Beautiful Skin From The Inside Out

By Eve Plews

Licensed Nutrition Counselor

(Originally published in Sarasota’s Natural Awakenings magazine May, 2009)

            Women’s magazines are chock full of articles on how to keep the youthful glow, slow aging and appear younger than our years.  Emphasis on beauty is only half the story, as many of the same strategies that preserve youth also preserve health.  Unfortunately, not all techniques designed to enhance beauty, do so. Some techniques, especially those to maintain skin, actually speed aging as the ultimate effect.  Can we protect beauty and health with natural approaches?  Are there magic bullets for youthful skin?  You can bet on it.

            Collagen, keratin and elastin are the primary proteins we see when we look at one another.  Hair and nails are made up of keratin protein, less elastic than the collagen which makes up the skin.  Keratin gives your hair strength, thickness and body.  Hair is actually 97% keratin protein.  Great nails are strong and break-resistant due to this same keratin.

            Elastin sounds like elastic because it is just that – the beauty protein that gives your skin the ability to stretch and bounce back.  Without elastin, your skin would rip every time you smile.  Yuk!  And create more wrinkles too.

            Youthful skin is moisture drenched skin, like the child’s smooth and flawless complexion.  By age 18, collagen production slows down and fine lines and wrinkles form.  Collagen “plumps” skin, preventing wrinkles from forming in the first place.  These cross-linked collagen fibers are tight in youth.  As we age, the fiber becomes riddled with gaps that allow skin to literally cave in and create a wrinkle.  When you turn on the body’s fibroblasts – collagen producing factories – more water magnet collagen is formed to plump the skin.  Inner hydration is the difference between a grape and a raisin, a plum and a prune.  Collagen creates that inner hydration.  The ability to flood the skin with nourishing moisture is the key to that dewy look. 

            This sure adds another emphasis to drinking sufficient amounts of water, not coffee, tea, soda, wine, beer or juice – water, not distilled or ionized or ph alerted or vitamin water.  Simply filter with an “absolute one micron filter” and you’ll get quality water.  Plus it’s better for the planet and your purse than putting millions of plastic bottles daily into our land fills.  Remember the formula.  Divide your weight in half and express that number as ounces, i.e. 128 pound person needs 64 ounces (two quarts) of water (not liquids) per day, a 150 pound person needs 75 ounces , etc.

            Save your money if you’re considering skin creams containing collagen.  The collagen that hydrates your skin is beneath the surface, not on top.  If “outside” moisture worked, water would be the best moisturizer.  The best of the topical skin care products include use of a weekly exfoliant to clear off old dead skin cells and let the new cells glow.

            Collagen is one of thousands of proteins in the body.  These strong white fibers (stronger than steel wire of the same weight) mixed with the yellow elastin networks not only make up skin; but bones, teeth, blood vessels, eye, and heart – essentially all body parts.  It is substantially composed of the 2 amino acids glycine and hydroxyproline.  But without adequate Vitamin C, collagen does not form.  Dr. Linus Pauling and Dr. Roger Williams were the preeminent proponents of taking higher amounts of supplemental C.  Collagen is the most abundant body protein, (greater than all other proteins put together) and can’t be built without Vitamin C.  It will not only improve the skin, but the heart and blood vessels.  That’s why ‘C’ reduces bruising and spider veins.  It strengthens blood vessel walls. 

            “C” in all forms improves skin – from inexpensive ascorbic acid powder to pricey (and unnecessary) ester-C.  The reason smokers age so much more quickly than non smokers is due to the creation of oxidative stress (free radicals) from smoke.  This increases the smokers need for Vitamin C by 40% over a non – smoker just to stay even.  Each cigarette uses up 25-100mg of Vitamin C, thus a pack depletes 500-2000 mg.

            Skin is not just your wrapper.  It is the largest organ of the body, protecting us from injury and providing us with the wonderful sense of touch.  Skin regulates our temperature, prevents dehydration and helps us make Vitamin D.  Detoxification and elimination happen through our skin.  This 11 pound sack is alive and active, constantly regenerating at least 10 new sets of skin in a year.  Infants make 25 new sets of skin in a year.  Makes a snake seem lazy.

            That’s why aerobic exercise, steam baths, saunas and the like promote the discharge of toxins.  Sweat carries away toxins.  We can’t stop all skin aging, but we sure can slow it down.  Adequate protein, especially these aminos: glycine and proline, is a must.  Vegetarians MUST eat beans daily to get enough of the aminos in short supply in veggies and grains.  Drink your water.  Start each day with a BIG glass, then do your shower or house stuff or exercise and have another BIG glass.  Eat vitamin C rich foods daily, along with Vitamin C supplements.

            You can’t fix a bad diet with a handful of supplements and you can’t fix aging skin with creams and lotions alone.  They help (or hurt) but it’s what’s inside that counts.

But then didn’t your Mama tell you that? 

High glysine foods:  all flesh proteins, eggs, seaweeds, watercress, spinach, soybean products, sesame and sunflower seeds, peanut flour.

High vitamin C:  red and yellow peppers, broccoli and cabbage, kiwi and strawberries citrus, tomato, white potatoes, papaya and mango, cantaloupe, kale.