healthy anti-aging

Your Blood: The Key to Anti-Aging

Many, many people ask us about anti-aging.

Anti-Aging: We use the term often enough but when I really think about it, it's an odd idea isn't it? How can we be against aging?

It's futile because aging is an inevitable process that will keep marching on to the drum of time.

What we advocate isn't so much anti-aging but healthy aging; supporting our skin tissue health so that we age with resilience and vitality.

How do we do this? Anti-oxidants? Heavier creams? Peeling away our wrinkles?

These things all help but the real key to anti-aging, ahem, healthy aging is blood circulation.

Anti-aging and circulation are so correlated because of the blood system's influence on our skin, its collagen production, oxygen distribution and waste detoxification. 

Almost every "anti-aging" medi-spa treatment directly or indirectly revs up blood flow to the skin area treated. Coincidence? We think not.

Collagen Production

Where there is blood flow, there is collagen being made. This is why most anti-aging treatments include stimulating circulation.

Trust us, from laser to the non-surgical face lift, they all have a component of increasing microcirculation.

To understand this, let's look at our skin in the process of being damaged (aging is simply wear and tear).

When we hurt or wound ourselves, our bodies fight back by rushing resources to the area to mend our skin. These resources are brought to the site via the blood.

The blood is a vehicle for nutrition and repair so when its impeded, we don't rejuvenate as quickly.

Unfortunately our circulation slows as we age, making us prone to damage and reducing our collagen production.

Here's a guide to boosting blood flow daily through hot-cold showers. 

Oxygenation

Our red blood cells transport oxygen, so our blood is the means for oxygenating our tissues.

Oxygen is important for feeding and replenishing our tissues and plays an important role in wound healing. If not optimal, the skin does not heal well and becomes more easily damaged and degraded.

Another consideration is our iron levels.  When we have low iron, we can get dull skin because iron keeps our hemoglobin intact. A lack of iron means a lack of red blood matter (and less colour in our complexion) and less oxygen feeding our skin tissue.  Many menstruating women are low in iron, so if your skin is looking dull, pale, dry and you also have fatigue or frequent headaches, it is worthwhile to check your iron levels through a blood test.

Detoxification

As we age everything slows down. Our metabolism, our cell turnover and our circulation.

While the blood brings nourishment to our tissues, it also removes wastes from them.  So slower circulation means detoxification also slows down.

This can lead to inflammation that creates free radicals (scavenging molecules that can damage our tissues).

This is why physical activity and movement is also important for preventing stagnation in order to maintain a clean and healthy constitution.  Your lymph system will also thank you.

As you can see, your blood flow can have a powerful effect on the healthiness of your body and its tissues, making it key to real healthy aging.

 

Image by Park Street via Unsplash

Back to blog