Become wiser about how a holistic approach to beauty treatments can create the best results for your beauty and well-being. We have interviewed plastic surgeon Henry Delmar, who recommends collagen for his patients - both with and without surgery.
Doctor Henry Delmar has been a plastic surgeon for more than 30 years and has his practice in southern France at CLINIC DEL MAR. He explains in this interview the connection between medicine and aesthetic surgery and the supplements that can improve your beauty through the diet. The special thing about CLINIC DEL MAR is that here a 360 ° vision is practiced within the medical aesthetics, where the patient is in the heart of the process.
Everything begins with the patient
In each consultation, Dr. Delmar wishes to fully understand the patient's challenges in order to solve the aesthetic desires of the patient in the best possible way.
Therefore, two patients who at first glance have the same problems can get two completely different treatments adapted to their emotional state, their desire for invasive treatment or not, their habits and routines (diet, sleep, work, etc.). Invasive treatment is all types of surgical procedures that leave scars or not.
One must look at more aspects of the patient's lifestyle than simply making external corrections to get the best aesthetic results.
The collagen is on everyone's lips. What is your experience with the dietary supplement?
”As an aesthetic doctor, collagen is nothing new. We have used collagen that is consumed side by side with treatments to support patients' collagen level for years, as we have radiofrequency. What has changed in recent years is that more clinical studies have come to show that collagen as a dietary supplement can help maintain the body's collagen level.”
For the reader, radiofrequency is a treatment which, with a physical energy of the wavelengths radiofrequency, is applied to the skin and, among other things, stimulates the formation of new collagen proteins.
You are a plastic surgeon, but you have a clinic that takes care of beauty problems in a wider spectrum. How does it work?
“Our patients are looking for optimal results. In CLINIC DEL MAR we have experts in several disciplines, so that the problems of the relevant health professionals can be addressed. Besides the surgery- and aesthetic medical department, we have a dermatology department, a hair department and finally a nutrition department. The nutrition department has become central today, as we can understand certain skin problems through the diet that aesthetic medicine cannot solve. Take, for example, acne. It is often the result of a hormonal imbalance, but it can be associated with an imbalance in the diet. Our goal in that case will be to treat the cause before the consequences,” explains Dr. Delmar.
Why do your patients choose to combine collagen with surgery?
“The cosmetic surgeon will respond to a specific aesthetic problem. A face lift will make it possible to rejuvenate a face and liposuction will allow the body to be transformed. After an operation, therefore, there are many who looked into their health and habits to recover quickly, and many also choose to supplement their diet with a collagen powder," Dr. Delmar tells us.
Collagen, which is a protein that helps to maintain normal muscle mass and to normal bones. If the product also contains micronutrients such as iodine or zinc, it will also contribute to the maintenance of normal skin.
Would you as a plastic surgeon recommend taking collagen without surgery?
”Of course. The collagen can be taken as a course during treatment, but also continuous for patients who want to age with grace. Collagen is a protein, so there are no challenges in consuming it all year round. If one wishes to reduce the visibility of wrinkles and fine lines, a collagen supplements can help the skin's moisture and elasticity," Dr. Delmar points out. "After 25 years, the body can lose about 1% of collagen per year. At the age of 80, the collagen production may thus have fallen over half or more compared to young adults.”
What would you recommend that you take into account when choosing a collagen product?
”Today, there are countless collagen products on the market. It is therefore easy to get lost in the choice of collagen, but there is scientific measurements, that allows you to make an informed choice.
The availability of the amino acids you need to form collagen is a parameter that I think you should take into consideration. Next, the collagen is, as I said, a protein that must be hydrolyzed to smaller peptides (indicated in KDA which is a unit of measurement for the molecular size. ed.) to make it easy to absorb in the body.
In addition to the uptake in the body, is the origin of the collagen something to consider when choosing collagen. At CLINIC DEL MAR we use marine collagen which is from sustainable fishing of cod, rather than cattle. We do this, among other things, because of it complete amino acid profile. In addition, I often recommend a variant which also contains vitamin C, as vitamin C contributes to normal formation of collagen, and thus fits well with collagen," ends Dr. Delmar.
