The Public Broadcasting System will be airing a show titled Glorious Women Never Age starting on Feb. 28, 2015.
The show promises to demonstrate how to slow aging using a new science called epigenetics. The speaker will be Dr. Christiane Northrup. According to her website, Dr. Northrup “is a visionary pioneer and a leading authority in the field of women’s health and wellness, which includes the unity of mind, body, emotions, and spirit.”
Epigenetics, also known as Gene Expression, is the idea that your genes are influenced by your environment, diet, beliefs and behavior. And all of these are believed to affect how your genes express themselves.
While being in a pleasing environment and behaving according to your beliefs might be good therapy, having proof that it works before would be fantastic.
There’s nothing worse than putting time and energy into some method without getting results. However, when it comes to diet, there are scientific studies that have shown eating the right foods can help turn back the clock.
Imagine tapping into that ageless inner divinity inside you…by eating the right foods.
When one looks at the hard science behind aging, it becomes evident that a lack of collagen is the number one culprit for facial wrinkles and joint problems.
Collagen is a protein found in bones, tendons, and ligaments, and makes up approximately 30% of the proteins in the body. It’s the chief building block of connective tissues that also helps protect the skin, as well as being a main component of hair and nails.
Prevention magazine reported that Steffen Oesser, the founder of the Collagen Research Institute and coauthor of a study on collagen’s anti-aging effects stated that “If you lose the collagen structure in your bones, that’s osteoporosis, lose the collagen in skin, you get wrinkles.”
With age, collagen production slows and cell structures weaken. With less collagen, skin gets thinner and easier to damage. It starts to sag and wrinkle. Joints turn stiff, tendons and ligaments are less elastic, and hair becomes lifeless.
Collagen production can begin to decline in our 30s. Not surprisingly, collagen supplements are growing rapidly.
Yet there is no scientific evidence that anti-wrinkle creams work, even if they have collagen in them. That’s because when collagen in this “cream state,” it is to dense to penetrate the skin layers.
Most anti-wrinkle creams that contain collagen and elastin won’t do anything for you because the ingredients are structurally too dense to be absorbed through the skin.
However, a study conducted in August 2014 involving 69 women aged 35 to 55 that showed oral supplementation of collagen hydrolysate improved skin elasticity and moisture.
Collagen is a protein produced by our cells that helps “hold” the skin together, giving it firmness and elasticity. It’s your body’s natural skin tightener.
When we’re young, our skin stays plump and smooth because it constantly regenerates itself.
But as we age, collagen production slows – and existing collagen can get damaged due to sun exposure and bad skin habits. This results in wrinkles and sagging skin.
Luckily, there’s a few things you can eat to preserve your youth and keep the crow’s feet away.
Blueberries:
Ronald Prior, PhD, head of the USDA Phytochemical Laboratory at Tufts said, “If you want to slow down the free radical aging process, blueberries are the leader of the pack.”
Consuming more antioxidant-rich blueberries can help neutralize free radicals that could reduce collagen and make skin more wrinkle-prone.
Onions:
Onions are rich in quercetin, an antioxidant that protects against wrinkles. Studies show that it may save skin from harmful UVB rays, so add these veggies and soups, main dish meals, and even pizza.
Roasted Bell Peppers:
These bright colored veggies are a treat for your skin. That’s because they contain vast amounts of wrinkle-fighting vitamin C. A study in the UK showed that 4,025 women with higher Vitamin C intake had less wrinkling and dryness.
Collagen Supplements
Using collagen supplements can also be very beneficial for your skin and joints.
In order to feed the skin more collagen, you have to supply the collagen from within, as nature intended. Plus, unlike anti-wrinkle creams, collagen supplements go directly into the bloodstream, where they can absorbed and used.
There are at least 16 types of collagen, but 80 – 90 percent of the collagen in the body consists of types I, II, and III. Each type helps a specific part of your body.
Type I helps the skin, tendons, bones, ligaments, dentin (the tissue inside your teeth,) and certain tissues.
Type II helps improve the cartilage (that stuff holds your joints together).
Type III is similar to type I and also helps with cell cultures and fetal tissues.
In my diligent research, I was only able to locate one collagen supplement that had all three types of collagen in a powder form (fast faster and easier absorption), that also contained enough collagen to make a difference.
While many collagen supplements contain 1000mg of Type II collagen, Collagen Complete (a brand found on Amazon) has a whopping 10,000mg that include all three types of the age-reversing collagen.
Increasing your collagen intake and eating foods rich in certain nutrients can assist in keeping your joints healthy, and help maintain a youthful appearance.
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Sources
http://www.prevention.com/beauty/beauty/do-collagen-supplements-work-any-better-wrinkle-creams
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23949208
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0wzNyM8v-g
http://collagencomplete.com/skin
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Brett Allen
