Introduction

The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual
by Audrey Kunin, M.D., Bill Gottlieb

The DERMAdoctor is in and she's here to give an informed, friendly, and practical answer to every skin care question you've ever asked! Written by board-certified dermatologist Audrey Kunin, M.D., The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual is a hands-on, comprehensive guidebook to maintaining healthy, beautiful skin and looking great at any age.

The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual goes beyond any other book on skin care you've ever read. In her trademark warm and witty tone, Dr. Kunin frankly discusses the skin conditions we've all had questions about — including enlarged pores, rashes, discoloration, and more serious concerns like skin cancer — and provides straightforward explanations about why and how they affect us all. But Dr. Kunin doesn't just explain the problem, she gives unique and useful advice for preventing skin problems before they happen and repairing or reversing them when they do. From head to toe, this book is your indispensable guide to:

• Glowing, beautiful skin: If you suffer from acne, oily skin, rosacea, or melasma, there are clear-cut steps you can take immediately to repair and rejuvenate your skin for good.

• A fresh and youthful appearance: Chapters on sun damage, stretch marks, cellulite, and more address the clichés we've all heard and the treatments we've all tried and offer innovative, practical, and medically proven solutions that really work!

• Healthy skin, inside and out: Dr. Kunin goes beneath the surface to discuss a wide variety of skin conditions that affect many of us, like hives and eczema, offering expert advice for their treatment and prevention.

Insightful and engaging, this invaluable handbook delivers noticeable results, with real-world answers to your skin care questions, all with a dose of humor and charm. In addition, there is helpful information on product ingredients, cosmetic treatments, and the beauty products that work best for your skin type. Packed with great advice and easy-to-follow instructions, The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual is your companion for a lifetime of beautiful, healthy, and age-defying skin.

My mother always wanted me to be a dermatologist.

Good hours and good pay, was what she'd say. But I was convinced that I would be anything but. Who wanted to treat acne and warts all day long? Yet, despite my best intentions, I fell in love with dermatology.

A medical school rotation in dermatology at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose opened my eyes to the fact that dermatology had a lot going for it. I could care for children and adults and perform as little or as much surgery as I liked. Plus, I discovered that skin conditions weren't even remotely limited to those in my own childhood (warts) and adolescence (acne) — they affected everyone.

Upon my arrival back at the Medical College of Ohio that summer, I found myself under the tutelage of Drs. Walter and Dorinda Shelley, naively unaware that these two experts were considered pioneers in dermatology. Their offbeat and unique insights into dermatological therapy widened my understanding of how medicine is often as much an art as a science. Working with them solidified my interest and fanned my enthusiasm.

But while I have to begrudgingly accept the fact that my mother was right about my eventual career choice, even she never predicted the nontraditional use of my degree — a use that has allowed me to help millions of people seeking skin care solutions. Here's what happened...

Back in 1998, in the midst of the dot-com boom, I didn't even know how to turn on a computer. However, my husband, Jeff, whose passions included both business and the Internet, saw an unmet need — and www.DERMAdoctor.com was born. It was a great opportunity to provide skin care items online, as well as thoughtful advice and expertise. But our business start-up wasn't like that classic IBM commercial where the orders start rolling in. Rather, it was the e-mail that was overwhelming. Perhaps this occurred because it was next to impossible to obtain an HMO referral to see a specialist...or maybe it was the average sixteen-week wait to see a dermatologist...or it could be that so much of rural America was underserved by specialists. Whatever the reason, I got literally thousands of questions. And responded to every one. After answering similar questions over and over again, I started writing articles in order to provide complete descriptions of the conditions I was being asked about. As a result, the skin care information on DERMAdoctor.com grew and grew.

By the end of 1999, a recurrent theme had surfaced. Conditions previously not addressed by the cosmetics and skin care industries, like keratosis pilaris (a.k.a. chicken skin bumps), were continually being queried. Critiques of products in widely recognized categories were also accumulating.

Friends from medical school remember that I had wild dreams about starting a cosmetics company, marrying dermatology with beauty. It was time to dust off my dream and launch my targeted line of skin care solutions: DERMAdoctor Specialist Skin Care. It took four years and countless hours of self-education (and frustration!) before our first product hit the market.

Traditionally, skin care has been quite sterile, clinical, and predominantly masculine. Since I was essentially a mirror image of my own target audience, I knew that clinical skin care could use a feminine approach, even a touch of fun and whimsy. After all, most skin conditions are chronic. I was searching for something I could enjoy using day after day, something I'd enjoy looking at in my medicine cabinet (I prefer my skin therapy to be not only luxe but pretty), and something that was highly effective. I figured everyone else would be seeking the same thing.

Now more than five million people a year in America and around the world turn to DERMAdoctor.com and DERMAdoctor Specialist Skin Care for answers. However, I felt there was another unmet need in the marketplace — the need for a truly practical and comprehensive do-it-yourself skin care book.

It is not my intention to encourage people to diagnose themselves and replace the dermatologist. Rather, I wish to empower them to take the best possible care of their skin. DERMAdoctor.com has consistently positioned itself to be the definitive source of skin care information, educating consumers on up-to-date prescription medications, procedures, and workups. Sometimes seeing a physician needn't be your first response to a problem. Chicken skin bumps? There is no reason not to begin treatment at home. Poison ivy on Saturday night? Good luck getting into the dermatologist come Monday morning, not to mention dealing with the agonizing itching in the meantime.

Personalized skin care begins at home and can help prevent problems down the road. The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual is one of your best tools and resources for at-home skin care.

Textbooks are boring. Magazines may not offer enough information for you to make an informed medical decision. The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual provides information that's interesting, sometimes funny, occasionally poignant, and always up to date, with the best that medicine has to offer. It's about what really works or doesn't work. It's what you need to know about a treatment, a condition, an issue. It's about self-empowerment. And it's me and you, talking one on one about how I really treat skin issues; it's how I sit down, girlfriend to girlfriend, and discuss what really matters.

The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual is how I relate to people. I was never good at the "mill" that medicine has become. I would find myself spending twenty or thirty minutes or more with each patient, having an in-depth discussion about their skin condition and treatment options. That's not going to get me far in a practice in this day and age, but that in-depth approach has allowed me to develop the material you'll find here.

Also, this book reflects what is going on in my life. Whether it's my personal experience with my surgically induced menopause or my son's outbreak of chickenpox, my life and The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual are closely intertwined.

When I was a child, my mother often turned to Dr. Spock's book on child care, searching for information on tonsillitis and other disorders. I like to think of The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual as that kind of resource — convenient, all-encompassing, accessible, and entertaining.

Everyone has a skin condition. It doesn't matter if it's your first case of acne or your first issue with crow's-feet. The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual allows you to make educated decisions and find appropriate solutions for your skin. It shares all the skin care secrets and tips that I have long recommended to my own patients. When you have this book in your home library, the skin doctor is always in.

Copyright © 2005 by Audrey Kunin, M.D.

About the Author

Dr. Audrey Kunin is a practicing, board-certified dermatologist, the founder, president and chief medical advisor of DERMAdoctor.com® - a dermatology education and e-commerce site, and the creator of DERMAdoctor Specialist Skin Care.

Bill Gottlieb, a writer and editor specializing in health, is the former editor in chief of Prevention Magazine Books an Rodale Books. He is the author of Alternative Cures and the coauthor of the Calcium Key. He lives in Lake County, California.