According to research, a healthy lifestyle, together with a dose of your daily multi-vitamin can have terrific benefits which can greatly improve your skin (and your health). However, as we age, we tend to develop brown patches on our skin, which are often called “age spots”.
Having glowing skin is everything a girl wants. I mean,
who doesn’t want to have a flawless and blemish free complexion? The good news is, according to research, a healthy lifestyle, together with a dose of your daily multivitamin can have positive benefits that can greatly improve your skin (and your health, of course.). However, as we grow older, we tend to develop brown patches on our skin, which, are often called “age spots” or “liver spots”.
Age spots are caused by the accumulation of lipofuscin, a yellow pigment in the connective tissues of the body due to aging of the cells that produce collagen. Accumulated lipofuscin in the skin’s connective tissue results to these brown patches. The lipofuscin is probably the residue or remnant of molecules from damaged cells which were degraded incompletely.
As they always say, prevention is better than cure. The best thing to do in order to prevent age spots, as well as other problems of aging, is caring for the skin so as to avoid damaging the cells too much. The good news is, you need not go to expensive spas and beauty clinics to achieve a flawless look. You just need to look in your refrigerator for the everyday stuff that we eat. Why so? Because most of what we eat, especially if you’re a vegetarian, have a lot of antioxidants which helps in preventing free radicals (toxins and highly reactive molecules which destroy cellular compounds in our body) from damaging our cells.
Carotenes found in yellow vegetables have protective antioxidants while fruits and veggies have vitamins C and E which are also important in keeping our skin healthy. Wheatgerm has selenium, while blackberries, blueberries and cherries have flavonoids, both of which are crucial for skin health. Legumes, garlic, eggs and onions also have sulfur-containing amino acids which helps decrease cellular damage. Avoid eating too much grilled and fried foods; as these contain a lot of free radicals.
For those who already have age spots, there are natural remedies that can help minimize the appearance of brown spots in our skins.
Here are some of them:
• Try applying lemon cream on your face. Do not rinse the mask, instead, just wipe it off with a tissue then put some moisturizer afterwards.
• You can also apply lemon juice directly in the affected area (do not put any in your face if you have a very sensitive skin). Lemon juice acts as a bleaching agent that helps minimize these patches.
• You can try putting sour milk on your face, too, as lactic acid helps by gently peeling the skin without irritating it.
• Honey combined with a dash of wheat germ can also be applied to skin, after which should be washed off by warm water, followed by cold water to lock the moisture in.
• Olive oil can also be applied before going to bed to help lighten the spots.
These tips, however effective, should not be used with your make up on (of course!). You should also remember that not all of these will work for each person. It depends on your skin type. If you have sensitive skin, for example, you should never, (ever!) experiment without knowing the products that you’re allergic to.
