Posts from — October 2008

While on the topic of natural anti-aging solutions, here are the top fruits and vegetables you should eat based on their oxygen radical absorbance capacity. ORAC is one way to measure antioxidant capacity of food. The higher the better. Essentially this is in accordance with research suggesting that free radicals cause or at least enhance the aging process.

Note: free radicals are unstable atoms or molecules that attract electrons away from healthy cells.

Thus eating antioxidant rich food is your best line of first defense against aging. Try to get these organic, whenever you can:

Highest scoring ORAC fruits:

Acai fruit
Cranberry
Blueberry (wild is substantially better than cultivated)
Plums (black)
Blackberry
Raspberry

Highest scoring ORAC vegetables:

Artichokes
Peas
Butterhead lettuce
Cabbage
Broccoli

Start by including these in your daily ration and you’ll feel younger in no time!

At some point in her life almost every woman looks at the wrinkles in the mirror and decides to fight back. “I’m not going give up that easily. I’m not going get old that fast. I’ll look my best as long as I can.” Sounds familiar?

Well, luckily for us, we don’t have to give up that easily. And there are plenty of natural anti-wrinkle solutions that do not require you to load up on toxic ingredients or painful injections.

In future posts, I am going to get into more detail on these methods, but today let me just give you a quick overview of the natural anti aging solutions available.

Hydration

We’ve heard so much about the importance of proper hydration that it’s beginning to sound cliché, and escapes our attention. But nevertheless, proper hydration for your skin is a fact of life. If you want your skin to stay fresh and supple, you need to supply it with enough moisture. Think about it, you are 80% water. If that water gets stale and is not properly replenished, you can’t expect to look young and fresh. Period.

Nutrition

Next to hydration, proper nutrition is the best thing you can do for your skin. It is also the most realistic and lasting youthful appearance you can get – the youthfulness will come from within.

Here are some key anti-wrinkle nutrition tips:

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UV ray protection

Many natural and organic skin care brands have SPF creams as well. Try to avoid direct exposure to the sun around the high noon hours – that’s when the rays are most harmful.

Anti-Aging Supplements

Another means of combating wrinkles is using supplements. This is a vast topic that I hope to cover in a later article. But essentially it comes down to the reality that many of the foods we eat today are stripped of their nutritional value. Not to mention our modern diet itself… So supplements are there to give back the vitamins and minerals you might not be getting otherwise. Plus in certain climates you just can’t get the antioxidant rich fruit in the middle of January.

When it comes to supplements, my motto is to look for something from a very natural source. And not to overdo it. Whenever I can, I try to get all the nutrients from “real food”. But there are some nice “green” supplements out there, and I definitely recommend looking into them.

Best thing to do before starting on any supplements, is to talk to your doctor and do a whole physical check up to see if you have any deficiencies. Then do an honest analysis of your diet. Can you substitute a junk snack with anti-oxidant rich berries? Can you substitute your egg and bacon breakfast with a fresh green salad or a smoothie? As wonderful as supplements can be, they will only work for you if they work with your diet. Think of supplements as patching up little cracks on the wall. If there is no stable wall to begin with, no patching up will help

Topical Solutions

This is the most common anti-aging method. We’ve all seen and heard and tried anti-wrinkle creams, serums, masks, etc. Essentially this is feeding and treating your skin from the outside. Naturally, this only work long term if the inside treatment (hydration, nutrition) is on par as well.

When it comes to organic anti-aging creams, the choices are endless. There are so many high quality natural anti-wrinkle products, that it’s hard not to find something that works for you.

Personally, I find Dr. Hauschka products to be very effective. There is also a new line out there called Sophyto that is very natural and is getting positive buzz.

But remember – there is no such thing as universal solution. We all have different skins and lives. What works for one person in one set of circumstances may not work for another. So it’s a method of trial and error search. Find a company that uses natural and organic ingredients, get some samples and try it on. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive celebrity touted product of the moment. It just has to be something that works for you.

Facial exercise

Undeservingly this simple and natural anti wrinkle solution does not get the publicity it needs. But wouldn’t you rather do some facial then get tons of painful injections and face lifts? If you want to learn about it, check out the classic work on the subject – Carole Maggio’s “Facersize”. You can also just Google “facial exersize” and see plenty of free information and testimonials.

Essentially it comes down to the fact that you have muscles on your face, just like on all the other parts of your body. So exercise will keep them toned. When used in conjunction with other tips above, you can end up looking young well into the autumn years. Just check out Carolyn at the glorious age of 61! I really hope I’ll look this good…