Anti-Ageing; Inside Out..

Looking at some Korean women its tough trying to work out their age as their skin shows little signs. Since arriving in Korea, I've envied Korean women for how meticulous and put together they look. As I've said previously it doesn't come without hard work and a touch of vanity. With mirrors everywhere its hard to escape your reflection in Korea. So after prolonged exposure to this narcissistic way of life, it can begin to rub off. I wouldn't say I've become vain from living in Korea, just more aware.

So when you face starts telling the world how old you are, Korea is probably the best and worst place to begin the battle. I turned to the gurus of skincare that are Korean women and found that cosmetic surgery was the answer for the majority, with 1 in 5 Koreans admitting to have gone under the knife.

For those of us who aren't looking to take such drastic measures, there are other ways to help your skin fight the age battle. I suffered with mild acne in my early 20's, horrified I spent a fortune on products with a colossal price tag, in the belief they would provide results to match the price. After making slow progress my mum said I should work from the inside out. Find out what's causing the problem first. So I did, and as as the saying goes mums are always right! The products became the help not the cure.

Famous Korean actress Song Hye-Kyo is the face of Laneige. An example of how youthful Korean skin appears on advertisements.

Now I'm in my late 20's and it's time to think about anti-ageing  This is not my area of expertise, so I've spent the past few weeks looking into not just products, but ways to work from the inside out before we splurge on lotions and potions. 

So when do we start? Webmd suggests that we should be starting an anti-ageing routine in our 20's and early 30's. Prevention being better than the cure. So now we know this we should find out what actually makes us age so we can begin to tackle that.

There are many contributing factors to how skin ages. First we will start with the villains. The nasty chemicals that attack our cells and hinder our youthful looks. The first will be the most heard of and they are UVA and UVB rays. To break it down simply UVA is responsible for ageing us as it can penetrate deeper into the skin than UVB. UVB is responsible for giving us sun burn or a tan. Still as harmful as these rays leads to skin cancer. For more detailed information uvawarness.com is a brilliant website for all the information you need. The picture below from skincancer.org shows how UVA and UVB penetrate our skin.

Our skin needs protecting from these rays even when the sun isn't out. Choosing a cream/foundation/BB cream that has a high SPF protection is vital. 

Next in the skin villain club are a group of bullies called free radicals. Free radicals are damaging molecules that can be found In environmental pollution, cigarette smoke and even cleaning products! Now I'm beginning to see why I've aged in Korea! When free radicals meet a cell they don't kill it. Instead they damage the cell so it can't renew. This can lead to more serious problems than wrinkles!

So what can we do to beat them? According to webmd; Antioxidants keep free radicals away, although its not been 100% scientifically proven to beat more serious effects of cell damage, antioxidants can help with anti-ageing.

So where can we find these superheroes of the anti-ageing world? The good news is they are everywhere. Here's a list of the top from livestrong.com;

Small red beans
Any berries
Plums
Prunes
Cale
Broccoli
Sprouts
Cabbage
Red peppers
Sweet potato
Egg plant
Tomatoes
Garlic
Onion
Cinnamon
Oregano
Tea
Red wine
Chocolate
Whole grains
Nuts
Olive oil

What's that wine and chocolate I hear you say! Yes red wine in responsible amounts, and dark chocolate can help too!

Looking at the list above you can see how Koreans have a head start. Korean diets are high in antioxidants. Red pepper is used in nearly all stews and soups or as a dipping sauce. Sweet potato when it's in season is sold by the box on the streets. Cabbage is eaten with every meal in the form that is Kimchi. Garlic and onions are served as side dishes, or added to flavour most Korean food. So we can start by giving our skin a head start by having a healthy diet which will help us tackle ageing from the inside out. 

The next step is understanding what to look for when it comes to products. Stay put for anti-ageing part 2...