Just in time for November’s Healthy Skin month…
While the eyes are the window to our soul, our skin is a mirror to our physical and emotional wellbeing. Our general health, our nutrition, our lifestyle and our emotional state are all reflected in the way our skin looks. So, to achieve a glowing beautiful skin the first step is to do it from the inside out.

1. Emotional well-being is key to achieving that inner glow! So if you want to do something good for your skin, start with doing something good for your soul – do whatever makes you happy and relaxed, starting with good thoughts…

2. Wellness and beauty are two sides of the same coin, so take care of yourself by keeping a healthy and active lifestyle. Your physical well-being is the basis and reflects in the way you look.

3. Drink plenty of water to keep your skin hydrated. Also apply a topical moisturizer daily.

4. Healthy and diverse nutrition plays a key role in skin health and beauty. While many people are aware that an unhealthy diet is reflected in the skin, not everyone understands the direct link between healthy, diverse diet and its benefits to our skin wellness.

5. Natural phytonutrients from fruits and vegetables can support skin color and glow and provide the first line of defense against different environmental challenges our skin is coping with. They also help our skin detox by boosting the skin’s own protection against oxidative stress and inflammatory challenges, helping our skin age gracefully. For example, plant pigments called carotenoids are strong antioxidants with benefits to skin wellness and appearance. Moreover, their color spectrum can promote skin healthy and youthful appearance by affecting skin tone and color. Another important group of skin-wellness promoting antioxidants are the polyphenols from fruits and spices.

6. Eat the rainbow: a combination of different natural phytonutrients from fruits, vegetables and spices can work synergistically to provide better benefits, so a salad will indulge your skin way better than if you just stick to one type of fruit/vegetable. In general, the Mediterranean diet, rich in fruit, vegetables, spices, etc. was shown to possess benefits to overall wellness and specifically to skin wellness. Some key components of Mediterranean diet are tomatoes and olive oil, and importantly combining them allows better absorption of the active components from tomato which are oil soluble.
**If you feel you are not getting enough nourishment to your skin via your diet- consider supplementation with ingestible skin care products.

7. Protect yourself from that Texan sun: UV exposure is the number one preventable cause of skin aging, responsible for about 80% of facial skin aging! So, a sun smart lifestyle is important not only to our skin health but also its appearance.

8. A comprehensive sun-smart lifestyle should include the use of topical sun screens /protective clothing combined with inside out protection that allows 24/7 whole body protection. This complementary dietary approach can be optimized with natural antioxidants in healthy diet and further supported by supplementation.

Remember: Prevention is better than any cure: keeping a healthy lifestyle and effective beauty regimen now will be reflected in the way our skin looks both today and in 10 years. To age gracefully we need to nourish and protect our skin daily from the inside and out to allow the best foundation to skin beauty. It is always easier to maintain a youthful look than to reverse damage that was already caused.

Dr. Hermoni is the Lycored Nutrient Complex Manager at Lycored. She holds a PhD in biochemistry from Ben Gurion University in Israel, and her research has focused on the effects of phytonutrients and specifically tomato carotenoids on various aspects of human health. In addition to handling direct engagement with customers, from early stages to product launch, Dr. Hermoni plays an integral role in Lycored’s pre-clinical and clinical studies including planning specific trials, scientific writing, and publication.