When it comes to the health of your skin, I think you will agree that youthful and glowing is always better than old and tired looking skin. However, did you know skin health is more than what it appears on the surface? And, in fact, what you eat and which supplements you take can affect the health of your skin in many ways?

Hydration and a good night’s sleep

I think we can all relate to both feeling and looking haggard when we don’t get the chance to have a good night’s sleep. We get bags under our eyes and our skin looks dry and ageing. The amount of sleep you get affects your skin profoundly. No sleep detrimentally affects your skin due to the fact your skin cells only properly regenerate when you are sleeping, so when you toss and turn you are preventing this restoration from taking place.

The importance of hydration for your skin

Hydration is also an extremely valuable ally in your fight for healthy skin. One of the first steps to bright skin, even when you do have a bad night’s sleep, is to drink plenty of water each day. Proper hydration supplies the skin with plump, healthy skin cells – something that can really make a difference when you are tired and run down. While we are talking about hydration, don’t forget the negative effects foods like coffee and alcohol can have on the level of hydration in your body (and therefore your skin). Whilst caffeine can be great to use on the skin externally, as it brings blood flow to the area, drinking caffeine actually causes your body to lose water due to its diuretic effects. Alcohol is bad for the skin due to its ability to dehydrate your skin (when you replace water with alcohol, the alcohol is nowhere near as hydrating for you) and also for its effect on the liver.

The liver and your skin health

Your liver is a busy organ. It spends all its time mopping up all the toxins that enter your body via the food you eat, the air you breathe and the surfaces you touch. When it is overburdened with toxins, it slows down, causing those toxins to accumulate in other areas of the body. One area in which the toxins do a particular amount of damage is the skin. To help your liver and your skin both stay healthy, antioxidants are extremely beneficial – particularly when taken in supplemental form.

Grapeseed extract is a potent antioxidant

Grape seed extract helps in to protect, heal and beautify skin. One of the reasons for its effectiveness is the presence of a high potency antioxidant known as an OPC or oligomeric procyanidin. OPCs are found in large numbers in many plant extracts (Pine bark extracts being one of the highest known sources) as well as in high concentration in grape seed extract. In Grape seed extract OPCs work to reduce the damaging effect of free radicals – tiny molecules that cause damage to the skin. OPCs are known to have beneficial antioxidants effects up to 50 times more powerful than Vitamin E.

Mr Vitamins recommends

Nutra-Life Grapeseed Extract 50,000

Formulated with a high quality Grape seed extract including one sourced from New Zealand grape groves, Nutra-Life Grapeseed Extract 50,000 is a high strength antioxidant formula providing benefits due to the presence of 320mg of potent OPCs known as Procyanidins. Find out more and and shop online for Nutra-Life Grapeseed Extract 50,000 here