10 Natural Ways To Get Healthy Glowing Skin

Searching online for products to help you protect and preserve healthy skin? Some of the best ways to rejuvenate and restore healthy skin, and prevent premature aging, are by modifying healthy daily nutritional and lifestyle habits. We share ten natural ways to get (and keep) healthy, glowing skin.

1. Stay Hydrated

Like every other part of your body, your skin is made up of individual cells that rely on water. Did you know that in the United States alone, health experts estimate that as much as 75% of individuals live with chronic dehydration?

Drinking ample water every day helps to cleanse the body of impurities and free radicals. Pollution, prescription medications, and toxins in the food that we eat are processed by the body, and absorbed into cells. Virtually every function in the body requires water, and tight, dry or dull looking skin is one sign of dehydration. Dry skin is more prone to UV damage, injury and wrinkles.

2. Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

Fresh raw fruits and vegetables are a fountain of youth, when it comes to providing essential vitamins and minerals that help to keep skin healthy. Tomatoes are high in lycopene, which is a potent natural antioxidant that reduces inflammation, including acne. Both vitamins C and E are known ‘wrinkle fighters’ and contribute to a healthy sheen.

On your next trip to the grocery store, add some strawberries, citrus fruits, cantaloupe melon, sweet potatoes, spinach and apricots to the cart, to build noticeably healthy skin.

3. Take a High Quality Daily Multivitamin

Perfect nutritional balance supports a healthy body, and beautiful skin, but even professional nutritionists recognize that eating according to the food guidelines is difficult for most. A daily multivitamin helps to ensure that you are reaching your minimum required amounts of essential nutrients needed.

4. Protect with Sunscreen

Do you only wear sunscreen in the summer? For the other three seasons of the year, your body and face are exposed to UV damage, which can prematurely age individuals, who do not regularly wear sunblock.

Choose an SPF 30 or higher (depending on skin type) to block UV damage before it occurs.  When selecting foundations, powders and other cosmetics, choose products that also offer additional UV protection to retain youthful looking, healthy skin.

5. Exfoliate Regularly

Is your best and most beautiful skin hiding below a layer of dull, dead skin cells? Men and women should exfoliate 2-3 times per week, to help shed dry skin and reveal softer, new layers.  Avoid products with microbeads (plastic exfoliants) as they can irritate the skin (and they are bad for the environment). Choose a natural scrub using ground nutshells, salt or sugar as the exfoliant for an eco-friendly and effective exfoliation.

6. Reduce Exposure to Smoke

Smoking contributes to premature aging, and damages the skin on the face, around the eyes and neck significantly. Smoking cigarettes also promotes dryness, and exposes the skin to free radicals from the 4,000 chemicals (and 40 known carcinogens), and contributes to fine lines and wrinkles around the mouth and chin.

Second hand smoke has equally harmful impacts to the skin, when exposed over the long-term.  Individuals who live with cigarette smokers, or who frequent (or work) in lounges or entertainment venues where smoking is permitted, can also experience significant changes in the appearance of skin and hair.

7. Avoid Skin Products with Ethanol

Approximately 60% of skincare and beauty products contain a form of alcohol, as it is used to stabilize cosmetics and lotions, and extend shelf-life. But some types of alcohol are beneficial to your skin, including cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol, behenyl, grachidyl, myristyl and arachidyl alcohols. Those ‘good’ types are referred to as ‘fatty alcohols’ and can help skin absorb other beneficial ingredients.

Hygiene and skin care products that include ethanol should be avoided. Ethanol is the same type of alcohol that is used in wine, beer and spirits, and it has the same dehydrating effect when used externally, as it does when consumed as a beverage. Ethanol evaporates faster than water, and while it helps fragrances and skin creams dry faster, it also contributes to dissolving surface oil on the skin, causing damage and dryness.

8. Go Nuts!

Selenium is a mineral that helps protect skin.  In hot climates, diets that are rich in raw nuts provide essential omega-3 fatty acids, which help protect against UV damage and reduce instances of skin cancer. The high-quality natural oils also promote skin elasticity, which helps to reduce wrinkles and improve complexion. Foods high in omega-3 fatty acids also improve the strength and thickness of hair, and promote regrowth.

To promote healthy, youthful skin, incorporate more Brazil nuts, sesame seeds, raw peanuts, and sunflower seeds into your diet, by adding them to salads and other meals.

9. Avoid Wearing Makeup to Bed

Few women go to bed intentionally with makeup on, and it is usually the result of a late-night pillow crash, when you are simply too tired to remove it. However, cosmetics lay on the top of the skin and restrict the flow of oxygen to your skin cells, which creates dryness. Certain types of makeup are also abrasive and damage the skin, causing additional friction between your face and your pillowcase.

If you work (or play) late into the evening, invest in some quality facial cleansing wipes. It takes only a minute to remove cosmetics with disposable wipes, and protect your skin from damage.  Avoid facial cleansing disposable cloths that contain ethanol alcohol, to prevent dryness.

10. Get Plenty of Sleep

Easier said than done for busy professionals, parents and other people pressed for time, but creating healthy sleep habits can take years off your appearance. You know that sleep is good for your body, and for the mind, but it is also an essential ‘shut down’ period where skin cells can rejuvenate themselves. The minimum shut-eye amount per night for an adult is 7 hours, according to medical experts. Don’t fight the urge to take naps either, they provide stress relief, an energy boost and help keep you looking younger.

Without invasive treatments such as microderm abrasion, and other cosmetic surgeries, it is difficult to rectify damaged skin, once years of UV, chemical and free radical exposure has occurred. Tweak your daily nutritional and lifestyle habits and enjoy the look and feel of healthy skin.