John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

After my morning shave I use a natural paraben-free antioxidant moisturiser which helps to nourish and hydrate skin and of course feels great.

The skin is our largest organ and has a surprising ability to absorb nutrients. If you do not believe the skin can absorb nutrients, you should go to www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=44529 which talks about the US military's idea of giving soldiers a micro-nutritional patch with up to 70 micronutrients to supplement their diets.

Despite all this I am amazed that people spend so much time, money and effort in trying to help their skin from the outside when the most effective skin nourishment is from the inside. In particular healthy skin needs to be supplied with the antioxidants, vitamins and minerals it needs through a network of tiny blood vessels in our skin.

If these tiny capillaries don't work properly our skin will suffer. Skin is largely collagen and needs good blood flow to deliver the collagen-protecting nutrients such as vitamin C and bioflavonoids.

If you want younger-looking skin, by all means look for good antioxidant-rich skin creams, but do not forget that ultimately the skin's health is determined by your intake of the nutrients that can protect and nourish it.

The first step to good skin is a plant rich diet and lots of clean water. Fresh fruits and vegetables are nature's store of anti-aging nutrients and no supplement can ever replace a good diet. There are, however, a number of beneficial skin nutrients that realistically can only be added in therapeutic amounts from supplements.

While all the antioxidants, all the vitamins and all the minerals each play a part in skin health my top four would be a high grade OPC rich grape seed extract at around 200mg daily. To this I would ensure a vitamin C intake of 1000mg, around 200mg of hesperidin and at least 200mg of natural vitamin E.

The OPC and vitamin C work together to help protect and renew skin collagen, while vitamin E is a fat soluble antioxidant, important for protecting the skin cell membranes. These should all be in any good multi-nutritional supplement.

My advice is to certainly have a good external skin care regime, but do not forget that skin health is ultimately determined by our intake of important micronutrients.

John Arts is the founder of Abundant Health. For product information
visit www.abundant.co.nz If you have questions or would like a free health plan you can contact John at john@johnarts.co.nz or phone 07 578 9051 or 0800 423 559. You can join his newsletter at www.johnarts.co.nz
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