Monitoring Your Skin’s Health: A Window Into Your Overall Well-Being
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Monitoring the health of your skin can give you many insights into the health of your body
"We may have heard that from a holistic approach that the health of the body affects the health of the skin; however of even greater significance is the scientifically proven fact that the health of your skin affects the health of the rest of your body!"
The skin is full of what are called senescence cells; these are “zombie like” cells that are dysregulated and no longer able to divide. These cells are created over time by damaging effects to the skin mostly externally from UV and pollutants, and also from internal effects of lifestyle habits such as poor diet, medications, stress, smoking and lack of exercise.
Some of these senescence cells get cleared out of our body (in a healthy individual with healthy skin this works really well). Many of these senescence cells stay in the skin and they emit free radicals and cytokines (inflammatory markers).
Note that the highest concentration of senescence cells is in the skin! This makes sense since the skin is the largest organ in the body and on a daily basis is the only organ exposed to the environment.
This means that in unhealthy skin there is a large influx of free radicals being released into the rest of the body and this dramatically influences our overall health! So if you can lower the biological age of your skin cells, you are lowering the biological age of the rest of the body. Lowering the burden of senescence cells lowers the burden of the body. This is a proven Scientific Fact.
(Highly accurate skin specific methylome analysis algorithm as a platform to screen and validate therapeutics for healthy aging. M. Boroni, 2020).
The good news is that the Science of skin rejuvenation is promising. Our skin can be rejuvenated, it can be healthier and younger looking. The Scientific approach to take to heal the skin involves key strategic interventions that directly impact the expression of our DNA.
We have covered the topic of Epigenetics in past newsletters; recall that your health destiny is not your genetics but rather the expression of your genetics. What you do everyday from what you eat, how you think, if and how you move your body for example will determine which genes you ultimately express. When we create behaviours that stimulate (up regulate) our "good" genes we see rejuvenation in our cells and a lowering of our biological age. When we create behaviour that are deleterious to our cells, we up regulate the gene expression of our "bad" genes that leads to increasing the rate at which our cells age and this predisposes us to disease.
Here is a list of a few of my top recommendations to up regulate our longevity genes and optimize the health of our skin.
The biggest external factor affecting the health of our skin is exposure to UV rays. Wearing sunscreen daily is non-negotiable. Remember that the majority of UV rays penetrate glass so even sitting by a window or driving your vehicle adds up to time in the sun. Choose a mineral sunscreen preferably with a mineral concentration of 12% or greater.
Topically applied Vitamin A has been proven over and over to rejuvenate the skin by acting to recycle old proteins in the cell (known as Autophagy). Vitamin A must be properly dosed in order to ensure efficacy and avoid “retinoid reactions.” Vitamin A is proven to repair a compromised skin barrier and increase the growth of the epidermis. Vitamin A also down regulates that erratic behaviour of your skin's pigment producing cells, so this is a great molecule for targeting sun damage. Vitamin A also stimulates collagen and lowers the rate of collagen loss in the skin.
Follow a mediterranean diet low in sugars. This stimulates the longevity genes which helps repair broken DNA as well as clears out old DNA (the clearing out of senescence cells).
Exercise also stimulates out longevity genes; we need to exercise everyday!
These are recommendations that apply to everyone. However, there is no one size fits all approach to optimizing skin health. Above and beyond these recommendations, everyone’s treatment plan will vary since everyone will start with their own unique journey with skin health. Remember that your skin health is a cumulative journey, meaning that everything you have done in your life is remembered by your skin cells and ultimately has impacted your skin. This includes your healthy habits and your not so healthy habits.
If you want to learn more about the rate at which your skin is aging and what you can do to optimize the health of your skin book a complimentary functional health & wellness consultation using the link below.
Skin Rejuvenation is not about beauty. The skin does not function as an organ in and of itself. Rather skin rejuvenation is critical to optimizing overall health and wellness.
PS: Healthy skin is always beautiful!
Carmen Edwards, BSc, FNP Skin RNI