Tips on Advising Dermatology Patients on Diet and Lifestyle Choices, With Heather Goff, MD, MPH

A session presented at the 2025 Society of Dermatology Physician Associates (SDPA) Fall Conference in San Antonio highlighted tips for clinicians in advising patients about exercise, diet, and lifestyle shifts to improve skin health.1

Heather Goff, MD, MPH, associate professor of dermatology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, presented this session and spoke with the HCPLive editorial team on-site about the biggest takeaways for clinicians. She was first asked why she felt this topic was important to share with attendees at the SDPA meeting.

“One of the reasons that I chose to talk about lifestyle and skin health and disease is that we may be some of the only physicians that a patient may interface with in a year or two years, and a lot of the things that we actually see our patients for end up being something like a routine, benign skin check,” Goff said. “...But in my opinion, any opportunity to interface with a patient is an opportunity to engage with that patient and do things to help them extend their lifespan and their health span.”

Goff highlighted several major points noted in her SDPA session, including misconceptions among patients regarding exercise and its connection to skin health. As she points out, weightlifting and aerobic exercise can make skin appear younger and healthier.2

“The big takeaways from a lifestyle and skin health and disease [perspective] would be that you should move around as much as you can, and the age at which not moving around really starts to seem to make an impact is around age 40,” Goff explained. “If you don't pick up those lifestyle choices by then, it's not to say that you never will…It's just that these are the big opportunity years that we have to increase our muscle mass, to maintain our muscle mass, to maintain our health, and to do things while we're still healthy, so we're not trying to do things after disease has already set in.”

Goff noted the value, among patients of all ages, of exercising to improve body health and skin health at the same time.

“We have a need for the pharmaceutical industry, and we have a need for what that can offer us, because it helps in situations where simple fixes don't do the trick,” Goff said. “But there's never going to be a pill that does what exercise does. Exercise is going to hit multiple domains. For instance, weightlifting improves dermal elasticity. It improves the thickness of the dermis, so your skin will look younger if you begin weightlifting or even doing aerobic activity. It also helps with indices of depression. It lowers blood pressure, and it lowers your risk of cardiovascular disease.”

For any additional information on topics like these presented at SDPA, view the latest conference coverage page.

The quotes used in this summary were edited for the purposes of clarity.

Goff had no relevant financial disclosures to include.

References

1. Goff H. Lifestyle in Skin Health and Disease. Presented at the Society of Dermatology Physician Associates (SDPA) Fall Conference, November 5-9, San Antonio, TX.

2. Oizumi R, Sugimoto Y, Aibara H. The Potential of Exercise on Lifestyle and Skin Function: Narrative Review. JMIR Dermatol. 2024 Mar 14;7:e51962. doi: 10.2196/51962. PMID: 38483460; PMCID: PMC10979338.