5 Step plan to a healthy skin

Do you have  perfect skin ?

Did you know a beautiful skin is the best makeup?

During season change specially winters you have  problems with sensitive skin.Breakouts and blemishes make the issue bad .You  end up using nothing .Moisturizer and calamine lotions can help during those times .Luckily it always gets better  when you treat your  skin right .

Your body looks exactly how you treat it .

You need to love it enough, to eat right and do the right thing.

1)Your diet

The single most important thing that rules how you look and feel is what you put inside your mouth.

This the gateway for good or evil.

Quick tips 

• Low salt
• Low sugar
• No fries

Simple right ?

Not really .

These food are responsible for the free radicals damaging  your skin .Causing dull appearance ,patchy skin, blemishes,rash and speeds up ageing.

What do you do then ?

Living it up once in a while is great .

But having highly salted ,sweetened and fried food ,as part of your food group is a red signal .It affects not only your skin but your overall health.

Have food rich in antioxidants.

• Fruits and  vegetable are natural micronutrients
  
• Berries specially are very good for your  health
  
• Omega 3 fatty acid rich food like almonds walnuts, small fishes

Dietary factors which influence skin hair and nail are:

Vitamins C ,E,A,B.

Other nutricosmetics include:

Iron, copper, phosphorus, L-methionine, manganese, borage seed oil and essential unsaturated fatty acids like eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) acids.

(Take care about excessive intake of fat soluble vitamins like A,D,E,K.They  can have adverse effects.)

Nutricosmetics are a group of dietary additives which help in improving skin hair and nail.

Dietary supplements in addition to vitamins and minerals used for better skin health   can be called nutrisupplements

• Amino acids (L-arginine)
  
• Enzymes  (Lactase, Papain)
  
• Prebiotics   (Inulin)
• Probiotics  (Lactobacillus acidophilus,Bifidobacterium species,Yeast)
  
• Essential unsaturated fatty acids( γ- Linolenic acid(DHA, EPA,) Fish oil)

For healthier hair and nail additionally you need:

zinc, silicon and calcium .

Want to know the source of these nutricosmetics  in your diet?

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Antioxidants in diet which prevent damage by free radicals are :

Vitamins E ,C , carotenoids, flavonoids, lycopene and coenzyme.

To make your skin firmer and cut cellulite isoflavones are often recommended.

They are phytoestrogens and mimic the female sex hormone.

A properly balanced diet is best for a good skin.

But the problem today is 2 fold.

1)No  time for a properly balance diet.

2)The food you eat lacks the nutrients which it’s supposed to have.

This loss  of nutritional quality is the reason we need Nutricosmetics or certain supplements for better skin health .

Don’t forget water.

Drink at least 4 litres of water every day.

If not possible when you are out .Drink when at home.

Cut down on excessive  coffee smoking and alcohol  They don’t help in hydration at all.

All of these can cause damage to your skin and make it puffy

Green tea however is recommended  in moderation,as it’s a source of iso flavones.But again we need more research on this.

2)Sleep

This cannot be stressed enough.

I have written about 30 ways you can sleep better just because this is something which takes little effort but is the best way to be healthier.

Sleeping gives your body the much needed time to repair and rejuvenate itself.

3)Stress not a friend

Stressing makes you release cortisol which increases your chance to have pimples .

Do you really want it?

Read the 32 ways to beat stress.

Don’t forget to practice mindfulness and thankfulness to fight your stress.

 

4)Are you exercising?

Skin is the largest organ.Yes skin is an organ which needs a good maintenance.

The muscle underneath the skin helps keep it firm.

Exercise helps improve blood circulation to the skin and oxygen supply .It also helps by taking away the waste produced by your skin cells .

The best part about exercise is it improves your overall health and cuts down stress about it .It’s a win -win situation.

This research suggests that endurance exercise reduces age-associated changes to skin in humans and mice. It identifies  exercise-induced IL-15   in mitochondrial function in aging skin.

Facial exercise or face yoga gets a lot of attention .But the best exercise for your face is the smile.

And for your neck the teeth baring grrr expression

5)Are you cleaning right ?

Skin-care industry claims Americans  spend more than  $43 billion per year (4)

Try natural ways of cleaning face.

What your cleaner shouldn’t have?

Less is more for your skin less changes to your skin care products

• Less make up.
• Less harsh cleaning.

Makeup, shampoo, skin lotion, nail polish,other personal care products lack safety data in the ingredients used.

Regular soaps have high pH (8 to 10) and  irritates skin.

Soap free cleansers with pH around 5.5 is good for skin.That’s the normal pH of your

skin.

Washing your skin too much ,can dry out the skin and irritate it even more

Oil in water emulsions hydrogel (1)as moisturizer can help in cases skin is acne prone and needs moisturizer.

3 Steps to your daily skin care routine

• Clean ,tone ,moisturize
• Use a Night cream .
• Don’t ever forget sunscreen.

The real Question ,what is the best way to prevent wrinkles?

Moisturizer (4 )seem to be present in various avatars in most of the anti-ageing products .

They can at best reduce 15 to 20 % of  the wrinkles .

But preventing wrinkles from happening is another story

Daily use of retinoids seem to have a promising role in this

They can penetrative skin and works on the collagen and elastin in extracellular matrix.

Do you need to moisturize your skin if you have oily skin?

Yes absolutely.Moisturizing is good for everyone.But you need to look for a hydrogel formulation which is noncomedogenic.That means it wont clog pores.

What happens when you don’t moisturize your face?

• ‘Skin gets itchy and irritable
• Skin looks dull
• Your skin gets less protection from pollution
• Your fine lines will look more etched
• Your makeup will not look as good.Foundations and concealors crack and get more concentrated in dry areas.Remember to moisturize your face and lips before applying makeup.

Conclusion

Healthy skin is a beautiful skin. Just like your overall health your skin responds to a balanced diet rich in antioxidants .

You also need water ,sleep,exercise to boost up team work done by your diet.

Since the food quality nowadays may lack the goodness ,you may rely on  supplements.

Just be careful when you buy one.

What to do before buying a supplement?

Take care to buy supplements from reliable sources .Don’t believe in Unicorn hair stories and youth elixir.

• Read the labels
  
• Check with your doctor

Finally Don’t forget

• Cleansing toning moisturizing
• Use a sunscreen
• Vaseline can help if it’s a cold dry region where you live
• Retinoids in a good night cream in formulation  which suits you can help.

Experts suggest that facials.dont help much except those who get paid for it.

Don’t get seduced by tall claims and glamorous actresses promoting creams

That should be easy right ?

Tell me how you take care of your skin in the  comments below.

Disclaimer :All information provided is for educational purposes. Any product which you use should be done after proper evaluation of your skin problem.

Linking up with #mg

 

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Reference

1)Skin care for Acne prone skin pubmed

2)Advances in Dermatology and Allergology

Barbara Szyszkowska, Celina Łepecka-Klusek, […], and Dorota Krasowska

pubmed

3)Diet in dermatology  ;K H Basavaraj, C Seemanthini, and R Rashmi  Pubmed

4)PubMed

5)Smile and facial exercise Gibson RM pubmed