How to Protect Your Skin as You Age

Did you know that the average American woman spends about $300,000 on skin and beauty products in her lifetime?

We all want to look and feel younger, with healthier looking skin because let’s face it. Your outside appearance is one of your most noticeable attributes.

However, the problem is most anti-aging serums and products do not address the root of the problem. The real issue, and what should be a great concern for both women and men alike, is accelerated aging.

Most accelerated aging is primarily a result of chronic inflammation in the body, which is driven by oxidative stress.

The good news is that that the major contributing factors to accelerated-aging and aging disorders are somewhat controllable and can be mitigated by lifestyle, food choices, and the way we handle stress.

All of which can help minimize body inflammation caused by free radicals.

You may have heard the term free radicals, and that we should avoid them.

Technically speaking, here’s what free radicals are any atom or molecule that is missing an electron in its outer shell that attacks and destroys other healthy atoms to get the electron it’s missing.

These free radicals start to accumulate as we age and leave cells damaged through a process called oxidative stress. When left unchecked, this is what causes accelerated aging.

Accelerated aging from oxidative stress damages the collagen in our skin, especially in the face.

It is caused by a number of things, including:

✦ Excessive Sun Exposure

✦ Environmental Elements
✦ Smog
✦ Bad Diets
✦ Sugary foods
✦ Poor Sleep
✦ Alcohol✦ Cigarette Smoke

All of these factors are a skin-aging recipe. No wonder we are spending so much on skin and beauty products!

Skin damage caused by oxidative stress can include:

☛ Brown Spots
☛ Broken Blood Vessels
☛ Weakened Skin
☛ Loss of Skin Elasticity
☛ Wrinkles
☛ Uneven Blotches
☛ Blemishes

While the effects above are concerning, there are things you can do to minimize accelerated aging and oxidative stress on your skin, face, and body.

Squashing Free Radicals

One way to help squash free radicals and oxidative stress that give way to accelerated aging is getting more antioxidants!

Antioxidants are compounds that give an electron to a free radical so that the free radical doesn’t have to take the electron from the skin’s atoms.

Antioxidants assist in protecting and promoting the building blocks of collagen, but since antioxidants are destroyed and oxidized in the process, you have to keep feeding the body and skin fresh antioxidants to keep up with the free-radical damage.

Sound simple enough?

Well, in theory, reaching for antioxidant-rich foods such as berries, artichokes, herbs, spices and green teas that also include vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E and can be a great idea, but it is just too difficult to get all the antioxidants you need to prevent free radical damage from food alone.

Luckily, there is a much better way!

The number one free radical fighting supplement you can take is curcumin. If you haven’t heard about curcumin, it’s the amazing healing compound found in the turmeric root.

Antioxidant-rich, it’s a fantastic daily supplement for fighting inflammation that helps improve cellular health and helps reverse oxidative stress to prevent accelerated aging. It’s also great for managing your joint, digestive, brain, immune, and heart health, too.

If you’re spending money on anti-aging products and still seeing the signs of accelerated aging creeping in, then try adding a high-quality curcumin supplement to your daily routine today!

Enhance Your Emotional Wellness with Oriental Medicine

The upcoming holiday season (yes, it all begins around Halloween) can be filled with a dizzying array of demands, visitors, travel and frantic shopping trips. For many people, it is also a time filled with sadness, self-reflection, loneliness, and anxiety.

Compound the usual seasonal pressures with economic strain, and you may find this to be one of the most emotionally trying times of the year.

At some point in life, everyone deals with major upheavals or emotional distress. These events can trigger a host of unexpected feelings and behaviors, from depression and panic attacks to major disruptions in sleep and eating.

Acupuncture and Oriental medicine can alleviate symptoms associated with mental and emotional health issues by treating the root cause of the problem to help restore balance to the body's internal environment.

Mental health disorders are medical conditions that can disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, and ability to cope with the daily demands of life or relate well to others.

Affecting people of any age, race, religion, or income, mental health issues are more common than you might think.

In fact, experts estimate that a significant number of people report symptoms that indicate sufficient qualifying criteria of a mental disorder. Some mental disorders are less severe and can be easily managed with proper treatment.

Mental illnesses that are more serious and require more extensive treatment includes

✾ major depression
✾ schizophrenia
✾ bipolar disorder
✾ obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
✾ panic disorder
✾ post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
✾ borderline personality disorder.

From an Oriental medicine perspective

Mental health disorders can cause a disruption in the flow of vital energy, or Qi, through the body.

These energetic imbalances can throw off the immune system causing

✾ pain
✾sleep disturbances
✾abnormal digestion
✾headaches
✾menstrual irregularities
✾ over time, more serious illnesses

Acupuncture treatments can correct these imbalances and directly affect the way your body manages your mental health.

Oriental medicine does not recognize any mental disorder as one particular syndrome. Instead, it aims to treat the specific symptoms that are unique to each individual, using a variety of techniques including acupuncture, lifestyle/dietary recommendations and exercises to restore imbalances found in the body.

Therefore, if 100 patients are treated with acupuncture and Oriental medicine for anxiety, each of those 100 people will receive a unique, customized treatment with different acupuncture points, and different lifestyle and diet recommendations.

Mental health issues are best managed when health professionals work together to meet the unique needs of each individual. Acupuncture is an excellent addition to any treatment plan as it is used to help the body restore balance, treating the root of the disorder, while also diminishing symptoms.

Acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioners have the ability to detect energetic changes that occur in the body and relieve symptoms by restoring equilibrium.

The physical and emotional symptoms that you are experiencing will help create a clear picture for your practitioner, from which a treatment plan can be created specifically for you.

For more information, please visit: www.moveyourqi.com