosacea. These classic signs of rosacea are often misidentified as 78 percent of Americans, according to a Gallup survey, do not know that rosacea exists.

The big question: is there any treatment to deal with Rosacea? The answer is definitively “Yes”.

According to the “Journal of Drugs in Dermatology”: (this is just an excerpt) ”Topical and oral antibiotics are effective, yet often leave individuals with treatment plateau associated erythema and persistent flushing. We investigated  intense pulsed light for treatment of the redness, flushing, and breakouts associated with rosacea. Thirty-two consecutive patients of (fair to medium skin types*) underwent 1 to 7 treatments with intense pulsed light. Patients were assessed clinically and photographically. Following treatment, 83% of patients had reduced redness, 75% noted reduced flushing and improved skin texture, and 64% noted fewer acneiform breakouts.  It appears that intense pulsed light is an effective treatment for the signs and symptoms of rosacea and represents a new category of therapeutic options for the rosacea patient.” For the full article click here.

So if you suffer from Rosacea there is a definitive solution.  Call 604-421-3111 or e-mail info@lougheedlaser.com today for your confidential consultation and get started on the road to clearer, brighter skin today.

Dr. Fleming performs Botox Injections

Think you’re too young for Botox?  Think again! Studies are showing that girls are starting to receive botox injections at a younger age.  They are doing this as a preventative measure, and really that is very smart!!!  I think a lot of people are under the misconception that botox is for old people, when in fact the younger you start  the better. 

Botox is commonly used in areas that have dynamic muscle movement like the frown.   The more you frown the deeper the lines become.   In our office alone, we have 3 staff members in their 20′s who are using botox as a preventative measure both in the frown and around the eyes and they are loving the smooth results.  The trick is to catch the lines before they have an opportunity to permanently scar your skin. 

I heard an anaology the other day that was perfect, ” think of a crumpled piece of paper, when you flatten it back out the lines remain visible on the paper.  Think of your skin in the same way. ”  Botox relaxes the muscle under the skin, thereby stopping the wrinkling effect you see on the skin’s surface.  Which brings me to the point that Botox is a safe, easy and extremely effective way to deal with unwanted lines and wrinkles for people of all ages.

If you want more information on how Botox can help your unwanted lines and wrinkles call the office at 604 421 3111or visit our website http://www.lougheedlaser.com/botox.html

How does the Fraxel Laser Treatment work?

The innovative Fraxel Restore Laser is specially designed to alter only fractional volumes of the target tissue. Similar to precise alteration of photographs and paintings, the clinical effect of this treatment technique is to alter the appearance of aging and sun-damaged skin. The creation of tiny microscopic wounds results in a wound healing process and a response to the coagulation of collagen fibers.

What are the benefits?

After your very first Fraxel Laser Treatment, you will begin to feel the difference in your skin, as it gradually becomes softer, smoother and fresher. Fine lines around your eyes will noticeably fade. So will uneven coloring and the brown spots caused by aging and sun exposure. Fraxel is considered the treatment of choice for Acne Scarring and effective for other scars such as post traumatic or surgical scarring.

What does the Fraxel Laser treat?

Fraxel Laser is probably the best treatment available for removing acne scars (check out our Acne Scar blog for more information).  Fraxel is also used to eliminate age spots/brown spots, melasma, surgical scars, stretch marks & fine facial wrinkles.

What does the treatment feel like?

Treatment is well tolerated and feels like a prickling sensation. A topical anesthetic ointment is applied prior to treatment to allay any discomfort. Highly effective treatment with minimal downtime. Results can be comparable to full resurfacing techniques.

Good news – with the innovative Fraxel Restore there are no more blue faces because there’s no more blue dye!

How long does the treatment take?

The anesthetic requires 45-60 minutes to take full effect. The treatment is then performed using the lipid base anesthetic ointment as the contact lubricant. A treatment typically will take approximately 20-25 minutes.

Is there any downtime?

Mild swelling should subside within a day or so, and redness usually fades over several days. Patients can apply make-up immediately after treatment and return to routine activities.

For more information or to book your confidential consultation, please give us a call at 604-421-3111 or send us an e-mail at info@lougheedlaser.com. Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

No matter what anybody claims, there is NO permanent hair removal laser that can treat tanned skin.  We recently had a client come up from the states that was absolutely irate because she admitted to being tanned and we refused to treat her.  Why would we do that?  I mean, she’s willing to pay for the treatment – why wouldn’t we take her money?  Because we didn’t want to burn her! Kudos to you, Adrienne, for standing your ground!

This is the way permanent lasers like the Lightsheer work: the laser emits a beam of energy that is attracted to the melanin (pigment) in the hair follicle.  Enough energy is released to destroy or permanently disable the follicle from producing hair in the future. Now, when your skin is tanned, there is excess melanin (pigment) at the surface of your skin.  The laser cannot determine if the melanin is in the hair follicle or your skin.  It doesn’t care.  All the laser cares about is the pigment. So if the pigment is in the skin cells (rather than the hair follicle), the energy produced will be absorbed by the skin cells resulting in one or a combination of three things: 1) Permanent hypo-pigmentation meaning that when your tan fades, you will have noticeable lighter spots where the laser killed the melanin in your skin; 2) Permanent hyper-pigmentation, meaning the laser didn’t kill the melanin, and when your tan fades, you will be left with square freckles because the laser only damaged the melanin in your skin and made it worse; 3) The energy (heat) from the laser is too intense and cannot be released due to the amount of melanin in your skin cells and you will be left with blistering burns that can leave permanent scars.

This is something we stress in consultation and ask every time someone comes in for re-treatment.  “Do you have sun exposure?” or “You cannot be tanned and receive Lightsheer treatment for X reason”.  For some reason, this particular customer couldn’t understand why we would be looking out for their best interest and not for our own wallet.  To us it makes more sense to say no to treatment than to risk permanently damaging our clients skin.  I simply can’t wrap my brain around why someone would be so mad at us for looking after their best interest.

The good news is I’m done ranting, and can offer two alternatives.  The first is wait a couple of weeks until your tan fades.  That way, you can be assured there is no risk to permanent damage to your skin.  The second is the Softlight laser.  The Softlight, while being non-permanent, will remove the hair without the risk of injuring your skin.  The Softlight is  a low level laser that only treats the superficial pigment of the hair.  It has excellent results for both coarse and fine hair, even on tanned or darker skin types.  Although it is not permanent, you can expect great results for months!

Here’s a video – hope it works  

You can see the hair instantly turns blonde and he doesn’t even flinch!  It’s a great alternative to the Lightsheer if you have a tan.

Anyway, this rant is long enough.  If you have any questions or concerns, please give us a call at 604-421-3111 or check out our hair removal page on our website.  Thanks, and look forward to seeing you soon!

Okay, I’m hoping the link below takes you to our short video about Glo Mineral makeup (yes, I know it says Delta laser, that’s because I wasn’t smart enough not ot use the clinic name it was filmed at). Don’t laugh, it was my first time, okay? Anyway, the point we were trying to make it that mineral makeup is far superior to the basic stuff you can buy at London Drugs or Shoppers, and it doesn’t really cost any more (unless you’re buying Bonnie Bell or the like).

I’ve been using products like Lancome, Estee Lauder, etc, and Glo Mineral Makeup isn’t any higher priced, but the big differences are these:

1) Glo Mineral Makeup is, as it says, mineral based. This means no bacteria can grow in the product so you don’t have to throw your stuff away every few months. For someone like me, who rarely wears makeup, this is a BIG bonus. I get so tired of spending money on new makeup, oh, and they don’t have that color you like anymore, oh yeah, and that type of lip gloss? Discontinued. And for people who experience acne, you don’t have to worry about bacteria growing in your makeup, because minerals are inert and don’t harbour bacteria, therefore you don’t have to worry about your brush touching a pimple and spreading that bacteria to another Glo Minerals product.

2) Glo Mineral Makeup was developed with people like you and me in mind. Our skin isn’t perfect, but we’d like to be able to cover the imperfections without looking like we’re going to crack when we smile – and I laugh alot. Glo Mineral Makeup is able to cover all kinds of skin problems – rosacea, brown spots, acne scarring, etc, without the heavy look or feel.

3) I don’t know about you, but my skin is extremely sensitive. I used a makeup remover for sensitive skin once, didn’t realize it had witch hazel in it, and walked around with a bright red rash for three days! Glo Mineral Makeup is so gentle to your skin, you don’t have to worry about allergic reactions – ever.

 

If you have any questions, or would like to book your Glo Mineral Makeover, please give us a call at 604-421-3111 or e-mail us at info@lougheedlaser.com to book your consultation.  Thanks and look forward to meeting you soon!

This year’s Women’s Weight Loss & Wellness Conference will be held on November 1 at the Executive Plaza Hotel at 405 North Road in Coquitlam.  The event starts at 9:30am and promises to be a fun-filled educational day just for women.

At the trade show in the morning you can learn about unique entry level workout programs; heart smart foods and supplements; dance; clothes to fit your body type; makeup and skin care; Yoga; Menopause information; naturopathic information and more…

In addition, there will be a series of live talks and demonstrations including our own Dr. Marcia Fleming who will be speaking at noon about the Soft Lift procedure. Other demos include cooking fast, well and healthy; Yoga for the beginner; entry level excercise and stretching; mineral makeup demonstrations; salsa dancing and food label reading.

For more information, please click the image below.  Thanks!

If you have acne scars you’re not alone.  Every day we get calls and e-mails regarding the removal of acne scars.  Our response is always the same – Fraxel Laser Treatment.  Too often we just expect everyone to know what we’re talking about when we throw those phrases around.  I’ve even had this discussion with the girls at our clinics – “of course everybody knows what Fraxel is and what it does, after all, it’s on tv!”.  Fortunately for me, not everyone has the extra time on their hands to watch tv during the day or else I’d be out of a job!

That being said, I guess I’ll start with what the Fraxel Laser is.  Simply put, Fraxel was the first laser of it’s kind in the rejuvenation market and has performed well over 500,000 treatments across North America with an unparalleled record of research, FDA clearances, proven results and physician endorsements.  Although you might hear other clinics talk about their “fractional” or “pixellated” laser treatments, there is only one Fraxel. There’s just nothing else like it for safely and effectively improving the appearance of your skin and creating a renewed self confidence.

The way Fraxel works is by shooting microscopic laser columns deep into the dermis causing tiny wounds, which trigger your body’s natural response system to heal those wounds.  This speeds up the remodelling of the natural collagen and elastin in your skin which results in smoother, tighter, fresher and more youthful looking skin.  Just as important is the area of skin that Fraxel treatment doesn’t touch. Because the treatment is so precise, the laser columns target only a fraction (get it? – “fractional”?) of skin at a time, leaving the surrounding tissue intact. This fractional treatment allows your body to heal the skin faster than if the entire area were treated at once.

Acne scars can occur as the skin heals from pimples, whiteheads and/or blackheads.  These scars are typically indented marks or raised, red areas that sometimes give the skin a wavy appearance and are caused by a variety of factors. Fraxel effectively removes damaged skin on the surface and reaches deep into the skin to stimulate collagen remodeling. In this way, Fraxel acne treatment improves the elasticity, texture and tone of your damaged skin while keeping your healthy tissue intact—which minimizes any discomfort or downtime. 

 Traditional approaches—such as deep chemical peeling, conventional lasers, topical agents and abrasion therapies—usually achieve only moderate results or, worse, they destroy a lot of healthy tissue along with the scar, and often require long recovery times. Fraxel laser is also better to remove acne scarring instead of more invasive treatments (invasive treatments are things like CO2 laser resurfacing which can lead to alot of down time due to scabbing, oozing puss, open wounds and the like) because there is minimal downtime - oh, and no puss.  

Fraxel Acne Treatment Before & After

 

Fraxel Acne Treatment Before & After

Over 20 million people in North America suffer from acne.  Acne scars left over from your teenage years can have a negative affect on your self-esteem. The Fraxel may be the solution you’re looking for to get rid of those embarrassing acne scars (without the use of blue dye – yeah!!).  Find out more about Fraxel laser by visiting our website, checking out our blog post “Photorejuvenation vs. Fraxel: What do I Choose?”. Or, simply give us a call at 604-421-3111 or e-mail at info@lougheedlaser.com to book your consultation and get started on the road to clear, smooth skin, and a brighter, more confident future!