anti aging

These days there is a million beauty products you can buy that are targeted to anti-aging.   But the secret is that how you look on the outside is a reflection of what’s going on inside and what you put into your body.  What we look like on the outside is the result of damaged proteins. So, the more damaged proteins the older you will look.

The first thing we need to look at are AGE’s – advanced glycation end products.  These are combinations of a sugar molecule with a protein molecule. So, if you take sugar and protein and heat them up, you end up with AGE’s. These are proteins that are now damaged and unavailable, and they can create a lot of problems throughout the body, but they can also make you look really old.  Another example is a combination of sugar and fat, for example, ice cream, you’re basically eating glucose, lactose, sugar with milk proteins. This a product that is loaded with these AGE’s. Another one would be BBQ ribs, a combination of protein and a high sugar sauce and you heat it. When someone consumes BBQ ribs, they might notice about an hour later that their body is sluggish, or they have a lot of sinus issues. If you drink soda, you’re consuming sugar and caramel colouring.  Not only will you have the production of AGE’s, but all the sugar in your body, with the temperature of 98.6, is going to combine with your own blood proteins for example and other proteins and create damaged protein. In fact, when you get your A1C tested, you’re measuring the accumulation of excess glucose in your bloodstream over a period of three months. So, when you get your A1C and its high, it just tells us how much glycation is going on in your red blood cells. It should be in the lower 5’s.  If it’s higher then you’re blood is exposed to a lot of sugar creating glycation and that protein now is damaged and it’s going to cause a lot of damage. French fries, another example, starch which is essentially glucose molecules stuck together and then deep fried. So, we have fat plus the starch, deep fried, it equals a tremendous amount of AGE’s.

How to Get Rid of AGE’S

A process called autophagy, is like an oven that can cook and breakdown AGE’s – damaged proteins and old proteins as in, old skin cells and it repurposes these proteins. Autophagy contains the word ‘auto’ meaning self and ‘phagy’ meaning eating. So, your body is eating its own proteins, in a way it’s repurposing or recycling old, damaged proteins and making new ones. This condition is good for old, wrinkled skin and it’s an essential anti-aging.  The best way to get into autophagy is through fasting.

More Ways to Look Youthful

Another recommendation for youthful skin  and anti-aging is to get a certain amount of sun but just make it’s a moderate amount of exposure. There’s certain types of light frequencies or wavelengths like infrared that tend to buffer the damaging effect of UV light. The benefit of infrared wavelengths can be extremely useful to looking youthful because it’s going to generate a lot of melatonin. Melatonin is not all about sleep it’s also an antioxidant which gets rid of free radical damage by all of your cells.

Our environment is just filled with chemicals, poisons, drugs, etc that cause us to age faster. It’s just really hard to avoid that but thankfully we have our liver that can dismantle these poisons. It can detoxify heavy metals, pesticides, insecticides, pollution, chemicals in your in the water, chemicals in the food. The liver is part of phase one phase two detoxification. Your liver has certain enzymes that can be boosted with certain foods to help get rid of poisons. So, an important part of looking youthful is having a healthy liver. If your liver is cirrhotic, fatty, or inflamed you’re going to look older.  There are foods you can eat to strengthen your liver. Cruciferous vegetables have certain phytonutrients that can boost your natural enzymes to help phase one phase two detoxification. Vegetables have antioxidants that help act as a scavenger or a sponge to clean up free radical damage that’s occurring due to inflammation, chemicals, heavy metals etc.  So, as you add more cruciferous vegetables like kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, you are going to create a healthy liver. Also, it’s important to remember that a youthful look has to be created continually.

You also need bile to help eliminate these toxins. It’s very important for that youthful look not just in the elimination of toxic waste but also in the extraction of fat-soluble vitamins A, E and D and Omega-3 fatty acids which you need for anti-aging.  All these fat-soluble compounds are what you need to make the skin look youthful and are dependent on bile. So, if you do not have enough bile because of various reasons for example, a fatty liver or you’re on a low-fat diet, or you have gallstones and you have to remove your gallbladder.  Bile deficiency will cause you to end up with a deficiency of the fat-soluble vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids, all the things that you really need to look youthful. Therefore a combination of enough bile and consuming enough fat to get these fat-soluble vitamins are really necessary to have that youthful look.

What Kind of Foods to Eat?

•  Salmon is amazing for omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential as anti-inflammatories and counter all the Omega six fatty acids that are also in our diet like the corn oil, canola soy oil, cotton seed oil.
•  Egg yolks have a lot of good vitamin A. Choline in egg yolks is great for a fatty liver and helps regulate cholesterol as does the Lecithin in the yolks. Also, you need foods high in cholesterol to build healthy membranes in your cells, to build healthy sex hormones that make your skin look youthful like testosterone and estrogen. Butter (grass-fed) can give you a lot of vitamin A.
• The best source of Vitamin E is sunflower seeds but it’s also in the leafy greens, nuts and vegetables.
• Another good oil would be cod liver oil because it has vitamin D, A, and omega-3 fatty acids.
• Beef liver and other organ meats are loaded with these fat-soluble vitamins.
• Extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil is good for your skin.  In other words, you don’t want to go low fat.

We talked earlier about antioxidants in foods, but your own body has antioxidant networks which increase when you exercise, and when you fast. So, fasting helps you with about every aspect of looking youthful.

Your microbiome – your microbes in your gut help make fat fatty acids called short chain fatty acids which are very important in controlling blood sugars, and in getting rid of insulin.  They also make B vitamins that help your immune system and decrease inflammation. On top of that they make secondary bile which is also very important in the extraction of the fat-soluble vitamins. So having a really good microbiome is so essential in that youthful look. The best foods for establishing this microbiome is fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, pickles and other fermented vegetables. They are very important because they give you the prebiotics and probiotics at the same time.

Things to Change

Consuming a high carb diet is probably the fastest way to look older because sugar is like rust, it oxidizes everywhere in your body including your skin.  And every time you consume glucose you also at the same time block vitamin C, an enormously powerful antioxidant. You’re also depleting other antioxidants from your body when you consume sugar like vitamin B1.

Stress puts your body into two situations. First, your body is now tapping into glucose as fuel and it’s turning things into glucose.  So even though you may be off carbs, your body is still consuming carbs. Secondly, it is creating a catabolic or breakdown affect of proteins. Minimizing stress has many positive affects on the mind and body, including your skin.

Silvana Morelli

As a retired registered massage therapist, I’ve always been interested in health.  I grew up loving sports so that carried into my adult life in my chosen career paths and in my personal life. I now stay active with weight training, hiking and biking. My professional life has always been in health care. This has inspired me to seek out and adopt a life of natural health and wellness.