Hands down, it’s the most useful book ever on what to do, when, to keep ahead of the aging clock and remain perennially fresh and ready for your closeup. The Youth Corridor, by Gerald Imber, M.D., is subtitled “a renowned plastic surgeon’s revolutionary program for maintenance and rejuvenation” and he means it. Something like tough love for women who figure they’ll have a face lift at sixty and fix everything, Imber’s theory is: baby, don’t wait til there’s a problem. At that point your skin has lost much of the resiliency that surgical procedures depend on. Imber says you’re better off opting to have a little done earlier when the results look natural – and you can enjoy them at a younger age – than to try to have everything winched back into place at the same time. Can you say, Mary Tyler Moore?
I know. The truth is painful.
The Imber Plan
In both fascinating and increasingly horrific terms, the book takes you decade by decade outlining the symptoms that will appear as you age and how to best fight them on a case-by-case basis. Surprisingly, Imber isn’t surgery-happy, which gives him credibility. He’s first out to convert you to get radical with the skin-care.Dr. Imber is adamant about Retin-A and glycolic acids (both peels and lotions) and also about taking vitamins and making lifestyle and diet adjustments to maintain skin, which is — surprise! — much easier maintained than repaired. As expected, he’ll bitch you out for not using sunscreen (the easiest and cheapest way to stay younger looking). As expected, he also goes into great detail on plastic surgery for those who want to go to town. You’ll learn which procedures give the most bang for the buck, recovery information, and all you ever wanted to know about cheaper fixes like collagen, Botox, and lasering. Interestingly, Imber claims those may be all you need if you follow the rest of his program and do the tweaking early enough. Â
The reasons to get the book are the age-specific timetables for intervention (what to do when) and the skin-and-lifestyle programs keyed to your age. Imber’s theory? There’s a golden period between thirty and fifty-five when women can best retard aging’s effects, but few women take full advantage.Â
Bottom line: A little bit here and there so you always look fantastic. Oh, and keep a savings account. Â
