Ethics & Psychology of Cosmetic Surgery and Beauty
Please enjoy this discussion of Ethics & Psychology of Cosmetic Surgery and Beauty, a podcast featuring Dr. Mark Murphy and Heather Burlage.
Click here to listen to the podcast.
Transcription
Announcer: Maximum Health with your hosts Dr. Ken Grey and WJNO’s Joel Malkin. Dr. Grey obtained his masters in both acupuncture and oriental medicine from the Atlantic Institute of Oriental Medicine. Dr. Grey enjoys being both the physician and as well as being an educator. His unique approach to holistic healing has taken him abroad to lecture in Germany and treat sports professionals in Hawaii and France. He has also co-authored several books on food therapy. His office is in Jupiter Florida where he has practiced for over nine years and where he now resides. Now it’s time for Jupiter Medical Center’s Maximum Health with Joel Malkin and Dr. Ken Grey.
Joel: Welcome to Maximum Health Quality Living here on NewsRadio 1290 WJNO, I’m Joel Malka in here as always with the holistic physician from Jupiter Medical Center, Doctor Ken Grey.
Ken: Hello.
Joel: And his usual sign on this morning, every time we have new guests in here we get to hear the sign on for the first time. And today we’re talking about aesthetics, were talking about plastic surgery and other ways to keep us young, right?
Ken: Yes.
Joel: Somewhat?
Ken: We are.
Joel: I took a stab at it.
Ken: Yeah you did, a very good one. But you know the other aspect of it is we’re going to look at the holistic approach to beauty. Dr. Murphy you’re actually kicking off one of three shows we’re going to have this one, we’re going to look into cosmetic dentistry, we’re going to have LaMerre(sp) follow-up that one and as far as a third show. So were really honored to have you here, thank you for coming.
Mark: Thank you for inviting me.
Joel: This is Dr. Mark Murphy, we should point out, a plastic surgery is on staff at Jupiter medical Center and we love Jupiter medical Center not only because they underwrite the show but because it’s just a great place to be treated.
Mark: Yes. And I want to also give a real quick introduction to Heather Burlage.
Heather: Hello.
Mark: Wish you guys you could see her. But you can’t so too bad.
Joel: I’m not allowed to make comments, I have someone at home.
Ken: But, you know, what we looking at here is Heather she is a nurse aesthetician and what that means is that she gets to work in the area of beautification using less invasive methods. We’ll get into that soon. The questions that I have obviously as a holistic physician today will spend the gamut of dealing with psychology. Obviously there’s this whole new area of addiction which involves plastic surgery, there’s ethics. I think what it comes down to is that as a patient you go to a physician and you’re trusting not only in their skill set but in the way they approach things. And from what I’ve heard and what I’ve been told, Dr. Murphy has a great way about him, I want to get into that I want to know how he chooses what he does and when he does and how he does. Also I want to know about other things that we may not think about when it comes to plastic surgery. Dr. Murphy?
Mark: Well, obviously it’s a very rich topic, and as you know there are various components to it, anatomy, psychology, physiology and various other components. And to start from the scratch when we get a patient in the office how do we go about you know approaching that patient and psychology is a very, very important component because if the patient doesn’t have a psychologic health, if you will, there’s not too much I can do for them, you know? Where our fields overlap is when people enter holistic medicine, my office, they’re generally trying to feel better. And whether it’s a medical condition or perception of beauty or what have you they’re trying to make their lives better. Now obviously there’s got to be a strong psychologic pinning for that, if they’re not psychologically pleased where they are with their life there’s not much you can do with that with the tools that I have. If you have someone who is very pleased with where they are in life but they just want to further that, improve their health, improve their well bing, improve the way they feel about themselves, that we can do a lot with.
Ken: So there’s an element of happiness, that word happiness, that comes into play. So you know generally speaking if someone’s not happy they’re never going to be happy. Is that what you’re saying?
Mark: Well not … it depends on the underlying cause of the unhappiness is. But very rarely is it because ‘I’ve got wrinkles’ usually that’s a, you know, that’s not the thing that brings people down. The things that you have be aware of, and you mentioned an addiction issue before, in our feel we have extensive training noting when those patients come in and not treating them, or not treating with them with what we do but referring them to professionals who can help them. Because we’re not a psychological office even though that’s a large underpinning of what we do, as I mentioned before, that’s not our expertise. Our patients, the ones that we actively engage with my treatments, are people who come in the office and who generally have a very good self-worth, sense of self being. But just don’t look the way they feel, the look in the mirror and say I see this old person and that’s not the way I feel, I want to regain some of that use.
Joel: That sounds like me.
Mark: Well that’s a different conversation. And those people we can do quite a bit with because they have that inner peace to them we’re not trying to create that for them. When you have a patient come in and says I want to change my life, I want to start new relationships, this is going to be the underpinning to that, this is patients that we generally don’t engage with because those are fundamental things that, you know, we can refer them to the experts who will help them with that but what we do is a complementary thing to an overall health, it’s not creating health from that standpoint.
Joel: So you actually turn people away?
Mark: Yes we turn a lot of people away.
Joel: When I think the plastic surgeon, and don’t take offense to this because you seem like a really good guy, I think of plastic surgeons I think of people getting boob jobs. You know when you see those shows I forget the names I don’t watch them…
Mark: Nip Tuck.
Joel: Nip Tuck and all that. And you think, you get that image of somebody that’s just like ‘yeah I’m going to cash in’. This person you now if she gets double d’s she’s going to feel great about herself and that’s the only reason I’m doing it is to make the money. So it sounds like you’re the opposite of that.
Mark: Well that’s obviously, with those shows prevalent in society, that is the general stereotype and that’s fine. You know it comes with the territory.
Ken: I want to interject here really quick because again our listeners can’t see Dr. Murphy but if you’ve ever met him, you know, I’ve done yoga with Dr. Murphy so his lifestyle is family life all these things that I hear he’s a very well rounded individual. And so the addiction kind of goes both ways in every profession, in terms of how the physician handles a patient and what a patient will take or involve themselves in as well. So the reason why want to quickly … is to paint a picture of Dr. Murphy of being this overall holistic person that does … this is worth his profession but he’s not just a plastic surgeon. And not looking to just create, you know, work or cash income. He’s helping people and we’re going to talk about that too but anyway I just wanted to say that.
Mark: Well I appreciate that, that’s very nice. But the other reason why do it, it’s actually very selfish, it makes me happy. And Heather and I work very closely together every day and you know she can attest to it, and the reason why had Heather work with me is because she loves what she’s doing. So it’s kind of selfish for me, you know, it sounds like I’m doing nice things for other people but I like doing them. But I think if you have that, if you’re doing it … what you do because it makes you happy, again this happiness theme which we seem to be on, it kind of spills over to why people come to my office. Because most the people that come in our outgoing people, they’re active, they like to look good, they like to feel good, they want to stay that way. They want to keep that youth they have a cause that’s what makes him happy.
Joel: So it’s not necessarily a vanity thing, it’s you know…
Mark: I mean, no, I would actually say honestly it’s not a vanity, I mean of course we have I say this with a smile on my face, we have some vain patients and I won’t deny that. But most of our patients are very down to earth people they just, like I said, they enjoy life and to enjoy the little bit more they say ‘well I want to look a little bit better’. No I don’t think that’s a bad thing, obviously. Do they ask you for any other advice, in terms of maintaining their youthful appearance and feeling good, does that come in to play with why they search you out as well. Do they say ‘well you can obviously help them with the way that they look but with what about the way that they feel’, how else to interact with them?
Mark: Oh yeah, no, we talk about, you know, we talk about a lot of different things, you know, within the inner walls of the office and its health, it’s eating, its exercise, it’s getting out and being active, it’s doing things, especially patients most of our patients have been established patients for an extensive period of time. And we will see them every once in a while, we had a patient recently who we’ve known for a while and she came in in kind of a bit of a rut because of some issues in her life and you know we chatted about it and we said you’ve got to, you know, Heather and I are really big yoga fans, you should go out and do that and maybe eat a little bit better, go out and just be active, go for some long walks. So there’s a lot more to it than all then just what we do with injections and operations.
Ken: Do you ever coach them on diet?
Mark: No, but it’s funny you mention that because on the way down here, and I was thinking about this conversation, we talk about diet all the time in my office because obviously I employ people who have similar mindsets to myself and we’re always talking about that. And I thought recently about adding on someone in that capacity but I haven’t taken more of a thought at the moment but it’s vital. And from personal experience I know how important it is.
Ken: The reason I ask is because when I do see a patient that either is going in for some form of plastic surgery or post operation they do ask me that. They say what should I be eating and how can I help with the inflammation and the healing or, you know, obviously besides acupuncture bringing blood flow and energy to the area to help with the retention of the work. How do I also speed up the healing process especially if they have a trip to take or you know…
Mark: Well again, you know, in the holistic route we have, when you have a patient for surgery in particular who are extremely strict about diets they need to maintain in the perioperative period before and after the surgery. And we go over that with them extensively. And a lot of our patients do have a holistic mindset and a lot of holistic medications are not good to be taken at the time of surgery so there is a large spillover between that branch …
Ken: For instance the Omega’s maybe, vitamin e, Omega’s things like that and tell us why though to.
Mark: Vitamin E, Omega’s. And one of the issues unfortunately with a lot of the holistic medications is we don’t know what’s in a lot of them. Now they’ve been around for centuries obviously they do something well or they wouldn’t have been around for that long. However some of the things they do can interfere with some of the things that I do so as long as we record coordinate them correctly it’s fine.
Ken: So what they might be on or taking before may be … may not be good then but may be good after.
Mark: It’s good for their health overall they should be on it. But during a time when you’re going through a surgical procedure in particular a lot of the medications are blood thinners, the holistic medications, and obviously those during surgery are not fun to deal with. So that’s why we’re very adamant about educating them in that regard.
Ken: Good. Some of the things you offer in your office, obviously like we mentioned in the beginning, is some noninvasive options. And what I’m curious about is a patient enters your office and you offer these different services, who delegates, who chooses, how did they … do they go through an interview process besides obviously strictly for faces which you’ve mentioned them having an interview process, but what if they don’t fit that need and they simply need some rejuvenation of the skin.
Mark: Well obviously any person that comes into my office I direct what they’re going to have dumb and what treatment pathway there proceed down. You know when they call the office they usually ask several questions, what about this procedure, what about that procedure, what exactly do you offer and you know obviously my staff has been trained to handle those calls. But most patients, and obviously the trend in cosmetic surgery over the last 5-10 years at least has been away from surgery. Because no one really wants an operation, select cases possibly, but for most part if you can accomplish a goal without operating so be it. A lot of the appearance, a lot of looking good and feeling good is your skin, because that’s the first thing obviously anyone sees when they look at you, I’m not looking at your jowls are you droopy eyelids, the first thing that’s encountered is your skin. So what I tell everyone who comes into the office is skincare has got a be a regimen of what you do, especially surgical patients because if you’re going to go through all the issues with surgery because if you’re going to go through all of the issues was surgery, pre-op work, we talked about modifying your diet, the surgery itself, the recovery and whatnot, if you fix the chassis but don’t put a fresh coat of paint on why bother? It’s part of the whole package and that’s a maintenance issue you know what I mean and what I mean by that is surgery is obviously kind of a one point in time and it’s not something you want to do continuously.
Joel: Some people do.
Mark: Correct.
Joel: You know the ones with the smiles on their face even when they’re frowning.
Mark: But skincare is really, you know, it’s kind of almost the … one of the cores of what we do because that’s so vital to looking good and feeling good and that’ something, you talk about diet and what you put into your body and exercise, that you can tell someone’s health generated by looking at their skin. Smoking and sun damage are the worst.
Ken: Right, okay, alcohol?
Mark: Alcohol is bad as well, not in the same category as smoking and sun damage but alcohol is obviously very detrimental.
Ken: Depending on the type of alcohol consumption, I would think.
Mark: Yeah well there’s a lot of different components to go with that, there’s also genetic backgrounds and what not and that has an effect on that as well.
Ken: Okay.
Mark: Smoking is always the worst.
Ken: What does that do to your skin?
Mark: I’m going to defer to Heather on this because she deals with this almost as much as she is I do.
Ken: And that’s, again, Heather Burlage, she’s an aesthetic nurse and she works with Dr. Murphy.
Heather: Yes, smoking’s specifically asphyxiates the skin, so you’re not going to have proper circulation or oxygenation of the new cells, it’s just not going to occur because your circulation is going to be so compromised from smoking.
Joel: So you’re going to hit 40 and look like you’re 60, skin wise, sometimes if you’ve smoked since were 15 years old or whatever.
Heather: Yeah, definitely you’re going to look much older than you are, you know, and the sun is also just as bad about aging you quickly.
Joel: All right, we’re going to come right back to Maximum Health Quality Living with Dr. Ken Grey from Jupiter Medical Center in our guests, of course, right after this.
Commercial: Let’s face it, we love South Florida and we love the sunshine here. You know South Florida Sun is great for outdoor activities but unfortunately it does put us at a risk for skin cancer. Hi it’s Sally. When skin cancer strikes rest assured that there is hope, Jupiter Medical Center’s Foshay Cancer Center offers the latest innovation in skin cancer treatment, superficial electron beam radiotherapy. This is a nonsurgical alternative to treat localized skin cancers. This therapy is well-suited for cancers found on the face including nose, ears, and eyelids. And some of the benefits include, well first of all, it’s painless, each treatment takes only minutes, minutes it requires no anesthesia, no cutting, no down time from work or play, and no need to stop medications like blood thinners during treatment, and also produces excellent cosmetic results. If you’re considering treatment for skin cancer contact the Foshay Cancer Center and find out if this treatment is right for you. The number to call is 561-263-4400 or visit foshaycancercenter.com.
Joel: Thanks for listening to Maximum Health Quality Living underwritten by our friends at Jupiter medical Center with Dr. Ken Grey is with us.
Ken: Now you have smoking which affects the skin, but you’re inhaling the smoke, it’s going into the lungs and it just so happens that in traditional Chinese medicine the lungs are very much connected to the skin. The skin is the outer sort of connection to the lungs, so the condition of your lungs if they’re dry, obviously chronic smokers have dry lungs, drier lungs, you’ll have dry skin, which is the largest organ of the body. You know I get calls all the time for stopping smoking and when I interview them on the phone I say are you just looking to stop smoking or you looking to change your life and become better. Because I don’t deal, you know, there’s plenty of those laser clinics and acupuncturists that advertise that, I don’t advertise at all. But when they do come to me I say ‘if you want to talk with me, I will share different patterns, I will share with you different food, changes, fitness. I’m going to want you to become a better person, not just stop smoking’. Because if you stop smoking and I help you with the addiction of that, as far as the cerebral connection is, then you might just pick up and try to fulfill that section of the brain with …
Joel: Yeah, you know, just move the addiction and start eating wrong.
Ken: … sugar, alcohol. So I get into that and then I teach them also if they also do subscribe then I will go ahead and teach them the healing foods for their lungs which are like pears and, you know, there’s definitely foods that definitely help repair the lungs and that help leach toxins on the body, alkaline water which I’m sure you recommend all your patients get on some sort of increase of water content. With that being said say the canvas is all clean, you’ve got a good specimen, let’s call you guys specimens out there you listeners, no. Say you got a great patient and they’ve got all their ducks in a row and they are wonderful and Heather they come to you and they you know they want to just enhance their beauty maybe they had a poor teenage life but their adult life they been doing great. And they get to see you and you get to hold their hand and you get to make them feel comfortable, what are the some of the things that you can do to help them?
Heather: Well that’s specifically what I enjoy so much about what I do, is that I love to help people feel better about themselves, about the way they look, the way they feel. And it’s very common to repair things that were done in the past with skin, you know? Sun damage specifically living in Florida it’s such an adversary. Very common here in Florida so you know I think one of the most important things I can educate the client on is prevention, prevention of future damage, prevention of damage of their children skin, their friends skin, whatever, whatever it takes, you know, to just avoid the sun exposure. Because that is going to age you very quickly so that’s specifically what I work on is the beautification of the skin. So trying to reel it back in some time, you know, and keep it as healthy as possible.
Ken: Now you’re one of the few in the area that can actually perform ultra…
Heather: Ultherapy.
Ken: Ultherapy.
Heather: Ultherapy is what’s called high-intensity focused ultrasound. Okay and ultrasound, as we know, is used as a diagnostic tool, it’s also used as a therapeutic tool. So in this case it’s a machine that utilizes both forms of ultrasound. And so, you know, in looking at a client scan I can see the layers all the way down to even the bone. But I’m treating specifically two layers, one is the muscle layer which happens to be where Dr. Murphy operates in, you know, facelifts. And it’s putting teeny little injuries into the muscle layer. So very similar to, like, if you’re working out at, you know, any sort of exercise you’re tearing down muscle fibers. So when it repairs itself it’s going to be stronger, firmer, tighter, you know? So that’s the same thing it’s like getting a workout for the face. And the second area I work on is the dermis which is in a stimulate some college and so that’s going to go on for a while because after treatments been performed the collagen can be stimulated for up to six months. So it’s, you know, noninvasive, there’s absolutely no down time, there’s potential for a couple little side effects but we try to screen as well as possible to avoid that. And people are very pleased with it, you know?
Ken: Where do you employ, that sounds amazing that you can do that was sound by the way…
Heather: Yes.
Ken: Where do you employ some of the other services that are a little bit more popular and more frequently used such as injections of restylane?
Heather: Well that’s Dr. Murphy’s territory.
Ken: Okay.
Heather. So, yeah, Dr. Murphy does all the injectables.
Ken: Okay.
Mark: The … aging is a multifactorial process, as we all know, and a large onus on rectifying the aging process of the last several years has been replacing them volume thats lost in the face. You need to balance it is the bottom line. Just like with anything else you need a balance diet, you need a balanced lifestyle, you need a balanced health. And if you going to be rectifying some of these issues you need to balance the various treatments you are trying to employ to make it look better.
Ken: Well health and balance I was saying, you know, I have a book series called Health and Balance. For me it’s about food, it’s about everything you can do before you get there. So I have to reinforce that people, like Heather there said, prevention, diet, fitness, Dr. Murphy said that. So we’re just sort of revisiting that and saying everyone out there it’s very important for you to keep, you know, take your health into your own hands throughout your life. But in the case that you need someone to intervene, to help you at this juncture then you would search out someone with ethics, you would interview them just as much as their interviewing you, and we have Dr. Murphy which we need to know how to find you. What happens when they need to make that decision and they want to find you?
Mark: I have an office in Palm Beach Gardens our office number is 561-6599-7766.
Joel: Where in Palm Beach Gardens are you?
Mark: It’s right off of PGA Boulevard, right off of 95.
Joel: Okay.
Mark: We’re on the internet of course PalmBeachFacialPlasticSurgery.com and those of the best avenues to reach our office.
Ken: Great. And for people that are looking for interesting foods or antioxidant rich foods, reducing inflammation, you would probably go to JuiceAndEssence.com. Co-authored a book series called Health and Balance, I want to remind our listeners about that, it’s very important. And then of course the supportive therapy of acupuncture is very good and you should also look at, you know, that as an adjunct service in this case.
Joel: And of course we do appreciate once again Jupiter Medical Center for underwriting this show and you can get them online JupiterMed.com or call 561-747-2244.
Ken: Before close Dr. Murphy I know that you’ve helped all different age groups. What are some of the other services that you offer for, say, children?
Mark: We do a fair amount of scar revision for children, I think most the people in my neighborhood have called me up to sew up their children at some point. Also I’ve been on a couple of cleft lip and cleft palate missions in Central and Latin America, trying to arrange one for 2014 currently. Those are the key things that, obviously birthmarks, moles, that we work extensively with pediatric dermatologists in the area.
Joel: Has anyone ever come in and what are they called the thing in the chin? Like John Travolta has for instance does anyone ever actually come to you and say I want this gone?
Mark: Yeah it’s…
Joel: Or does anyone want to add one?
Mark: It’s rare but it does happen and usually if it’s overly pronounced.
Joel: Okay.
Mark: A subtle line I try to tell them that’s part of your face and you should appreciate it, you know, I try not to intervene. But sometimes it’s very deep.
Joel: And were coming right back to Jupiter Medical Center’s Maximum Health Quality Living with Dr. Ken Grey right here on NewsRadio 1290 WJNO.
Commercial: Let’s face it, we love South Florida and we love the sunshine here. You know South Florida Sun is great for outdoor activities but unfortunately it does put us at a risk for skin cancer. Hi it’s Sally. When skin cancer strikes rest assured that there is hope, Jupiter Medical Center’s Foshay Cancer Center offers the latest innovation in skin cancer treatment, superficial electron beam radiotherapy. This is a nonsurgical alternative to treat localized skin cancers. This therapy is well-suited for cancers found on the face including nose, ears, and eyelids. And some of the benefits include, well first of all, it’s painless, each treatment takes only minutes, minutes it requires no anesthesia, no cutting, no down time from work or play, and no need to stop medications like blood thinners during treatment, and also produces excellent cosmetic results. If you’re considering treatment for skin cancer contact the Foshay Cancer Center and find out if this treatment is right for you. The number to call is 561-263-4400 or visit foshaycancercenter.com.
Joel: Welcome back to Maximum Health Quality Living here on NewsRadio 1290 WJNO.
Ken: So all thank you all for joining us today, it’s been Dr. Mark Murphy. We’ve had also Heather Burlage who has from what I have been told the best talk therapy what is it called?
Heather: Talkesthesia.
Ken: Talkesthesia, yeah, talkesthesia.
Heather: Its self-proclaimed term.
Ken: Mainly because some the things you do are painful, effective but painful.
Heather: Yes, very important to keep the patient comfortable. So whatever it takes, you know? Lots modalities to choose from but I think what works best is always just making a patient comfortable by just talking things through making them feel comfortable with what I’m doing and the reason that they’re doing it and, you know, sometimes just the distraction a conversation about nothing related whatsoever but it seems to work the best.
Joel: Yes thank you for joining us today. It’s been Maximum Health with Dr. Ken Grey, Quality Living, and we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas, definitely Merry Christmas. And we will talk to you again next week here on NewsRadio 1290 WJNO.
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