Quitting Smoking and Anti Aging

Posted by Kym on August 7th, 2008 at 10:17pm

Quitting smoking is one of, if not the best anti aging tonic you can give yourself. For smokers everywhere - if you want to regain your vitality and younger looking skin, giving up smoking is one of the best things you can do.

As we start to live longer, our increased desire to remain active at the same time is quite normal along with peoples needs to want to look young as well. This is achieved by promoting the growth of connective tissue in the skin via the protein collagen which is the most abundant in the skin of all animals. Most anti aging products (collagen included) fall into the category of anti oxidants which are the body’s method of slowing down the aging process.

Having said that, the biggest gains to any anti aging campaign is to stop smoking, and more and more people are learning how to quit smoking every day. The health and well being benefits are tremendous.

Although the benefits of vitamin C (an anti oxidant) are well documented, it is still debated as to what our daily quota should be. Anti aging skin care products that are based on vitamin C however, pose the problem of becoming oxidized themselves as they come into contact with air during their usage.

More stable products are now available that are almost as efficient and actually cost less to manufacture. Although these products are good, they cannot actually compare with vitamin C but fortunately vitamin E and alpha lipoic acid are also anti oxidants as well.

Found in human blood, vitamin E is not only an antioxidant but designed to increase the immune system and can help ward off cancer. Whereas lipoic acid is found in every single human cell and whose function is to provide energy and reverse much of the damage caused to the skin by aging.

Another group of products used to reduce the visible signs of aging are phytochemicals which are compounds extracted from a various plants and used in many age reducing goods. Phytochemicals prevent occurrence of cancer of certain types; these include prostate cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer.

Other vitamins, the B group, are also used in anti aging skin care like vitamins B5, B6 and B12 for example. This just goes to highlight just how complex and far reaching the whole field of aging is and why so much more research is required.

Whilst a great deal has been learned about this subject, it is only the tip of the iceberg and more long term effective methods need to be discovered to reverse or slow down the effects of time. There may be many challenges still to overcome but in time scientists believe they will succeed in producing more effective anti aging products that are less expensive.

However, man made skin care products should be used only as a supplement to the natural ways of skin and body care something which cannot really be replaced. Simple things that can make a difference are physical activities, restful sleep, maintaining good dietary habits and removing stress from your life can all help to slow the signs of aging.

Under Health and Fitness