WEBVTT
00:00:00.059 --> 00:00:06.868
Welcome to Listen to your Skin by Moon and Skin, the podcast where science meets nature to celebrate the story of your skin.
00:00:06.868 --> 00:00:11.471
Your skin is a living canvas, ever evolving, deeply personal and uniquely yours.
00:00:11.471 --> 00:00:19.010
Each week, we'll dive into the science of healthy skin, share empowering stories and uncover transformative self-care rituals.
00:00:19.010 --> 00:00:23.510
We're here to help you embrace every phase of your journey with confidence and care.
00:00:23.690 --> 00:00:25.788
Hey everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Listen to your Skin by Moon and Skin confidence and care.
00:00:25.788 --> 00:00:42.286
Hey everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Listen to your Skin by Moon and Skin, and I'm your host, dr Jen Haley, board-certified dermatologist, and happy to be here to share all things epigenetics and how you can control the rate at which you age during this episode.
00:00:42.286 --> 00:00:52.146
So it's pretty mind-blowing because only about 15% of how quickly you age is determined by your genetics.
00:00:52.146 --> 00:00:57.383
The other 85% is determined by your lifestyle choices.
00:00:57.383 --> 00:01:01.396
And this is so much different than what I learned in medical school.
00:01:01.396 --> 00:01:05.891
We always used to just chalk everything up to genetics and your genes this, your genes that.
00:01:05.990 --> 00:01:21.010
And now, in this beautiful field of epigenetics, we're discovering that most of the determining factors of how quickly we age, how our body feels every day, how our skin shows up in the world, is determined by our lifestyle choices.
00:01:21.010 --> 00:01:24.528
And it's never too late to start, which is really, really cool.
00:01:24.528 --> 00:01:35.025
So small daily changes can have a huge impact on how quickly your skin ages, whether you start at 20, 30, 40, 50, or even 60.
00:01:35.025 --> 00:01:44.408
And I want to break down today what extrinsic factors are versus intrinsic factors are when it comes to aging.
00:01:44.408 --> 00:01:46.012
Let's talk about intrinsic factors.
00:01:46.012 --> 00:01:49.191
So intrinsic factors of aging are your genes.
00:01:49.191 --> 00:01:53.123
They're what you're born with and this is about 15% of how we age.
00:01:53.724 --> 00:02:28.110
So we may age in a certain way that is similar to our parents, but the rate at which we age will vary depending on the extrinsic factors or the external factors, the things that we get to choose to do every single day, and these things are what you eat, how much sun exposure you have, other exposure to environmental toxins, sleep, stress and all sorts of things that play a massive role in basically how youthful you are and how healthy you are and how you feel, more importantly, over time.
00:02:28.110 --> 00:02:35.317
So the goal of me sharing all of this is with you is so that you understand that you have the power.
00:02:35.317 --> 00:02:37.683
The power is in your hands.
00:02:37.683 --> 00:02:59.252
You have the agency to determine how quickly you age and, even if you made bad choices in the past, starting today, you can decide to make better choices, and this will have a huge impact on what genes get turned on in your body and what genes don't get turned on in your body or get turned off.
00:02:59.252 --> 00:03:12.551
So it's really pretty cool and you can make make smart, consistent choices every day and it can lead you in a positive direction or a negative direction, and it's not really black or white.
00:03:12.551 --> 00:03:14.663
It's a cumulative, compound effect over time.
00:03:14.663 --> 00:03:18.513
So let's dive into a little bit more details on this.
00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:31.150
I'm a dermatologist, so you know what I'm going to talk about as the biggest external culprit in determining how quickly your skin ages, and this is UV radiation.
00:03:31.150 --> 00:03:37.752
So UV radiation is different from sunlight, our natural vital energy force.
00:03:37.752 --> 00:03:39.085
We need sunlight.
00:03:39.085 --> 00:03:40.480
Sunlight is important.
00:03:40.480 --> 00:03:53.537
We need to get sunlight in our eyes every day in the morning so that our photoreceptors in our eyes and the photoreceptors in our skin turn on our circadian clock to be in its daytime activities.
00:03:53.537 --> 00:04:04.364
So sunlight is important and there is UV radiation that is coming out, these ultraviolet rays it is radiation.
00:04:04.364 --> 00:04:10.526
So this radiation that comes out, it is contributing to 90% of skin aging.
00:04:10.526 --> 00:04:21.458
Basically, a study in the Journal of Clinical, cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology showed that 90% of visible skin aging is caused by UV exposure.
00:04:21.678 --> 00:04:23.845
There's a couple different types of UV rays.
00:04:23.845 --> 00:04:31.415
So we have our UVA rays and I always think of the UVA rays as the aging rays A for aging.
00:04:31.415 --> 00:04:33.822
They are very, very deeply penetrating.
00:04:33.822 --> 00:04:36.110
They will go through windows.
00:04:36.110 --> 00:04:44.192
So if you're sitting at an office or if you're driving in a car, you will get UVA rays damaging your skin.
00:04:44.192 --> 00:05:01.389
There's very, very famous photos you can find online of a secretary that worked next to an office all day and a truck driver that drove next to the window, and the rate at which the left side of the face aged much more rapidly than the right side of the face.
00:05:01.389 --> 00:05:15.928
And as a board-certified dermatologist for over 20 years now, I see way more wrinkles on the left side of the face and, as a board-certified dermatologist for over 20 years now, I see way more wrinkles on the left side of the face and more skin cancers on the left side of the face from that cumulative damage of UVA rays penetrating windows.
00:05:15.928 --> 00:05:22.946
So basically, if you don't need a flashlight, you're getting sunlight and UV radiation coming through windows.
00:05:22.946 --> 00:05:27.750
So don't underestimate the damage that it happens over time through cumulative exposure.
00:05:27.750 --> 00:05:34.319
And likewise, small little things we do over time can make a big effect in our favor.
00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:39.812
So we want to be smart about it and realize the power of the compound effect.
00:05:40.779 --> 00:05:48.028
Now, uvb rays are the rays that are responsible for burning, so UVA is aging, uvb is burning.
00:05:48.028 --> 00:05:52.490
Uvb rays also help us to make vitamin D in our body.
00:05:52.490 --> 00:06:00.773
So we do want to get some UVB rays, and UVB rays are great because they help to create vitamin D in the body.
00:06:00.773 --> 00:06:04.608
And what happens with tanning salons?
00:06:04.608 --> 00:06:12.692
This is why I'm not a fan of tanning salons is that the UVB rays are often removed, so you're not getting that warning of a burn.
00:06:12.692 --> 00:06:25.492
You're just getting the deeply penetrating UVA or aging rays that are going to cause coarse wrinkles, a lot of sagging in the skin, a lot of damage and tearing of the elastic fibers and the collagen fibers in the skin.
00:06:25.492 --> 00:06:31.204
So the UVB rays are the ones that help produce vitamin D.
00:06:31.204 --> 00:06:33.151
They also also cause burning.
00:06:33.151 --> 00:06:39.374
Now, a cool fact is you can produce as much vitamin D as you need without ever getting a burn.
00:06:39.956 --> 00:06:48.930
So, depending on where you live, your skin type and the amount of surface area exposed will determine how much vitamin D you make.
00:06:48.930 --> 00:07:00.867
So for me, I'm part Spanish and I live in Arizona, and if I expose my torso, my chest back and my legs for 10 to 15 minutes three times a week, I'm getting sufficient amounts of vitamin D.
00:07:00.867 --> 00:07:05.165
The only way to know is to get a blood test to have it checked, but that's what UVB rays do.
00:07:05.165 --> 00:07:11.221
So basically, you have the UVA, uvb, uvc rays don't really penetrate so much.
00:07:11.221 --> 00:07:25.314
They're blocked by the ozone layer, but they do exist, and both of these UVA, uvb and UVC rays they lead to premature aging and they increase skin cancer.
00:07:25.314 --> 00:07:29.430
They increase your risk of skin cancer by forming DNA mutations.
00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:43.480
So I think of how do you look at your body to determine what kind of aging is contributed to sun exposure compared to the natural aging of our skin?
00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:49.668
Right, because we're aging from the inside out, but what amount is determined by sun exposure?
00:07:49.668 --> 00:08:07.487
If you look at your face, your neck, your chest, the back of your hands, your forearms, these areas are chronically exposed to UV radiation, whereas possibly the upper inner part of your arm if you could see me on YouTube, the upper inner part of your arm it looks like maybe me on YouTube the upper inner part of your arm, it looks like maybe a three or a four-year-old.
00:08:07.487 --> 00:08:10.612
It hardly has any aging at all.
00:08:10.612 --> 00:08:13.663
And that is how your skin naturally ages.
00:08:14.043 --> 00:08:18.333
Without UV radiation, without sunlight, without chronic damage.
00:08:18.333 --> 00:08:24.149
You might lose a little elasticity over time, but you're not seeing wrinkles or fine lines or pigmentation.
00:08:24.149 --> 00:08:26.913
So what happens is UV radiation.
00:08:26.913 --> 00:08:42.344
It leads to what we call photo aging from the Sun photo and this breaks down the collagen in the skin and the collagen is the supportive matrix in the skin, along with the elastic tissue and these get broken down and that's what leads to wrinkles and sagging.
00:08:42.344 --> 00:08:48.934
It's more from the UV and less from actual time or chronological aging.
00:08:49.539 --> 00:08:55.133
The second thing that happens with chronic photo damage is hyperpigmentation.
00:08:55.133 --> 00:09:02.153
So when you're young and you're exposed to the sun, you get a nice, even brown tan Most people do.
00:09:02.153 --> 00:09:03.365
Some people burn and never tan.
00:09:03.365 --> 00:09:05.746
Typically you'll get a nice, even brown tan.
00:09:05.746 --> 00:09:06.107
Most people do.
00:09:06.107 --> 00:09:07.010
Some people burn and never tan.
00:09:07.010 --> 00:09:08.053
Typically you'll get a nice, even brown tan.
00:09:08.073 --> 00:09:22.241
And what happens over time is we have these melanocytes, these pigment cells in our skin, and the melanocytes produce pigmentation and that pigment distributes to about 32 keratinocytes, which is the top layer of your skin.
00:09:22.241 --> 00:09:24.970
So the pigment gets evenly dispersed throughout your skin.
00:09:24.970 --> 00:09:35.270
And then what happens is is, over time, these melanocytes get burnt out and they're not as effective at dispersing pigmentation to the keratinocytes.
00:09:35.270 --> 00:09:55.028
So you end up getting a mottled pigmentation Areas that get hyperpigmented or brown spots, liver spots, age spots, typically on the back of the hands people will see them and then there'll be areas of pigment dropout where there's no pigmentation at all because the melanocytes burnt out and they can't produce pigment anymore.
00:09:55.028 --> 00:10:07.131
So what happens in chronically sun damaged skin is you get a mottled discoloration where you see brown, white, brown white, brown white and it looks very scattered and haphazard and not evenly brown anymore.
00:10:07.131 --> 00:10:10.480
And that's just what happens.
00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:16.846
And you won't see it on the butt and you won't see it on the upper inner part of the arm, because this is not photo damaged areas.
00:10:17.128 --> 00:10:27.181
Now, the last thing that UV damage does is it causes DNA breaks breaks in your DNA and mutations in your DNA, and this can lead to skin cancer.
00:10:27.181 --> 00:10:42.602
So every minute, our bodies are making little cancers and if we give our body the tools that it needs, we support it by minimizing environmental toxins and minimize how much radiation it's getting.
00:10:42.602 --> 00:10:47.032
Our body has the ability to correct these little mutations before they turn into skin cancer.
00:10:47.032 --> 00:11:03.830
So minimizing the amount of radiation you're getting is going to lower your risk of skin cancer, but also staying healthy from the inside out is going to minimize your risk of skin cancer by having a healthy immune system that can correct things as quickly as they form.
00:11:03.830 --> 00:11:16.663
One study actually found that people who apply sunscreen daily have 24% less skin aging than those people who don't, and this comes from the annals of internal medicine.
00:11:16.663 --> 00:11:21.471
So the UV damage is cumulative over our lifetime.
00:11:22.033 --> 00:11:56.606
I personally did not even start wearing sunscreen until the age of 30 and I'm doing pretty well, considering I've lived in Arizona, san Diego, the high elevated areas of Colorado and Utah and Hawaii by wearing sunscreen every single day to the high value areas of your face your neck, your chest and then the back of your hands.
00:11:56.606 --> 00:11:59.272
This will reduce your risk of developing skin cancer and photo damage.
00:11:59.272 --> 00:12:09.880
And it's really interesting to me because, after living in so many different places, I have noticed how the sun affects skin differently, skin differently.
00:12:09.880 --> 00:12:33.073
So I notice in coastal areas like Hawaii or California, I tend to see more pigmentation, abnormalities in the skin like brown spots, uneven pigmentation, whereas in the elevated areas, where you're maybe six, seven, eight thousand feet above sea sea level, I tend to see a lot of really coarse wrinkles in the skin and I just think the uva radiation is penetrating more deeply at elevation.
00:12:33.073 --> 00:12:43.788
So in those cases, you know, especially if you're dealing with winter and you're having hardly any area of your body exposed to the outside elements, your skin's really taking a big toll.
00:12:43.788 --> 00:12:53.815
So in those cases, really really in all cases, if you do just one thing for your skin, just one thing, it has to be sunscreen to the high value areas.
00:12:53.855 --> 00:12:54.840
I'm not saying to put it everywhere.
00:12:54.840 --> 00:13:05.844
I want you to put it to your high value areas, areas that we are exposing day in and day out for 80, 90, 100, hopefully 120 years of our life.
00:13:05.844 --> 00:13:07.167
So what do you look for?
00:13:07.167 --> 00:13:12.283
Spf 30 or higher containing zinc oxide.
00:13:12.283 --> 00:13:15.450
I've never been a fan of chemical sunscreens.
00:13:15.450 --> 00:13:21.427
When light hits them, when UV rays hit them, they dissipate and they become less effective.
00:13:21.427 --> 00:13:26.027
And how they work in the lab is not necessarily how they're going to work in our bodies.
00:13:26.027 --> 00:13:27.306
So I like zinc oxide.
00:13:27.306 --> 00:13:34.034
So it only works as well as you apply it, as thickly as you apply it, and I also like people to wear wide brim hats.
00:13:34.034 --> 00:13:43.386
If you're going to be outside for a significant period of time, use your sunscreen as a backup plan for reflective rays off the snow, off the sand, off the pavement.
00:13:43.648 --> 00:14:01.333
And the other thing is that's really really cool is you can protect your skin from the inside out with foods that are high in carotenoids basically orange, yellow, colorful fruits and vegetables and polyphenols and fish oil.
00:14:01.333 --> 00:14:06.022
It can increase the natural SPF of your skin and the natural protection from the inside out.
00:14:06.022 --> 00:14:07.549
And you could look at supplements as well.
00:14:07.549 --> 00:14:14.087
So some of the supplements that I like that are science-backed include polypodium leucotomus.
00:14:14.087 --> 00:14:15.811
It's a fern extract.
00:14:15.811 --> 00:14:17.714
That's from Caligula.
00:14:17.714 --> 00:14:27.615
It's a natural fern extract shown in multiple scientific studies to improve the protection of your skin from UV damage from the inside out.
00:14:27.676 --> 00:14:28.557
You can look at astaxanthin.
00:14:28.557 --> 00:14:31.767
I love astaxanthin, four to 12 milligrams a day.
00:14:31.767 --> 00:14:57.707
It is what makes salmon turn pink or shrimp turn pink or flamingos turn pink and it's from krill, basically, and what happens is the fish will consume krill and it turns into the beautiful pink color in their body and then we eat it and it is up to, it's taken up by our cells in our body and provides natural protection for us as well.
00:14:57.707 --> 00:15:09.205
Epa, dha, as I mentioned with fish oil, niacinamide, vitamin b3, very anti-inflammatory and it helps protect from some of those dna mutations and calm things down.
00:15:09.205 --> 00:15:12.123
And then I also love spirulina and chlorella.
00:15:12.123 --> 00:15:18.841
They're powerful and from nature types of algae and really colorful natural foods.
00:15:18.841 --> 00:15:24.902
They get imparted into our own skin cells and protect us naturally from uv radiation.
00:15:24.902 --> 00:15:49.133
So I notice, when I eat very healthy and I do some of these supplements, I can be outside and I will always have SPF 30 or higher to my face and neck and chest, but the other areas that I'm exposing for my vitamin D production I will not be burning nearly as quickly as some of my friends who are eating a standard American processed food diet filled with seed oils.
00:15:49.133 --> 00:15:58.259
So what you eat will definitely 100%, more than anything else, play a part in how healthy your skin shows up in the world.
00:15:59.102 --> 00:16:04.839
Okay, so that's number one on what you can do as far as extrinsic factors for aging.
00:16:04.839 --> 00:16:07.163
Let's talk about number two.
00:16:07.163 --> 00:16:08.626
We're turning our attention inward.
00:16:08.626 --> 00:16:18.618
One of the main main internal factors affecting skin aging is glycation, so I want you to get used to this word called glycation.
00:16:18.618 --> 00:16:32.275
It's a process that occurs when excess sugar circulating in our body attaches to protein, so collagen and elastin in our body are two of the major proteins in our body attaches to protein, so collagen and elastin in our body are two of the major proteins in our body.
00:16:32.275 --> 00:16:45.990
Excess sugar molecules bind to the elastin and the collagen and they form really harmful compounds called AGEs, which stand for advanced glycation end products.
00:16:45.990 --> 00:16:58.900
And there's a study in their dermatoendocrinology that found that excessive sugar intake leads to this process called glycation and that accelerates skin aging by breaking down collagen and elastin.
00:16:59.995 --> 00:17:07.843
And as a dermatologist, I see patients with all sorts of medical conditions because I am a trained medical dermatologist.
00:17:07.843 --> 00:17:18.523
There's over 3,000 diagnoses in the skin, and I fell in love with dermatology because it's pretty amazing how you can look at the skin and have a clue as to what's going on inside the body.
00:17:18.523 --> 00:17:23.284
And now we know that we can control what we put in our body and have an effect on the skin.
00:17:23.284 --> 00:17:42.805
Right, and unfortunately, there's many people with diabetes, whether it's the type that they're born with or the type that happens adult onset diabetes and what happens is their skin just doesn't look good, and that's the only way I could ever phrase it before I understood about AGEs.
00:17:42.805 --> 00:17:51.528
Like anyone that has high circulating glucose levels uncontrolled for a long period of time, their skin does not look good.
00:17:51.528 --> 00:18:03.666
It also plays a part in causing problems with blood vessels, visual changes, all sorts of other changes to all the organs, because we know our skin is representing the health of all the other organs, right?
00:18:03.666 --> 00:18:21.048
So that's an extreme example of having diabetes, but honestly, if we're eating a processed food diet, we're having high glucose bursts all the time and this is leading to significant damage to our skin and all of our organs over time.
00:18:21.516 --> 00:18:32.326
So what happens is that sugar binds to these proteins the collagen and the elastin primarily in the skin, and they form the advanced glycation end products, or AGEs.
00:18:32.326 --> 00:18:40.641
And then the AGEs make the collagen that normally would bounce back and makes it really, really stiff, and this results.
00:18:40.641 --> 00:18:48.845
This stiffness results in wrinkles, loss of skin elasticity, sagging of the skin, and the result is accelerated skin aging.
00:18:48.845 --> 00:19:23.410
So the other thing is these AGEs they bind to receptors for AGEs and this causes a whole inflammation, cascade, lots and lots of inflammation, which can present as pain in the joints, inflammation in the skin like rosacea or sensitive skin, or low-level inflammation, and low-level inflammation can worsen acne, it can cause rosacea and it can also cause increased MMP production, which is matrix metalloproteinases, which break down collagen in the skin.
00:19:23.833 --> 00:19:30.268
So there's both direct and indirect causes of aging with sugar consumption, and the proof is really in the science.
00:19:30.268 --> 00:19:42.663
People with high sugar diets tend to have skin that appears biologically older than their actual age, and this is according to a 2013 study in the British Journal of Dermatology.
00:19:42.663 --> 00:19:53.102
And our bodies are smart and they break down processed carbohydrates like bread, rice, pasta, chips, crackers any processed food.
00:19:53.102 --> 00:20:04.756
Our body converts pretty quickly from a carbohydrate into a glucose molecule, so you may think that you're not consuming sugar, but if you're eating a lot of processed foods.
00:20:04.756 --> 00:20:13.542
It's converting and it's identified as sugar in your body and the sugar causes all the same effects that I just talked about.
00:20:14.263 --> 00:20:18.067
So it's really, really important to take a look at what you eat.
00:20:18.067 --> 00:20:19.907
There's a lot of different tricks that you can do.
00:20:19.907 --> 00:20:35.838
If you have a higher glycemic load in your diet, adding some fiber or some fats or some protein can mitigate how quickly the glucose goes into your bloodstream, so you don't get those big spikes that are going to cause a lot of AGEs in the skin.
00:20:35.838 --> 00:20:37.984
We'll dive deeper into that in the future.
00:20:37.984 --> 00:20:42.461
In the meantime, choose real foods, whole foods.
00:20:42.461 --> 00:20:46.517
Things like fruit can be damaging in large consumptions, but small consumptions.
00:20:46.517 --> 00:20:51.827
They usually have fiber in them that naturally abates how quickly your blood glucose spikes.
00:20:51.827 --> 00:20:56.518
So it's about quantity as well as quality of food that you eat.
00:20:56.518 --> 00:21:16.155
So let's look further into what we eat and what we can do to improve our skin health by what we put in our mouth, and I studied nutrition undergrad at Cornell University and I'm going to say like that sounds like a prestigious university and it is.
00:21:16.257 --> 00:21:22.478
We all respect the Ivy Leagues, although this was in the 90s and everything that I learned is no longer true.
00:21:22.478 --> 00:21:25.326
This was the low fat, high carb craze time.
00:21:25.326 --> 00:21:30.477
So things change, information changes, and as information changes, I'm going to share with you.
00:21:30.477 --> 00:21:38.909
And one thing we know for sure, though, and that I've always liked to play around with, is the fact that, like, what we put in our mouth affects our skin.
00:21:38.909 --> 00:21:59.842
So when I was in medical school, I was taught that diet played no role in how our health is basically, especially with our skin, and it just didn't make any sense to me, because how could we give someone a medication and the medication magically works for whatever condition we were treating?
00:21:59.842 --> 00:22:02.089
Yet food didn't play any role.
00:22:02.089 --> 00:22:14.261
It did not make any sense to me, because everything, every single thing, we decide to put in our mouth is going to lead us in a healthy direction or an unhealthy direction with our bodies and our skin.
00:22:15.124 --> 00:22:21.826
So food, or water, even, or drinks that you choose to drink are you drinking soda?
00:22:21.826 --> 00:22:23.472
Are you drinking sugary food?
00:22:23.472 --> 00:22:30.388
Are you drinking unfiltered water that is loaded with toxins and all sorts of things?
00:22:30.388 --> 00:22:41.145
This is going to have a different impact than if you have filtered water and whole foods, and I want you to start looking at food as messages.
00:22:41.145 --> 00:22:50.374
So the food that we bring into our body gives messages to our cells to be healthier or be unhealthy.
00:22:50.374 --> 00:22:51.777
That's the basics of it.
00:22:51.777 --> 00:22:54.784
So start looking at food as messages.
00:22:54.784 --> 00:22:59.066
They will determine whether the good genes get turned on, the bad genes get turned off.
00:22:59.066 --> 00:23:09.384
Food will determine whether your body is supporting regeneration and renewal or causing inflammation and inflammaging.
00:23:09.384 --> 00:23:13.766
Okay, that's a lot of inflammation for your skin that leads to aging.
00:23:14.655 --> 00:23:19.346
So what are some of the science-backed skin-loving nutrients that we want to embrace?
00:23:19.346 --> 00:23:28.721
We have omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon, flax, seeds, walnuts Okay, omega-3 fatty acids are our friend.
00:23:28.721 --> 00:23:36.146
Our diet is too rich in omega-6 fatty acids and we want to add more omega-3 fatty acids from these food items.
00:23:36.146 --> 00:23:40.863
This reduces inflammation and it keeps the skin barrier strong.
00:23:40.863 --> 00:23:46.220
So healthy fats balance actually oil and they improve your skin barrier.
00:23:46.220 --> 00:24:07.796
Our skin barrier is composed of a bilipid membrane, so we need plenty of hydration from purified water and we also want to have healthy fats to support our skin barrier, and one of the big things that I see when people are on low fat diets is their skin gets really parched and dry and dehydrated and then often they'll get dermatitis and irritation of the skin.
00:24:07.796 --> 00:24:21.121
So we want healthy fats as opposed to seed oils, which can be very inflammatory and lead to acne and cause other problems with the skin, so we're looking at adding more omega-3 fatty acids.
00:24:21.761 --> 00:24:25.189
The second is vitamin c, preferably from food.
00:24:25.189 --> 00:24:32.671
Supplements are fine, too, when small doses spread throughout the day, but vitamin c from citrus fruits bell peppers, strawberries.
00:24:32.671 --> 00:24:41.121
This helps boost collagen production, so vitamin c is a necessary cofactor in producing collagen in the body.
00:24:41.121 --> 00:24:50.736
I also love vitamin C topically because it helps fade pigmentation and it fights free radicals both inside and out and outside in.
00:24:50.736 --> 00:24:52.201
So vitamin C is our friend.
00:24:52.201 --> 00:24:55.801
It's unstable in a topical form, so you really need to look at the right formulation.
00:24:56.683 --> 00:25:07.692
The third type of food that we want to incorporate into our diet consistently, every day, in the morning before we get out in the sun, are polyphenols and antioxidants.
00:25:07.692 --> 00:25:09.080
So where are these found?
00:25:09.080 --> 00:25:11.166
Green tea Green tea is wonderful.
00:25:11.166 --> 00:25:15.000
Dark chocolate Chocolate is not going to cause acne.
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.604
Now the sugar in chocolate will cause acne, so you want to look for a dark chocolate.
00:25:19.604 --> 00:25:22.026
Now, the sugar in chocolate will cause acne, so you want to look for a dark chocolate.
00:25:22.026 --> 00:25:25.008
A dark chocolate that's preferably tested for cadmium levels, so it's low in cadmium.
00:25:25.008 --> 00:25:26.589
Organic is always going to be your best bet.
00:25:26.589 --> 00:25:36.076
Dark chocolate, green tea, blueberries these are high in polyphenols, so is olive oil, and this protects against UV damage and oxidative stress.
00:25:36.076 --> 00:25:39.482
So we're attacking things at all levels.
00:25:39.482 --> 00:25:51.128
So we're coming into contact with different types of environmental toxins every single day and we're basically giving our body the tools to be supported from the inside out, at all levels and all angles.
00:25:52.692 --> 00:26:09.876
Okay, here's a good fact there is a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that found that people who consumed high amounts of vitamin C and healthy fats such as olive oil, fish oil and avocado oil had fewer wrinkles and better skin hydration than those who didn't.
00:26:09.876 --> 00:26:19.856
And I've seen a couple studies, actually with almonds and mangoes, showing reduced wrinkles, showing reduced wrinkles.
00:26:19.856 --> 00:26:28.143
The one with mangoes was particularly interesting to me because they showed that a small amount of mangoes I don't remember exactly how many grams, but it was a small amount of mangoes reduced wrinkles.
00:26:28.143 --> 00:26:31.010
But too many mangoes increased wrinkles.
00:26:31.010 --> 00:26:42.463
And that's where the sweet spot is, where you're getting enough polyphenols, enough antioxidants from the food, but too much, especially if a fruit is going to now have sugar and go to AGEs.
00:26:42.463 --> 00:26:50.507
So we're really walking the Goldilocks line all the time, using multiple tools to get us where we want to be.
00:26:50.666 --> 00:26:52.590
So next time you're at the grocery store.
00:26:52.590 --> 00:26:53.779
Just think of your skin.
00:26:53.779 --> 00:27:00.792
What do I choose here that is going to give me maximum nutrition and maximum benefits?
00:27:00.792 --> 00:27:04.945
We want to think of nutrient-dense foods.
00:27:04.945 --> 00:27:09.121
How much nutrition am I going to get for the amount of calories I'm consuming?
00:27:09.121 --> 00:27:12.548
Think about it that way Nutrient-dense whole foods.
00:27:12.548 --> 00:27:20.480
You're rarely going to go wrong if you have an actual food that has one ingredient that nature provided it's.
00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:35.211
When you go to the center area of the grocery store and you start getting packaged foods that our body does not identify as actually food, our body has to clean out all of those toxins, all of those preservatives, all of those chemicals just to get any nutrients.
00:27:35.211 --> 00:27:36.497
And guess what happens?
00:27:36.497 --> 00:27:44.473
Our liver gets exhausted, our kidney gets exhausted and we're now no longer able to correct DNA mutations and metabolize our own hormones.
00:27:44.473 --> 00:27:46.949
Think about your skin if you don't want to think about anything else.
00:27:46.949 --> 00:27:48.181
Okay.
00:27:48.240 --> 00:28:05.090
So the next thing I want to cover, beyond UV radiation and diet, are other hidden environmental factors, things that we come into contact with every single day that we may not even realize are playing a huge role in causing accelerated skin aging.
00:28:05.090 --> 00:28:06.781
So let's take a closer look at some of these.
00:28:06.781 --> 00:28:08.164
The first is air pollution.
00:28:08.164 --> 00:28:11.092
We can't always choose where we live.
00:28:11.092 --> 00:28:14.488
Right, we can control the air quality inside of your house.
00:28:14.488 --> 00:28:16.914
So I do like air filters.
00:28:16.914 --> 00:28:19.045
There's a few really good ones out there.
00:28:19.045 --> 00:28:20.423
The one that I personally use is called Molecule with a K, and I like air filters.
00:28:20.423 --> 00:28:20.791
There's a few really good ones out there.
00:28:20.791 --> 00:28:24.247
The one that I personally use is called Molecule with a K, and I like that one.
00:28:24.247 --> 00:28:25.852
There's plenty of good ones out there.
00:28:25.852 --> 00:28:29.869
But you may not be able to control, if you live in New York City, the amount of air pollution.
00:28:29.869 --> 00:28:37.203
But you can control inside of your house, because inside of our house we're getting a lot of off-gassing and fresh air is always best.
00:28:37.203 --> 00:28:44.003
But if you don't have access to clean, fresh air, get a good air purifier, because air pollution speeds up wrinkle formation.
00:28:44.184 --> 00:28:54.923
It actually causes more hyperpigmentation by producing free radicals that break down the skin cells, so often overlooked and easy to control.
00:28:54.923 --> 00:29:09.594
So there was a study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and it found that people that were exposed to high pollution had 22% more hyperpigmentation and wrinkles than those who were in cleaner environments.
00:29:09.594 --> 00:29:27.213
So something to keep in mind because there's science behind it, and it's interesting because I was mentioning earlier about how UV radiation affects the skin differently depending on whether you're at sea level or elevation.
00:29:27.213 --> 00:29:39.741
I often notice that people that are exposed to a lot of pollution in New York City, where I've lived, and other cities where I've lived they tend to have a lot of congestion of their pores as well, and our skin is this amazing detox organ.
00:29:39.741 --> 00:29:48.875
That's why saunas are so wonderful, because when we sweat, we're removing heavy metals and other toxins through our sweat, which is why it's so important to shower off right away.
00:29:48.875 --> 00:29:58.855
And I feel as though in these environments where the air quality isn't that good, where there's high air pollution, it's really congesting the pores a lot.
00:29:58.855 --> 00:30:03.451
So, something that control as much as you can, right, that's all we're doing here.
00:30:03.451 --> 00:30:04.846
We're not adding stress to our life.
00:30:04.846 --> 00:30:11.410
We're realizing what is out there that is affecting us, and what can we control versus what we can't control.
00:30:12.380 --> 00:30:14.307
Okay, the second is blue light.
00:30:14.307 --> 00:30:15.345
It's all around us.
00:30:15.345 --> 00:30:16.664
It's around me right now.
