Everyone cares about their appearance to a certain extent. Beyond esthetics, the care and feeding of your skin has important implications for your overall health and wellbeing beyond vanity. Your skin is your body’s single biggest organ and also your gateway to good health. We now know that the skin plays a vital role in overall health. Skin acts as the body’s protective barrier. It helps to regulate temperature and prevent dehydration. It also affects the immune system and even behavioral health. So skin care in your #2ndMiddleAge is not just about slowing the hands of time.
Winter or summer, sunscreen is critical sun protection for your skin. We generally associate over-exposure to the sun with summer. However, the worst sunburn I ever received was on a skiing trip with my parents. When my parents told me to put sunscreen on my face to guard against the sun, I was ignorant, young and careless. Squeezing out a minimum of sunscreen, I ran my hand across my face before heading out to ski. This led to a painful burn tracing the outline of my fingers, including blisters that burned off my top lip. Not that I had that much of a top lip to begin with!
You might have been a sun worshipper in your youth, or perhaps you were a bookworm like me. Chances are, if you grew up in the 60s and 70s, your use of sunscreen was sporadic. It may have been inconsistent. Remember the days when it was ok to apply baby oil to skin before sunbathing – literally baking the skin? Yikes!
The good news is that it is never too late to commit to daily sunscreen use to protect your skin. In some cases, you may even reverse some skin damage with proper skin care. To protect your skin with sunscreen, you should apply sunscreen generously. Choose one with an SPF of 30 or above. Apply it evenly to all exposed skin 15-20 minutes before sun exposure. Reapply at least every two hours, or more frequently if you are swimming or very active (sweating). And don’t forget to protect your ears, neck and feet. You should add a hat with a brim and sunglasses to also protect your eyes from cataracts and macular degeneration. (Fun fact: here in Israel the Ministry of Health rates hats for their ability to protect against the sun.)
I have found that without strenuous effort I have combatted photoaging through daily sunscreen, Vitamin C serum, and hats.
If you are already a committed sunscreen user, you may already be using a Vitamin C Serum as well. Adding a Vitamin C serum to help reverse sun damage on your face, hands and arms. Because Vitamin C breaks down quickly once it is exposed, it is helpful to close the bottle tightly. Store it in a drawer (out of the light).
For the freshest and most cost-effective Vitamin C Serum, mix it at home in minutes. Use it for a month or so until it starts to change color. When it gets a golden hue, that means it is oxidizing and no longer fresh.
There are good recipes for Vitamin C Serum all over the web, I use a recipe that I found on Wikihow:
Vitamin C Serum
Ingredients
1/2 tsp vitamin C powder (heaping)
1/2 T hot (not boiling) water
1 T Castor Oil
1 T Glycerin (scant)
¼ tsp organic vitamin E oil (optional)
5 – 6 drops Lavender Essential Oil
Instructions
- Dissolve Vitamin C Powder in hot (not boiling) water
- Add oils, aloe vera gel, vitamin E, lavender drops
- Blend (I used a fork or hand blender)
- Pour (carefully) into amber bottles with droppers – add a date label if you like.
If you don’t have a health food store near where you live, all of the ingredients are available online (Amazon, iHerb, etc.). Once you start making Vitamin C Serum at home you may never want to go back to buying less fresh, more expensive versions.
Let me know your thoughts!
Your Second-Middle Age: 