When I was a teenager and subscribed to the staple of all teenage girls, Seventeen magazine, I remember reading an article about one of the biggest supermodels of the day. I didn’t know a whole heck of a lot about her or admire her for any particular reason. I think it may have been Cheryl Tiegs, but for the life of me I can’t remember. Reading the article, however changed me in a way that I distinctly remember and in a way that I could never have anticipated. She talked about her skin, that everyone thought was flawless, and why she thought it was so nice. She chalked her great skin up to three simple things: water, rest and sun block. It made sense. From that day on, I took this advice to heart and my skin has been better because of it. It’s pretty easy advice to follow… and no matter where your skin falls on the spectrum these three simple things can help.
Water
Everyone knows that we can’t survive very long without water – scientists say, that, on average, it is just about three days and then we are done for. A lot of people appreciate that fact but don’t stop to think about the fact that water is not only essential to life, but is so incredibly good for you in so many ways – your skin is just one thing that benefits from water. According to a 2020 article by SkinKraft Laboratories, “When you drink enough water, the cells in every part of your body get hydrated through the blood. The skin, being the largest organ in the body, also gets hydrated, even as the impurities and toxins get flushed out at the cellular level.” Sounds like reason enough for me.
According to SkinKraft, water is beneficial to skin in that it:
- Improves Skin Tone
- Prevents Premature Aging of Skin
- Promotes Faster Healing of Skin and The Body in General
- Helps Reduce Skin Puffiness
- Helps Prevents Acne
- Makes for Tighter Skin,
- Helps Maintain pH Balance of the Skin
- And Helps Create a Healthy Gut and a Healthy Gut Means Clearer Skin.
Sleep
Did you know that while you sleep, your skin’s blood flow increases, and your skin rebuilds its collagen and repairs damage from UV exposure, reducing wrinkles and age spots. Yup, that’s right! According to Patricia Wexler, MD, a dermatologist in New York, sleep is the time that skin gets a break from UV light, and it relaxes and repairs itself. Your body makes more collagen whilst you sleep and “more collagen means skin is plumper and less likely to wrinkle.” “Only getting 5 hours a night can lead to twice as many fine lines as sleeping 7 would. It also leaves skin drier, which can make lines more visible,” Wexler says.
So the old expression “getting one’s beauty sleep” is an actual thing. Pretty cool, huh?
Sun Block
I would hope by now that almost all of us know that sunblock is helpful to the skin, but there is some false information out there, so I dug into it a bit before listing this one as good for you. Countless scientists have proven that sunblock helps to protect your skin against the sun’s broad spectrum of harmful UV rays. Sunscreen prevents these UV rays from penetrating your skin and causing all kind of skin issues. And as for the misinformation that sunblock is bad for your skin or causes cancer (despite the recent contamination of Benzine in certain sun products – see provided recall list), sunblock is beneficial. According to Dr. Jennifer Lin, an assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Melanoma Risk and Prevention Clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, “…there is no truth to the online rumor that sunscreen actually causes cancer,” she said. ” There are excellent studies that sunscreen protects against all three of the most common skin cancers: squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and melanoma. The degree of protection that sunscreen provides is directly related to the degree to which ultraviolet radiation is associated with the formation of the skin cancer. For instance, in prospective studies of sunscreen, the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma is reduced the most—as much as 40% over four years.” Sounds like a pretty good endorsement to me.
A Final Thought…
So hooray for your skin, it’s the only one you’ve got. Take care of it in any way you see fit and please see a dermatologist regularly for skin cancer checks. As always, be safe out there, my friends… and have fun.
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