If you pick up most women's magazines in the waiting room of many offices, usually what you see are endless fashion ads and fragrance samples. One magazine, Allure, seems to delve into the beauty industry far deeper than cosmetics and moisturizers with their investigative reports on scientific research. Kudos to you, Allure.

As a dermatology nurse, I came across a brief interesting article in the December issue of Allure entitled "Fast Anti-ager". For those of you who do not read Allure, let me post the entire article:

Doctors have long noticed that patients who use the prescription cream fluorouracil, a treatment for precancerous skin lesions, "tend to look really good afterward," says Dana L. Sachs, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Now a study led by Sachs has documented the cream's anti-aging effects. Patients who used it on their faces twice daily for two weeks had decreases in wrinkles, uneven skin tone, and brown spots, as well as in precancers. The drug injures the skin, triggering a beneficial repair response; redness can last for a few weeks. Sachs says studies are needed to assess fluorouracil's cosmetic use in people with relatively mild sun damage.

Perhaps a study worth following.