As we age, are bodies take a hit that we know is coming our way but it is still a surprise when we experience it. Things begin falling off, growing where they are not supposed to, slowing down, aches and pains where we never had them before. Our organs also begin to show their age, especially if we haven’t been maintaining them over the years, planning with foresight for the days when they begin to decline in effectiveness. Th skin is an organ, our largest one at that, and it bears the burden of being the most visible sign of our aging on or in our bodies.
As difficult as it is to witness our aging in the mirror every day, our skin is also capable of restoring itself to quite an extent if properly treated. Vivacious and silky soft skin is no longer a young person’s domain. With the proper care and treatment regimen, you will once again have amazingly youthful looking skin but it will take an effort to look after your body on the inside as well as the outside.
There are numerous things which determine how rapidly your skin will “mature” and the good news is you can begin now to alleviate the consequences of neglecting your skin for many years. Good skin is an obvious genetic trait. You can see it in many people who have aging parents with great looking skin and the children are the benefactors of that hereditary windfall. How you live your life is a huge factor in the great skin lottery, also your general health will have a good deal to do with how your skin ages.
Premature aging will be the result if you live a life laden with unhealthy abundance and likewise, choosing a lifestyle less harmful will minimize the damage and slow aging significantly. The earlier in life you recognize the contributing factors to aging skin, the sooner you can get a jump on skin maintenance and preventative care. Once you begin a simple regimen to care for your skin, make it a habit and you will reap the rewards later in life. You will be surprised how soon the time will come when you will be thanking yourself for your early start to anti aging skin maintenance.
Follow these guidelines to simply and easily slow the aging process and preserve a more youthful appearance:
Quit Smoking
There is plenty of evidence that smoking is bad for your health. There is just as much confirmation that smoking is extremely bad for your complexion. There is no single factor that will age your appearance more or as rapidly than smoking. A quick observation of those people around you who smoke and you will be able to note the damage done by their smoking. Specifically if you know these people for a number of years and you look at a photo of them in their twenties and again in their forties or fifties. The difference in their complexion will astound. The effects of smoking will be quite noticeable in only a few years of continuous puffing.
Not only is smoking tough on the skin of those who do the smoking but the second hand smoke will do the same kind of damage to those around you. Smoking will age your skin more quickly than it normally would age, causing wrinkles, fine lines and dryness. Smoking drains the body of valuable vitamin C. Vitamin C keeps the skin youthful looking by maintain skin hydration and the skin needs this to keep the tissue full and supple.
Avoid The Sun’s UV Rays
The normal aging process of the skin does not include the effect the sun has on it. The damage done to skin because of the sun is far greater than many realize. To have a youthful glow to your skin you must limit exposure to the sun. People who sunbath and burn are setting themselves up for wrinkles, skin lines and skin dryness due to moisture depletion.
If you have no choice but to be in the sun you should apply a sunscreen that is no less than an SPF of thirty or more. Wearing comfortable clothing that breathes yet shields you from sun exposure is recommended and a hat with a substantial brim to shade your face and neck will help. Your eyes are also quite vulnerable to UV rays so wear sunglasses as well. The sun’s ultra violet rays are also present when it is cloudy outdoors so sun protection is a necessity even when the sun is not visible.
Eat A Well Balanced Diet
Another important factor to skin condition is the type of food you are consuming. You need a well balanced, nutritious diet that is laden with vitamins, minerals and proven antioxidants. This will assist with sustaining the strength and suppleness of collagen and elastin in the skin. You should maximize your consumption of rich green leafy vegetables as well as fruits which are vibrantly colored. These varieties will contain the best source of antioxidants available. Nutrients you cannot provide by diet can be added to your diet separately. There are numerous over the counter supplements available to enhance your diet with quality vitamins and healthful constituents your body may otherwise be lacking.
Maintain Your Skin Moisture Levels
In order to keep your skin looking healthy and young it requires moisturizing. You should be hydrating your face not to mention your body also – as much as possible. There are many products available so try and locate one which works best for your skin type. When you finish showering or bathing, you should rub down with oil used for babies or a just a notable body oil. Doing this will secure the moisture to your skin. Once the oil has absorbed into the epidermis you should then apply a lotion or skin moisturizer as a follow through protocol each time. Make this practice a habit or part of your normal routine and you will notice an almost immediate difference in your skin.
Probably the simplest, least expensive and yet vital anti aging practice you can do for your skin is to drink an ample amount of water each day. The water you consume acts to hydrate the skin and will assist in keeping the skin looking wonderful and healthy. Ingesting plenty of water will clean out any toxicity in your body and aid the skin in looking full and supple, both critical to delaying the process of aging.
Banish the Free Radicals From Your Body
The phrase oxidative stress is something you will hear an awful lot of in the future if not already. This means the disparity between the creation of very reactive oxygen molecules known as free radicals and the number of unique antioxidant enzymes that hunt down and obliterate the free radicals. When the balance favors free radicals, the body begins to age and illness and disease begin to take hold of the body. The older you get the more important this disparity becomes since your body creates a lot more free radicals than it does antioxidants
Clinical trials have made it clear that your body requires glutathione – a major antioxidant and also a favorable anti aging component. You should make every effort to increase your glutathione levels through supplementation and proper nutrition to add to your anti aging war chest. There are copious amounts of products available to aid in increasing glutathione quantities to increase your antioxidant supremacy over free radicals.
Tue, Oct 6, 2009
Anti Aging, Health And Aging