The Secret to Younger Skin
October 28th, 2016 by Defense Against Aging
Do you want to get back the youthful skin you used to have?
Today’s popular view on skin care has gone in a frightening direction. In fact, we may be causing more damage to our skin than we expected because we misunderstand what our skin needs to be healthy and youthful.
Where did we go wrong?
People focus too much on fighting their skin with ‘controlled damage’ and not enough on strengthening and taking care of their skin.
Controlled damage is practices such as rubbing, scrubbing, peeling and lasering your skin in hope that causing just enough damage will bring healing and the skin will wind up looking healthier than before.
Experts are starting to call for a break from this behavior. We are finally understanding that in order to have younger, glowing skin, you first need healthy, repaired skin. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever exfoliate or use some controlled damage to improve your skin. Just be careful and balanced so that you are regularly rejuvenating your skin and occasionally practicing controlled damage.
Here is how you do it.
Nourish your foundation
There are two levels making up the skin, the epidermis and dermis. The outer layer, or epidermis, is composed of cells and fats. These fats are what hold the cells together. Healthy skin has the proper amount of fats and is resilient and bouncy as a result. However, if there are not enough fats, the skin barrier is weak and inflexible. This may be caused by a poor diet, environmental factors or not using moisturizing skin-care products.
Introducing lipids through your diet and skin care products will rehydrate your skin. Eating fatty fish like albacore tuna and salmon is essential, but you also need products with moisturizing ingredients. Shea butter, ceramides, and fatty-acid-rich botanical oils, plus humectants like hyaluronic acid are all great.
Build up your natural defenses
Contaminants in the air affect skin the most. Elements such as wind, pollution, sun and smoke impact how the skin functions and looks. Peeling and lasering treatments break down the weakened skin barrier even more.
To combat these contaminants and protect the skin barrier you need powerful antioxidants.
Choose products with a combination of antioxidants, including fat-soluble ones like vitamins A and E and water-soluble ones like vitamin C. Both types support separate parts of a skin cell. Vitamin A is the standard pick by dermatologists for addressing most aging issues because it can help create collagen which strengthens the skin and reduces wrinkles.
The best place to find antioxidants is in resveratrol, dark sweet cherry, blueberry, concord grape, pomegranate and acai berry are some of the best sources of antioxidants.
Remember prolonged sun exposure continues to damage the skin for up to six hours following sun exposure. Apply sunscreen and use antioxidants promptly after extended sun exposure to combat any damage you may have caused.
Recommended products: Reserve – A powerful blend of antioxidants you can take wherever you are. This is the easiest way to ensure you get all the antioxidants you need.
Stay in balance
Many health experts consider pH balance to be very important. This is especially true with diet. The idea is consuming foods closer to the body’s natural pH levels keep your body in balance, and therefore, healthy. A pH of 7 is neutral. Your body is slightly acidic with a pH around 7.30 to 7.45. Your skin happens to be the opposite. There is a very fine layer on the service of our skin called the acid mantle. It is on the acidic site of the spectrum ranging from 4 to 5.5. The acid mantle protects our skin from contaminants such as bacteria and viruses that would otherwise penetrate the skin.
In 2010 The British Journal of Dermatology conducted a study comparing women with alkaline and acidic skin. Over eight years they found women with acidic skin had fewer fine lines compared to those with alkaline skin.
Alkaline products break down the acid mantle when applied to skin and reduce our natural defenses. Alkaline products tend to be soaps and cleansers, not moisturizers. Not all products will state the pH level and that’s okay. One way to get an idea of the pH level may be is by paying attention to how your skin feels after application. Alkaline products tend to leave the skin feeling stripped and almost squeaky-clean.
Stimulate growth and repair
Having younger and healthy skin is about more than protecting it from daily life. You need to give the skin what it needs to grow stronger from the inside out. Peptides and growth factors stimulate collagen production making them very promising for skin care. A recent study showed applying a topical serum containing growth factors twice-daily significantly reduced the appearance of under-eye bags after only 12 weeks.
The research being done on DNA repair enzymes may be an even more exciting development. DNA repair enzymes correct the damage in DNA that accelerates aging. A common source for this damage is extended sun exposure. These enzymes naturally occur in our bodies. However, around age 30, the levels start to decline.
New studies show using topical products with DNA repair enzymes can reverse a number of sun damage’s effects, reducing pre-cancers, and helping strengthen skin, by restricting the development of collagenous, an enzyme that breaks down collagen.
Recommended products: Finiti – Developed through Nobel Prize Winning research, this keeps the protective caps on our DNA called telomere strong and defends against cellular aging.
All this to say, for the youngest-looking skin, baby your face.
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