Anti-Aging
Part of the mission of Rosie Life Nutrition is to help women to live, feel and LOOK their best.
If you walk in to any department store, look through any magazine or beauty blog, you will undoubtedly be bombarded with information about the different lotions and potions that claim that have an anti-ageing effect. I know I used to feel like ‘oh my goodness, I must purchase all of these products to stay looking young for as long as possible’!!
Anti-ageing does not start with what you put on your skin, but what you put in your body.
Before I give some quick tips about what you can do to slow down the ageing process and all that is associated with it, let’s rewind and discuss (briefly) what is ageing?
‘Scientifically, ageing is an extremely complex, multifactorial process, [not wholly understood] and numerous ageing theories have been proposed; the most important of these are probably the genomic and free radical theories.’ (Knight, 2000) This is where ageing is cause by oxidative stress and manifests in many diseases, including: cancer, atherosclerosis as well as visible ageing signs such as wrinkles.
So how can we slow down the oxidative stress in our body and keep us looking and feeling younger for longer:
1. Good gut health – I think you would struggle to find any Naturopathic Nutritionist that would dispute that health starts in the gut. If you are in any doubt – Julia Enders has written a great laymans book about ‘The Gut’. The phrase 'you are what you eat' has now been replaced with 'the phrase you are what you absorb'. Ensure your stomach acid is at optimal levels. You are free from problematic parasites and yes have multiple poos a day.
2. Diets high diet in anti-oxidants – Anti-oxidants quench the thirst of the free radicals and stop them in their tracks before they cause any more damage. This is where ‘eating the rainbow’ comes in. Ensure you are eat between 5-9 portions of vegetables a day in a variety of colours to give yourself the best chance of getting lots of anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidant content is measured in ORAC value, so the higher the ORAC value the more anti-oxidants you will get.
3. Stay hydrated – boring but true. 70% of our body is water – therefore, it is unsurprising that staying hydrated is super important to keep you looking and feeling young
4. Efficient detox pathways in your body – look at your liver function! If you cannot excrete excess toxins optimally, they will build up and continue to circulate around your body causing increased free radical damage – we either need to effectively excrete them or quench them with anti-oxidants.
5. Effective sleep – when we sleep we produce melatonin this is one of THE best ant-oxidants we produces and sweeps round the body mopping up any rogue free-radicals. One of the main reasons, we need more sleep when we are poorly is that there are lots more free radicals to sweep-up. Tip – ensure you sleep in total darkness or if this is not possible get yourself an eye mask (it will be the best £3 you’ll spend)
Please note, the above is only some of the ideas you could implement to support natural-anti-ageing. If you would like further support in the ageing process and optimum health that is suited for YOU instead of some general ‘tit-bits’ (as per the above) everyone is welcome to a complimentary 20-minute call to discuss whether Nutritional Therapy would benefit them.
References
Knight, 2000. The Biochemistry of Aging -
Websites of interest:
Website advocating safer cosmetics: http://www.safecosmetics.org/get-the-facts/chemicals-of-concern/red-list/
Telegraph article about the rise of organic/ natural beauty sector: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/skin/chemical-free-beauty/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vanessa-cunningham/dangerous-beauty-products_b_4168587.html
If you have not got the time or inclination to make your own beauty products, companies that I rate and have researched include:
https://www.pravera.co.uk/lavera-natural-cosmetics
Research Articles
https://chriskresser.com/the-gut-skin-connection-how-altered-gut-function-affects-the-skin/
http://www.herbhedgerow.co.uk/can-cosmetics-be-absorbed-into-your-bloodstream/
http://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/ehc/ehc235.pdf?ua=1
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1778324/pdf/archdisch00700-0014.pdf