Natural skin care, is easy to do at home. Just by implementing these few easy steps, you can look younger and healthier naturally! There are also excellent methods for maintaining your new look after having a procedure from NOVA Plastic Surgery. The steps to naturally younger-looking skin have an easy-to-remember acronym: PURE.
Put Out The Cigarette
Smoking is one of the absolute worst things you can do when it comes to neglecting your skin. The damaging effects are only surpassed (and just slightly) by sun damage. Here are just a few ways smoking will make you look older:
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Smokers are four times as likely to have restless nights with less sleep, due to nicotine withdrawal through the night. That means larger, darker bags under your eyes.
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Smoking lowers the oxygen levels in the blood, which prevents your skin from receiving the nourishment it needs. The result is that you will look on average about two years older than someone who doesnt smoke who is the same age as you.
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It can cause yellowing of the skin, and not just on your fingers.
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The motions of sucking on a cigarette causes deep wrinkles around the mouth and on the cheeks, and the act of squinting your eyes against the smoke will cause deep wrinkling around the eyes and along the forehead. Combine that with depleted oxygen levels, and your estimated age based on appearance keeps going farther and farther up.
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If you have a cosmetic procedure to correct these issues but continue smoking, the lack of oxygen in the vessels of your skin will lead to redder, more noticeable scarring than if you were not smoking.
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Smoking causes dry skin and also depletes the skin of Vitamin C, which is essential for natural skin repair.
Along with these negative effects on your skin, smokers also experience yellowed teeth, thinner hair than nonsmokers, and faster hair graying than nonsmokers. So do yourself a favor and ditch the sticks.
UV Protection
UV or ultraviolet light is radiation that comes from sunlight. Sunlight is essential for our health, but too much of it will cause major damage to the skin that results in aging. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, up to 90 percent of visible aging on the skin is caused by sun exposure. These changes, which include wrinkling, dry skin, and a leathery texture of the skin, occur gradually with chronic sun exposure, so the effects might not be noticeable to the person experiencing them.
Exposure to the sun can also lead to freckles and skin discoloration, and skin cancer. Protecting your skin from UV rays every single day is the easiest way to prevent aging naturally. Wear a daily sunscreen containing SPF of at least 45, and be sure to put it on before you plan to go outside for more than a few minutes. For people with fair skin, sunburn and sun damage can occur in as little time as it takes to walk to the mailbox.
Skin Regimen
A proper skin regimen will consist of cleansing and moisturizing your skin. Cleansing is especially important if you wear makeup. Makeup can hold onto free radicals youre exposed to throughout the day, most of which come from pollution. Free radicals lead to collagen breakdown in the skin, which then leads to fine lines. Makeup can also clog your pores, which might lead to acne. Every night that you dont cleanse your skin, youre not giving your face the chance to recover from the days stresses.
Moisturizer is also essential to a proper skin regimen. A moisturizer will replace lost moisture in your skin, and help your skin retain moisture. This keeps the skin soft and supple. You can use a daily moisturizer that contains SPF to prevent the signs of aging from dry skin and sun damage.
Eat Healthy Foods
When it comes to naturally preventing aging, what you put in your body is just as important was what you put on it. Free radicals in the environment steal electrons from your bodys cells, which damages your skin cells and leads to the appearance of aging. Vegetables and fruits high in antioxidants like Vitamin C and E help prevent against DNA damage caused by the free radicals that come from sun exposure. Vitamin E also protects your skin cell membranes.
Foods that are high in these vitamins include citrus fruits, bell peppers (One cup contains more Vitamin C than an orange!), leafy green vegetables, broccoli, asparagus, and olives. In addition to helping fight off free radicals and preventing DNA damage, Vitamin C is essential for the production of collagen, the protein that keeps your skin supple and firm. One cup of Brussels sprouts contains 125% of your daily recommended intake of Vitamin C.
A lack of Vitamin A can increase the appearance of dry, flaky skin- and dry skin looks older than moisturized skin. Vitamin A is essential for natural skin repair. Sweet potatoes, leafy greens, carrots, butternut squash, and cantaloupe are all high in Vitamin A.
Omega-3 fatty acids also improve the quality of your skins cell membranes, allowing moisture in and keeping free radicals out. They also reduce inflammation throughout the body, which leads to less acne, and they help prevent sun damage. One study showed that people who have a diet high in Omega-3s had a 29 percent lower risk for developing skin cancer than those with lower levels of Omega-3s. Cold water fish are the most common source of these fatty acids, but you can also get lots of them from walnuts, flaxseed, and and soybeans.