Skin Care - Why Bother?

Skin care is much more than just buying expensive skin care products and hoping they'll keep the skin looking healthy and young. The skin is a living, breathing organ that reflects the body's general state of health, irrespective of what skin care products you choose to use.

In the following article we will look at the type of skin care that should be used at different stages in our lives and other factors you need to include in your 'health plan' to maximize the long term health of your skin.

Teenagers

Why should a teenager, male or female, bother with skin care? After all their skin is young, supple, has no wrinkles, and has all the elasticity it requires.

This is a stage at which skin is undergoing considerable change. Hormones are going 'crazy' and the whole body of a teenager is developing into its adult form and functions - even the skin.

Acne is a probability during the teenage years and this is a very good reason to pay particular attention to your skin. Acne affects almost every teenager to some degree. In some cases acne can be so bad that it is necessary to seek professional medical advice and resort to having it specifically treated. However, in most cases, acne is more of a nuisance then a medical problem and by adopting a daily skin care regime using natural and organic skin care products, the effects of the acne can be reduced if not entirely eliminated.

Young men have an additional issue with their skin - shaving. Not only do they get acne, but they start growing facial hair and begin shaving. Razor blades and acne pimples do not mix and cuts can lead to infections and spreading of acne.

This should be avoided at all costs. Using natural shaving products which contain antiseptic herbs and essential oils will help to minimize infection and spreading of acne pimples.

Adults

Following the tumultuous years of being a teenager, putting up with acne and if you're a male starting to shave, now is the time for giving your skin all that you can to maintain its health, youthful looks and build its resistance to prevent premature aging. By now, your skin will have developed its basic skin types and your choice of natural skin care system(s) should reflect your skin types. Yes, there are usually more then one skin type.

Often there is an oily T-zone while the cheeks, neck and eye regions are either normal or have a tendency to be dry. If this is the case, you literally need to treat the different areas with different products. That is, you need to use skin care products for oily skin on your oily T-zone and products suitable for normal or dry skin on the remaining area of your facial skin and neck.

Again you need to take care of your skin on a daily basis and should include an exfoliant and/or facial clay mask at least once every week.

As the body ages, skin cell renewal slows and elastin and collagen production also take a nose dive. This is when fine lines and wrinkles start to appear. The precise age at which this starts to happen depends on your genes and to a large extent on how well you've been caring for your skin; how much sun exposure your skin has been subjected to and how much exposure it has had to the elements and other environmental factors. Changing hormones also become a factor again during the 40's and 50's in most women.

Some people's skin looks 30 in their 70's and they did very little to make this happen - they are the very lucky and isolated ones. Most people find that as they get older the skin reflects this by showing its age too. This is where the effort of the past few decades will start to pay off, if you've been using a good quality, daily skin care regime, stayed out of the sun as much as possible, eat a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables, and generally looked after your body's health, your skin will reflect this also - you are what you eat and this truth starts to show itself in later years.

Bothering to take care of your skin is not just for preserving a youthful, healthy skin, but your skin's health will have a marked effect on your body's health. The skin is a major organ that has many important functions to perform and if we do not look after the health of our skin, this can result in other, more serious health problems.

Similarly, if you have health problems, these will be reflected on your skin. For example, liver problems can cause skin discolorations, as can kidney problems. The skin around the eyes is often tinged brown or black if there is liver or kidney disease. Jaundice is a well-known symptom of liver disease, for example hepatitis.

Chronic dehydration will lead to dry wrinkly skin; chronic inflammation or infection can cause hypersensitivity of the skin. Skin problems can result from a deficiency of vitamin A, niacin, vitamin C and many other nutrients including several amino acids, a deficiency in dietary minerals, and so on.

All the skin care products in the world will not make your skin look healthier or younger, if you do not look after and treat your internal health problems.

Danny Siegenthaler is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and together with his wife Susan, a medical herbalist and Aromatherapist, they have created wildcrafted.com.au Natural Skin Care Products by Wildcrafted Herbal Products to share their 40 years of combined expertise with you.

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? Wildcrafted Herbal Products 2007