Empower Your Skin Within Part One: Empower Your Skin With Antioxidants and Polyphenols

If you scroll through the Price Skincare blogs, you’ll find plenty of prevention tips for summer sun safety.

But did you know that there are healthy lifestyle habits that can empower your skin from within?

You can work these healthy lifestyle habits into your daily summer safety skin routine and bolster your skin’s natural defenses against the damage caused by harmful ultraviolet rays.

“Tips such as applying sunscreen, seeking shade during the sun’s hottest hours, and wearing protective clothing are the gold standard when it comes to a summer safety skin routine,” says Richard Price, M.D., of Price Skincare Clinic, Ridgeland, MS. “But when you work healthy lifestyle habits into your daily routine, you provide a strong foundation on which to build that healthy skin routine.”

In this three-part summer skincare series called, ‘Empower Your Skin Within’, we focus on three healthy lifestyle habits that should serve as the foundation of your daily skincare routine. Those habits include:
• Taking antioxidant-rich vitamins as well as eating an antioxidant-rich and polyphenol-rich diet.
• Maintaining a consistent and thorough hydration routine.
• And completing a regular evening skin recovery regimen

Each of these habits can play a unique role in protecting and nourishing your skin and help keep skin cancer, sunburns, wrinkles and aged skin at bay.

First up – the power of working antioxidants and polyphenols into your daily regimen.

Empower Your Skin Within: Antioxidants and Polyphenols
Free radicals – not the sun – are the real villain in this fight. Free radicals are unstable molecules produced by the sun’s ultraviolet rays. These are what damage skin cells and accelerate aging.
One of your greatest weapons against free radicals are taking the recommended daily doses of antioxidant vitamins as well as eating a diet rich in antioxidants and polyphenols.

Empower with Vitamins
Vitamins C and E are antioxidants that work by neutralizing free radicals, reducing the oxidative stress they cause and protecting the skin from damage such as premature wrinkles, discoloration, and loss of elasticity.

What’s the daily recommended does for these vitamins? For men the recommended dose for vitamin C is 90mg per day while for women it’s 75mg per day. (If you smoke, add another 35mg due to increased oxidative stress.)

The recommended daily dose for vitamin E is 15 mg. (Note: many skin supporting supplements contain between 100-400 mg. It’s best to consult your skincare doctor before taking higher doses.)

Empower with an Antioxidant-Rich Diet
In addition to these crucial vitamins, adding antioxidant-rich foods to your diet will help build up the skin’s internal defense system, making it more resilient to environmental stressors like pollution, UV light, and toxins.

Stock up on such antioxidant-rich foods as:
• Vitamin-C rich foods such as oranges and citrus fruits, strawberries, bell peppers and broccoli; and
• Vitamin E-rich foods such as almonds, avocados, spinach and olive oil.

Empower with a Polyphenol-Rich Diet
While you’re making that grocery store list, be sure to add polyphenol-rich foods (plant compounds) known for their anti-inflammatory and skin-rejuvenating properties.

These foods can help reduce redness, improve circulation and stimulate collagen production – all which will give your skin a firmer, more youthful appearance.
To help with that, keep these foods on hand:
• Blueberries, raspberries and blackberries
• Dark chocolate (70% cocoa or higher)
• Green and black tea; and
• Apples (with the peel)

It All Starts Here
When it comes to empowering your skin from within, it all starts with what you put into your body.

By taking the recommended daily doses of vitamins C and E and eating a colorful, nutrient-rich diet full of antioxidant and polyphenol-packed foods, you’re giving your skin the internal support it needs to fight sun damage, slow signs of aging, and glow with health.

It’s a simple, daily habit that helps other summer safety skin tips do an even better job of protecting your skin.

And remember, your first line of defense against the sun is an annual skin check performed by a trained skin health professional. If you haven’t had your annual skin check this year, call us at 601.992.3996 and we’ll schedule your appointment.