How to look younger is the question we all want answered at some point in our lives. Sadly, today there is no miracle cure or one pill to take those years away instantly. However, health and beauty both start from the inside, and there is a lot you can do about it yourself each day.
Because just like any other tissue in your body, your skin has a vital tasks to fill and it requires specific nutrients and certain lifestyle to stay healthy and function properly.
Nutrient deficiencies, junk food, toxification and dehydration can quickly change the view of your skin and make it look tired, dry, full of wrinkles or hyperpigmented.
Thus, if you want to look younger and keep your skin smooth and glowing, your focus shouldn’t be on makeup to cover the imperfections, but on nourishing foods, anti-aging food supplements, certain nourishing face creams and minor lifestyle changes as all these play the key role in a healthy and youthful look.
Given below are 9 simple beauty tips and 14 beauty supplements that can improve skin health and help you look and feel younger for longer.
How to Look Younger Naturally – 9 Simple Tips
1. Walk at Least 15 Minutes Each Day to Look Younger
Because walking is such a common activity for us, its effects on various aspects of human health have been thoroughly studied. Based on the results of a 12-year study, a daily 15-minute walk reduced mortality by as much as 22%. This percentage was even higher for longer and more active workouts.
Though, some do not see walking as an “aerobic” workout and ignore the benefits of walking. However, aerobic exercise can be defined as an exercise that stimulates the heart and respiratory tract to pump more oxygen into the muscles. Even slow walking does all this. But the faster you walk, the higher the aerobic activity.
The Sleep Research Foundation published a study that found that vigorous, moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (such as walking) reduced time spent sleeping and increased sleep length among people with chronic insomnia compared to nights where they did not exercise during the day.
Their advice is to do at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day. Or a total of at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of intense exercise per week in order for the protective properties of the body to be affected. The recommended time (walking is the easiest) does not have to be done all at once. If you cannot walk 30-minutes, walk two times a day for 15 minutes, it is just as good.
Not everyone can work out in the gym or run 10 floors down the stairs, but most of us can walk. With all these benefits mentioned below, one small walk a day is worth it. You can start gradually and progress according to your endurance and the right pace. All you need is a decent pair of shoes and 15 minutes a day!
Benefits of walking:
- Increased cardiovascular, respiratory and circulatory activity means that nutrients go where they need to go to support training.
- Instead of storing energy, it is used and the organs, muscles and bones become stronger. Our bodies are designed to move!
- Without the slightest doubt, a sedentary lifestyle that does not allow the body to exercise enough leads to disease. Sedentary lifestyle is a very real situation, which is considered to be one of the most important public health problems in society, as it causes many chronic diseases and millions of premature deaths a year.
- You will lose it, if you don’t use it – and it’s about everything from muscle strength to cognition.
- Walking outdoors also has a supportive effect on mental health. The natural environment (away from electronics and other distractions) improves mood, lowers stress and reduces depression.
- The sun feeds us with important vitamin D, the lack of which in the human body has already become epidemic in the industrial world. But walking indoors is almost as good.
- Each body’s workout, including walking, reduces the risk of injury, improves mobility, increases blood and nutrient supply, thereby strengthening bones and connective tissue.
- The American Heart Association recommends walking to reduce the risk of hypertension, high cholesterol, stroke and diabetes.
- A meta-analysis of walking studies lasting an average of 11 years in seven different countries found that regular walking reduced the incidence of cardiovascular disease by 31% and reduced the risk of mortality by 32%.
2. Take The Right Food Supplements – 14 Beauty Supplements That May Help You Look Younger
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies as well as dehydration and junk foods are very common in modern society and all these mixed together can quickly change your skin and make it look older, dry, tired and full of wrinkles.
Thus, your focus shouldn’t be only on creams and lotions to put on your skin, neither on makeup to cover the imperfections, but on vitamins and minerals, as they play the most important role in a healthy complexion. Read more about the 14 Beauty Supplements That May Help You Look Younger.
Given Below are 14 Beauty Supplements that Can Improve Your Skin Health and May Help You Look Younger for Longer:
1. Beauty Supplement – Vitamin E
Vitamin E is one of the most powerful natural antioxidants, so one of its main qualities is to prevent our cells from dying, specifically our skin cells. Therefore, vitamin E keeps skin smooth, supple and hydrated.
2. Beauty Supplement – Vitamin A
Vitamin A or retinol is one of your best soldiers in the battle against free radicals, because this natural compound promotes cell growth and protects your skin against aging.
3. Beauty Supplement – Vitamin C
Vitamin C’s known abilities is to ward off colds and flu, but it may also improve skin’s texture and smoothness. It’s because vitamin C is a potent antioxidant that blocks destruction caused by free radicals, which is largely associated with the aging process.
4. Beauty Supplement – Vitamin D
The main function of vitamin D is to ensure the absorption of calcium from nutrients and its transport to the bones. So, this vitamin gives you strong bones to support you through the years.
5. Beauty Supplement – Vitamin Biotin
Biotin plays an important role in the health of the skin, hair and nails, as it is one of the most important vitamins and beneficial beauty supplements in ensuring cell growth and renewal.
6. Beauty Supplement – Coenzyme Q10
Coenzyme Q10 (also CoQ10) is an important vitamin and antioxidant compound for the body. It supports physical endurance, protects cells and contributes to energy production, but also keeps your body youthful.
7. Beauty Supplement – Collagen Peptides
The two amino acids in the protein collagen — proline and glycine — are essential for the formation and repair of joints, bones, muscles, and tendons, but they also help skin retain its firm appearance.
8. Beauty Supplement – Magnesium
Magnesium is one of the most vital and essential minerals. It regulates many biochemical and physiological processes and combats premature aging. Stress and inadequate sleep can age you, and getting a good night’s sleep is essential, and magnesium has been effective in calming hearts, relaxing muscles and enabling you to get good sleep.
However, magnesium absorption decreases as we age. See The Full List of The Magnesium Benefits and Magnesium Rich Foods.
9. Beauty Supplement – Selenium
Selenium is recognized as a vital element to human life and is essential for skin’s health, as it is involved in regulating the metabolism of all cells, and has strong antioxidant properties.
Selenium can slow down the signs of aging, such as wrinkles, blemishes and skin spots, fine lines and skin dryness.
In addition, it also helps in treating the symptoms of acne, improves circulation, and involves in maintaining a healthy skin texture and color.
10. Beauty Supplement – Zinc
Zinc is an essential mineral to keep the whole body functioning, as it participates in the development, growth, and reproduction of body cells. Zinc affects growth regulating enzymes, and the synthesis and function of thyroid and sex hormones. In addition, it also contributes to the normal functioning of the immune system and metabolism, helps with sense of taste and smell, and improves vision.
Above all, zinc keeps the whole body functioning. Find out more about The Zinc Health Benefits and Top Zinc Rich Foods.
The zinc effects and its benefits are best seen in the health of fast-regenerating tissues, such as nails, skin and hair. The need for zinc increases with stress, disease, stress, growth, physical exertion, as well as during pregnancy and lactation.
Read more about the Zinc Deficiency.
11. Beauty Supplement – Spirulina and 9 Superfoods
Another nutrient-rich plant with high chlorophyll content is spirulina, which is actually an algae that makes it particularly easy to digest. In addition to all the good qualities of chlorophyll, spirulina contains an incredible amount of protein and essential amino acids.
Moreover, it is a great source of antioxidants, B vitamins and other nutrients.
Spirulina is among the top anti-aging supplements because it may also have benefits as an anti-inflammatory agent and an immune booster. Read more about the magnificent Health Benefits of 9 Superfoods.
12. Beauty Supplement – Curcumin
Curcumin found in turmeric is a very strong anti-inflammatory compound, and it has benefits for heart disease and dementia prevention. In addition, it may be helpful in fighting certain conditions associated with aging, such as high cholesterol.
Read more about the 22 Scientifically Proven Health Benefits of Curcumin.
13. Beauty Supplement – Superfood Moringa
Due to its exceptionally high nutritional value, moringa is one of the most powerful beauty supplements, as it stimulates the whole body, enhances energy levels and resistance to external influences. Moringa speeds up, activates and regulates the metabolic processes, cleanses the body from waste products and boosts immunity.
Above all, moringa slows down the aging processes, lowers atherosclerosis, heart disease and stroke risk, cholesterol levels, and helps prevent tumour development. In addition, moringa plants have a strong antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effect. Find out more about the 30 Health Benefits of Moringa.
14. Beauty Supplement – Probiotics
Maintaining a healthy gut and immune system are important for any stage of life, so you may want to add probiotics to your anti-aging supplements list. By breaking down and removing toxins, carcinogens, allergens, salts and heavy metals from the body, probiotics prevent the development of various diseases.
Find out more about the 40 Benefits of Probiotics and 20 Top Probiotic Foods.
3. Eat Antioxidant Rich Foods or Food Supplements to Look Younger
Free radicals are chemical compounds and unstable molecules that the body produces as a reaction to environmental and other pressures, because the body processes food and reacts to the environment. Therefore, it is totally normal to have some free radicals in your body.
However, the proportion of free radicals in the body may increase significantly and, due to their high activity, will instead begin to attack the body’s own cells, damaging the cells. The damaged cells, in turn, produce new free radicals.
In conclusion, if the body cannot process and remove free radicals efficiently, oxidative stress may result, and this can harm cells, DNA and body functions that lead to an overall aging of the body.
Antioxidants are the defence mechanism against free radicals. However, each antioxidant serves a different function and is not interchangeable with another.
This is why it is vital to have a balanced and varied diet. Read more about the Antioxidant Rich Foods and The Health Benefits of Antioxidants.
Antioxidant benefits:
Above all, antioxidants stimulate, and significantly increase the body defenses against pathogens and boost the immune system. In conclusion, They help to eliminate harmful toxic substances, inhibit and prevent the onset and development of many dangerous diseases, contribute to the treatment of almost all chronic diseases, and may help you look younger.
Antioxidants:
- Slow aging processes
- Lower cholesterol
- Decrease risk of atherosclerosis
- Reduce risk of heart disease and stroke
- Slow Alzheimer’s disease
- In addition, decrease the chance of developing tumors
- In conclusion, reduce the damage caused by cigarette smoke, etc.
7 antioxidant rich food supplements to fight against free radicals:
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E
- Selenium
- Zinc
- Curcumin
- Vitamin A
- Dandelion Root Extract
Read more about Antioxidants Health Benefits and Antioxidant Rich Foods
4. Avoid Junk Food
Eating too much processed and junk food can cause cell and DNA damage because of the increased numbers of free radicals. This cell damage, also called oxidative stress, has been linked with faster aging.
However, antioxidants can protect your cells. Read more about Oxidative Stress and Healthy Antioxidant Rich Foods.
5. Avoid Skin Care Products That Contain Parabens, Silicones and Other Chemical Compounds
The problem is, that in order to look younger – we believe in miracle creams so badly, that we are willing to poison ourselves. We apply these in our skin and hope that they will make us look younger and make the wrinkles disappear.
Well, you should know that it’s proven by scientists that mostly those miracle creams consist not only of toxic and cancerogenic ingredients, but also 0% healthy fatty acids, vitamins and minerals that your skin truly needs.
So the truth is, that most of these creams contain toxic ingredients that cause not only skin problems, but also premature aging, serious development problems of children, cancer etc. and the effect you gain from these creams is that they will just hide the damage – not heal it. Read more about the different Toxic Ingredients in Your Daily Skin Care Products.
The poisons to look on a product label:
- Aluminium
- Acrylates
- Ethyl Acrylate: Acrylic Acid, Ethyl Ester, Ethyl Propenoate, EA, Ethyl Methacrylat, Methacrylic Acid, Ethyl 2-Methyl-2-Propenoate, EMA
- Methyl methacrylate: Methacrylate Monomer, Methyl Ester of Methacrylic Acid, Methyl 2-methyl-2-propenoate, MMA sulphates
- Sulfates, 1.4 Dioxane and SLS: Sodium Laureth Sulfate, PEG compounds, and chemicals named “xynol”, “ceteareth”, and “oleth”
- UV Filters:
- Nanoparticles: Fullerenes, Micronized Zinc Oxide, Nano Zinc Oxide, Micronized Titanium Dioxide, Micronized Quartz Silica
- PABA and its derivatives: PABA, OD-PABA, Padimate O, 4-Aminobenzoic Acid, Para-Aminobenzoic Acid, P-Aminobenzoic Acid, Et-PABA, 2-Ethylhexyl Ester, P-Carboxyaniline
- Benzophenone and its Compounds: Octinoxate, Octyl Methoxycinnamate, Benzophenone, Oxybenzone, All Compounds Containing Benzophenone (e.g. Benzophenone-2), BP + Number (e.g. BP2), Sulisobenzone, Sulisobenzone Sodium
- Others: Homosalate, Homomenthyl Salicylate, HMS, HS; 3,3,5-Trimethyl-Cyclohexyl-Salicylate
- Fragrances: Fragrance, Perfume, Parfum, Essential Oil Blend, Aroma
- Mineral Oils: Petrolatum, Petroleum Jelly, Paraffin Oil, Mineral Oil, White Petrolatum, Petroleum. Oil, Paraffinum.
- Silicones: Dimethicone, Methicone, Trimethicone, Cyclomethicone, Amodimethicone, Cyclopentasiloxane, Polydimethylsiloxane, Dimethiconol
- Synthetic preservatives such as Parabens and Formaldehydes:
- Parabens: Ethyl paraben, Butylparaben, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Isopropylparaben, others-paraben-terminated compounds
- Formaldehydes: Formaldehyde, Quaternium-15, DMDM Hydantoin, Imidazolidinyl Urea, Diazolidinyl Urea, Polyoxymethylene Urea, Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate, 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3-Diol (Bronopol), Glyoxal, Benzyl Hemiformal, 5-Bromo-5-Nitro 1,3-Dioxane, Methenamine
- Artificial moisturizers and softeners:
- Propylene Glycol or PEG (Also PG): PEG, PPG, Polysorbate – (20, 30, 80, etc.), E490
- Quaternium: Quaternium and number, Benzalkonium chloride, Benzethonium Chloride, Quaternium-15, Cetrimonium Bromide, Polyquaternium and number (e.g., Polyquaternium-7).
- Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid or Tetrasodium EDTA
- BHT (Butylated hydroxytoluene – E321) and BTA (butylated hydroxyanisole (BTA – E320): Propylparaben, Isopropylparapen, Butylparaben, Isobutylparaben, BHA, BHT, Phthalate, Triclosan, E321, E320
- Nitrosamines: DEA (Diethanolamine), TEA (Triethanolamine)
Also, it’s not only about not poisoning yourself, but giving the proper food for your skin. Don`t forget, the skin is your biggest organ – so it’s very important how and with what you feed it.
6. Nourish Your Skin With Natural Skin Care Products to Look Younger
To look younger, stay beautiful, hydrated and healthy the skin needs all the minerals, fatty acids and vitamins every day. Because just like your whole body, which needs a variety of well absorbing and natural nutrients daily, (sometimes even a little bit more than you think), your skin – the biggest organ in your body also needs all those same things.
That’s why you have to properly feed your skin, because all that you put in your skin will absorb into your cells.
Above all, your body is made of from the food you eat and from the cream you use!
7. Drink Enough Water
A person consists of 60-70% water. Water is one of the most important substances that absolutely every part of the body and cell needs. Without water your body cannot function. Even better if you could drink mineral or mineralized water.
Read more about The Health Benefits of Drinking Mineralized Water.
According to National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate sufficient daily fluid intake is:
- Men – About 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day
- Women – About 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day
These recommendations cover all fluids – water, other beverages and food. About 20% of daily fluid consumption usually comes from food and the rest from drinks.
You’ve probably also heard the 8 x 8 rule, which means you should drink eight 8-ounce (about 240 ml) glasses of water a day. However the need for water depends on several things like for example your age, weight and health condition as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers need more water.
In addition, according to Healthline, the water needed for pregnant women is 10 cups (80 ounces) a day, while breastfeeding women need 13 (104 ounces) cups of water a day.
8. Get Enough Quality Sleep
Sleep strengthens our immune system, lowers stress and improves memory, reaction and learning. During sleep, neurons are restored in our brains, body cells in the muscles are renewed, hormonal levels are regulated and reserves are restored for a more active period. This ensures the storage of important information, i.e. the recording of information.
In conclusion, it can be said that during sleep, our bodies undergo a general healing process and an adequate sleep is also vital if you want to look younger.
Adults should be able to sleep 7-8h, but this can vary from individual to individual. Children’s need for sleep is significantly higher than that of adults. Adolescents 9h and infants even 16h a day. It is interesting to note that infants spend half of their sleep in the REM phase. As you get older, the need to sleep decreases, satisfying only 5-6 hours of sleep.
Shorter sleep duration has been associated with:
- Obesity and weight gain, as lack of sleep promotes overeating.
- Worsening of cardiovascular disease and psychiatric illness.
- Decreased performance.
- Being less happy – characterized by sadness and higher stress.
- Regular activities, such as exercise, seem to be more difficult than usual.
- Getting sick more often and healing harder and longer.
- The effects of severe sleep deprivation have even been compared to concussions.
- It is said that extreme long-term sleep deprivation can even lead to death.
Sleep duration is affected by a number of different factors, but the most common of these are heredity, age, gender, behavioral habits, work patterns, mental and sleep disorders, and physical illness. But also external factors such as light, temperature and noise.
9. Learn How To Deal With Stress
In case of constant stress, the blood supply to the digestive system and the transport of nutrients to the tissues and cells are disrupted because all the attention and energy is constantly on the muscles. It also exhausts the muscles. Here are 9 simple steps how you can reduce stress naturally, but you may want to read more about this topic How to Fight Stress and Depression Naturally.
1. Change Lifestyle
Reduce smoking, alcohol and coffee.
2. Healthy Diet
Look over your diet. You might suffer from food intolerance and food allergies. In the case of food intolerance, the non-digestible food is a poison on the body that adversely affects the nervous system.
Wheat, dairy, sugar and meat products are the main foods that your body may not tolerate.
3. Less Sugar
Reduce the consumption of sugar products as they cause acidification of the body. Inflammation and various serious illnesses occur in an acidic environment. Even more, excess sugar also damages the nervous system.
4. More vitamins, minerals, fat and amino acids
Let your levels of vitamins, minerals, fat and amino acids be measured as much as possible. Missing micro- and macro-nutrients may cause anxiety in the body, so the body simply has no substances to keep it running and build itself up.
For example, brain cells consist of a large amount of fats. If a person does not eat fats such as fish oil, olive oil, hemp oil, walnut oil (omega 3, 6, 9 fats), then the brain is panicked because there is no essential substance for brain and brain activity.
The lack of magnesium and B vitamins causes disturbances in the nervous system causing anxiety, irritability, and so on.
5. Drink more water
6. Physical exercise
Move more! Physical movement is the best tool for releasing negative energies and a hormone serotonin manufacturer. The movement burns the sugar in the body (calories). Burning sugar (carbohydrate) releases energy in the body.
The more movement and oxygen, the more the mitochondria “cell power stations” in the body cells are generated. They are responsible for energy production.
7. Eliminate possible thyroid dysfunction and possible anemia
In addition, you may want to measure and eliminate possible thyroid dysfunction and possible anemia. Because vitamin C and iron deficiency, yeast and dysbiosis are diseases that also cause sleep and anxiety disorders as well as depression.
8. Try natural depression and anxiety-relieving supplements
In less severe cases, prior to chemical antidepressants, try natural anxiety-relieving supplements such as:
- B vitamins
- Vitamin D
- Magnesium
- Ashwagandha
9. Balance your intestinal microflora
In addition, the intestinal microflora should be in balance, as metabolic abnormalities are the main cause of depression.
- Firstly, it would be beneficial to clean the intestines (fine and large intestines) with high-fiber foods or food supplements, and detoxify your body. Read more about The Best Ways to Cleance Your Body From Waste Products and Heavy Metals.
- Eliminate parasites with antiparasitic plants (pumpkin seeds, black walnut, Neem, Pau D´Arco).
- Add anti-inflammatory agents such as curcumin (also used to treat depression), dandelion, vitamin D3.
- Replace harmful bacteria with useful by eating probiotic foods such as acidified vegetables, sauerkraut, sour milk made from raw milk, and kefir.
- However, acidified products may not provide the necessary amount of probiotic culture to cover the entire intestinal tract with beneficial bacteria. In this case, you can also use probiotics e. lactic acid bacteria as a dietary supplement.
Compiled by Maria-Helena Loik
Sources: Mayoclinic.org, Medicalnewstoday.com, Pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5605218/, Healthline.com, Hypervibe.com, Womansday.com, Thehealthy.com, Judi Vance, Beauty to Die for: The Cosmetic Consequence, Yle.fi, Safecosmetics.org, Thinkbefore.eu, Wholebodyhealth.org, IFRA. IFRA Ingredients, CDC: Centers for Disease Control. Nanotechnology. 2016, UK.Foodguide.net
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