More than Skin Deep: The Latest Science of Skin Health & Aging
Your skin performs many functions that are important to your overall health. It provides a protective chemical and physical barrier between you and the outside world, helps you interact with your environment, makes vitamin D and is part of your body’s total antioxidant defense and detoxifying systems. Many factors impact how well your skin can do its job including:
• Your specific Skin Climate that is partly governed by your unique genetic make-up
• Environmental factors including your diet and lifestyle
• Your level of exposure to:
– Pollution/environmental toxins
– UV radiation from sunlight
Most of the factors that negatively impact your skin’s function, either contribute to the amount of toxins within your body or prevent you from eliminating them through your internal detoxifying systems. These factors not only contribute to signs of skin aging including thinning, discoloration, wrinkles, and dryness; they also adversely impact how the rest of your body functions. Over time, they either contribute to the start or to continued progression of metabolic syndrome, and age-related diseases including CVD, arthritis, type 2 diabetes, AD, and cancer. All these conditions decrease your longevity.
Your body seeks to maintain homeostasis (balance/stability). Mild, short-lived forms of stress can improve skin health and longevity by stimulating your antioxidant enzyme production, detoxification, and healthy cell survival mechanisms. Some examples of mild stressors include:
• Calorie restriction
• Moderate exercise
• Pleasing and exciting life events
However, excess, and long-term stress by various factors can have the opposite effect. Your body works best when a proper balance is maintained. Additional examples where balance is particularly important include:
• Omega-3/6 fatty acid intake
• Electrolyte and fluid intake
• Gut microbiome composition
Maintaining your healthy skin and longevity is a lot about maintaining proper balance!
When balance is disturbed by too many negative factors, you can take steps to restore it by choosing appropriate foods and supplements.
In Section 2 you will find out:
• How skin health is connected to health in other areas of your body
• What your skin condition can tell you about how other parts of your body are functioning
• How the health of other body systems can impact skin health
• How skin health can impact the health of other body systems
