Monday, September 28, 2009

Anti-aging Skin Care: Vitamin E slow’s down the Aging process and keeps you looking Younger Longer


For anti-aging purposes, Vitamin E is essential to slow down the aging process, although it won’t reverse the effects of aging. Taken as a daily supplement, especially if you’re over your mid 30’s, will, inter alia, assist in your anti-aging skin care routine.

Our bodies produce free radicals and anti-oxidants on a continuous basis. As we grow older, we produce more free radicals, and less anti-oxidants. Free radicals are like rust to metal. Utra violet light, pollutants, and smoke produce free radicals which cause oxidation to skin cells, and the degeneration of internal organs. Anti-oxidants, on the other hand, fight and prevent free radicals from harm to body tissue at the cellular level.

Vitamin E contains powerful anti-oxidants which can be obtained from diet. Foods including broccoli, almonds, blackberries, bananas, apples, kiwi fruit, sunflower seeds, peanuts, Brazil nuts, pine nuts, avocadoes, spinach, and leafy green vegetables are rich sources of Vitamin E. However, many people are Vitamin E deficient because they cannot receive their full RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) from diet alone. So an oral supplement might be necessary. For adults, a normal daily intake of 10 to 30IU of Vitamin E is recommended, and 200IU to 400IU for anti-aging purposes.

Other than anti-aging skin care benefits, Vitamin E boost immunity levels, reduces hot flashes in menopausal women, thwarts arthritis, fights cancer and heart disease. A topical solution of Vitamin E cream applied to the skin reduces wrinkles, heals minor cuts and abrasions without leaving scars. A Vitamin E cream heals, seals, and soothes broken and stressed skin tissue.

Too much Vitamin E taken daily can do you harm, so try not to ingest more than 400IU per day. If consumed excessively, it can cause hemorrhaging and disrupt blood coagulation, and also interfere with certain medications. So if in doubt, consult your physician.

Ingested with care by not exceeding 400IU per day, Vitamin E will definitely benefit your anti-aging skin care efforts, and help you in many other ways. Applied topically, it will reduce wrinkles and help heal broken skin.

Wendy Wilken is the author of “Facelift Without Surgery” and also a practitioner of natural anti-aging skin care techniques. She spends her free time researching and writing about anti-aging and non-surgical facelifts. See her other products too.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Non-Surgical Facelifts: Why Facial Acupressure can make you look years younger

As a form of non-surgical facelift, a program of acupressure applied to twenty different parts of the face, neck, hands, and arms can make you look years younger in as little as a month. There are many benefits one can derive from this form of massage, inter alia, looking younger, improved blood circulation, and better performance of certain internal organs.

By applying pressure via certain circular motions to thirteen nodal energy points on the face, one chin slap, two neck points, two hand points, and two arm points, on a daily basis for the first 30 days, and then 2 to 3 times a week thereafter for maintenance, you would have accomplished a DIY non-surgical facelift. This will result in your face looking a great deal younger and refreshed than before you started the natural facelift program.

The wrinkles and lines you had before will be smoothed out or would have disappeared; the eye bags and puffiness around your eyes will have become lesser, the skin on your face will have lifted, and you will have new color to your cheeks and rest of your face. A free, non-invasive facelift at the control of your own fingertips!

But how and why does facial acupressure work as a form of natural facelift?

• The body has a complex network of nodal points and energy channels between these points called meridians. The Chinese call this “Chi” and the Japanese call this “Ki”

• Each point correlates to another part of the body, and if stimulated via acupuncture or acupressure, it treats that part of the body.

• When the nodal points are stimulated via acupressure, an electrical charge is sent through the meridians, thereby healing and unblocking the body’s energy channels, and also the nodal point itself.

• If acupressure is applied starting from the head, downwards to the face, neck, arms and hands in a specific order and on the particular points, the energy points are opened, the energy lines are stimulated, there is a rejuvenation of blood flow from top to bottom, and the skin and underlying tissue will be re-energized.

• Because the skin and underlying tissue is stimulated, blood flow is increased, which means that the much needed nourishment is fed to the areas massaged resulting in the re-growth of the skin cells. This stops sagging, reverses skin wrinkling, increases skin elasticity, better skin texture, and adds extra glow and color to the skin.

• The underlying tissue at the place of the acupressure points is plumped up over the time, which fills the face, resulting in a younger looking face where the skin is now taut instead of loose.

Other parts of the body also benefit from facial acupressure e.g. the spleen, liver, sinuses, and digestive system.

Results between patients vary, depending on how early in life they start with a non-surgical facelift acupressure program, and also how committed they are to the program. The more you apply the routines, the better the result. All will benefit in some way, though.

These are the basics behind how and why a non-surgical facelift conducted with facial acupressure is so effective and can result in you looking years younger in a space of a month. A non-invasive facelift is more effective than a surgical facelift because you can apply the massage to the points as often as possible, keep your natural facelift under your control, and can enjoy permanent benefits. It's better than the surgeon’s knife with only temporary results!

Wendy Wilken is the renown author of Facelift Without Surgery and a practitioner of natural anti-aging techniques. See her other products too.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Anti-Aging Skin Care: How to protect your Skin from the Sun and repair Sun Damage



One of the most important things you can do in anti-aging skin care is to try and stay out of the sun. Due to carbon emissions over the past two centuries, the ozone layer has become a lot thinner, resulting in increased dangerous sun ultra-violet (UV) light radiation which causes serious harm to the skin, especially to light-skinned people, and those that enjoy basking in the sun.

People with lighter skin are more prone to skin sun damage than their darker skinned counterparts because they have less melanin, which is the first line of defense against the sun. Melanin in the skin absorbs the UV rays to protect itself.

Try stay out of the sun’s menacing rays between 10am and 2pm. If you’re going out into the sunshine for prolonged periods of time, use a good sun block with at least 15 SPF. The higher the SPF number, the better. If you’re going into the water, it is advisable to apply a water-resistant sun block so that it protects the skin in and out of the water. Even if you don’t deliberately tan in the sun, it is still advisable to protect yourself from its rays as much as possible. Anti-aging skin care is foremost!

Exposure to the sun’s UV rays can cause wrinkling, permanent dryness of the skin which causes premature aging, loss of elastin and collagen (which keeps the skin moist, young, healthy, and stretchable), and in the worst scenario, skin cancer in the form of melanoma. Sun damage often results in the DNA of the skin cells to become damaged resulting in the thickening and thinning of the skin in the healing process. Each time the skin cells heal from sun damage, the dead skin peels off, and doesn’t heal back in the same state as they originally were. This is how wrinkles develop. In extreme cases, cancer can develop in the regeneration process of these damaged skin cells.


Some solutions to repair or reverse sun damage are:
  • Topical application (in the form of a cream or ointment) of green tea and Vitamin C helps protect and heal the skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays.
  • Topical applications of Retin A, Glycolic Acid, or Lactic Acid applied to the skin after being sun burnt will result in exfoliation of the skin, assist with the healing process in repairing the damaged cells, and prevent future damage from UV radiation.
  • One can also undergo intense light-pulse laser treatment that can reverse the effects of sun damage.
  • Visit a dermatologist periodically to check for cancerous growths or tender areas where the skin has been damaged. Light-skinned people should be extra vigilant.
The best anti-aging skin care treatment against the sun is avoidance. Don’t expose yourself to excessive quantities of harmful ultra-violet sun rays, use sun blocks, and apply certain topical solutions to assist in the skin repair process. Don’t let it get to treatment phases: prevention is the key word here.

Wendy Wilken is the renown author of "Facelift Without Surgery" and a practitioner of holistic anti-aging skin care techniques. See her other products too.




Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Anti-Aging Skin Care: The Three Main Anti-Aging Skin Care Classifications

Anti-aging skin care should be a process, and not a reaction to years of sun damage or neglect. Anti-aging should be practiced in a preventative and proactive manner as opposed to reactively, albeit that it's never too late to begin an anti-aging skin care program.

If you consistently apply the correct anti-aging techniques in the correct combination over a period of time, the results will soon be noticed by yourself and others, and will encourage you to continue the process, thereby giving you the affirmations and confidence indicative that you're on the right path to looking younger.

To simplify, there are 3 main classifications of holistic anti-aging skincare to looking younger:

Avoidance:
• Don't lie in the sun tanning for hours on end especially during the sun's zenith (11am to 2pm). If you ever do decide to tan, do it in short intervals, never more than an hour at a time. Additionally, use a good waterproof sun block cream on your body and especially your face. The harmful UV rays of the sun dries the skin and damages the skin's cells and collagen, and can result in permanent damage to the DNA structure in the skin cells.


• Refrain from excessive alcohol intake, illegal narcotic usage, and reduce or halt smoking and sugar consumption. These substances damage the skin over long periods of time, and cause you to look prematurely older than your years.

• Limit intake of prescription drugs, excessive use of pain killers. If you think that because certain medications or painkillers can be bought off the shelf or via a prescription from a medical practitioner, that they are harmless, think again! These can be just as addictive and harmful to the skin and body as illegal narcotics.




Oral ingestion (By mouth):
• Take vitamin supplements, inter alia, Vitamin A, C, E, Zinc and Folic Acid. These are all good for the skin, help repair skin cell damage, and assist with collagen levels.
• Eat as much fresh fruits and vegetables as possible, especially foods that contain the Omega 3 and Omega 6 EFA’s (Essential Fatty Acids). Examples of foods that contain Omega 3 are oily fish (herring, sardines, salmon, and mackerel), walnuts, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, soybean oil, Brazil nuts, and pumpkin seeds. Examples of foods that contain Omega 6 are olives, avocados, most nut types, and most leafy green vegetables. The ideal ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 EFA's in your diet should be 2:1. The Mediterranean diet is an ideal example of how this ratio is typically balanced.


Topical applications or solutions (On the skin):
• Face masks, creams or moisturizers that contain Vitamin A, E, avocado, and jojoba are excellent for anti-aging skin care. Almond oil or the Vitamin E oil squeezed out of a capsule and applied to the skin is excellent to stave off, and treat wrinkles and lines.


• Undergo laser treatment of facial crinkles and wrinkles, crow’s feet, eye bags, and of course, let's not forget Botox treatments.

• Acupressure applied to various parts of the face, neck, arms and hands as means to a DIY non-surgical facelift is becoming increasingly popular these days. It entails using your own fingertips to apply pressure to 20 acupressure points mostly on the face, one minute on each point, and it can result in you looking years younger within a month or so. You are in control of your own facelift, and you can literally watch the skin firm and the face lines, eye bags, crow’s feet and wrinkles melt before your eyes.

Avoidance, oral ingestion, or topical solutions will stave off, or reverse the signs of aging. My advice would be to apply all 3 of these methods. As was mentioned earlier, it's never too late to start anti-aging skin care. Do it as a way of life, and as a process that filters through your day-to-day living, and you will be well on your way to looking younger than your years over time!

Wendy Wilken is the renown author of Facelift Without Surgery and a practitioner of natural anti-aging techniques. See her other products too.





Sunday, September 13, 2009

Anti-Aging Skin Care: The effects of Vitamin A in retaining a Youthful Appearance

Vitamin A should definitely be used in your armory of anti-aging skin care weapons. It is well known that Vitamin A has anti-aging properties, so if you ingest it as a supplement, or in its organic form e.g. as a vegetable or fruit, it will benefit you, so long as it's used in correct quantities. Vitamin A is also sold by the cosmetic industry in the form of topical skin creams which feature Vitamin A derivatives in the form of retinoid and retinol that aids skin cell replacement.


Foods that are colored dark green, yellow, or orange are generally known to be a good source of Vitamin A which is known as beta-carotene. Foods that are rich in Vitamin A include carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, green, red, and yellow peppers, spinach, winter squash, apricots, cantaloupe, mango, liver, eggs, and broccoli.

5 000 IU (International Units) for pregnant women and 10 000 IU, on average, for all adults is the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance). Any Vitamin A derived from fresh fruits and vegetables cannot be ingested in dangerous quantities. However, it is advised that Vitamin A ingested in the form of supplements must not exceed the RDA; otherwise it can be very harmful and even fatal. Please be advised that the information supplied in this blog posting must not be construed as medical advice; intake of Vitamin A should be controlled by a medical practitioner.

As an anti-aging medium, Vitamin A used topically on the skin can increase the collagen levels, thereby making your skin feel smooth and soft. As it boosts your skin's collagen levels, the elasticity and stretchability of the skin improves. Certain topical Vitamin A creams will also reduce wrinkles, fine lines and photo aging symptoms e.g. Brown blemishes and spots that appear on your skin during your 30's and 40's, a legacy left from the tanning years.
Other benefits of Vitamin A creams which contain retinoid, retinol, or tretinoin are overall skin thickness, improved hydration, better skin tone; they also diminish wrinkles, lines, acne, and bad pigmentation.
So if you're aiming to look younger, use Vitamin A as an oral supplement, and also apply a Vitamin A skin topical cream once per day, preferably at night. Please remember not to overdo it as Vitamin A accumulates in the body and is not easily flushed out by the liver or urine like other vitamins.

Wendy Wilken is the author of “Facelift Without Surgery” and also a practitioner of natural anti-aging techniques. She spends her free time researching and writing about anti-aging and non-surgical facelifts. See her other products too.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Non-Surgical Facelifts Position 1: Using Acupressure to Look Younger


So, you want to look younger without surgery? You want to conduct your own non-invasive facelift, or non-surgical facelift. Utilizing your fingertips instead of going to the surgeon to look younger is often a much better idea than undergoing the knife in many respects. Here we examine the first of 20 acupressure points (and will write many articles on this subject) that will make you look younger.

To start your non-surgical, natural facelift, point both of your forefingers skyward(Like you are pretending that your forefingers are gun barrels) and place the tips of them onto the skin just under the hairline. The tips of your forefingers must be just in line with the pupils of your eyes.

Now make small inward circles with your fingertips(the fingertips should be moving towards each other when making the circles). Do not press too hard so as to make indentations in the skin. Massage as directed for at least 1 minute.(You can do this for as long as you wish).

This acupressure point is called Mei Jung. It opens the flow of energy into your face, and the thin muscles in the vicinity of your fingertips will be energized so that you will experience increased blood flow to the surrounding skin and tissue. This will treat the wrinkles and lines on your forehead. Continuous massaging of this area over a period of time, will cause your lines and wrinkles to diminish and soften, or even disappear.

There are other advantages too: This acupressure point relieves headaches, and sits astride the meridian lines of the gall bladder and the liver, which will ultimately benefit these organs. You might experience a pleasant tingling sensation in your abdomen whilst you perform this exercise on these points.

Acupressure as a means to a non-surgical facelift is very effective, and with time you should see the lines begin to smooth on the forehead as long as you apply the massage to the area for at lease one minute per day for the first 30 days, and apply the massage for 2-3 times a week there after, to maintain your progress.

Wendy Wilken is the author of “Facelift Without Surgery” and also a practitioner of natural anti-aging techniques. She spends her free time researching and writing about anti-aging and non-surgical facelifts. See her other products too.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009


Anti-Aging Skin Care: Looking younger with Red Wine

If you’re into anti-aging skin care, then perhaps you need to ask: Can drinking red wine really make you look younger? There are some ingredients in red wine which are derived from the red grape pip and skin that would suggest so. Let’s take a closer look at the properties of red wine and whether its consumption will benefit skin care and your anti-aging regimen.

Many people only concentrate on the outside to look younger e.g. Face creams, ointments, non-surgical facelift techniques etc, but the battle to look younger often is fought from within as well as without. In this case we look at the intake of red wine as a natural anti-aging remedy.

In the red wine fermentation process, resveratrol is produced, which has a high concentration of anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants fight free radicals like pollution, sun damage to the skin, and damage to the skin and body caused from smoking etc.

Maybe that’s why in scientific studies conducted between the Americans and the French have concluded that the French are generally far healthier than their American counterparts. While both consume high fat diets, scientists found that French people live longer , have less cancer-related illnesses, heart problems, have longer longevity, and look younger for their age. What is the common denominator that’s consistently present in the French diet, but mostly absent in the American diet? You guessed it: Red wine!

Scientists have discovered that indeed the ingredient resveratrol has anti-aging properties, and can result in humans looking younger than their age with prolonged intake of red wine. Most of the oldest people on earth come from France!

Other than its anti-aging skin care properties, what are some other benefits of consuming red wine on a regular basis?

1. It prevents heart disease

2. It prevents cancer
3. It controls cholesterol levels as well as blood pressure

4. It aids overall health and blood circulation

5. It even fights obesity

6. It prevents, inter alia, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s.

So does white wine act as a similar anti-aging weapon? Studies prove not. Unfortunately the white grape does not consist of the same anti-aging properties as the red grape, so you will not gain any benefits from drinking white wine from an anti-aging point of view.

Remember, the deeper the RED of the wine, the better. A chilled sweet or semi-sweet red wine is my preference; a dry red at room temperature could be yours. As long as it’s a deep red, your anti-aging skin care program will be on track!

For those who don't or can't consume alcohol, resveratrol can be taken in a pill form. I suggest 500mg per day.

For those that drink it in the alcohol form, beware: drink a maximum of ONE OR TWO WINE glasses of red wine per day. More than that will have the opposite effect on your anti-aging skin care efforts because excessive alcohol damages the skin and has malevolent effects on the liver over time.

So bottoms up for drinking red wine as an anti-aging medicine! It’s deliciously good and will keep you living longer and looking younger as well as handing you a long line of health benefits, provided it’s consumed in moderate quantities.

Wendy Wilken is the renown author of Facelift Without Surgery and a proponent of holistic anti-aging techniques. See her other products too.