Holistic skincare

In This Article

Taking a holistic approach to skincare
An over reliance on drugs
All ageing is cellular ageing
Our skin is the window to our cells
Internal factors affecting our cell health
External factors affecting our cell health

Radiant, healthy skin is something we all desire throughout our lives. How our skin looks will affect how we feel and our confidence and as a result of this, how we live our lives.

So what is the secret to achieving healthy skin? The skincare industry will tell you that the secret lies in a bottle. We believe that while skincare products can help you on your journey to glowing skin, they aren't the be all and end all.

Taking a holistic approach to skincare

There are many factors that affect the health of your skin, and holistic factors to skincare choices takes all of these factors into consideration. The food we eat, the quality of our sleep, and the skincare products we use will all have an affect on the health of our skin.

An over reliance on drugs

Within the skincare industry there is an over reliance on drugs. For every skin concern there is a drug that will supposedly cure the symptoms.

The problem is that many drugs will only address the symptoms and not the actual cause. In a lot of cases, administering the drug might help the symptoms go away, but as the cause of those symptoms hasn't been addressed there is a chance the symptoms will come back.

The holistic approach ensures all factors that impact skin are examined to find what the root cause is. For example, a breakout could be the result of an allergy to a food, a hormonal imbalance or even stress.

Once the cause has been found, actions can be put in place to address it, and it's symptoms. This is the holistic path to achieving healthy skin.

All ageing is cellular ageing

The health of your body is reliant on the health of your cells. What shows on the outside of our bodies with our skin, can often be a reflection of what’s going on inside our bodies.

Each and every one of our organs functions and behaves according to the quality of it’s cells. The quality of our heart is largely dependent on the quality of our heart cells, and our skin - the largest organ - is largely dependant on the quality of our skin cells.

Yet our heart and our skin don’t function in isolation, they also depend on blood cells, lung cells and many other types of cells. So as all of our cells contribute to our overall health, any effort we make to improve our skin cells will improve all of the cells within our bodies.

Our skin is the window to our cells

Skin is our only external organ and therefore it makes it possible for us to see the effect that ageing has on our cells.

In the same way, our skin can show underlying health conditions which need our attention.

Internal factors affecting our cell health

The less controllable internal factors that influence our cells are our genetics and our hormones.

Genes

Our genotype is the genetic makeup of our cells. It is essentially a blueprint for our cells that was handed down to us in our DNA from our parents. It determines lots of physical characteristics such as hair colour and skin type.

Hormones

These are the chemical messengers that our glands and organs send to our brain. Hormones are essential for a number of bodily functions, such as building new muscles and digesting food. As we get older, the amount of hormones our body produces changes, and so do the messages they send.

Changes in the levels of hormones can have a significant impact on cells and our skin. For example it can trigger acne during puberty, hyperpigmentation during pregnancy and dry skin during the menopause.

External factors affecting our cell health

There isn't much we can do to change our genes, and changing our hormones isn't always easy and takes time. The good news is that there are a lot of changes we can make to improve our lifestyle choices and environment.

Lifestyle

The way we chose to live our lives can greatly impact the quality and behaviour of our cells. Key lifestyle factors such as how much sleep and exercise we get and the amount of stress we endure, can make a big difference to how our cells behave.

You can learn more about the impact of sleep, exercise and stress in our chapter on wellness and lifestyle.

Nutrition

Our skin is built from the inside out and is dependent on being supplied the required nutrition in order to be able to produce healthy skin on a daily basis.

While we can’t stop the ageing process we can age better by giving our bodies the nutrients it needs.

Skincare

How we care for our skin can play a big role in how our skin cells change and grow. Using ingredients that are beneficial to our skin and don’t irritate or harm it is crucial.