I would also add to my list of anti aging tips for healthy skin the importance of a good night’s sleep. Restful sleep is vital for maintaining your immune system and boosting skin cell repair. Yes, “Beauty” sleep is not just for fairytale characters!
The obvious signs of a late night or two can be hidden with a smear of concealer but multiple sleepless nights lead to dull, dingy skin and hair, if not stress, and even illness.
If you're finding it difficult to enter the land of nod every night, then try adopting some pre-slumber habits to counteract your
lack of sleep.
Sun exposure
Sun damage thins the epidermis (top layers of skin) so many of our wrinkles can be blamed on the weather.
The sun is a natural source of Vitamin D and it also has a therapeutic effect on skin affected by acne. Now a study at King’s College, London, has revealed that vitamin D may help delay the aging process, which means that a little sunshine can be good for you.
The team at King’s College examined the lengths of genetic material in the body’s cells that shorten with age and discovered that women with higher levels of vitamin D had five years less aging in these cells.
However, despite its beneficial effects, the sun can also be extremely harmful to the skin. Over-exposure causes the skin to dry out, to coarsen and to lose some of its elasticity. Of course we are also very aware these days that it can sometimes lead to skin cancer.
Research also shows that skin is more prone to sunburn if the levels of Omega-3 are low so if you want to reduce the risk of dry, flaky and sun-damaged skin, make sure you eat plenty of oily fish such as salmon, mackerel and herring. It’ll help your brain from getting foggy too!
Freckles used to be cute but then they grew up into age spots! However, freckles are largely inherited while age spots are induced. As skin ages, cells that produce pigmentation finally give in to the assault of uv rays over the years and clump together.
While we were growing up/old we should have protected our faces (and bodies where appropriate) with a high level of SPF (sun protection factor) - at least SPF15 in summer and SPF8 or more in winter. The sun is still producing uv rays, while hidden behind those clouds so sunscreen is essential.
Maybe some intelligent people covered up, but most of us did not realize how damaging the sun was going to be. So is there a solution now to these lines and age spots that have appeared?
Well first and foremost, of course, the best of the anti aging tips for healthy skin is to start using sunscreen now! Don’t allow the weather to make things even worse.
Skin “brighteners” are big news and skin care companies are in a race to find a safe, gentle alternative to the (soon to be banned in the US) chemical hydroquinone.
Vitamin C seems to be is the best antioxidant to help in this regard. So look for this ingredient in your face wrinkle cream.
And of course, if you have found a good product, an anti aging tip for healthy skin, please let us all know by submitting an
anti wrinkle cream review.
By now we all know that smoking is bad for us and that if we continue to smoke we risk serious damage to our health.
Smoking apparently leads to something called MMP-1 building up in the dermis (lower layers of the skin).
This build-up breaks down the collagen in your skin, leading to wrinkles and lines, especially around your mouth.
Smoking also depletes the oxygen supply to the skin, leaving it with a dull and crepey appearance.
It has been worked out that a smoker’s appearance ages an extra 4 years in every 10!
So if you smoke and are looking for ways to turn back the clock, then at the top of the list of anti aging tips for healthy skin must be to kick this lethal habit.
