Holistic Beauty from the Inside Out (22 page)

Lucky for us, it is quite possible to turn your back on this way to self-destruction—all it takes is paying attention to the way you eat, think, and take care of your body.

AGELESS SKIN CARE RULES

Skin is the first organ to show visible signs of aging such as wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, also called “age spots,” lack of tone, and dryness. For many of us, those first crow’s feet and skin folds often signal that it’s time to double or even triple your efforts with wrinkle creams, masks, or even cosmetic injections. Instead
of acting on the surface level, let’s learn about simple age-resisting steps that do not involve any chemicals or needles. Not surprisingly, many of them have already been discussed!

• Stop stressing out your skin. A shortage of sleep—fewer than six hours on an ongoing basis—harms your immune system and can lead to a breakdown of skin’s collagen fibers. Find your optimum “sleep zone,” the number of hours that makes you feel and look really good. To boost the quality of your sleep, quiet your mind and stay away from intense mental or physical activity four hours before bedtime.
  
• Smoking is one of the worst skin-stressing habits. It creates free radicals that are linked directly to premature aging. Research shows that secondhand smoke causes almost the same damage. Other skin stressing habits include habitual worry and overconsumption of alcohol and sugary foods, accompanied by nutritional deficiencies.
  
• Excessive sun exposure is another skin enemy. While moderate sun exposure, especially in the morning, boosts the production of age-resisting vitamin D, baking in the midday sun pushes cells to work in protection mode. Afterward, they switch to repair. The indoors-outdoors yo-yo cycle pushes the limits of your skin’s capacity to adapt. Pull out your best armor and protect it every day, especially if you are on the beach or up in the mountains, where air is richer in ozone. Ozone is especially bad for skin because it oxidizes the DNA of the cells. This means that cells have been weakened, something that contributes to wrinkles and lackluster skin.
  
• Be gentle to your skin in spring and in autumn, when it is at its weakest, having been damaged from a summer of sun exposure and a winter of harsh winds and indoor heating. Adapt your skincare routine to the season, and your skin will suffer from less stress as it copes with changes in temperature or humidity.
  
• Water is crucial for helping to plump up and hydrate cells, plus flush out toxins, 10 percent of which are excreted by your skin. Water is your body’s all-natural moisturizer, so drinking eight glasses a day is a good place to start. But listen to your body and adapt your water intake. Someone with a larger body size or who is very active will need more water. Remember that diluted juices, soups, and herbal teas add to the total water intake while tea, coffee, and alcohol drinks deduct from it. Make sure to drink an extra glass of pure water for each cup of coffee, which acts as natural diuretic.
  

ANTIAGING NUTRITION

You are what you eat—this adage is never truer than when talking about skin aging because what we put in our bodies will inevitably accelerate or slow down the aging process. As we grow older, we rarely grow wiser when it comes to food choices. Starting from age thirty-five, nutritional deficiencies will directly affect our skin, hair, and nails. Rather than spending a small fortune on antiwrinkle creams and serums, why not first resist the aging from within?

Your skin is a barometer for what’s going on inside your body. Nutritional deficiencies as well as poor lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and lack of exercise contribute to poor circulation and abundance of free radicals inside our bodies. These free radicals lower our immunity and damage collagen tissue causing wrinkles and sagging skin.

The best place to start would be to boost your intake of vitamin C, which is the ultimate beauty vitamin. You have already learned about the beauty-boosting powers of vitamin C. To resist aging, you need to up your intake of vitamin C not just as a supplement but also in naturally available form as well as in your skincare.

Often, the nutrients that boost skin health when we eat or drink also deliver amazing skin benefits when they’re applied from the outside. Here are the age-reversing foods that also make wonderful addition to your skincare products.

Pomegranate is a true age warrior. Its bittersweet red juice and seeds are bursting with a powerful antioxidant called ellagic acid. Also found in blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, walnuts, and pecans, ellagic acid is renowned for protecting and repairing skin cells from environmental damage and UV radiation. Working on a cellular level, ellagic acid keeps your skin glowing by protecting the skin DNA from dangerous carcinogens, including nitrosamines, and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons. The easiest way to reap pomegranate goodness is to drink a glass of pure pomegranate juice every day, but for optimum benefits buy whole pomegranates and eat them whole, with seeds and tiny membranes. They contain even more vital compounds for younger skin, including punicalagin to preserve collagen.

Green tea is great for your metabolism and an age-resilient, glowing complexion. All teas contain antioxidants called catechins, along with a host of minerals and vitamins. Catechins have been found to help fight the long-term effects of sun damage, such as sun spots and skin thickening. Ideally, you should drink at least two cups of freshly brewed green tea a day. You can also apply green tea topically as a facial mist or freeze green tea into ice cubes and use them as a toner.

Not many seeds have perfect balance of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fats, which are absolutely essential for keeping skin glowing, plump, and smooth. Hemp seed oil is a rare exception. You can take it as a supplement, or buy cold-pressed hemp seed oil and add it to your salads. Keep in mind that it is not suitable for cooking. You can also put hemp seed oil directly on your skin as a face and body oil. It is absorbed almost instantly without any greasy residue. Thanks to its high levels of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids, hemp seed oil has an anti-inf lammatory effect that’s an added bonus for those with eczema and psoriasis. The best thing about hemp seed oil is that it helps slow down skin aging. Gamma-linolenic acids (GLAs) in our skin promote regeneration at cellular level, but as we age, our skin loses GLAs and becomes dry and fragile. Hemp seed oil helps replenish these vital lipids. Choose organic, cold-pressed hemp seed oil and try hemp seeds as a protein-boosting snack.

Our skin loves soy milk, even if your taste buds don’t! Soy milk is bursting with antioxidants known as isoflavones which work by mimicking estrogen, the hormone used by our body to produce collagen and elastin. Isoflavones also contain in soy yogurts, tofu,
as well as lentils, chickpeas, and flaxseeds. You can also use soy milk as a skin cleanser, while soy yogurt makes a lovely, easy mask that improves overall skin elasticity and radiance. Some people notice that regular applications of soy yogurt help reduce skin blotchiness.

Choose good proteins, which are necessary to form collagen, the building block for skin to repair itself. Collagen is also what combats free radicals, those nasty unstable cells that wreak havoc on our skin and ultimately cause wrinkles. Stock your shopping cart with protein sources plus good fats: fish (rich in skin-friendly omega-3 fatty acids), poultry, legumes, beans (also high in fiber to eliminate toxins through the colon), and zinc-packed nuts and seeds. Plus, add foods chock-full of alpha-lipoic acid (brewer’s yeast, broccoli, and spinach) to boost skin cells’ ability to repair the damage.

Calcium makes our bones stronger but it’s also vital to keep our skin wrinkle free (or at least not too wrinkled). Milk and dairy products come to mind first when you think about calcium sources, but there are many other good sources of this vital mineral such as seaweeds, almonds, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, pistachios, beans, quinoa, okra, rutabaga, broccoli, and kale. Figs make an easy skeleton-building snack that instantly provides 250 mg calcium per 100 g dried fruit—that’s nearly twice as much as yogurt.

Glowing, smooth skin starts not in a jar of an expensive cream but on a plate and in a cup, so do not delay a visit to the fresh produce counter at your nearest store or, better yet, at a local farmer’s market.

DEALING WITH DRY SKIN

Dryness and skin aging are so closely linked, it’s impossible to say with confidence which comes first—dehydration or wrinkles. Aging skin is almost always on the dry side, but dry skin can also age prematurely. The dermis layer, which is located beneath the outer epidermis, contains connective tissue along with collagen
and elastin fibers that give the skin its elasticity and resilience. Sebaceous glands and blood vessels carry the oxygen and nutrients required to keep the skin soft and supple. As we grow older, the dermis layer becomes thinner and loses its density. As sebaceous glands become less active, our skin is less able to moisturize and protect itself from bacteria and elements. The result is dry, cracked, easily irritated skin.

A classic sign of dry skin is a tight, itchy feeling after you have cleansed, as well as flakiness and pronounced fine wrinkles. Here’s how to draw the moisture back in:

1. To cleanse, use non-foaming cream cleanser or a balm that you remove with a cloth. Foam-producing detergents, natural or not, can dry out your skin. You can also saturate your muslin cloth with some oil (olive oil is excellent for this purpose) and wipe off the daily grime, using more cloth and oil as required.
   
2. Your skin will benefit from a simple toner such as rose water, green tea, or welldiluted pomegranate juice. You can combine all three natural antioxidant fluids for your own highly protective skin mist. After cleansing, mist with a natural face spray,allow the moisture to absorb or evaporate, and only then apply the moisturizer.
   

   

3. Day creams you use should contain sun protection even if you follow them with a layer of mineral foundation. Choose natural sun blocks such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide and always apply the cream to your neck and décolleté, if needed.
   
4. Night creams are very useful for constant skin hydration. For best results, your night cream should contain natural antioxidants; vitamins A, C, and E; and hyaluronic acid. To reap maximum benefits, apply your night creams between seven and eleven at night—this is the time when your skin is most responsive to topical nourishment.
   

It was once believed that the best moisturizer for very dry skin was petrolatum, or petroleum jelly, patented back in 1878. You put petrolatum on the skin, wrapping it in a plastic film so not a single water molecule can escape. These days, petrolatum is used alongside another petrochemical, silicone. All they do is give the skin the attractive sheen and silky touch associated with a healthy complexion, without addressing the real cause of skin dryness.

If your skin feels tight even after moisturizing you need to use little facial oil underneath your moisturizer or a water-free “cold cream”—make sure it does not contain petrolatum, which can make skin dryness more persistent. In the next few pages you will learn how you can easily blend your own “magic potion” to address skin dryness as well other signs of aging.

ANTIAGING POTIONS MADE EASY

Natural, holistic skincare regimen supports younger-looking skin. The following ingredients will help achieve the best results.

Argan oil is the antiaging skincare darling. Unsaturated essential fatty acids in this Mediterranean oil help prevent and reduce inflammation, while moisture-attracting squalane keeps the skin soft. Sterols in argan oil protect the essential protein in the skin, collagen, while antioxidant polyphenols ward off free radicals. Argan oil is safe for sensitive skin and penetrates easily, so you can apply it freely on wrinkles, stretch marks, scars, and discolorations. Argan oil is very beneficial for your skin, so use it generously. If your skin feels greasy, blot the excess with tissue paper.

Avocado oil is rich in skin regenerating oleic acid, vitamins A and D, lecithin, and natural sterols, which help fade sun spots and reduce premature aging caused by excessive sun exposure. To reap maximum benefits, you can apply this lightweight, easily penetrating oil regularly under makeup and in the evening to increase skin hydration and improve elasticity. Avocado oil also preserves the integrity of collagen fibers and helps the skin to remain smooth and glowing.