value of peels in non-facial application

[adz]

Dear Dr Rockoff.  I was somewhat disappointed to find you remarking to another enquirer how blue peels would make little difference to sun damage on his/her legs.  I too have rather thickened skin on the outside of my arms, back and legs.  Similarly it's rather resistant to moisturiser and can get prickly and irritating.  I was kind of hoping that a peel may reduce this thickening/scaling and am led to believe by some organisations that it'll do the job.  Neverthless, as an independent observer I value your viewpoint very much.  So........if Obaji say it'll work on other places other than face, why do you say it won't?

2)  Why is there so little available cosmetically for skin on non-facial areas?

3)  Does there look like being anything on the horizon within the next say 10 years?

Thanks

Griffiths

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Legs in general heal more slowly and less completely, even in children.  Things take longer, pigment changes respond less reliably, and may actually worsen with treatments that do well on the face.  The poblem is with the innate healing patterns of the body part.  Perhaps in time there will be more effective approaches, but that's hard to predict.

As to the difference between what Obagi says and my comments, Obagi's job is to promote Obagi.  That's not to say it couldn't help, but it would take a lot of time and several peels to get much visible improvement.  

Best.

Dr. Rockoff