Holistic Skin Care & Aging Tips: How to Maintain Healthy Skin as You Age

Dealing with skin issues may be one piece of the puzzle impacting your overall health and wellbeing. Working with a functional practitioner will help to address the root causes of your symptoms.

Focus on cellular healing

The ultimate goal is to reduce overall inflammation.

• Limit/remove retinol use (breaks skin barrier and disrupts skin microbiome), harsh exfoliants, + 24/7 sunscreen use: we need sunlight for Vitamin D, mood/mental health, immune system, respiratory tract, energy, skin health, bone health, etc)

The skin has it’s own microbiome that is disrupted by fragrance (disrupts skin barrier), parfum, & harmful inflammatory ingredients. Acids destroy skin microbiome and skin barrier. The skin is an organ.

Retinol, glycolic, acid treatments, resurfacing treatments, acid peels will damage the skin barrier, destroys skin microbiome, and causes inflammation of the skin.

Prioritize

1. Hydration
2. Nourishing and hydrating skin care: hyaluronic acid is instant, superficial hydration
3. Anti-inflammatory foods & lifestyle
4. Reduce chronic stress load
5. Exosomes
6. Telomerase activation
7. Nutrition/Diet
8. Sleep
9. Reduce pollution with indoor air filters
10. Support detoxification pathways with supplements like NAC, Glutathione, Sulforaphane, Taurine, or Butyrate
11. Consume liver supportive foods like broccoli sprouts, cruciferous vegetables, root vegetables, beets, artichokes, or turmeric
12. Take herbal support in the form of burdock, dandelion, milk thistle, licorice, reishi, skullcap, turmeric, or yellow dock
13. Limit EDCs (endocrine disrupting chemicals)

Pro tip: look at the ingredients and familiarize yourself with each of them. You don’t want to use ingredients/products that strip the skin barrier and disrupt the sensitive skin barrier of microorganisms.

Genetics (SNPs) play a role in anti-aging when its comes to telomere length and aging at a cellular level.

High quality skincare plays a role in balancing the skin microbiome & Maintaining a healthy skin barrier

What we put on our skin is just as important as how we care for our internal health. Make sure to invest in high quality skincare like a mineral-based sunscreen, moisturizer, retinol, toner, cleanser, and exfoliants as well as makeup products that do not contain endocrine disrupting chemicals. Many conventional skincare products contain harmful chemicals like parabens, phthalates, synthetic dyes, formaldehyde, and irritating fragrances which can lead to hormonal imbalances. Over time, these chemicals can accumulate in the body.

Mineral sunscreens typically use zinc oxide and/or titanium dioxide to physically block and reflect UVA (aging) and UVB (sunburn) rays from the skin.

Skincare Tips

1. Try to skip washing your face in the morning to avoid disrupting the delicate balance of microorganisms on our skin microbiome. Opt for washing your face in the evening only.

Skincare Product Recommendations

1. Dr. Sebaa’s Elixir: Facial Oil Serum

Additional Resources

Blog posts to refer back to:

1. Reduce Chronic Inflammation with Functional Nutrition: A Root Cause Approach
2. The Functional Nutrition Approach For Liver Health