The Best Anti Aging Skin Product

Before talking about the best anti aging skin product, for your skin, let's get some important and related background information. Let's consider your skin.

Is your skin an important body organ or simply a shrink warp to hold the rest of you in?

Actually, it is the largest organ of your body, weighing about six pounds and covering about 20 square feet. Most human skin is about 1.5-2 mm thick. It is thicker in areas like your palms and soles. Your skin is physiologically important for three main reasons, aside from holding you together:

1. It is a responsible for moving wastes such as sweat and carbon dioxide out of your body. It also moves some oxygen in and, if you expose your skin to them, harmful substances.
2. It is the first line of defense for your internal organs - it's often what gets hurt first.
3. While you can't judge a man's character by his skin you can judge his internal health. If your skin is dried, wrinkled, discolored, and generally unhealthy that indicates something about the state of your internal organs.

The Skinny on Skin

By the age of 70, you will have shed about 40 pounds of dead skin. Dead skin cells make up 75% of the dust in the typical home. One square inch of skin has:

• 65 hairs
• 90 oil glands
• 625 sweat glands
• 19 feet of blood vessels
• 19,000 sensory cells
• 19 million skin cells
• 20 million microscopic critters

Your Skin Anatomy

Skin consists of the outer epidermis and the inner dermis each of which have a number of sublayers. Generally forgotten (or by many, unknown) is the layer on the very surface known as the microbiome. This is turning out to be far more important than anyone ever imagined.

Most of us are aware of the vast numbers of bacteria that populate our digestive systems and are, in fact, very beneficial, if not vital, to our health. Similarly, the bacteria on your skin are essential to your skin's health, even your overall health. There are about 1000 species of bacteria normally found on the skin's surface or in hair follicles. Estimates are as high as 1 trillion bacteria living on the skin of the average person. There are some bad guys such as Staph and E. coli but the far more numerous beneficial bacteria normally hold them in check. Sometimes, however, pathogenic bacteria can cause skin diseases or get into the bloodstream and introduce disease. This can be caused by:

• A suppressed immune system
• Poor hygiene
• Overuse of antibacterial soap which encourages "superbugs"
• Washing in chlorinated water which can kill all the bacteria

Your skin microbiome is actually essential for good skin health and appearance - take care of it. Anything claiming to be the best anti aging skin product that does not take into account or that does harm to this living outer layer of your skin may not be the best in the long run.

Skin Health and Aging

Your skin ages much like the other organs in your body except that it is very visible for all to see. Protein degradation from the destructive effects of sugar and aldehydes combined with tissue dehydration leads to the shrinkage or atrophy of all organs over time. In the skin, this is seen as an already-thin organ becoming noticeably thinner. So what can you do about the health of your skin? There are a few factors that are especially important.

Factors for Healthy Skin

Correct hydration is extremely important for skin health and appearance. Applying water excessively to your skin from the outside however, will actually dry out the skin and damage the microbiome. Hydrating internally by drinking lots of water and avoiding diuretics such as coffee and alcohol is helpful. A chlorine filter for your shower (if your water is chlorinated) will help stop the chlorine from killing off beneficial bacteria on your skin.

Sun exposure is essential for good health especially for production of Vitamin D, but too much, especially burning, can severely damage the skin.

Smoking is one of the worst things for your skin. The skin of nicotine addicts at age 40 can resemble that of non-smokers decades older. While irreversible, this damage from free radicals can be minimized if you are using a good antioxidant while you do smoke. N-acetyl-cysteine especially protects from the damage of cigarette smoke.

Alcohol If you are concerned about the appearance of your skin, consider eliminating alcohol. Depending on the rates of consumption, alcohol can significantly age the skin by dilating small blood vessels and increasing blood flow near the skin's surface. Over time, these blood vessels keep enlarging, eventually causing destruction of collagen, loss of skin tone, and permanent red, blotchy areas. Continued dilation of blood vessels can lead to broken blood vessels near the skin's surface, especially in the facial area.

Hyaluronic acid is an important hydrating agent for the dermal layer of the skin. Along with water and protein complexes it forms a thick gel. Hyaluronic acid holds 1,000 times its weight in water, making the skin plumper and wrinkles less visible. Supplementing with hyaluronic acid can thus mask the appearance of skin aging. It is also very important for maintaining the cushioning of joints.

Other sources of free radical damage to the skin include air pollution, smog, soot, automobile exhaust, toxic waste, pesticides, herbicides, background radiation, drugs, and even some foods.

The Best Anti-aging Skin Product

Here we go. The best anti-aging skin product is probably simply a combination of eating the best foods and the already-mentioned hyaluronic acid. So what are the best foods for skin health or what should you look for in your foods that will keep your skin looking young?

Vitamin A - The highest dietary sources of vitamin A are liver, dairy products and fish. Carotenoids, which your body can convert into the active form of Vitamin A, are found in large amounts in dark leafy greens and in many yellow, orange and red vegetables and fruit.

Probiotics - anything that helps keep digestion normal, any live bacteria or enzymes, is also going to help produce healthy-looking skin.

Antioxidants are very important to prevent or counter free-radical damage. Berries such as blackberries, blueberries and strawberries and plums are good sources of natural antioxidants. Other foods with a high antioxidant capacity include artichokes, many types of beans (black, red, and pinto), prunes, and pecans.

Essential Fatty Acids - a lack of these can affect the skin resulting in dryness. Both omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids are required. One must be careful to get enough omega-3 oils on a daily basis as more are needed and they are not in as many foods as are the omega 6 EFAs. An especially good source is ground flax seed. Here is an authoritative source with good information on flax seeds.

See more information about hyaluronic acid and how to obtain it. While that links to a page that focuses on hyaluronic acid for joint pain relief you may have that problem too or want to avoid it as a side benefit while using the best anti aging skin product.