Healthy Skin

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One aspect of looking good is having Healthy Skin

Healthy Skin: It is true that you will feel more confident if you are feeling good and are happy about the way you look.

One aspect of looking good is having Healthy Skin, so let's talk for a moment about Skin Care. After all, our skin is our body's largest organ.

Did you know?

Skin is the largest and most complex organ of the body.

A square inch of skin holds 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels, 60,000 melanocytes and more than a thousand nerve endings.

Skin protects the body's internal environment from the outside world.

Skin prevents excessive loss of water and moisture.

Skin regulates your body temperature.

The average adult has approximately 300 million skin cells that cover about 6.5 square metres and weigh between 3-4 kilogrms.

Skin Layers:

Top Layer: Epidermis

Provides water proofing, serves as a barrier to infection

Contains sweat pores, sensory nerves, hair shafts & cells

Contains no blood vessels

Every 28-30 days sloughing off of dead skin cells

Second Layer: Dermis

Blood vessels, nerves, hair follicles, smooth muscle, glands, lymphatic tissue

Areola, found beneath the dermis layer connective tissue where collagen, elastin and reticular fibres are present.

Sebaceous glands (sebum) & sweat glands

Sebum provides lubrication, water proofing, softening and anti-bactericidal actions

Third Layer: Hypodermis/subcutaneous

Deepest, innermost layer of the skin.

Missing on parts of the body where the skin is especially thin, like the eyelids

Stores fat, acts as an insulator, conserves body heat and is a shock absorber protecting internal organs.

Purpose is to attach the skin to underlying bone and muscle. Blood vessels, nerves, lymph vessels and hair follicles cross through this layer.

Consists of connective tissue and elastin

Hygiene

Skin must be regularly cleaned

Dirty skin is prone to develop infections; decreases the amount of nutrients available & interferes with the skin's normal repair process.

Aging

As skin ages, it becomes thinner & more easily damaged

Loses elasticity; produces less collagen

Having healthy skin and keeping it healthy and glowing affects far more than superficial beauty. As your body’s first line of defense against the harsh environment, it’s just as important to keep your skin healthy, as it is to care for and nourish your internal organs.

Your skin is a good indicator of general health and situations that affect your health can have effects on your skin too. For example, cigarette smoking can cause or hasten skin ageing and wrinkling. If your skin changes suddenly with no apparent reason, it could be a sign of ill health.

Ultraviolet (UV) light causes skin to age. UV light causes pigmentation to change and can result in liver spots (‘sunspots’), broken blood vessels, thinning of the dermis and wrinkling.

Maintaining a healthy skin means keeping your skin clean to help prevent infections and ensure healthy skin, but excess washing can cause loss of oil in the outer layers of the skin and open the way for some diseases.

Being careful about what products we use on our skin is also very important.

Most people, especially women, continually use varied and different products on their skin. The 'skin care' market is huge and there are hundreds of different brands and options available.

Primary Skin Aging Factors is an interesting article to read.

The following article is from 'A Current Affair'(Australian TV) and is worth reading.

Excerpt from A Current Affair – by Ros Thomas 7/9/06

Many women will spend a small fortune on toiletries and cosmetics over their lifetime, using them morning and night. However, very few women actually have a clue what is in the products they use.

A British lobby group has issued a warning that the average woman applies more than 175 chemical compounds to her face and body every day.

Dr Ernest Tan, a Perth dermatologist, says the cosmetic industry sells science to women as though it is nature. Chief amongst their favored ingredients are the following:

Formaldehyde – the same compound used to embalm bodies
Sodium laurel sulphate – used to create bubbles in shampoos and soaps
Parabens – often used in moisturizers, mostly as preservatives.

All of the above ingredients can cause reactions, from simple irritations if the skin is slightly damaged, to full allergic reactions.

However, beauty editors such as Cleo magazine’s Rachel Mannell say if those chemicals weren’t in makeup, no one would buy them because they’d look, smell and feel terrible.

“It’s a catch-22 because sulphates are used in shampoos and cleansers for the foaming effect and if the products don’t have sulphates in them, they don’t foam and consumers are unhappy,” Mannell says.

But no longer fooled by the glitz and glamour of the beauty business, many women are now asking questions about what’s in their cosmetics and why you need to be a scientist to understand the labels.

Certainly dermatologists say we’re being bombarded with all kinds of products none of us need.

“I think a lot of females are using too many products and I think all they need to use is a soap-free wash, a moisturizer and some sun protection. I think the rest, in terms of cosmetics, are over-used and over-marketed,” Dr Tan says.

After all that .... the good news is that there are now a couple of skincare systems that I would be happy to recommend.

One Skin Care range is, according to the manufacturers, absolutely 'preservative free'. Regular use of this 'preservative free' skin care range will go a long way to guarantee you continued healthy skin. A huge benefit of this range over other 'natural' and supposedly 'preservative free' systems is the long shelf life. Most 'preservative free' products have a very limited shelf life.

This Optimal Skin Care system has a shelf life of at least two years and does not have to be refrigerated. It really is revolutionary and a great addition to the Skin Care market.

La Core AntiAging SkinCare is a luxurious product that uses the patented Hydrogenox, the smallest and most efficient antioxidant available, to help protect the skin against premature aging. The combination of Hydrogenox and a protective and preventive complex, as well as validated reference agents (fucoidan, micro peptides, etc.), make it a formula that truly helps the skin reach its full potential.

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