Your face can reveal more than fatigue. Dr Low Chai Ling explores the biology behind the tired face, from sleep and cortisol to body geometry, regeneration and muscle health.

“Just listen to your body.” I hear this advice given constantly — by trainers, by wellness influencers, by well-meaning friends, occasionally by physicians who should know better. It sounds like wisdom. It sounds like the antidote to the over-medicalised, over-quantified approach to health. It is, in most situations, genuinely unhelpful. And in some situations, it is dangerous. The problem with body-listening as a primary health strategy The body is an […]

A patient came in last year having used retinol for six months with no visible results. She had faithfully applied it twice a week, as instructed, to her whole face. She had experienced some initial flakiness, which had settled. But the changes she’d hoped to see — better skin texture, reduced lines, improved tone — hadn’t materialised. When I looked at what she was using: a 0.025% retinol in a […]