We all love to have smooth, glowing, and healthy skin. Not only does it make us look good, but also provides much-needed confidence. It also serves as a signal that your body is functioning well since if there are any issues inside your body, they get reflected first and foremost on the skin itself.
Most women adopt their everyday habits to have beautiful skin. From applying creams, moisturizers, and face masks to eating healthy food that makes your skin more beautiful, we all have done this. But as the old saying goes, all good things are hard to come and easy to go!
Even if you get that flawless skin that you’ve always wanted, a little carelessness like eating spicy or junk food, or even lack of sleep can ruin it easily with a small zit. Even change of weather and seasons can take its toll on the skin too.
Multiple factors impact the health of your skin. It is not possible to always keep everything under your control. But if you understand skin health and the way it reacts to conditions, it becomes easier to maintain glowing skin always without requiring any sort of make-up.
It is not an easy process, but completely possible. First, let’s understand which factors affect skin health. Secondly, we will dive into methods, through which, you can keep these factors under control and maintain your natural skin glow round the year regardless of the season.
What are the Factors that Affect Your Skin?
To remove the always looming threat of having skin problems and losing your smooth and glowing skin, it is of utmost importance to understand the factors that affect skin health.
Now before we dwell on the causes of skin problems, we must clearly understand the fact that different people have different types of skin, and some have more issues than others because of their genes. However, some factors are scientifically proven to impact all humans alike.
So what are the reasons behind the different types of skin problems that plague humans from time to time? Here is your answer:
1. Mental Stress
Many people do not even realize it, but stress is one of the major factors that cause skin problems. When you go through prolonged periods of stress and mental pressure, your adrenal glands tend to produce more levels of cortisol, also known as the stress hormone.
This hormone in turn increases the activity of the sebaceous gland, and as a result, leads towards more production of oil as well as sebum. The direct result of it can be acne or increased skin sensitivity. Also, the immune system of the skin gets heavily damaged by the cortisol leading to oxidative stress that turns into wrinkles and lines on the skin.
2. Diet
As you may know whatever happens in your stomach, shows up on your face. A healthy gut is a key to having a glowing skin. The health of your gut largely depends on what you choose to eat, and most of us end up making bad choices in the present, and that eventually leads towards having a lackluster skin in the future.
It is important to consume a healthy and balanced diet including all nutrients and minerals for healthy skin. But most people include processed, fried, and refined food in their diets along with unhealthy fats and carbs. It ends up causing mild inflammation in the body, and further leads towards deeper problems such as acne.
3. Climate/Environment/Season
The climate or the season around you is another big factor that determines your skin health. From dry skin to an itchy patch or even an uncontrollable acne spree, the weather of the place you currently live in affects the skin in ways than many realize.
While colder climates with low humidity can mean having dry skin without any moisture, the summer heat brings about another set of problems such as rashes or more breakouts due to sweating. Exposure to excessive heat and sun in warmer climates can also lead to developing wrinkles and lines at a pretty early age.
Besides this, environmental factors such as pollution are also a key factor that affects your skin health. Regular exposure to air pollutants can lead to premature aging of skin along with allergic inflammation and other conditions such as eczema, acne or even psoriasis.
4. Skin Products
Everyone has a different skin type, and what works for one person may not work well for the other. It is important to understand your skin type and make sure to only use products that are actually beneficial to your skin, as some products can do more harm than good. and use only those products on the skin that will help it and do more good than harm.
However, people tend to ignore their skin types and go by the general trends, buying the most popular products in the market without even checking their ingredients. Some of the ingredients can be potential allergens to your skin, more so if it is sensitive. This can cause serious damage and exacerbate underlying conditions.
5. Lack of Sleep
Getting proper sleep is very important for skin health. Many of you must have heard about the popular term “beauty sleep”. It is not just randomly said but has true meaning to it. This is because when you get a good night’s sleep, your body gets time to repair and regenerate your skin.
However, not getting enough sleep reduces the crucial time that the body needs for skin repair and that in turn leads to inflammation and other problems. Not getting enough sleep on the long term can have a seriously bad impact on the overall appearance of skin.
Now that we know some of the important factors that have a direct impact on our skin, we can shift back to understanding how we can overcome these elements and ensure that we have glowing skin throughout the year, come what may. So, here is how to do it.
Steps to Maintain a Naturally Beautiful Skin
Maintaining healthy skin and retaining its glow is not a one-step process. It requires you to spring into action almost every day. You need to be determined and careful at the same time. It is important to understand that every action has an equivalent reaction, and as such, you should be focused on taking the right actions, as we are sharing below.
1. Eat right, since you are what you eat
To maintain healthy skin, start taking in a balanced diet. Include fresh fruits and green leafy vegetables in your diet as these provide you with proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and minerals. Pay extra attention to adding food that is rich in Vitamin C such as oranges, sweet potatoes, strawberries, and tomatoes in your diet, since it promotes radiant skin.
Also, consider taking a low-sugar diet, as it can help in keeping the level of insulin down, which allows the skin cells to maintain a healthy balance. Besides, say no to spicy, processed, refined, fried, and fermented food. Anything that falls in this category should be avoided as much as possible to rule out any possibility of skin damage in the future.
2. Exercise regularly, keep it moving
Exercise has so many amazing benefits for the body, and your skin health is included in that list. Regular exercise leads to improved circulation of the blood and brings in more oxygen into the body. This directly improves and speeds up the cleansing process of the body, taking away toxins and impurities from the skin.
Even if you do not have much time due to your busy schedules, you should still take out at least 15 to 20 minutes and do a brisk walk or jogging to sweat out and aid in eliminating the toxins from the skin. Remember to not apply anything on the skin before heading out and doing your desired workout. Once you are done, try to immediately wash your face, probably even exfoliate to remove the sweat and the toxins. Later on, apply a moisturizer to keep the skin smooth.
3. Sleep Well, aim for that perfect beauty sleep
You should aim to sleep for a minimum of 8 hours every day, and possibly in one go. The idea here is to provide rest to the skin, without which it might sag and look baggy and puffy, as many of you might have experienced.
You should always wash your face before you sleep to remove any impurities that may have crept in during the day and apply a moisturizer thereafter. Besides, if you are not able to get proper sleep, then you should indulge in more physical activities, have a fixed schedule, limit daytime naps, and keep your phone away at night.
Also, you should work towards reducing stress and keeping your mind calm. By doing meditation, spending quality time with your loved ones, watching light-hearted shows, etc, you can control your stress and improve mental health. This not only promotes better sleep but also reduces the production of the stress hormone cortisol that damages the skin. As a result of both, your skin health will be improved.
4. Drink Water, and then some more
It is now very well known that a hydrated body leads towards a glowing skin. As such, you should keep yourself hydrated, always. Drink lots of water and at least 8 glasses per day.
You can even try drinking alkaline water instead of regular water. Alkaline water gets absorbed faster into your cells and helps in keeping the body hydrated for a long time. Besides, it aids in detoxifying the skin and keeping your gut healthy, which eventually helps in maintaining skin health as well.
You can try the DYLN Bottle that provides you alkaline water whenever and wherever you want it. Besides, you should also try to eat fruits and vegetables with high water content. Food such as watermelon, cucumber, strawberry, orange, and grapefruit helps you stay hydrated and improves your skin.
5. Adapt, and fight all the challenges
Climate and the environment has a serious impact on your skin. Now we cannot control the climate, but we can take steps to reduce its effect on us. We can adapt to the conditions around us and try to fulfill the requirements of our skin to keep it protected and healthy.
In a heated or warm climate, try to apply sunscreen before you go out, and wash your face regularly to remove all the sweat. While in a colder climate, make sure to moisturize your skin regularly, not allowing it to dry up.
Use skincare products such as toners, face masks, etc. to clear up the effects of pollutants on the skin. However, make sure that you choose the right products for your skin, and check for ingredients that suit your skin type. Be extra careful if you have a sensitive skin type, and try to avoid direct sun and heavily polluted areas.
Conclusion
The skin is the largest organ of the body, with an average human having 20 square feet of skin. Skin problems can be very irritating to deal with and can affect the overall quality of life. People with skin problems tend to lose their confidence and self-esteem, and this also highlights the importance of skin health and care.
Everyone loves to have that perfect glowing and healthy skin, but due to multiple factors, it is hard to achieve and even harder to maintain. However, if you understand the factors affecting your skin health, and then try to take care of your skin adhering to the points mentioned above, you can surely maintain naturally beautiful and glowing skin for longer periods.
