NYC doctor studies effects of sun, smoking, stress on aging
NEW YORK (PIX11) – A renowned New York City plastic surgeon has spent years looking at how lifestyle and sun exposure affects the skin, by studying twin patients.
His work finds the so-called "three S's" - sun, smoking, and stress have a detrimental effect on the skin, independent of genetics.
Dr. Darrick Antell has long been fascinated by genetics and the environment.
Dr. Antell attended the annual Twins Festival in Twinsburg, OH, to study his theory. Over the years, he and his team interviewed and examined numerous sets of twins, including Gay Block and Gwyn Sirota.
"We never got up one morning without saying to the other one what do you want to wear today we’d go into the closet and pick the same thing out you know," said Block. "We were very close as kids."
The 87-year-old identical twins did everything together growing up. They wore matching outfits and shared a room until Gwyn got married and moved out of their childhood home. The sisters even married men who were best friends.
"Well, to be honest, I probably got married because Gwyn got married," said Block.
"About six months after I got married, she moved to California with her partner," adds Sirota.
It was then their lives diverged. Gwyn lived in the Baltimore area her entire life, with limited sun exposure, and never smoked. Gay the “older” twin by four minutes, lived in California and Hawaii.
Gay worshipped the sun year-round, and at times, was a nudist. She readily admits she smoked cigarettes, used marijuana, and drank. She also suffered immense personal tragedy, when her young daughter died. The stress was too much to bear.
"I’m going to be honest, I lost a child, I was working four jobs, and I got a little depressed and got into marijuana," said Block. "That’s when I started smoking."
Decades went by, and the twins never saw any differences and still thought they looked identical. That is until they met Dr. Antell.
Side-by-side photos, taken by Antell's team, show the dramatic differences. Gay looked almost like an older version of her identical twin.
At first, Gwyn just thought it was an unflattering photo of her sister and a flattering one of her. "I wasn’t even aware that my skin was worse than Gwyn’s," said Block.
"Even now I look at Gay and say do I have the same wrinkles," laughs Sirota.
"The wrinkle pattern is similar but the depths of the wrinkles, the quality of the skin is much more rugged on Gay than it is on Gwyn," said Antell. "Lifestyle choices clearly, clearly make a big difference."
Dr. Antell performed facelifts on each identical twin, but using slightly different techniques. Gay had deeper wrinkles, age spots, and rougher, coarse skin.
"Lifestyle choices are very important in terms of how you age so I tell people genes are highly overrated," said Antell. "They're certainly part of the factor, but you can control the rate at which you age."
Dr. Antell’s study has been published in numerous medical journals and has been part of a prestigious Smithsonian Museum exhibit. He hopes his work will make people think about nature vs. nurture and, more importantly, think twice about lifestyle choices.
"We want to get the message across to people to practice safe skin, safe sun, safe sun means wear sunblock," said Antell. "I enjoy the sun but when I come back from the Caribbean I don’t look like I’ve been there."
Years later, the facelifts have held up and the twins say they’ve learned from the experience. Block tells us, "I don’t sit in the sun and sunbathe nude anymore!"