5 Tips To More Beautiful Skin
Beauty is more than skin deep when it comes to a healthy and beautiful complexion. The choices you make such as what you eat or whether you exercise may seem benign when it comes to skin health, but specific choices have a powerful impact on the health of our skin.
You Are What You Eat
A diet rich in fresh vegetables such as leafy greens, summer squash or avocados and wild fatty fish such as salmon or sardines, spices such as turmeric or rosemary, low-sugar fruits such as berries, which are rich in antioxidants, polyphenols, bioflavonoids, omega-3 healthy fats, and protein, will provide the foundation for a healthy, youthful complexion. Specific nutrients associated with skin health include vitamins A, B3, C and D, omega-3, selenium, lutein, zeaxanthin, astaxanthin, lycopene, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), and flavanols.
Beware of sugars. Sugar creates a chemical reaction called ‘glycation’ or Advanced Glycation End Products or AGEs (as is so aptly named) that occurs in all tissues in the body, including our skin causing wrinkles and sagging skin. Sugar in all its forms whether natural or processed (corn syrup, agave syrup, honey, cane sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, etc.) promotes, not only inflammation, a depressed immune system, but damage to the skin and to our internal tissues or organs as well.
Hydrate
Hydration is an important key to keeping skin supple and glowing. Mild dehydration means that on a cellular level, the skin cells are lacking hydration, it shows itself in dryness, wrinkling and thinness. Additionally water brings nutrients to skin cells. If you are eating a healthful diet and not drinking enough water, you will not reap the full skin benefits.
One excellent tool to create youthful, glowing skin is to use alkaline water. Just two glasses a day of alkaline water is all you need to achieve beautiful, healthy skin. Add this water in addition to your regular water consumption. I recommend half your body weight in ounces daily, for example. If you weigh 120 lbs., drink 60 ounces of water each day.
Woman scrubbing sugar on her face
Exfoliate
If exfoliating your skin isn’t on your skin care routine, it should be as it is indispensable. It’s just as important as cleansing and moisturizing. At least once or twice a week, exfoliate your skin to remove the layers of dead skin, sure to leave you with a more healthy glow and brighter skin. This practice also allows whatever skin products you are using to be absorbed as opposed to the products simply sitting on top of old skin cells or blocked pores.
Exfoliate at home using scrubs, pads, mechanical devices or at a dermatologist’s office where they can perform a chemical peel or microdermabrasion.
Exercise
We know exercise is good for us but did you know it helps create healthy glowing skin? By increasing blood flow, exercise helps nourish skin cells. Blood carries oxygen and vital nutrients to every cell in the body including our skin cells and carries away toxins and free-radicals that can keep your skin looking unhealthy. Just one of the ways exercise helps make you glow!
Sleep Smarter
A lack of sleep can have a profound effect upon your skin. We all know how missing sleep can make us feel, its effects unfortunately affect our skin as well.
Not getting enough sleep accelerates the aging process. When we sleep deeply, we naturally increase growth hormone that allows skin cells to be repaired. With continual lack of sleep, this process is cumulative resulting in noticeable signs of skin aging.
Additionally, when we lack sleep we make more of the stress hormone cortisol. This can lead to inflammation and this affects skin health and its appearance.
Follow these tips to achieve beautiful, glowing skin!
©2019 DLS HealthWorks, LLC. Lori Shemek, PhD health expert and weight loss expert. Author of How To Fight FATflammation! and the best-selling author of ‘Fire-Up Your Fat Burn!’