Lately, people pursue not only a younger-looking appearance but also a healthier mind and body even at the age of 100. Hence, Health KyungHyang, with the Korean Academy of Aesthetic Medicine, would like to introduce how to become more beautiful and healthy both inside and outside. From now on, this column will present the latest insights on vital appearance and a healthy body from the experts of the academic society. Please show a lot of interest. <Editor's note>
There’s a saying that a person’s personality appears on his/her face when reaches the age of over 40. It is because your face and countenance reveal your life history. The face after 40 is also a barometer of a person’s health.
Seven years of Danish twin research proved this in a study. The conclusion was that an identical twin who looks younger lives longer and healthier than the other. In other words, physical appearance, both a cause and effect of health, is as important as blood pressure and blood sugar.
According to my own experience of treating patients, appearance is an external revelation of vascular hormone immunity. Appearance is an essential asset to modern people. But basically, you shouldn’t only care about your face or skin, leaving your body health aside. Maybe you can maintain a youthful appearance for a while but can’t achieve a long-lasting beauty.
The precious, beautiful appearance appears when inner health and inner activity form a balance. There are various causes of skin aging due to the destruction of internal health. Active oxygen is known to be the main culprit behind skin aging. Therefore, stopping active oxygen should be done first.
Another enemy that threatens inner skin health is the lack of moisture. Lack of moisture in the body quickly results in the loss of skin regeneration and elasticity. I would like to emphasize the important health rule of drinking at least 2 liters of water a day if for elastic skin.
There are various factors that directly and indirectly affect skin aging: sunlight, excessive skin irritation, improperly washing the face, misuse of different chemical cosmetics, body wastes, irregular meals or malnutrition, and stress.
A tranquil mind and a low-stress life reduce hormone imbalance caused by stress hormones and bring positive effects on skin health.
If you want beautiful skin, take care of your physical body’s internal health. Let’s not make a frown or angry face. Although the skin itself does not lose elasticity, making faces leaves a print on your face, which eventually becomes wrinkles. Stress from negative emotions is also a significant cause of aging skin.
Instead, minimize harmful stimuli on your face and give a lot of good ones. A good stimulus is a facial massage that increases the elasticity of the skin. Learn the basic facial and neck massage and make sure to spend 10 minutes a day on it. Besides, work on maintaining basic health habits such as exercising continuously, maintaining an appropriate weight, controlling stress, and having enough sleep. Going on a diet frequently and irregular weight changes are the main culprits of reduced skin elasticity for hindering nutrition supply.
Also, eat food that helps promote collagen and elastin. While you look for food with a large amount of collagen, be careful since it is possible to have increased consumption of animal fat from beef leg bones, pork rinds, and etc. Studies show that marine collagen, which is abundant in shark fins and others, has a higher absorption rate in the body than animal collagen due to its low molecular weight. Plus, look for vitamin C, which helps absorb these substances.
Laughter works like a delicate facial massage from the skin specialists. When you laugh, at least 15 facial muscles move actively simultaneously. Laughing has a free massage effect. Bright laughter can be the secret of creating elastic skin by exercising almost all the facial muscles.
A research team from Osaka Medical School in Japan announced a 14 percent increase in natural killer cells(NK), which kill cancer cells. Another research team from Harvard Medical School found out that if you laugh for one to five minutes, the number of NK cells increase continuously for the next five to six hours.
Laughter doesn’t cause wrinkles but prevents it and skin aging for better skin health. Some medical scientists say that even if you laugh for ten more minutes a day, you can live two days healthier. To become a real beauty from now on, you should pay closer attention to taking care of internal health as well as physical appearances.
