To keep your skin looking healthy, you need to maintain a diet that is well-balanced nutritionally. While healthy eating may not produce striking results, not eating a healthy diet will cause your skin to age much faster.
Essential Nutrients for Healthy Skin
Non-essential nutrients are the ones that the body can do without or else are synthesized by the body productively. Essential nutrients are the ones that the body cannot make itself and cannot do without either. The third type of nutrient is the conditionally essential ones; the body can synthesize these if it is working at optimal efficiency. However, when the body isn’t working in top condition (in cases of the disease, advanced age, stress, or intoxication), there is a good chance that the body will lose the ability to synthesize sufficient quantities of these nutrients. At this point, the body switches over to trying to obtain them from food. Furthermore, it has been shown that insufficient intake or synthesis of some conditionally essential nutrients can lead to the breakdown of the functions of several organs, including the skin. Therefore, using supplements for the conditionally essential nutrients can produce positive results with regards to skincare, particularly if the reason that they lack in the first place is due to old age, stress, or other health issues.
Lipoic Acid and skincare
An example of a conditionally essential nutrient is lipoic acid. Lipoic acid is required by cells in order to produce energy from carbohydrates and other fuels. Lipoic acid can also be a very efficient antioxidant as well as a chelator for heavy metals. The body can make its own lipoic acid in moderate amounts but will produce at lower than sufficient levels in times of illness or stress. In addition, lipoic acid levels decline as you age.
Lipoic acid is more versatile than most antioxidants. It is soluble in both fat and water, making it capable of protecting all of the body’s tissues and systems. It is very effective against most free radicals, including superoxide anion, hydroxyl radical, singlet oxygen, and hydrogen peroxide. It also binds and neutralizes (chelates) the ions of metals (copper, cadmium, iron, lead, and mercury) that catalyze free radical formation. Lipoic acid also can help to lower blood sugar levels. Because it is an unusual combination of a metal chelator, antioxidant and can lower blood sugar levels, lipoic acid can also act as an inhibitor of cross-linking and glycation. (Cross-linking and glycation are two components of the main mechanisms of aging and play a vital role in the formation of wrinkles.)
Q10 (Coenzyme) and skin care
CoQ10 (coenzyme Q10) has two key purposes: It is a key part of the cellular respiration systems, which is found in the mitochondria as well as being an antioxidant. CoQ10 can improve both the efficiency and the rate of cellular energy production. It also simultaneously protects the mitochondria from free radical attack. A healthy body can produce CoQ10, but many factors, including illness, age, malnutrition, and cholesterol-lowering drugs, can impair the body’s production mechanisms for CoQ10. CoQ10 is known as a biomarker of aging as its level in the body correlates to the aging process and degenerative diseases. One study showed that giving mice CoQ10 supplements increased life expectancy by almost 50 percent. Several studies have also shown the effectiveness of CoQ10 in the treatment of heart disease as well as in congestive heart failure. Hypertension lowered levels of immunity, and muscular atrophy can also be helped with CoQ10 supplements. Sadly, there are few studies about the effectiveness of using CoQ10 for skincare. It is possible that the increased energy produced by CoQ10 is good for the skin as well.
Cysteine and methionine, and skincare
Cysteine and methionine are amino acids that contain sulfur. Aside from being key parts of the structure of proteins, they also act as anti-oxidants and assist with removing heavy metals from the body. Cysteine is also a component of glutathione which is the main water-soluble antioxidant found inside of cells. Another essential amino acid is methionine which only comes from food, as the body cannot produce it. Cysteine is created from methionine and is considered to be conditionally essential, meaning that t would become essential only if the levels of methionine aren’t sufficient. The levels of both methionine and cysteine get lower with age. Using supplements of these two key amino acids has been shown to increase the life span of mice. There is also indirect proof that keeping the levels of these two amino acids at an optimal level can provide both better health and longevity, including healthy skin.
Blood sugar levels have an important effect on the aging process. Glucose is not only a key fuel for cellular use but it is also a potentially damaging substance when it comes to tissues and cells.
The good health of every organ in the body is dependent on vitamins and minerals; the skin is one of those organs. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can be particularly harmful to the skin and can result in accelerated aging or skin disease.
One of the major causes of aging is free radical damage. As has been discussed earlier, free radicals are the indiscriminate and highly reactive chemicals that have the ability to damage the structure of all living cells.
One of the main fat soluble antioxidant vitamins found in the body is vitamin E. It have protective functions within the cellular membrane, the lipoproteins and other structures that are oily in nature. Skin is particularly high in unsaturated fatty acids so using vitamin E (both topically and orally) is very beneficial.
When silicone is mentioned in terms of beauty, the first thought is that most have breaks implants, most of which are done with silica gel implants. But, interestingly, that isn’t the only use for silicone in the beauty market.
The cost of a skincare treatment should not be indicative of its value for the skin. In other words, just because a remedy or supplement is expensive doesn’t mean that it is good. Cheaper remedies can be very effective. A good example of this is the fact that regular exercise, which can cost nothing or close to it, can have very positive effects on your cardiovascular system. In addition, eating fewer carbohydrates and cutting down on your caloric intake can have life-lengthening effects that are cheap and easy to achieve.