First 20 units of Botox-$13 per unit
Additional units-$11 per unit
Buy 1 syringe of JuvedermXC; get the second one at 30%

With the purchase of Botox or JuvedermXC Receive 25% off SkinMedica uplifting eye serum and TNS lip plumber!!

Call Erin or MiMi for an appointment 337-456-7300

JOIN THE SKINMEDICA 90 DAY CHALLENGE

This is the perfect opportunity to get started on an exceptional skincare regimen!

Sign up for the challenge is going on now so hurry as supplies are limited.

Best results will receive a 3 month supply of TNS Essential Serum

All who participate will have a chance to win a Vitalize Peel ($150 Value)

Here is how it goes:

Purchase the Regimen that includes:

• 2 TNS Essential Serum
• Tri Retinol Complex
• TNS Eye Repair
• Environmental Defense Sunblock
• Travel Facial Cleanser
• Vitalize Peel

An $870 Value for ONLY $595

***Do not need to participate in the challenge to purchase the regimen at discounted fee but must participate to be eligible for prizes**

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

A.G.E. Eye Complex by Skinceuticals

• Fights severe signs of aging around the eyes
• Reduces appearance of dark circles and puffiness around the eyes
• Key ingredients are flavonoids and synergistic peptides

***A.G.E Eye Complex is our February Facebook Giveaway!! Like us on Facebook for a chance to win!!

Diabetes refers to a group of diseases that affect how your body uses blood glucose. Glucose is the body’s main energy source for the cells that make up muscles and tissues. Diabetes means there is too much glucose in the blood. There are several different types of diabetes:

Type I diabetes is when your immune system attacks and kills insulin producing cells in the pancreas. Sugar begins to build up in your blood stream because there is little to no insulin. Insulin helps with the transport of glucose into the cells, so without it- it stays in the blood stream. Insulin therapy for this type is vital.

Type II diabetes is when your cells become resistant to the action of insulin and the pancreas isn’t able to produce enough insulin to overcome it. Risk factors include: obesity, inactivity, family history, race and age. Some people with Type II can control it with oral medication only and some have to aid it with use of insulin.

Prediabetes is when your blood sugar levels are elevated- but not enough to be considered diabetes. Eating right and exercise can prevent the need for medication and or the conversion to Type II diabetes.

Gestational diabetes only happens during pregnancy. Risk factors are age, family or personal history, weight and race. Most women will deliver healthy babies but complications can include: excess growth, low blood sugar, jaundice, respiratory distress syndrome, type II diabetes later in life and or death. Treatment would be controlling blood sugar by diet and exercise. In some cases insulin may be needed.

Some symptoms of diabetes are unusual thirst or excessive hunger, blurred vision, weight loss, excessive urination, slow healing times, extreme fatigue or numbness and tingling in hands or feet.

Lifestyle changes to manage any type of diabetes includes learning about the disease, taking care of your teeth, paying attention to feet, scheduling yearly eye exams, and  keeping blood pressure and cholesterol under  control.

If left untreated complications of diabetes include: seizure, coma, cardiovascular disease, nerve damage, kidney damage, eye damage, foot damage, skin and mouth conditions, and bone and joint problems.

Glycated hemoglobin tests the average sugar for the past 2-3 months. Random blood sugar test and fasting blood sugar tests are also helpful in the diagnosis. Testing for gestational diabetes includes a glucose challenge test between 24-28 weeks of pregnancy or sooner if you are at high risk.

Prevention of this is also fairly easy: maintain a healthy diet, get more physical activity in, and lose excess pounds. Also keep yearly exams scheduled with your doctor so you can catch a problem before it’s too late!

Stress is part of our daily lives. Demanding jobs, raising children, environmental toxins and even dietary habits cause our bodies to wear out our immunity, sometimes resulting in illness and fatigue.  Unhealthy ways of handling stress include smoking, drinking alcohol and even negative thought patterns can actually increase the amount of stress on your body.

Cortisol is the “stress hormone” secreted by the adrenal glands in response to daily stress and is in the glucocorticoids class. Cortisol is regulated by the pituitary gland in the brain and keeps our bodies “in balance” during stressful times.  Unfortunately, many people experience high levels of stress >70% of the time, leading their adrenal glands to secrete high levels of Cortisol leading to a “burnout” of our adrenal glands when stress is not managed or reduced.  Both high and low levels of Cortisol can lead to extreme fatigue, susceptibility to illness and problems with the intestinal track, nervous system and endocrine system.

Managing stressful situations will go a long way towards managing your daily activities and regulating your Cortisol levels.  Making a daily to-do list, prioritizing tasks and scheduling separate times for work and recreation will help you start to reduce the daily stressors we all face.  Remember that taking time off from our busy work schedules is important for balanced living and reconnecting with family or friends.  I encourage you to incorporate these ideas into your daily routine to keep you healthy and happy.  Fall is almost here and we need our immune systems to be their best as flu and cold season approaches!

Food choices to help balance Cortisol and other hormones that help with mood and immunity include old fashioned oatmeal, spinach, soybeans, citrus fruits and black tea. Schedule an appointment with our dietician Ashley today to get helpful tips and recipes to balance your own Cortisol connections today!

Most of the skincare problems we treat in our office are very complex. Everyone’s skin is different and must be treated as such. However, when dealing with acne, there are many contributors that are often overlooked. I’ve compiled a list of a few small things we can do to prevent acne.

* Pillowcases- Sometimes we overlook our pillowcases and forget to wash them often. Pillowcases can hold on to dirt, bacteria and microscopic bugs that can be a huge contributor to acne.

* Cell Phones- How many times a day do we pick up our cell phones and press them to our faces? We carry them around with us everywhere we go and drop them in our dirty purses. To protect yourself from all the bacteria, dirt and debris on your cell phone, be sure to clean it often with rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab.

* Make-up brushes- Dirty Make-up brushes are another hidden acne cause. Even after one use, make-up brushes become dirty. They are basically magnets for a build-up of old make-up, oil, sebum and dirt. If they aren’t washed often, they just put bacteria back on to your just washed face.

* Sugar- Many people don’t realize the more sugar we dump in our bodies the more inflammation we have. This applies not only to our skin but also our bodies in general.

Amy Thibodeaux is the certified laser specialist at Nouriche where she treats various skin conditions such as acne, age spots, rosacea and much more,

1. Retinoids stimulate exfoliation of dull-looking epidermal cells by accelerating skin cell turnover time from the standard 30-35 days to 5-6 days.

2. Retinoids repair DNA damage gradually in the epidermal cells as well as repair the dermal collagen and small blood vessels. The repair process effectively tightens skin, diminishes wrinkles, lightens discoloration and repairs sun damage.

3. Retinoids actually shrink oil glands, resulting in redued pore size, diminished appearance of scars and tightened skin.

4. Retinoids build an infrastructure by providing new collagen and a thicker, plumper epidermis.

5. As a result of all these combined effects, retinoids make skin look younger and have a rosy glow.

Angie Boutte is a native of Lafayette and the Medical Aesthetician at Nouriche. She has worked in the medical field for 19 years and has spent the last 8 years as a skincare specialist.

by Nadia Elsayed, Nurse Practitioner at Nouriche

Osteoporosis is defined as a bone density that is more than 2.5 standard deviations from normal bone mineral density according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Normal bone density is within one standard deviation of young adult peak bone mass (usually around age 30) Bone Mineral Density is measured by a dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scan (DEXA) and can predict future risk of osteoporosis.

Over the past decade, osteoporosis has been on the rise as a result of more sedentary lifestyles and poor overall diet combined with genetic factors and hormone imbalances have led to the diagnosis of osteoporosis in women as young as 40 years of age.  A balanced diet along with regular exercise that involves weight bearing exercises will go a long way to the prevention and at least delay onset of osteoporosis as we age.  Ask your healthcare provider when you should have a DEXA scan and start now on the path to healthy and happy bones!

The consumption of refined sugar is a glowing example of how one imbalance can trigger major disturbances in the body and lead to disease.

In 1967, Dr. Martin classified refined sugar as a poison because it has been depleted of its life forces, vitamins and minerals. “What is left consists of pure, refined carbohydrates. The body cannot utilize this refined starch and carbohydrate unless the depleted proteins,vitamins and minerals are present.”

Nature supplies these elements in each plant in quantities sufficient to metabolize the carbohydrate in that particular plant. There is no excess in our bodies that make us unique in our ability to handle simple sugars. Refined sugar is “empty” calories because it lacks the natural minerals which are present in the sugar beet or cane.

Eating refined sugar drains and leaches the body of precious vitamins and minerals through the demand its digestion, detoxification and elimination makes upon one’s entire system. So essential is the balance to our bodies that we have many ways to provide against the sudden shock of a heavy intake of sugar. Minerals such as sodium (from salt), potassium and magnesium (from vegetables), and calcium (from the bones) are mobilized and used in chemical transmutation; neutral acids are produced which attempt to return the acid-alkaline balance factor of the blood to a more normal state.

Sugar taken every day produces a continuously overacid condition, and more and more minerals are required from deep in the body in the attempt to rectify the imbalance. Finally, in order to protect the blood, so much calcium is taken from the bones and teeth that decay and general weakening begin. Excess sugar eventually affects every organ in the body. Initially, it is stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen). Since the liver’s capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar (above the required amount of natural sugar) soon makes the liver expand like a balloon. When the liver is filled to its maximum capacity, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids. These are taken to every part of the body and stored in the most inactive areas: the belly, the buttocks, the breasts and the thighs.

Excessive sugar has a strong mal-effect on the functioning of the brain. The key to orderly brain function is glutamic acid, a vital compound found in many vegetables. The B vitamins play a major role in dividing glutamic acid into antagonistic-complementary compounds which produce a “proceed” or “control” response in the brain. B vitamins are also manufactured by symbiotic bacteria which live in our intestines. When refined sugar is taken daily, these bacteria wither and die, yeast flourishes and our stock of B vitamins gets very low.

Many people are standing on the cliff of prediabetes overlooking subtle symptoms.

Signs you may have diabetes or prediabetes:

• Increased/frequent urination
• Excessive intake of water or food
• Weight loss despite decreased appetite
• Nausea and/or vomiting or abdominal discomfort after eating
• Weakness or excessive fatigue
• Absence of menstruation in women or impotence in men
• Blurred or poor vision
• Poor wound healing or increased susceptibility to infection

Any person 30% overweight for 30 years is likely to become a diabetic. Today’s generation will live shorter lives than their parents due to the large rise in diabetes. This disease  is not only preventable but  it is reversible in most cases with attention to lifestyle and diet especially the eradication of simple sugar.

. credit:global healing center

Don’t get me wrong…if you have fever, nausea, vomiting  and abdominal  pain–consider a trip to the ER ASAP to rule out obstruction, appendicitis, or other serious malady  . Otherwise, perhaps it’s time to take at look at one’s dietary habits. There are in fact foods that enhance gut function and others that impair it. Some foods can promote healing of the intestinal mucosa and others can set it on fire.

70% of our immune system is in our gut and when the gut is undefended, our bodies feel  it. Increased permeability has been observed in several disorders  and may be an effect and a mediator of disease

Restoring the integrity of the digestive ecosystem can have profound improvements on GI complaints as well as fatigue, myalgias, headache, skin disorders and more.

First, one should start an elimination diet for 1-2 weeks to assess the effect on digestive function.  “Remove what harms and provide what heals”

Start digestive enzymes, probiotics and a trial of betaine  on the elimination diet, probiotics after 7 days.

Attempt to identify the source of dysfunction—yeast overgrowth, small bowel bacterial overgrowth, parasites, hormonal imbalance, food allergies, Hpylori, etc

After a month on the elimination diet, start the repair phase by adding essential fatty acids,healing nutrients, and stress reduction.

Hopefully by incorporating these recommendations for digestive health, your social events will be worry free and fun to enjoy.

• Advancing age
• Previous fracture
• Glucocorticoid therapy
• Parental history of hip fracture
• Low body weight
• Current cigarette smoking
• Excessive alcohol consumption
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Hypogonadism or premature menopause
• Malabsorption, chronic liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease

Many studies have demonstrated that low bone density at any site can predict osteoporotic fracture, although hip measurements are superior to spine in predicting hip as well as overall osteoporotic fracture.
Bone density is crucial to one’s good health and longevity. Test for your baseline @age 50 unless you have one of the risk factors noted above (then earlier testing may be necessary.)
If you have a normal baseline measurement. Should you be retested?

• In the presence of risk factors that may cause ongoing bone loss (eg, glucocorticoid use, hyperparathyroidism), we perform follow-up measurements approximately every one to two years, as long as the risk factor persists. We perform follow-up measurements approximately every two years in high-risk women during the first five years of menopause, when bone resorption is most prominent.
• In women with no risk factors for accelerated bone loss we will typically perform a follow-up DXA in three to five years

Dr. Kelly Cobb is a board certified internal medicine physician and a partner at Nouriche.