Striving4Zen

Go ahead. Sink your teeth into a delectable chocolate-fudge brownie. Plunge into a cool stream on a hot day. Pamper yourself with a long, sensuous massage. All three experiences promise one fantastic payoff – instant gratification. A surge of pleasure and satisfaction floods your senses seconds after you indulge yourself.

You can give your skin the same kind of quick satisfaction. In just about the time it takes you to finish a sinful dessert, DMAE complex can provide a visible and gratifying improvement. If you’ve shied away from so-called treatments because the very word conjures up visions of spending days carefully applying this and dipping in that until you finally see results, DMAE will change your mind. It’s quick, it’s easy and it works.

DMAE is a great little acronym that’s easier to say than the tongue twister dimethylaminoethanol. Mixed in a cocktail with other nutrients, combined with an antioxidant base, applied topically, DMAE can quickly and dramatically improve the appearance of sagging skin. An added bonus, DMAE boosts the effects of other antioxidants, resulting in increased smoothness, brightness and line reduction.

What, exactly, is DMAE? Unlike the antioxidants I’ve discussed before, DMAE is an antioxidant membrane stabilizer. Because of its unique structure, DMAE actually intersperses and becomes part of the cell plasma membrane. When this occurs, the membrane is more able to resist stress and therefore is stabilized. DMAE also gives some protection from free radicals – probably by preventing the other portions of the cell membrane from being attacked by free radicals – and therefore can act as an antioxidant. Thus, DMAE is an antioxidant membrane stabilizer. It prevents breakdown of the cell plasma membrane and the resulting production of arachidonic acid and a bunch of pro-inflammatory mediators. When mixed with other amino acids and nutrients, it has a dramatic firming effect on skin.

dR. pERRICONE

Labels: Anti-oxidant, DMAE, skin, skin care

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that helps the digestive system absorb and regulate calcium and phosphorous. Naturally present in fatty fish (such as sardines and mackerel), egg yolk, lanolin, and liver, it's also produced by your skin as a result of direct exposure to UVB rays in sunlight. Vitamin D comes in two forms: D2 (ergocalciferol), often derived from yeast, and D3 (cholecalciferol), the type the skin makes as a result of sunlight exposure.

Benefits

Strengthens bones and prevents osteoporosis. Recently, research has suggested it may prevent high blood pressure, as well as colon, prostate, and breast cancers. It also is highly effective in boosting immunity.

News

A 2008 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that low levels of vitamin D could lead to a substantially increased risk of death. Researchers analyzed vitamin D levels in 13,331 healthy men and women over the course of seven years. Low levels of vitamin D were linked to an increased risk of mortality from all causes by 26%.

How to take it

The current recommended dietary allowance of vitamin D is 200-600 IU. However, the National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends that adults age 50 and older consume 800-1,000 IU per day for bone health. The Institute of Medicine is expected to release new, significantly higher daily requirements for vitamin D next year. Ask your health care practitioner if you should take supplements, especially if you spend little time in the sunshine, live in a cloudy climate, have dark skin, are lactose intolerant, over age 50, overweight, or a strict vegetarian.

Side effects

Experts disagree on an upper limit of vitamin D, but the Institute of Medicine suggests that anyone over age 14 can safely consume up to 2,000 IU per day.

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Labels: calcium, eggs, healthy diet, immunity, sardines, skin, study, sunshine, Vitamin D, Vitamins

That famous French entree is now showing up in cosmetics in the U.S: Snail cream, made from the mucous of actual snails, is the latest supposed miracle makeup cure-all that heals everything from acne to stretch marks to dry skin.

What's even more slimeprising than finding a snail trail in your cold cream is that, according to Beauty Brains, snail slime (or, if you're a PhD, Helix Aspersa Müller Glycoconjugates) is packed with face-friendly compounds. Minerals like zinc and iron, skin-firming copper peptides, and even mega-moisturizing hyaluronic acid are among the star ingredients these gooey gastropods leave behind.

Companies like Bioskincream are now touting the magical impact of snail snot. In fact, snail slime even has natural antimicrobial properties that, in either a serious twist of irony or proof that the universe loves a good joke, keep it bug-free.

If you find the idea of direct contact with snail mucous a little gross, plenty of beauty companies are seamlessly blending it into everything from face cream to nail gel. (Seriously: Amazon it.) But while natural snail slime is indeed a powerful bioactive, simply sliming up a lotion is no guarantee that snail trails will do a thing for your face. And we definitely don't agree with Bioskincream's claim that snail snot leaves your face "kissable."

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Labels: mucous, new product, skin, skin care, snail snot

Occurring naturally in the body, this little compound is composed of glucose and an amino acid called glutamine. Essential for the production of a molecule that helps repair cartilage, glucosamine also works wonders as an ingredient in anti-aging skin care products.

Since the amount of glucosamine production tapers off as we age (jeers), it's often used as a supplement for the relief of arthritis (cheers). Just as glucosamine promotes connective tissue regrowth in the joints, it also promotes tissue regrowth in the skin.

Used in skin care products, glucosamine encourages production of collagen, improving elasticity, making skin look smoother, firmer, and plumper. Another benefit? It also has somewhat of an exfoliating effect, reducing the appearance of age spots, sun spots, and hyperpigmentation. I'm all for that.

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Labels: aging, collagen, glucosamine, skin, skin care

Honey has many uses for helping the skin. Most recently, in fact, researchers from New Zealand found that burned skin covered with antibiotic ointment healed much more slowly than burned skin coated with honey. Honey not only soothes the pain of burned skin, but it also reduces inflammation and prevents further infection. Being that the burned skin covered with honey healed about four days faster than burned skin covered in antibiotic creams, bringing a small jar with you on that sunny vacation your planning may not be a bad idea.

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Labels: burns, DIY, honey, skin

If You Knew All That Your Skin Did For You On A Daily Basis - You'd Treat It With VIP Care....

YOUR SKIN:

• Protects your internal organs from injury and infection.
• Helps detoxify wastes through perspiration. It absorbs and excrete both nutrients and toxins through its pores.
• Provides an important line of immune defense against infections — your healthy skin creates a barrier to viruses and bacteria.
• Protects you against extreme changes in temperature, through its thermoregulatory effect of controlling heat flow between you and your environment.
• Produces and stores vitamin D, which is important to your immune system.
• Rich in receptors, it allows you to sense conditions around you — like hard/soft and hot/cold — and send information to your brain so you can react to it for self-preservation.
• Protects your body from sunburns.
• Protects you from dehydration.

Put simply, your skin plays a major role in your health.

So Give it Some TLC!

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Labels: detoxify, Holistic Health, skin, vital organ

Nutrients in foods contain many elements that can help your body and especially your skin to remain in good condition. When your body is ‘happy’ and ‘efficient’, through detoxification, it will show on the outside.

Your skin needs:

• essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6) found in oily fish and flax seeds
• antioxidants vitamins C, E, and beta-carotene to retaliate against the damaging effects of UV light and free-radicals
• minerals zinc and selenium to build tissues and heal wounds. Find these minerals in foods like seafood, nuts, grains, and vegetables
• vitamin B6 to balance hormone levels, particularly for women that have pre-menstrual break-outs
• vitamin A to help reduce sebum levels on the skin
• potassium to help maintain elasticity, water to maintain hydration and flush toxins from the body
• water to maintain hydration and flush toxins from the body

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Labels: eating for good skin, healthy diet, nutrition, skin

Recently at an onsen in Tokyo, an IG staffer loved her live fish therapy, and recommends it, but not to the squeamish. Imported from Turkey and used as a cure for skin ailments such as psoriasis, Garra rufa (aka Doctor Fish) are the latest trend in Japanese spa treatments.

But be warned, this treatment is not for the squeamish: the fish feed off of the dead and affected areas of skin and leaves healthy skin to grow. Basically, you stick your feet in a small tank where hundreds of fish swarm and nibble and suck at your dead skin. The first few minutes certainly feel freaky and it takes time to get used to the sucking feeling. But after you grow accustomed to the sensation, it actually feels relaxing. While your feet do feel somewhat smoother afterwards, it is definitely more for the experience than it is for the beauty benefits.

Thanks!

Labels: alternative treatments, fish farming, Garra Rufa, psoriasis, skin, Spa

Alpha lipoic acid is a very powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory agent. Since it is almost non-existent in foods, we need to take it as a supplement on a daily basis. Alpha lipoic acid is unique among antioxidants because it is soluble in both fat and water. This means that it can reach all areas of the cell to provide free radical protection. It also makes it exceptionally compatible with the skin due to its fat solubility.
Perricone readers know that I strongly discourage eating foods that contain sugar or other forms of sweeteners, as well as foods that rapidly convert to sugar when eaten. Unfortunately, many of these foods are our mainstays—such as breads, pasta, potatoes, cookies, snack foods and so forth.
As a dermatologist, one of the reasons that I so vehemently discourage this is because these foods are highly damaging to the skin. When we eat foods that raise our blood sugar such as those described above, we are setting ourselves up for the creation of Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs), which is the topic of my next book due out this fall. These AGEs are formed when a sugar molecule attaches to a protein. Collagen is the protein substance of skin, tendon, bone, cartilage, and all other connective tissue. As you might guess, the sugar molecule has a high affinity with the collagen protein. Once it attaches to the collagen it glycates the protein causing it to stiffen. This leads to wrinkled and sagging skin.

Labels: Alpha Lipoic Acid, Dr. Perricone, skin, supplements