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Out of all the skin ailments, from cellulite to eczema, oily skin to scars, wrinkles get the most mention and rank as the highest concern among skin conditions. Coupled with the aging baby boomer population, anti-aging skin care treatments and products are becoming increasingly popular. But with so many treatments, creams and products available, trying to choose one to reduce or eliminate wrinkles is becoming more confusing. Not to mention most products don't live up to the claims they make. Before we go into treatments and solutions, what causes wrinkles in the first place? Prevention is more important cure (it's so much cheaper and less frustrating than discovering new lines). There isn't one single factor that contributes to wrinkle formation but quite a few: 1) Sun Exposure (prolonged and unprotected) 2) Sugar or Bad Fats (inflammation) 3) Smoking, Alcohol & Drugs 4) Stress 5) Sleep (or lack of it) 6) Genetics Sun Exposure Sun exposure, the prolonged and unprotected kind is usually to blame for the formation of wrinkles, pigmentation (brown spots, freckles) and most forms of skin cancer. The wrinkles that are formed from excessive sun exposure are preventable. I'm not saying you can't have tan skin, and I'm not saying that you should avoid the sun completely because we all need a little bit of sun to make vitamin D in our bodies. If you want to tan, do it safely by using sunless bottled tanning products. If you're worried about the chemicals that are used in those sunless tanning products, don't fear, all sunless tanning products use an ingredient called Dihydroxyacetone (DHA). The ingredient sounds "chemical" but it's safe to use. It's actually natural because it's a type of sugar made from sugar beets/sugar cane which reacts with the dead layer of your skin to produce a brownish colour. This is the only safe and wrinkle-free form of tanning. Not tanning beds or exposing yourself to the sun but sunless tanning products. Tanning beds are an even deadlier form of tanning (deadly enough to potentially kill you), which means more intense skin damage (resulting in more wrinkles later). For those who don't want to tan but are worried about developing wrinkles, investing in a good sunscreen suited to your skin type is the best form of anti-aging product you can buy. Opt for at least SPF 15 to SPF 30. Anything below SPF 15 isn't doing its job of being a sunscreen. Make sure the sunscreen has "broad-spectrum protection" - meaning they block/absorb both UVB and UVA rays. If you're going to be swimming or sweating a lot, you'll need to reapply the sunscreen for adequate protection. For those with sensitive skin, or if you're going to use it on babies' skin or if you want non-chemical sunscreens, look for products with zinc oxide on the ingredient list. There may be people who may develop sensitivities to the ingredient (and no ingredient is fail safe) but majority of the population can tolerate zinc oxide well. Make sure you buy sunscreens suited to your skin type or you'll dislike wearing it. I know this is hard for those with oily or acne-prone skin because sunscreens are generally greasy but you'll be surprised, formulations today are getting better. Check all the department stores and pharmacies for a matt or non-greasy sunscreen. For the folks who hate wearing sunscreen because they feel heavy or because they give a white cast or "ghostly face" look - try micronised zinc sunscreens. The suncreen ingredients are finer in particle size so it doesn't leave a noticeable white film. Or use tinted moisturisers with at least SPF 15 or more. Tinted moisturisers have some pigment in them to counteract the "whiteness" of sunscreen ingredients, which helps blend to a more natural skin colour if you choose the right shade for your skin. The added benefit with tinted moisturisers is that they're 3 products in 1 and feels quite light on the skin, it's a moisturiser, sunscreen and light foundation all rolled into one. The one caveat is, it has poor coverage compared to a foundation so don't expect it to work exactly like one. Practice safe sun exposure. If you're indoors and it's winter, you can probably get away with not applying sunscreen, but if you're heading outdoors (whether it's cloudy, snowing or sunny), wear a suitable sunscreen. If you're heading to the beach or if it's a really hot, sunny day, wear a hat, some sun glasses and tightly woven but loose clothing. Do this and you can prevent, reduce or delay the onset of skin cancer, wrinkles and pigmentation. Don't believe me? Compare the skin on the least exposed area on your body (the buttocks or the insides of your upper arms) to the area that has the most exposure to the sun (usually the face or hands). You'll notice there's a stark difference in quality of skin between these areas. The irony is, the least exposed areas almost never get moisturised and yet they remain wrinkle-free! Sugar or Bad Fats A diet of processed foods are usually made up of artificial flavours, colours, table salt, sugar, bad fats, white flour, processed dairy and additives. These foods aren't doing your waistline, your health, your body odour and your skin any favours. People find it hard to believe that certain foods can age them but it does. Diet plays a big role in how our skin ages or doesn't! The worse offenders would be sugar and bad fats. How does sugar damage and age skin? Your blood naturally maintains normal levels of glucose (sugar) to fuel your cellular processes, but consuming processed foods that contain high amounts of sugar will spike your glucose levels. Over time, damage caused by high glucose will accumulate and can lead to diabetes. Skin has collagen and elastin which provides structure and firmness. Collagen is the fibrous protein that supports the skin, and elastin is the mesh which maintains skin's elasticity. When you consume excess sugar, your skin experiences inflammation, so it affects collagen and elastin - their degradation will lead to wrinkles. Too much glucose in the blood not only damages the skin but also the capillaries and valves which carry the blood. Your blood provides nutrients and oxygen to the skin so if it's overloaded with glucose, it hardens the collagen over time. This is called cross-linking. Substances that experience cross-linking become brittle, rigid, hard and tears or cracks easily. When it happens to the body and the skin, cross-linking can lead to the hardening of arteries, stiffening of joints, cataracts, broken capillaries (rosacea) and wrinkles. What's even worse, cross-linked protein can also react with free radicals and create AGEs (Advanced Glycosylation End-products) which results in more damage. This increases inflammation in the skin, causing skin to look red, inflamed, itchy and blemished (which may resemble rosacea or a rash) and contributes to further wrinkling. Sugar also fuels the aging of skin. Age spots are a good example. When apples are cut and browns due to exposure to oxygen, so does the skin when it's exposed to high levels of blood glucose. Cross-linking not only causes wrinkles but thins the skin, making it more fragile. When the skin thins, it's much easier to see broken capillaries (and redness) and it becomes more sensitive to the sun, wind and temperature changes (classic signs of sensitive skin). So what can we do to avoid pickling ourselves in glucose? Everything made from cane or sugar beets should be reduced. This includes white sugar, caster sugar, brown or dark brown sugar, icing sugar, raw sugar, low-GI sugar and golden syrup. It's not just added sugar but also foods made with sugar, such as doughnuts, candy, milk chocolates, cookies or biscuits, jams or jellies, caramel, pastries, cakes, cupcakes, sweet sauces, most breakfast cereals, sugary drinks and soft drinks (coke, energy drinks, hot chocolates, commercial fruit juices). What do you do if you have a sweet tooth?
Carbohydrates such as white bread, white pasta, white rice and white flour also get converted into glucose in the blood. Reduce your intake of these and slow down aging in its tracks. If you love eating carbs, replace them with complex carbohydrates such as wholegrain bread, brown rice, quinoa or wholemeal flour. Note: Never use artificial sweeteners such as:
These artificial sweeteners have controversial side effects. Most notably weight gain and memory loss. I do not recommend using these to replace sugar. How bad fats damage and age the skin Before we get into the bad fats, fat or oils are an essential, I repeat ESSENTIAL part of our diets. Humans require fats to function. Without adequate good fats or oils, our cells wouldn't be able to make their membranes that protect them. Nearly half of the dry weight of the brain is made of fat. Our sex hormones (oestrogen, testosterone, progesterone) are made from cholesterol. Our skin contains lipids that naturally moisturise us. Women who have fat-free diets run the risk of altering their hormone levels, experience hair-loss, bad breath or bad body odour, have memory or learning difficulties, mood swings, low libido, depression, ringing in the ears and/or skin problems. According to the American Heart Association, consuming fat-free foods does not mean you will lose weight! Fat-free is misleading because some fat-free foods have even MORE calories than their full fat counter parts. This puts people who buy fat-free foods at risk because they're assuming that the manufacturer is doing the calorie counting for them - which couldn't be further from the truth in most cases. Many people assume that by eating fat-free, they can lose weight without having to exercise or eat healthy foods. Yet if the fat-free diets worked, eating your way to weight loss should be easy. The reality is, it's not and obesity rates continue to climb around the world while fat-free products increase in numbers. Fat-free eating isn't the answer, so what fats do we need? People think of the word "fats" and they look disgusted. But without fats, we wouldn't be able to survive or look half way decent. Not all fats and oils are bad. There is a clear difference between good fats and bad fats. The bad fats are the ones that will cause weight gain, heart disease, skin problems and accelerated aging. The GOOD fats however, will do the complete opposite. There are good fats that can aid in weight loss, improve circulation, help people with heart disease, elevate some skin conditions and help our skin and hair look healthy and vibrant. Bad fats to avoid:
Good fats to love & enjoy:
You're probably wondering why I don't recommend vegetable oils and margarines. We've all seen the ads on TV about margarines that lower cholesterol or how vegetable oils are good for the heart. But if you look at the statistics of the rise of heart disease and amount of vegetable oil consumption, they correlate to each other. Since WWII, the amount of saturated fats consumed have decreased and vegetable oils like soybean and sunflower have increased, yet obesity and heart disease continue to rise despite the switch to apparently "healthier" vegetable oils. While humans do need a small level of omega 6 oils (which make up majority of vegetable oils) to survive, the oil that truly gives us health and beautiful skin is omega 3 oils (specifically EPA & DHA). I'm not saying you can't have any vegetable oils, but we should all take them in moderation. The typical Western diet favours omega 6 oils and it's even worse when they're used in deep frying. Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids are unstable if exposed to high heat. When heated, they generate free radicals and any benefit they originally had goes out the door. If you consume high levels of omega 6 oils over omega 3s, your tissues will experience inflammation and inflammation accelerates aging. The reason behind this is because omega 6s and omega 3s fight for the same enzymes to get converted. So we can all benefit by increasing our intake of omega 3 oils or by eating fish and limiting the use of omega 6 oils. Just one to two servings of steamed / grilled / baked / stir fried fish a week or 2 x 1000mg fish oil capsules a day can make a difference in the way your skin looks after a couple of months. Of all the bad fats, transfats would be the one type of fat to avoid like the plague. This means no margarine or eating pastries made with shortening. Transfats are man-made fats using partially hydrogenated plant oils to improve the stability of these oils so they may have a longer shelf life. They have been well studied and implicated in causing coronary heart disease, obesity, cancer, diabetes and cataracts. This is not good news for your health or your skin. Find them by checking the ingredient list on foods you normally eat, they're usually listed as "hydrogenated [type of vegetable oil used]". Most people have heard that saturated fats are bad. There is truth to that statement but that's not the whole story. In the family of saturated fats, there are good and bad types too. Saturated fats from animals have provided a rich source of food for mankind for tens of thousands of years. Good saturated fats provide ample amounts of nutrients for our ancestors. Most tribal communities prize fatty animals as did our ancestors. In fact, statistics show obesity and heart disease rates have raised with the increased intake of vegetable oils NOT saturated fats. What's even more interesting is that cultures which value saturated fats do not have high obesity rates! Another good saturated fat is virgin coconut oil - which Eastern cultures have been using in their cuisines for thousands of years (yet for the last 50 years, have been demonised by the vegetable oil industry as a bad fat). Virgin coconut oil has been shown to help in dieting because eating it increases one's metabolism. Saturated fats are only bad if you consume high amount of the processed meat or refined palm oil type. Saturated fats from animals that are factory farmed are usually fed grains and beans high in omega 6 oils (which tips our own ratio of omega 6 to even higher levels). When they get injected with hormones or other drugs, or eat grains sprayed with herbicides, those substances tend to reside in the animals fatty tissues. When we eat their fat, we're also accumulating these substances in us. This is why I don't recommend saturated fat from factory farmed animals or processed meat (processed meat usually uses factory farmed animals). Processed meat is usually high in additives and gets heat treated, rendering the fat unsuitable if you want to look slim and have nice skin. Why did I put saturated fats from wild animals (sourced from reputable butcheries), organic free-range grass-fed animals and their butter on the 'good' list? Well grass-fed animals have high levels of omega 3 in their fat, which we also get if we eat them. Not only are they healthier because they get to move and exercise but they have lower levels of pesticides, drugs and artificial hormones in their bodies. But the higher levels of omega 3 in their fats and butter make them a better choice over factory farmed animal fats and butter. Of course, even with this type of good saturated fat, it should not be used for deep frying. By choosing the right oils to consume, you can improve your skin, slow down aging and have a slimmer waist line while being able to enjoy the occasional melted butter on a grilled steak. Eating a healthier diet doesn't mean you can't do without. There are plenty of alternatives to discover and the benefits that come with switching to alternatives mean looking good and feeling good. Smoking, Alcohol & Drugs Inflammation is one of the easiest ways to damage the skin and accelerate the signs of aging. Cigarette smoke (first or second hand smoking), binging on alcohol and frequent use of illegal drugs can take their toll on your looks and your health. Nowhere is this more obvious than by looking at the before and after photographs of long term chain smokers, chronic alcoholics and drug abusers. The link between smoking, aging and cancer isn't disputed. The link between frequent drug abuse and mental illness and physical ailments are also undisputed. Binge drinking is the same. But recent studies are showing that having even one alcoholic drink a day puts women at risk of developing cancer (specifically cancers of the breast, liver and rectum). The type of alcoholic drink (whether it's wine, beer or spirits) did not change the outcome. These are only accounting for deaths by cancer due to alcohol. According to the CDC, roughly eighty thousand people in the US die every year from alcohol-related problems. Death rates aside, we now know that low to moderate levels of alcohol can be deadly in the long term. Smoking & Aging Average smokers inhale about 4,000 other chemicals in cigarette smoke besides nicotine. Some of these chemicals include:
This is just a tiny list of harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke. With that tiny list alone, the damages to skin and health are huge. If you're a smoker and want to start looking younger, kick the habit. To see for yourself how a person ages due to their smoking habit, check it out on NineMSN:
Join a support group or get help from quit smoking hotlines. Even your doctor can offer strategies to quit smoking. The rewards are immense - being able to breathe properly, looking younger, having better teeth and gums, no more bad breath, increasing your longevity, lowering the risk of cancer and disease. Alcohol & Aging Not only does alcohol have a toxic effect on the nervous system but also on your skin and how your age. Alcohol consumption can slowly cause brain impairment by causing memory loss, poor co-ordination, learning difficulties, change in behaviour, poor judgment and slow reflexes. It is because of these mind altering problems why driving while under the influence of alcohol is so dangerous. Alcohol ages the skin in two ways via inflammation and dehydration. If you have dry skin already, drinking alcohol can make matters worse. This also works when alcohol is applied to the skin. This is another reason why I don't recommend some natural skin care products that use no preservatives because they use high amounts of alcohol as the preservative system - it dries and damages the skin. Inflammation caused by alcohol also causes red flushing of the skin. For sufferers of rosacea, this can damage facial capillaries even further and cause more redness. Some heavy drinkers actually develop rosacea-like facial flushing and broken capillaries that never goes away. As you know by now, inflammation also accelerates aging. Drugs & Aging Whether it's legal or illegal drugs being abused, both have aging and health consequences. I don't want to lecture as most people know about the side effects of drugs (mental retardation, HIV/AIDs, organ failure, seizures, depression, behavioural problems, death). Most people don't associate drug taking with aging as the majority of users are young people - giving the misconception that they don't age you. Drugs do and can age their users. Anything that has such severe consequences on your health will have a profound effect on aging. I think the best poster child examples are the before and after pictures of drug addicts. Those mug shots of drug addicts show how dramatically drugs can age a person. I know they're heavy drug users but even low alcohol use can cause cancer in women, so imagine what low drug abuse can do? Many reformed drug addicts find that they have to have plastic reconstructive surgery to repair their faces. Musicians who were former drug addicts look ten to twenty years older than their peers of a similar age - Keith Richards is a good example. Stress In the past, stress was not taken seriously as a major factor on the influence of aging. Today however, studies show that stress can take a big toll on the body and the mind - just like the other major factors which cause aging. Psychological stress related aging isn't tangible like smoking tobacco, being sunburned or consuming junk food. Stress isn't an external factor that you can see, hear or touch but it's how an individual deals with a situation that raises their adrenaline levels, blood pressure and fear or anxiety. In short durations, stress can be easily dealt with by the body. Stress exists because in the past, it's saved our ancestors' lives. This evolutionary response is called the "flight or fight" reaction. Acute stress makes the heart pump faster, makes the person more alert, raises blood pressure and generates an immediate release of energy. That sudden boost of "oomph" for the body helped our ancestors run faster from predators, or gave them enough energy to fight for territory or with an enemy. But prolonged stress, particularly major life events such as the loss of a loved one, financial bankruptcy, separation or divorce, a high pressure job and cancer can turn mentally healthy individuals into nervous wrecks. In our evolutionary past, prolonged stress was rare and acute stress only occurred in short spurs, enough for us to recover and calm down. Today's modern lifestyle of over working, having demanding careers while raising a family, financial stress and dissolution of relationships will generate chronic stress where our bodies think we're constantly under attack from an external threat. Chronic stress compromises the immune system, making it easier to contract viruses or develop diseases. When stress hormone such as adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol are constantly pumping throughout the body, your blood pressure remains high (putting stress on your heart and valves), depression may follow, as well as aggression or anxiety (which can cause panic attacks in some people), some people may develop ulcers, experience hair loss, become obese, have trouble sleeping or getting out of bed, experience headaches or migraines and the most obvious side effect of chronic stress is how fast people age when they can't cope with stress. It is now possible to measure how much one has aged due to stress. All made possible by looking at our cells. Telomeres are the caps at the end of our chromosomes (chromosomes are the genetic information packages inside each of our cell's nucleus). Think of telomeres as little caps on the end points of an X, holding it in place like the tips of shoelaces. In humans, as we age, our telomeres slowly wear down. It shortens itself each time it divides (when new cells divide to replace older cells). There comes to a limit where the cell cannot divide anymore because their telomeres are too short. That's when the cell dies. Psychological chronic stress actually ages cells, which can be seen when you measure the length of your telomeres. People suffering from chronic stress actually have shorter telomeres. If you want to reverse or slow down aging, reduce the amount of stress in your life. If you can't, learn how to react in stressful situations. Meditation, yoga and breathing exercises are great tools to use to reduce stress and learn how to cope better. Studies show that people who meditate were on average physically 12 years younger than their peers of a similar age! Changing how you perceive negative situations and how you react to them can also benefit those around you and bring about positive outcomes. If you're in a demanding job, you really should consider taking breaks or holidays whenever possible to give your body time to repair and recharge. Without any relaxation, you may end up paying for it with your health. The less you stress, the less you age. We've seen how fast people age when they're chronically upset and stressed. Either remove yourself from stressful situations or find support to help you cope. Your emotions, your mind and your health will be better off in the long run and you'll keep those wrinkles at bay. Sleep Lack of quality sleep for long periods is one of the easiest ways to age a person's face and body. Whether it's because of staying up late, shift work, partying, crying baby, noisy neighbours, insomnia, illness, jet lag, meeting a deadline or anything else, lack of sleep side effects are classic: dark circles or puffy eye bags, blood-shot eyes, mood swings, lack of energy and poor concentration. Add gravity and natural aging to that mix and you can understand why fighting dark eye circles have become high on the list of skin and aging complaints. The eyes are the first part of the face people notice. Lack of sleep can alter the appearence of the area surrounding the eyes and make you look aged, tired and grumpy even. As humans age, the capillaries underneath the eyes show more because the skin gets thinner - resulting in a dark, hollowed out look. Sometimes it could be caused by darkening of the skin due to excessive sun exposure on the face. The skin beneath the eyes will also slowly sag from aging (due to loss of collagen and elastin) and crows feet lines may appear on the side of the eyes. While concealers may help correct this problem temporarily, unless you correct it, the dark circles can only get darker. Skin lightening creams and gels do not work on dark circles because the thing affecting its appearance is how thin or translucent your skin is and how dark or prominent your capillaries are under the eyes. No cream or gel can permanently alter the thickness of your skin or make your skin more opaque. Nor can they get in deep enough to lighten your capillaries and veins. If anything could it would be classified as a drug, not a cosmetic! The same lasers that help eliminate capillaries may lighten dark eye circles but treatments are often expensive and carry a risk if you get treated by an inexperienced therapist or doctor. Also, results cannot guarantee that there will be a significant lightening effect. People with allergies, folks with genetically larger fat pads under the eyes, those who rub their eyes due to irritation, contact lens wearers, or women who wear eye makeup to bed (or didn't remove all traces of eye makeup) can wake up with puffy eye bags. While cold compression (anything cold will temporarily reduce swelling), eye masks, cucumber slices, and skin tightening gels may help reduce puffy eye bags, it's never permanent and results are rarely significant. The other more drastic alternative is plastic surgery (blepharoplasty) but it carries risks and it's an expensive way to combat puffy eyes. Sleep deprivation isn't just a cosmetic problem but it has dangerous health implications too. Poor sleeping habits can reduce people's ability to drive to the point that they are equal to a drunk driver on the road. Long term it can cause depression, anxiety, aggression, mental illness, headaches, migraines, chronic fatigue, insomnia, mood swings, memory problems, aches and pain, weight gain, substance abuse, dizziness, diabetes, impaired judgment, hormone imbalance and slow reflexes. What's going to help dark eye circles? Quality sleep! I don't mean just head to bed and sleep. Some people find it hard to get quality sleep. Quality sleep that refreshes you is what we're after:
By following these tips, you can have better sleeping habits, more energy, wake up renewed and hopefully improved the appearance of your lower eye area! Genetics Genetics play only a minor role in how we age, which is why I placed that last on the list. We have the power (by our choices and lifestyle) to alter the expression of which genes get activated and which ones are kept dormant. For example, a person may be genetically susceptible to heart disease but if they choose a smoke-free lifestyle, combined with healthy eating and exercise with a positive outlook, they can avoid or decrease their risk of developing heart disease. For individuals who don't have the markers for heart disease, if they choose to binge on a life time of cigarettes, junk food, inactivity, alcohol and stress - these people may very well develop the disease even though they were born with strong hearts. The same goes for aging. You can absolutely improve the way you look slowly by choosing a better lifestyle. But I hear some people complain that it's too hard, they're too busy or it's too expensive. The thing is, corrective or plastic surgery, medications to elevate disease, pain that comes with a neglected body, cancer and money spent on the latest "miracle" creams or on botox is actually more expensive. Each tool only fixes one problem, while leaving the others present. Plastic surgery can provide a face lift but it won't make you healthier or live longer. Medications may elevate pain but it won't make you look younger or prevent cancer. Botox is temporary youth in a syringe but your insides are still aging. I find it amazing how folks can find time to watch some of their favourite tv shows yet claim that they don't have 20-30 minutes to spare for exercise. A healthier lifestyle can slow down aging, prevent or reduce the amount or depth of new wrinkles, with the added benefits of better health, more energy (probably a better sex drive to boot), slimmer waist line, improved body odour, less pain and medication while looking younger and feeling renewed! Some people see a healthier lifestyle as hard work but imagine how hard it would be to feel and look miserable because you haven't looked after yourself. Letting years of neglect take it's toll on you can affect your health, emotions, energy and the people around you. The thing controlling your genes isn't some invisible force, handed to you by your ancestors that are futile to change. You are the controlling force! By doing what you do everyday, those actions control how your genes get expressed - good or bad. So choose wisely =) Solutions
Copyright Cyren Organics 
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