Get the Cosmetic Benefits of Hyaluronic Acid and Collagen from Food

By Naweko San-Joyz

Got a wrinkle to fill? You could fill that wrinkle with injections of bovine collagen or hyaluronic acid. Yet, is there anyway to smooth out wrinkles without jabbing your skin with needles?

Estrogen and Youthful Skin
You can avoid the need for the needle by optimizing your estrogen levels. While estrogen influences numerous aspects of our health, from the development of breast cancer to the development of a fetus, estrogen also determines the moisture and collagen level of our skin as we age.

Studies published by N. Grosman in the “Acta Pharmacol Toxicol” established the link between estrogen and collagen. Estrogen boosts the skin’s moisture content by increasing the amount of hyaluronic acid in the skin.

Hyaluronic acid is naturally found in the body. One of hyaluronic acid’s primary jobs is to make the skin firm and provide support for the collagen and elastin fibers that give skin a firm, youthful appearance.

Food Sources for Plumper Skin
You can potentially increase that amount of hyaluronic acid in your skin by increasing your intake of estrogen. For example, animal studies show that soy isoflavones protect skin against sun damage and may increase production of hyaluronic acid.

Soy dishes come in a variety of options. From soy tofu to soy protein shakes, food incarnations of soy are endless. While eating your way to a firmer face, you don’t want to overlook vitamin C. While vitamin C remains a potent antioxidant, it also helps your body to produce collagen.

Even though vitamin C’s beauty potential is loudly touted by the media, 33% of the US population is not getting enough vitamin C according to a 2005 survey done by the U.S. Agricultural Research Service’s Food Surveys Research Group. You can enjoy vitamin C in foods like broccoli, red or green peppers, strawberries, oranges and Brussels spouts.

Eating vitamin C and optimizing your estrogen levels are just one step in a series of things you can do to slow down the aging process. One simple tip to keep your anti-aging regime working is to ask yourself each time you eat, “Is this food protecting me from free radials and allowing my body to repair itself, or causing more free radial damage?” This way you’re sure to be eating your way to more youthful skin.

All about beauty

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from icWales, Alan Pan, Western Mail

We all suffer from stress from time to time, with its most apparent signs on the face. If we do not look after our skin, this can cause some longer term damage. Firstly, it is important to know what factors cause stress on the skin. The most obvious is one we all know about. Smoking uses up valuable supplies of vitamin C in the skin so you should ideally stop smoking or reduce your nicotine intake. Other more obvious factors that can have an effect are pollution and UVA and UVB rays. Therefore you should always use a protective moisturiser packed with antioxidants and a crucial SPF.

A not-so-obvious factor is cleansing, which can be a very harsh process. The removal of excess cells through cleansing can lead to stressed skin, and as a result our skin is not able to handle repair treatments. Milder cleansers remove only what needs to be removed, leaving the skin prepared for repair products. I can’t stress how important mild cleansing is – harsher is not necessarily better and after cleansing, skin should feel soft. Try to also avoid mental stress because it negatively impacts skin ageing.

A stressed face often appears dull and grey: however this can be changed with products that even out skin tone, improve clarity and colour. A serum is beneficial for all skin types, especially skin that has been subjected to a lot of stress and shows severe signs of ageing. The repair benefits provided by the various technologies introduced in a serum allow for faster repair of any damage that has incurred. Another good product to recommend on stressed skin is Stress Relief Eye Masks which can calm and soothe the eye area, improving the condition of the skin around the eyes and giving a comfort boost to the psyche.

Some women mistakenly refer to their skin as “sensitive” because you can easily mix up the meaning of sensitive with feminine and delicate. It is important to know if your skin is truly sensitive or stressed as a result of other factors.