A lot of information about looking younger will tell you what you should be doing without going too much into why you should. Not understanding why you are doing something reduces your motivation to stick with it over the long term.
So, in this article we will not just tell you what to do, but why you should do it. Keep reading to learn 11 excellent tips on how to make your skin look great, which will include tips on eating, skincare, and how using a sauna can help.
Why Your Skin Ages
The primary reason your skin develops signs of aging is because of damaged proteins.
This means that looking younger on the outside means you have to pay as much attention to what's going on inside your body as you do outside.
The more damaged proteins you have circulating throughout your body, the older you will look. The following tips will help reduce the damage you are doing to your skin every day, so you can keep your youthful appearance for much longer.
1. Change Your Diet
When you combine sugars with proteins or fats and heat them internally in your body, you are creating a lot of damaged proteins that will cause you problems.
A good example of a food that will accelerate the accumulation of damaged proteins is ice cream. This favorite delicacy has the perfect combination of sugar and proteins to fill your body with age inducing damage proteins.
The same is true for ribs, which are usually served with sugar laden sauces. Try different ways to flavor your foods that aren't loaded with sugar, such as sugar free sauces or herbs and spices.
Fries are another food to avoid because you have starches (glucose molecules all stuck together) combined with fats from deep frying that will load your body up with age accelerating compounds. Potato chips, donuts, hamburgers, or any combination of fast food or baked goods should be avoided if you want to look younger for longer.
2. Fasting
Autophagy is the process in your body that removes and repurposes damaged molecules in your cells, so it's a critical process for keeping you looking younger. You can trigger autophagy in your body through fasting. If you're new to fasting, you can try intermittent fasting first, where you go from three meals a day down to one, before you take on more advanced fasting methods.
3. Get the Right Amount of Sun
It may seem counterintuitive, but exposure to a certain amount of sunlight can help reduce the aging process in your skin. Sunlight triggers melatonin production, which is a powerful antioxidant that reduces skin damage.
You can also stimulate melatonin production with a far infrared sauna blanket, which bathes your body in UV light in the comfort of your home. These portable saunas for home are great for winter when you can't often get outside, or your work keeps you inside for most of the day.
4. Feed Your Liver
The liver is the body's detoxification powerhouse, and certain foods can benefit this vital organ to help it flush the poisons and pollution you are exposed to every day. Increase your cruciferous vegetable intake, which are your brassicas like kale, broccoli, arugula, and bok choy, to name just a few. Cruciferous vegetables will also boost your antioxidant supply to reduce cell damage through inflammation.
5. Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid that is critical to youthful looking skin because of its anti-inflammatory properties and its ability to counter the effects of omega-6 fatty acids, which we all get too much of these days. They are available in foods like salmon and egg yolks (not the whites), but you can get them in a good quality supplement.
6. Healthy Vitamins and Nutrients
Your body makes bile from cholesterol, which is essential for healthy cell membranes and sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen that help you keep your youthful appearance. Egg yolks and fish like salmon are good sources of cholesterol.
Vitamin A is another critical ingredient for healthy skin, which you can get from butter. Don't worry about eating too much butter, but make sure you choose grass fed brands.
Eat more foods rich in vitamin E, which you will find in sunflower seeds, leafy greens, and nuts. Ensure your body has access to vitamin D, which your body will produce when out in the sun, or you could also take cod liver oil and add beef liver and other organ meats to your menu.
7. Get Some Exercise
You will receive a lot of antioxidants from the healthy foods you eat, but the body can also produce its own, which are called endogenous antioxidants. Antioxidant production increases when you exercise.
Portable saunas for the home have also been shown to increase antioxidant production. [*1] Exercise helps with a youthful appearance in so many ways it would need a separate article, but it's safe to say including regular exercise in your week will be just as effective as any skin care treatment you use.
8. Reduce Your Carbohydrate Intake
We touched on the effects of a high sugar diet above but consuming a high carbohydrate diet is akin to flooding your body with rust because of the way sugar oxidizes in your body. Sugar also blocks vitamin C, an essential antioxidant for a healthy glow.
9. Stop Smoking
If you're a smoker, this tip should go to the top of the list. Smoking fills your body with toxins that it then tries to eradicate by using more of your available stores of antioxidants.
You can easily see the damage smoking does by looking at people of similar ages. The one who smokes will usually look years older with wrinkles around the lips and eyes and waxy skin, depending on how many cigarettes they smoke every day.
10. Eliminate Alcohol
Reduce or eliminate alcohol, which is another bad habit that greatly accelerates the aging process. It's also a deadly cocktail when you combine it with smoking, as it can significantly increase your risk of some cancers when you do too much of both.
11. Reduce your Stress Levels
Stress triggers physiological processes in the body that significantly increase the aging process. For one, your body taps into glucose as a quick source of energy to fuel the flight or response. So, even if you eat a low carb diet, your body is still using carbs to create a catabolic breakdown of proteins, which has negative consequences for your skin. Saunas are an excellent way to relax at home after a stressful day at work and provide a range of other health benefits as well.
As you can see, there is a lot you can do to look and feel younger. None of the above tips are difficult to do, but introducing changes gradually is often the best way to achieve long term results.
[*1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31950931/
