Did you know that the environment in which you live can ‘make or break’ your skin health?
Natural and manmade environmental factors – or irritants – affect your skin health, whether they be physical, chemical, or biological:
- Physical factors include extremes in heat and cold, blue light from computers and electronics, and UV radiation from sunlight.
- Chemical irritants include anything your skin touches, like household cleaners and pollutants in the air and water, such as second-hand smoke and allergens.
- Biological factors include pet dander and plant substances such as pollen, as well as other environmental threats.
Environmental factors affect your skin in many ways – from clogging pores to irritating and causing your skin tissue to break down, to allowing fluids to build up in your skin.
The net result is skin that looks older than your years.
Air pollution from both inside your home and outdoors, can dramatically increase the number of free radicals in your skin.
If it’s a substance your body doesn’t recognize, your immune system can get into the act, too, by sending out antibodies to help fight the perceived threat. This can lead to even more skin irritation, redness, and dryness.
Is Your Lifestyle Making You Look Older Than Your Years?
It’s no secret that things like stress, diet and hormones can affect the appearance of your skin.
Your emotions have a powerful effect on your skin and can make it more reactive and sensitive. Stress can lead to the development of fine lines, dry and flaky skin, and even sagging and dark spots.
Eating the wrong foods can work against you, too. Processed foods contain large amounts of seed oils, which are loaded with omega-6 fats, especially linoleic acid (LA).
People with skin concerns typically have higher percentages of this dangerous fat in their tissues. This highly perishable dietary LA embedded in your skin makes your skin far more susceptible to cellular damage.
Consuming too much alcohol can also negatively affect your skin health and may cause.…
- Dryness due to dehydration and loss of moisture.
- Dullness from lack of nutrients.
- Loss of elasticity, leading to fine lines and sagging skin.
- Breakouts due to oxidative stress.
Still using unfiltered tap water? Chlorine in water – whether you drink it or bath in it – strips the natural oils from your skin and contributes to dryness and redness.
How Your Skin Acts Like a ‘Suit of Armor’ Against Environmental Elements
Your skin works overtime to defend against the potentially harmful effects of all these environmental elements, including physical, chemical and biological irritants. As you can see in the diagram below, the outermost layer of your skin – your body’s first line of defense – is called the stratum corneum, which is part of the epidermis.
Think of this outer skin layer as a barrier – or suit of armor – that protects your inner layers of skin.
When your stratum corneum works properly, this tough layer of skin cells helps keep moisture in and harmful substances out. It also helps protect against extremes in temperature – even drops in your body temperature.
Made up of lipids, your stratum corneum contains cholesterol, free fatty acids, and ceramides. These waxy lipid molecules – ceramides – make up about 50% of your epidermis.
The Role Ceramides Play in Promoting Clear, Youthful-Looking Skin
Ceramides play a major role in your skin’s barrier functions - they lock in moisture to keep your skin plump and soft and help protect and maintain your skin “architecture.” These protective lipids determine how your skin looks and feels.
Too much exposure to environmental elements and damage to your skin’s barrier can lead to a decrease in your skin’s natural ceramide content.
Loss of ceramides contributes to skin dryness and the appearance of fine lines and sags, as well as a blemished and weathered appearance. Age affects the ceramides in your skin, too. With increasing age, your skin can’t replenish its natural ceramides as efficiently as it did when you were younger.
When women go through menopause, the resulting hormonal changes can lead to impaired barrier function and thinning of the skin, a loss of elasticity and an increase in skin sensitivity.
Researchers have found that these changes in the epidermis in post-menopausal skin are due to a reduction in the chain length, quality and number of ceramides.
This is why post-menopausal women may find their skin is more sensitive to irritants, allergens, and environmental threats – and more likely to experience skin dryness, lines and sags.
Unlike Creams and Lotions, Oral Ceramides Work From Within
While you can purchase ceramide-containing lotions, creams, and serums to apply topically, a better approach may come from within.
When you take an inside-out approach, you’re more likely to provide your skin with the nutrients it really needs for radiant health.
Dietary or oral ceramides may increase the synthesis of new ceramides inside your skin and support healthy skin barrier function – better than ceramide creams or lotions applied directly to your skin.*
We’ve formulated a product to help supply the ceramides and other nutrients your skin may be needing for radiant health.*
Our Ceramides for Skin Hydration contains Konjac Root Extract, a gluten-free alternative ingredient, well-known to people living in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
Many ceramide products are made from wheat, which poses challenges for those with gluten sensitivities.
An excellent source of ceramides, Konjac root, or Amorphophallus konjac, is abundant, sustainable and free from wheat and nine other major food allergens as defined by the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA).
And it’s been shown in studies to actually work…*
Konjac Root Extract: Shown in Studies to Improve Skin Dryness and Appearance*
Fast-acting Ceramides for Skin Hydration is standardized to provide 5 mg of glucosylceramides – building blocks for your skin to produce ceramides.
Best of all, this standardized Konjac root extract has been shown in studies to work.
In a “gold-standard study” – placebo-controlled, randomized, single-blind clinical trial – 51 healthy human volunteers received either a placebo or 100 mg of a Konjac root extract formula standardized to 5 mg glucosylceramides for six weeks.
A total of eight skin parameters were evaluated at baseline, week 3 and at the conclusion (week 6) of the study. These parameters included: dryness, blemishes, redness, pigmentation concerns, itching, oiliness, roughness, and overall appearance.
Just halfway through the study, many of the volunteers reported significant and noticeable improvements in dryness, oiliness and pigmentation concerns, compared to placebo.*
The researchers believed the effects are due to the action of the oral glucosylceramides converting to sphingolipid metabolites, which are then absorbed through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream, making their way to the skin to restore hydration.*
At the end of the study, 80% of the group receiving the Konjac root extract reported that their skin was smoother and softer, compared to only 20% in the placebo group. And 70% of the Konjac group noted that the improvement in skin dryness was “fairly good” and “excellent”, compared to 5% in the placebo group.*
In closing, the authors of the study concluded that, “The overall efficacy of A. konjac extract was found to be increasing significantly with time compared to the baseline.”
Straight From Sicily: Beauty From Within Skin Protection
For our Ceramides for Skin Hydration, we didn’t stop with Konjac root extract. We wanted to add a very unique second ingredient to provide an extra layer of protection against the environmental elements for healthy-looking skin.*
Red Orange Complex™ is a patented fruit extract made from the juice of three types of Sicilian blood oranges grown exclusively in Sicily, near Europe’s most active volcano, Mt. Etna.
The three pigmented orange varieties in this Complex – Moro, Sanguinello and Tarocco – all have a bright orange peel with red-hued, sweet tasting fruit.
What makes the Red Orange Complex™ so unique is it provides standardized amounts of the following phenolic compounds, along with ascorbic acid, from these three varieties of oranges:
- Anthocyanins (cyanidin-3-glucoside) 2.8-3.2%
- Hydroxycinnamic acids (caffeic, coumaric, ferulic, sinapic acid) 1.8-2.2%
- Flavanones (hesperidin, narirutin) 8.5-9.5%
- Ascorbic acid 5.5-6.5%
This superior antioxidant blend provides exceptional protection against damaging free radicals produced by environmental elements, as well as everyday stressors, including intensive physical exercise.*
Backed by Research to Help Protect Skin From the Harsh Environmental Elements*
Red Orange Complex™ acts in multiple ways to support skin and cellular health:*
- Helps protect your skin against potentially harmful environmental elements and the signs of early aging*
- Helps reduce oxidative stress in skin tissue*
- Counteracts the negative effects of oxidative stress on health after intense physical exercise*
- Helps restore glutathione levels in active individuals
A randomized, double-blind, controlled study with 110 Asian and Caucasian subjects was carried out to evaluate the protective qualities of this Complex.
Receiving either a placebo or 100 mg/day of Red Orange Complex, the subjects were evaluated for skin redness, moisturization, elasticity and radiance, as well as melanin staining inside dark spots, epidermal water loss, and physical signs of aging, such as lines and sags.
The results?
Taking the Complex for 56 days improved the skin reaction to harsh environmental elements and increased skin moisturization, elasticity and radiance. In addition, the intensity of melanin staining inside skin dark spots decreased, along with the depth of fine lines.*
The effect on skin elasticity extends to extracellular matrix components, especially collagen and elastic fibers. This positive effect may also be related to the role ascorbic acid plays in both the synthesis and stabilization of collagen.*
Ideally you should also be consuming connective tissue in your diet as it is an excellent source of collagen. If you aren’t then consider taking a collagen supplement or taking gelatin to get the amino acids your body needs to make collagen and work synergistically with the ceramides.
In conclusion, the researchers believe their results suggest Red Orange Complex effectively helps counteract both the harmful effects of environmental elements and premature signs of aging.*
Try the Ceramide Approach for Clear, Younger-Looking Skin – Order Ceramides for Skin Hydration
Your skin has never been challenged by the elements – and your lifestyle – as it is today.
Developed with your health in mind, Ceramides for Skin Hydration offers a whole new way to have the clear, smooth and radiant skin you desire – from the inside-out – while enjoying the activities you love most.*
Using a proactive, holistic approach, our advanced formula of fast-acting ceramides, vitamin C and other powerful antioxidants provide your skin with the ingredients it really needs for effective protection and rejuvenation.*
There’s no need to look older than your years when Ceramides for Skin Hydration can provide the support your skin needs to adapt to the challenges it might face.*
Take control of your health, and order Ceramides for Skin Hydration today.