Despite the common belief that medical aesthetic treatments are only performed in winter, our need for care is much greater during the summer, says Prof. Dr. Ioanna Batsialou, advising how to prepare our body and face for the hot days
For body reshaping, cellulite removal, and shedding excess weight, nothing is better than the ReShape program. For facial care, there’s the ReFresh program, with the most important treatments being light summer procedures, products made from natural ingredients, rehydration, and adequate protection from harmful sun radiation. All of this can be found at Ioanna Regen Polyclinic, which has been synonymous with health and beauty for decades.
As a doctor, pioneer of mesotherapy and anti-aging medicine, advocate of beautiful and healthy ageing, you oppose quick and unhealthy diets, starvation, and unsupervised exercise. So how do we prepare our bodies for light summer clothing and the beach?
Summer has begun, and it’s high time for those who haven’t yet prepared their body and face for the hot days to do so now. At Ioanna Regen Polyclinic, we have a body program called ReShape, which involves reshaping the body according to the patient’s needs. Some need to remove localised fat deposits from the abdomen, hips, or arms, some need to remove only cellulite, some want to lose weight, and there are patients who need all of this simultaneously. For body reshaping, we use three different therapies at the same time.
Such a perfect 40-day program gives phenomenal results – 7 to 10 kilograms less, depending on the excess
One of them is mesotherapy, which I introduced to Serbia back in 2003, and it involves using an individual, personalised 100% natural cocktail. We make these cocktails, and they contain caffeine, chamomile, artichoke, lecithin, ginkgo biloba, arnica, white lotus, and various other ingredients that act either as fat killers or fat burners. Microinjections are used to deliver the prepared cocktail into the mesoderm (middle layer of the skin), initiating the process of melting fat deposits and cellulite. Mesotherapy is beneficial for both women and men and can even be performed on children since only 100% natural ingredients are used.
Your polyclinic also has some of the most modern devices for body reshaping, cellulite removal, and weight loss. How do they work?
The second therapy in the ReShape program includes physical procedures that involve a wide range of devices, machines, and various manual massages, such as anti-cellulite massage and lymphatic drainage to eliminate excess water from the body. The devices we use serve for pressotherapy, i.e., mechanical lymphatic massage, and shockwave therapy. This device, one of the strongest for physical medicine and rehabilitation, is used to break down calcifications in the shoulder or heel spur, and we use it to break down fat deposits. We also use radio waves and ultrasound, therapies that have a thermal effect, heating the tissue.
Under the influence of temperatures reaching 45 degrees, fat deposits melt and are then expelled from the body through sweat, urine, and stool. Increased fluid intake is needed for increased urination, and moderate physical activity for increased sweating. The third segment of ReShape therapy is personalised nutrition. Patients bring a blood test result based on which Prof. Dr. Jagoda Jorga, a specialist in hygiene and subspecialist in nutrition, prescribes an individual diet regimen. If the patient has a health issue, such as insulin resistance, diabetes, anaemia, or thyroid disease, an endocrinologist is also involved. However, this is not all! A great support to all these therapies and procedures is our product “ReShape,” which contains a lot of chromium, an oligoelement that suppresses hunger and prevents insulin drops.
What results do these three therapies in the ReShape program provide?
Such a perfect 40-day program gives phenomenal results – 7 to 10 kilograms less, depending on the excess. Visually, this loss is even greater because, thanks to mesotherapy, losing 1 kilogram results in a loss of 3 centimetres in circumference, while with ordinary, classic weight loss, losing 1 kilogram results in a loss of 1 centimetre in circumference.
Summer is a time when the face should rest from medical aesthetic treatments, right?
It is a big misconception that people should not undergo treatments during summer because the needs of our face are much greater in the hot summer days than during winter. The essence is that in summer, due to high temperatures, blood vessels dilate, and sweating and urination expel larger amounts of water from the body, leading to dehydration, loss of electrolytes, and other substances necessary for normal functioning.
It is a big misconception that people should not undergo treatments during summer because the needs of our face are much greater in the hot summer days than during winter
Therefore, at Ioanna Regen Polyclinic, we recommend infusions during the summer, which are fantastic for the body. They are administered from time to time, restoring lost electrolytes and revitalising cells.
At Ioanna Regen Polyclinic, a range of summer therapies is performed, including peels that were previously reserved for winter. What are they for?
Facial hydration is also achieved through peels, which until recently were not performed in summer because they were considered harmful. Now we have soft peels, which are done at this time of year and are used to remove the surface dead skin layer, impurities from sweating, and secretions of sebaceous glands from the face. After that, we apply something from a vast range of therapies based on natural stem cells.
We have a therapy containing exosomes, natural stem cells from roses, Centella Asiatica, argan, Swiss apple, and other plants, as well as therapy containing fish-derived stem cells. These are nucleotides, growth factors, or stem cells from salmon or trout. In practice, it looks like this – first, the face is thoroughly cleaned with a soft peel, then we apply good hydration, followed by fish or plant stem cells, and finally, a mask is applied.
What protection from harmful sun rays do you recommend?
What should be given special attention in summer is the protective factor. The latest research shows that the greatest facial dehydration is suffered by people who spend long periods in front of computer monitors, and the face of a person who uses a mobile phone for several hours a day dehydrates five times more than the face of someone not exposed to this type of radiation.
Therefore, today, the latest creams with a protective factor are used, which hydrate the skin, give it a slight, beautiful colour thanks to the micropigment they contain, and at the same time protect against UVA and UVB radiation. In summer, additional facial hydration is essential, using moisturising creams that are completely different from those used in winter. People make a big mistake when they use the same cream throughout the year because the skin’s needs are not the same at low and high temperatures.
Before going to the sea, it’s mandatory to have a cosmetic treatment – cleansing, hydrating, and protection with appropriate creams – and the next treatment should be done immediately after the holiday, due to exposure to sun, salt, wind, and creams with protective factors that clog pores to some extent. This treatment will not make the tan disappear, especially if it was acquired naturally, by sunbathing in the morning, until 11 o’clock, and in the afternoon after 5 o’clock. Exposure to the sun when radiation is strongest, from 11 am to 5 pm, should be avoided as it damages the skin and accelerates ageing, which we definitely do not want.
So, sunbathing YES, ageing NO.