Overwhelmed by all the new products on the market that promise to rid you of wrinkles, smooth your cellulite and give you the best summer ever? Relief is on the way! In fact, one of the best ways to look and feel your best is a back-to-basics approach. There are many easy ways to make swimsuit season more comfortable and fun even if you don’t have the perfect airbrushed body.

First: Start walking daily, standing tall and holding in your abs. This burns calories, protects your bones, mellows your anxieties and helps create an hourglass shape. Increase the number of fruits and vegetables in your diet up to nine servings a day (five minimum); this helps your heart and burns your fat. Follow these simple tips to get beach-body perfect in no time at all.


Sunglasses are more than an important fashion accessory; they do double-duty protecting your eyes if you buy the right kind. Look for lenses that wrap around the face (to prevent UV-ray penetration from the sides) and that offer 100% UVA and UVB protection—this helps prevent macular degeneration, a major cause of blindness in women.

Overexposure to UV rays is also linked to age-related cataracts and photokeratitis (a sunburn on your cornea, which often happens at high altitudes where the sun is stronger and reflects off water). Put your shades and hat on and keep them on!


A day of sun and swimming can dry out hair; smooth your tresses with a hearty conditioner before you dive in to protect your roots and salon color. Look for conditioners that contain SPF. Tote a hat to the beach to shade your eyes and protect your scalp from sunburn and burn-related melanomas.

If gray hair is getting you down, try one of the new toners to brighten your locks. Coloring is gentler on your tresses than bleach.

Sadly, a common side effect of aging is thinning hair. Thank goodness there are medications that help, like minoxidil (Rogaine).


This is a challenging problem for almost all women, and (short of liposuction) there are no well-studied treatments that truly remove cellulite. Collagen injections are being studied and look promising, but they probably won’t be inexpensive. Mesotherapy, or injections with a medication that destroys fat cells, is the latest buzz among the Aspen and Palm Beach crowds. But at 10 to 25 treatments costing upwards of $400 each required to achieve results, it’s both a commitment and an investment (although it seems to live up to its promises).

Skin-care manufacturers are touting the ability of the fat-burner long used by body builders: L-carnitine. Based on limited research (mostly in Europe), L-carnitine seems to burn fat and smooth the appearance of cellulite when coupled with diet and exercise.

Don’t even think about going outside without slathering on sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or more—research shows that sunscreen coupled with a good moisturizer slows your skin’s aging. Wearing sunblock not only prevents skin cancer (melanoma), it also stops wrinkles and brown spots before they can even form. Reapply often and liberally—particularly if you’re swimming or sweating.

The best sunscreens contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. For strong protection look for a sunscreen with ecamsule (Mexoryl), which has increased potency against short UVA rays and doesn’t break down as quickly or easily as other sunscreens. A sunscreen with avobenzone and oxybenzone (Helioplex) also packs the power of two sunscreen types, protecting against both UVA and UVB rays.

See a dermatologist immediately for any new spot that is larger than a pencil eraser, multi-colored or irritated. Most skin cancers can be treated fairly easily, but melanoma can be deadly.


What happens to your legs in your 30s and 40s? Suddenly, as if overnight, the veins responsible for carrying oxygen-depleted blood back to your heart and onward to your lungs for a refill emerge at the surface. Valves in the legs prevent blood from flowing backward, but if those valves are a little faulty, blood will seep back, causing visible problems—blue or purple varicose veins that often hurt.

Varicose veins can be treated with a laser working inside the vein, guided by ultrasound. Thermal heating (or VNUS) is another choice—radio waves are used instead of a laser. Surgery is also an option, but because of the newer treatments it’s losing popularity. While varicose veins are unsightly, they’re not a health crisis and treating them typically isn’t covered by insurance.

About the Author: Kathleen Furniss, RNC, DMH, is coordinator of Women’s Imaging at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, NJ.