Healthy Skin - How to Have It and What to Avoid.

Four Tips to Make You Quit Singing the "Dry-Skin Blues"

Is smooth skin a hopeless goal for you?

Not really. These four strategies can help…

1. Hydrate your entire system with lots of water and high anti-oxidant green tea. During winter there’s a tendency not to drink as much due to cool temperatures. You may want to bring your water to room temperature to encourage drinking more. Or enjoy more warm green tea, like the Royal Matcha Green Tea sold elsewhere on this website.
2. Eat a healthy diet of mostly raw foods, foods high in omega-3 fatty acids which produce a hydrating effect from the inside out, and antioxidants which help fight signs of aging. Winter might be a good time to increase your intake of Krill oil also, for its omega-3s -- and antioxidants such as Purple Defense and Turmeric.
3. Take a revitalizing bath – in warm water, not hot! Himalayan salt baths are rejuvenating, and help dry skin to slough off. Hot water is damaging to your skin, so stick with warm water.
4. Moisturize daily with non-clogging organic moisturizers such as coconut oil or body butter. These nourish your skin instead of clogging it, as many toxin-impaired moisturizers do.

It’s especially important to cleanse and moisturize before you go to bed at night, to remove impurities from your skin before your revitalizing sleep time. Just be sure your moisturizer isn’t tainted with toxins.

Why do I stress organic so much?

Because what you don’t know – or even what’s intentionally hidden from you – really can hurt you.

Continue reading to discover just how dangerous many moisturizer ingredients can be – even some very high-end (expensive) ‘spa’ products.

Be sure to check your products against the list of dangerous ingredients that follows.

Always Avoid Applying Potential Toxins To Your Skin…

Many people – even those who carefully select organic or gourmet foods to eat choose skin care products that can do serious damage to their skin.

Now, realize that I’m not suggesting you’d intentionally apply toxins to your skin. You simply may not realize the extent to which many common skin care products contain suspect ingredients with unrecognizable or unpronounceable names.

Do you ever put things onto your skin that you wouldn’t think of eating? I hope not...

You see, I believe that what you put on your skin is absorbed into your bloodstream and integrated into your body’s tissues. A number of these potential toxins have estrogen-mimicking effects that can wreak havoc on all your good health intentions.

Besides avoiding these hazards, there are some other steps you can take to create that young-looking skin you really want…
What Can You Do to Keep Your Skin Looking Healthy?

First of all, if you’re doing many of the things I talk about elsewhere on this website, you may have already noticed a major difference in the way your skin looks — as well as other aspects of your health.

Eating according to your nutritional type with plenty of fresh raw organic foods in your diet, and getting enough omega-3 fats are ways to improve your health on many fronts...

And need I mention exercise? Through exercise, your skin detoxifies impurities from your system – what you know as perspiration.

But beyond that, here’s a critically important issue you need to be aware of...
Just 5 Minutes Per Day Gets You on the Road
to a More Youthful-Looking, Vibrant Face

Every day of your life, pollution, grime, and dust attach themselves to the surface of your skin.

If you don’t take a couple minutes daily to cleanse your face and unclog your pores, your skin may look sluggish -- instead of at its bright and shining best.

Cleaning your skin is important, just like keeping your internal organs clean and healthy is.

But here’s a caveat…
Take Your Own Hippocratic Oath for Skin Care ("First, Do No Harm")

It may seem like a cliché, but there are things you can do to prevent damaging your skin. Many of the visible signs of aging are caused by external factors that you can at least partially control.

These actions may be the easiest and least expensive things you can do to prevent damage to your skin, gain a more youthful appearance, and build a strong foundation for your pro-active natural skin care. Not to mention, creating a buzz about your new looks.

Please be aware that skin damage doesn’t always involve pain or immediate visible change, and can often go unnoticed for some time. But the cumulative actions you begin taking today can also improve your skin slowly over time. So get started today doing these simple things:

* Avoid or minimize damage from hot water and chlorine. Although taking baths and showers may seem like it’s health-promoting and relaxing, your skin may disagree – especially if you have chlorinated water, which is almost certainly the case (unless your water comes from a well).

Chlorine causes oxidative damage. The hotter the water, the more potential for damage – because the rate of chemical reactions increases with temperature. Hot water may cause your skin to age faster.

So what can you do? Adjust your water temperature to be a bit cooler, limit your showers to one per day, and decrease your soak time in the bath.
* Use gentle and safe skin care products – organic whenever possible. Your skin absorbs it all. Don’t compromise your health and the health of your skin by using potential poisons.
* Be very sure to remove your makeup each evening. It's a really bad idea to flop into bed, leaving makeup – not to mention environmental grime – on your face while you sleep. Take a couple minutes to remove it, and you’ll find your face looking and feeling younger.
* Proper Sleeping Position Sleep on your back. Gravity creates a downward drag on your skin all day. Give your skin a break at night. By sleeping on your back, you reduce gravitational pull on your face. If you press your face to your pillow, you will likely experience increased puffiness in the morning.
(Sleeping on your back reduces gravitational pull on your face. Be sure you remove your make-up before sleeping. Leaving it on during sleep creates extra stress on your skin. Use botanicals from nature for a nutritional approach to your beauty.)
* Don’t smoke… for your general health’s sake, and for younger looking skin. Smoking causes free radical production, which is one cause of the signs of aging.
* If you will be in the sun for extended periods of time, use sunscreen with safe and effective ingredients, such as Mercola Natural Sunscreen.
* Limit exfoliation to twice per week and use a gentle exfoliator. Exfoliation refreshes your skin’s surfaces and brightens your appearance as it removes dead cells from the surface of your skin. But if you exfoliate too often or too aggressively, you risk damaging living cells.
* Apply your skin care products to warm skin in order to help your skin appear healthier. This maximizes absorption. If your skin is cold, use a warm towel to warm your skin.
* Never pull or rub your skin. Apply your skin care products gently, and lightly tap for a few moments to help your skin absorb them. Rubbing stretches your skin and can promote sagging and wrinkles. (Note: This principle includes leaning your face on your hand while sitting at a desk, which also stretches your skin.)
* Don’t expect overnight changes. Even if you start doing everything right today, don’t be discouraged with seeming lack of progress tomorrow.

It may take a month or even two to three months to notice changes. Plus, it’s quite possible that others will notice your increasingly youthful-looking face before you do.

Remember: it took years to get where you are today, so show patience when expecting changes and improvements.

Now that you’re taking these practical steps as well as choosing not to use dangerous and damaging products on your skin, let’s explore your skin care alternatives – organic food products from nature’s storehouse.