Secrets to Younger Looking Skin

What are the secrets to younger looking skin and how can you look younger naturally? Good skin care can help delay and in some cases even reverse the aging process and promotes healthy and younger looking skin. Remember that the earlier you start taking care of your skin the better benefits will be and the fewer wrinkles your skin develops.

Where Do Wrinkles Come From?

• Natural aging process. By mid-twenty, the regeneration process of skin slows down. This is when we begin to notice fine lines and furrows. To slow down the aging process of skin and to prevent wrinkles, the skin care should start before reaching twenty, especially in warm and sunny areas.
• Menopause plays important roles in the elasticity of skin in middle-aged women as the supply of estrogen slows sown. This results in thinner, more wrinkled and dry skin.
• Exposure to sun can damage the skin. Long-term exposure to ultra violet rays can cause skin cancer.
• Consuming low quality and low nutrient foods can adversely affect the skin.
• Continuous facial expression, such as frowning and making faces eventually causes fine lines and wrinkles to develop.
• Stress and lack of sleep can adversely affect the skin.

Understanding Your Skin

The deepest layer of the epidermis is called stratum basale where cells grow, divide, and then die as they reach to the surface. The blood vessels responsible for nourishing and removing wastes from the stratum basale in the dermis stop under the epidermis.

Collagen and elastin located in the dermis. Collagen is a protein that provides strength and firmness to skin structure. Elastin is a highly elastin protein in connective tissues that helps skin to return to its original position and provide elasticity. Collagen and elastin work together to provide strength, firmness, shape, and elasticity to skin structure. When collagen and elastin are damaged and broken down, fine lines and wrinkles begin to form.

UV radiation, stress, low nutrition food, cigarette smoke, pollution, lack of sleep, and aging are major contributors to the destruction of collagen and elastin.

UV radiation from sun directly damages the collagen and elastin. Cigarette smoking constricts the blood vessels and diminishes the amount of nutrients the epidermis receives and breaks down collagen and elastin proteins.

How to have a Healthy, Younger Looking Skin

Protect your skin from the sun

One of the most important ways to take care of your skin is to protect it from the sun’s harmful rays. The sun is the major contributor for prematurely aging skin. Long-term sun exposure can cause age spots, wrinkles, and increase the risk of skin cancer. To protect your skin against UV radiation from sun, follow these tips:

• Use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher, and reapply every three hours you’re outdoors.
• Avoid the sun between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. when the sun’s rays are strongest.
• Protect your eyes with a good pair of sunglasses that provide 100% UV protection. For additional protection, protect your face with a hat.
• Avoid tanning salons.

Don’t smoke

Smoking narrows the tiny blood vessels, which decreases blood flow. This depletes the skin of oxygen and nutrients that are important to a healthy skin. Smoking damages collagen and elastin, which result in wrinkles and older looking skin.

Manage stress

Stress contributes to aging and many types of skin problems, including acne breakouts and skin sensitivity. You should take steps to manage your stress by learning to become more organized, to come up with plans to solve your problems in timely fashion, getting adequate sleep, exercising daily, and eating well-balanced healthy food.

Get adequate sleep

Lack of sleep breaks down the skin structure. The sleep is necessary for the body to repair itself. When you don’t get enough sleep, your body produces cortisol, a stress hormone. Cortisol breaks down skin cells, slows growth, and results in dry skin. When you get adequate sleep, your body produces HGH (human growth hormone), which helps growth and cell production, helps skin to remain more elastic and less likely to wrinkle.

You should try to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. Also, avoid sleeping on your stomach because it can trigger wrinkles. Sleeping on your side is not perfect either. Try to sleep on your back if at all possible.

Exercise

Exercise is a great stress reducer. Regular exercises for at least 30 minutes a day can keep you fit, help you to slow down the aging process, maintain your bone density, keep your muscles strong and toned, and force more blood to skin tissues.

In addition, sweating due to exercise eliminate bacteria and toxin within your pores. After you begin to sweat, wash your face thoroughly to keep your skin clean, and tap your skin dry with a 100% cotton towel.

Stay hydrated

Stay hydrated to rid your body of toxins and moisturizing your skin from within. Drink about 8 glasses of water a day.

Coffees and sodas can dehydrate the skin. If you drink coffee or caffeinated soda, drink one glass of water for each cup of coffee or can of caffeinated soda.

Eat a healthy diet

A healthy diet can reflect their nutrients on your skin and minimize the signs of aging. Eat plenty of organic fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean protein. Your diet should be rich in vitamin C and low in unhealthy fats and refined carbohydrates. You should also try to avoid or minimize refined sugar.

Eat lots of antioxidants

Antioxidants can minimize the signs of aging. Vitamins A, C, E, and beta carotene are all antioxidants. The following foods are packed with antioxidants:

• Green tea
• Dark chocolate
• Red wine
• Pomegranate
• Blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, cranberries
• Wild salmon
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Garlic and onion
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Oranges
• Sweet potatoes
• Walnuts
• Prunes
• Beans

Vitamins for healthy skin

The antioxidants A, C, and E help free radicals from damaging the cell and minimizing wrinkles. Healthy and balanced diets provide vitamins and antioxidants and are important to skin cell repair and natural collagen and elastin production.

The right amount of vitamins is important for healthy skin. There are two types of vitamins:

Water soluble – These vitamins dissolve quickly in water and are not able to be stored in our body. Vitamin C and B complex are good examples. If you take too many of these vitamin supplements orally, they will be flushed out of your body.

Fat soluble – There vitamins dissolve in fat and the excess will be stored in the liver. These are vitamin A, D, E, and K.

Vitamin A helps our cells function properly and is essential for proper vision and bone development. Retinol is the synthetic form of vitamin A and widely used in nonprescription wrinkle cream.

Vitamin C strengthens the immune system and helps to keep our bones, teeth and gums strong and healthy. It also helps collagen formation, wound healing, and defend our bodies against free radical.

Exposure to UV rays can decrease the amount of vitamin C in the skin. Topical application of vitamin C is effective for preventing aging of skin and repairing existing sum damage.

Vitamin E protects lipids from oxidizing which helps skin retain its moisture. It helps to keep the skin tight and firm when used in a moisturizer and are important anti-aging anti-oxidants.

Selenium taken as a supplement is an anti-oxidant which protects the body from free radicals and slows down the process of aging.

Vitamin A is found in carrots, spinach, mangoes, and cantaloupe. Vitamin C is found in oranges, tomatoes, bell peppers, and Brussel sprouts. Vitamin E is found in almonds, sunflower seeds, blueberries, olives, and green leafy vegetables. Food sources of selenium include seafood, eggs, whole grains, and garlic.

Keep your skin clean

Cleaning is an important part of skin care regimen. It removes the accumulation of waste and prevents blocking of pores. It also stimulates the skin’s blood circulation which improves skin tone and helps skin to moisturize.

Here are some tips to clean your skin properly:

• Before going to bed, make sure your skin is clean from makeup and all pollution.
• Before washing your face, be sure to wash your hands, otherwise you will add additional dirt from your hand on to your face.
• Avoid strong soaps. The skin’s surface has PH of around 5. Most soap has a PH over 7. Soaps with a high PH will strip oil from your skin, remove its protective layer, and dry the skin. Use facial cleanser or very mild soap with moisturizer using your fingertips working in a circular motion. Then thoroughly rinse with lukewarm water and pat dry with a soft towel. Never use body soap on your face.
• You don’t have to use facial cleanser in the morning. Just wash with lukewarm water and pat dry with a clean towel. Don’t rub the towel on your skin. Rubbing can irritate the skin. Also avoid hot water so some moisture remains on your skin.
• Use a moisturizer that contains SPF and fits your skin type.

Skin types

Getting to know your skin type is important in order to determine which types of products are best for your skin. Skin types fall into a few categories: normal, dry, oily, sensitive, and combination.

Combination skin types usually have oily skin on the forehead, nose and chin, and dry skin on the rest of the face.

Skin products

Whether you want to prevent the damage to your skin from UV radiation, pollution, tanning, or you want to reverse the signs of aging there are products that can help you to look your best. Remember that the following products only reduce, not eliminate fine lines or wrinkles.

1. Moisturize – Choose water-based moisturizer. Water based is more easily absorbed by the skin, they won’t clog your pores, and they won’t make your skin feel greasy. Also consider choosing one that contains SPF of at least 15.

2. Anti-aging treatment – Choose anti-aging treatments that they contain water-based vitamin A, C, E and antioxidants ingredients. Some moisturizers contain all these ingredients.

3. Retinols – It is a derivative of vitamin A that encourages skin cell renewal. You can use retinols every other night.

4. Exfoliate skin products – Alphahydroxy acids acts as a mild exfoliate by dissolving the dead skin layers gradually, helps to clean pores, erase fine lines, and stimulates new cell growth. Glycolic acid considered the best type of AHA because of tiny molecules making it to be absorbed easily by skin.

The above products are very gentle and mostly act as a moisturizer. For best results, check with your dermatologist or physician to have a prescription for Retin-A and stronger AHA that works better for removal of age spots, fine lines and wrinkles.

By David Jacobson – 2019 – Update 2020
Copyright © 2019-2020 Allied Publishing
Provided by
Allied Publishing

For additional articles written by David Jacobson, see alliedpublishing.com/look-younger. David Jacobson is the author of How to Look 10 Years Younger Without Plastic Surgery.