Our skin can betray us... it can lie about our age by making us look older or younger. I don't know about you, but if my skin is going to lie, I want it to tell the world that I am ten years younger!
Learning about the skin is fascinating to me. The more I know about it and how it works, the more I want to take good care of it. Covering about two square yards, the skin is the largest organ of elimination. What does that mean? Let me help you picture it. If you took a regular doorway, a typical adult's skin would fill that entire area.
The skin has been nicknamed 'The third kidney', and it gets rid of over a pound of waste every single day. Chemical analyses have shown that sweat actually contains many of the same components as urine.
Much debate exists about whether the skin 'breathes' or not. Perhaps a better word for what it does is that it absorbs and releases…the skin absorbs oxygen and sunlight, then releases toxins and waste.
Juicing For the Skin
Every 28 to 35 days, the skin cells completely regenerate themselves. Just thinking about this is a tremendous motivator for me! Where do the raw materials for those new skin cells come from? Quite simply, those cells are essentially made from what we put in our mouths. What would your skin look like if you juiced every day for an entire month?
Just to give you a hand with this, I designed a juice recipe just for the skin!
Radiant Red Juice Recipe
- 4 carrots
- 1 small beet
- 1/2 cucumber
- 2 celery
- 1 inch of ginger
- 1 cup dandelion leaves (or 1 cup spinach if not available)
- 2 apples
- 2 leaves of kale (optional)
- 1 orange
Carrots contain antioxidants that help regenerate the skin as well as vitamin A.
Cucumbers are rich in silica, which helps rebuild the hair, nails and skin. Silica is a mineral that is abundant in nearly every cell of your body.
Celery contains sodium, which has been called a youth maintainer in the body. It's loaded with minerals and contains vitamin C as well, which helps maintain elasticity of the skin.
Ginger helps improve circulation to the skin. It is also a powerful cleansing agent that helps keep the skin free of blemishes.
Dandelion leaves support kidney function and are a great liver cleanser. This in turn, takes some of the burden off the skin so that waste matter does not have to come out through the pores.
Apples contain vitamins A and C which prevent sagging skin, as well as copper for brightening and toning.
Kale contains vitamins A, E, K, C and calcium, which fight free radicals leading to premature aging.
Oranges are rich in vitamin C, antioxidants and Vitamin A. These vitamins help strengthen the outer layers of the skin. They also contain B vitamins that can improve blood flow to the skin.
In addition to the ingredients in the above mentioned juice, I would like to recommend a few others as well: Beets, spinach, purple cabbage and red peppers are all excellent to juice for the skin. Pears contain enzymes that speed cell turnover. If you have an extra pear, throw it in the juicer!
Skin Brushing
Every minute, roughly 40,000 skin cells are shed. Each day, an entire layer of skin dies.
One of the things skin brushing does is to unclog the pores. When the pores are clogged, the skin cannot do it's job properly. It cannot absorb sunlight or moisturizers or any healthy oils the way it can when the pores are open. The skin is also hindered because it cannot release waste material as it was meant to do. Clearing the skin allows the liver and kidneys to do their job more efficiently by releasing uric acid and other waste material, thus lightening the work load on the other organs of elimination.
This works on the flip side as well. When the liver and kidneys are sluggish, waste material makes its way out through the skin. The skin is not a separate entity in and of itself. When you help the skin, you are helping other parts of the body as well.
My Favorite Things for the Skin...
A few years ago, someone gave me the best birthday gift ever! I have been in love with The Body Deli ever since. It is literally food for the skin, and I cannot recommend it enough. I use the body lotion or body cream every single morning from head to toe, then I do the exact same thing at night before I go to sleep. Over the years I have tried their different face washes, moisturizers, exfoliators and oils. I love it all!
There is not an ingredient in it that I cannot pronounce.
My favorite is their Tahitian Vanilla Hand/Body Lotion.
(I should also note that I'm not being paid to say this, I'm just a big fan of The Body Deli!)
Water
Our bodies are made up of roughly 60% water in the average adult. We need water to replenish what is used every day for the body to perform it's daily functions.
When we don't drink enough water, the body pulls water from the skin in order to maintain the concentration in your blood. This causes the skin to appear older, drier, and more wrinkled from dehydration.
Herbs for the Skin
- Aloe Vera - vitamins such as C and E are present in aloe vera and keep the skin firm and hydrated. Aloe vera gel an help stretch marks fade and also helps with skin inflammation and acne.
- Black walnut is an anti-fungal, anti bacterial herb that is used to help clear up skin conditions
- Mullein leaf - helps skin inflammation and makes the skin more pliable.
- Marshmallow root can smooth fine lines and heal nicks and cuts on the skin.
A product I use that contains all of these herbs and more is Dr. Christopher's Complete Tissue and Bone formula. It comes in pill form, which makes it very easy to use.
Foods rich in essential fatty acids
Some examples of these are:
- Walnuts
- Flax seeds
- Salmon and halibut
- Olive oil
- Avocado
Having healthy, beautiful skin does indeed take some effort. But I believe that it is worth every minute of what it takes to make that happen.
Dr. Bernard Jensen, one of the greatest natural healers of the last century, had this to say - and I couldn't agree more.
'You might as well make up your mind that you're going to spend one hour a day to take care of yourself, because no one else can do it for you.'