“Quick & Clean” Winter Skincare Supplement Checklist

When it comes to winter skin care, it’s all about keeping the moisture in, and the wrinkles out. Yet, to do this you also have to maintain the structure of your skin cells, which includes addressing your collagen levels, calming inflammation, and detoxifying properly.

LOCK IN THE MOISTURE WITH HYALURONIC ACID AND COLLAGEN

Both skin and joints are rich in connective tissue, principally collagen. And as we age our levels diminish, contributing to wrinkles. To prevent sagging, and hold onto moisture more effectively, one of the absolute best supplements you can take is the BioCell Collagen found in Optimum Health’s Opti-Joint. Each capsule supplies 500mg. This material is soon to be included in our upcoming Opti-Skin formula.

Not only does BioCell Collagen maintain the thickness of your skin’s collagen layer as a structural component, it also contains a healthy dose of Hyaluronic acid, well known for being able to absorb and retain over 1000x its weight in water. (With 50 mg in each capsule, that’s 50 grams of water!) For these reasons, it helps your skin remain hydrated, plump and supple.

Another means of maintaining and regenerating the collagen levels in your skin, as well as enhancing its brightness and sheen, is with silica. Silica stimulates your own cellular production of collagen. Though either source of silica, be it herbal horsetail, or the choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid found in BioSil™, will be beneficial, the BioSil™ is a more concentrated source. (Most people prefer taking less capsules, though some still stay with the herbal form in horsetail.) BioSil will also be included in our Opti-Skin.

ENSURE BASIC SKIN NUTRIENTS

Vitamin C is also a crucial factor for your connective tissue formation. Its actions are enhanced by substances such as bioflavonoids from citrus, rosehips, and Camu Camu, or OPC’s/anthocyanins in berries and grape seed extract. All of these are found in Optimum Health’s More Than C formula. (See this post for more info: Maximize Vitamin C Benefits: Key Substances To Achieve This.)

Further basic nutrients and factors that must be present for healthy skin include the fat-soluble vitamins A,D, & E, the mineral zinc, and essential fatty acids!

ADEQUATE ESSENTIAL FATS IN YOUR DIET ARE CRITICAL FOR SKIN HEALTH

Not only are omega-3 fats important for the fluidity of your plasma membranes that line your skin cells, (think soft skin), they insulate your body’s cells and prevent moisture-loss. They are also highly anti-inflammatory, helping to prevent eruptions, rashes, blemishes, and breakouts.

BALANCE YOUR HORMONES

As women who break out on a regular basis in sync with their menstrual cycle will tell you, hormones can play a big role in skin health. As well as being anti-inflammatory, the omega-6 fat GLA helps to balance sex hormones out. These characteristics are why Optimum Health included it in our Optimum Omega oil blend called Synergy-3, which contains EPA, DHA, and GLA in the better-absorbed natural triglyceride form. These fats all work better together!

Yet, as we have covered in past articles, to balance hormones it’s often not just the levels of female hormones like estrogen and progesterone that are at issue, but also what metabolites you break them down into. For promoting healthy estrogen metabolism the substance called DIM or Diindolylmethane can be most helpful. DIM encourages the production of friendly, non-inflammatory estrogen metabolites, instead of inflammatory ones, and a benefactor of this is your skin. Helping to reduce cyclical breakouts is another of DIM’s long list of benefits.

HAVING A HAPPY LIVER IS KEY

These hormone metabolites are primarily created in the liver, which is also the primary site of detoxification in the body. If the liver isn’t doing its job, the unprocessed toxins are going to be reflected in your skin. Like this past article on the liver-skin connection said…"Do you want healthy, clear, soft skin? Clean up your liver".

For this, Optimum Health offers Opti-Liv Extra, which supports broad spectrum support for liver function…principally by raising levels of the all important antioxidant molecule glutathione!

DON’T FORGET YOUR PROBIOTICS

Regarding probiotics and gut-health, many don’t realize that their skin is an outer reflection of their “inner skin”…i.e. the GUT! And if you’ve got a rash, or irritation on the outside, chances are excellent you’ve also got one on inside. This is why at Optimum Health for skin ailments one of the first things we do is to support the gut. This means calming down its immune responses, and the associated inflammation. For this having a healthy probiotic population in your intestines in essential. We were very happy to add Opti-Elite Probiotics, containing the DDS strain to our line last Spring. (DDS has been the top probiotic that I have recommended for over 25 years, largely due to its immune-stabilizing and anti-inflammatory effects on the gut.)

A LITTLE-KNOWN SKIN AND HAIR HEALTH TIP

And a final quick trick you can use to keep your skin and connective tissue healthy is to take the herb Butcher’s Broom. It contains a bioflavonoid called ruscogenin, which strengthens capillaries, thereby enhancing the skins microcirculation, and improving complexion, color, and skin tone. (Personally, I’ve also found it useful for my thinning hair!)

So, in addition to putting healthy, pure, non-toxic skin care on your skin, don’t forget to maintain it from the inside as well…all be it with a little help from Optimum Health!

Here’s to healthy skin over the holidays and into 2018!

Continue to be well!

John