Identifying your Skin Type

Proper care of the skin depends on choosing quality skin care, anti aging and sun damage repair products that will suit your skin type. It follows that the effectiveness of your skin care regimen hinges on identifying the type of skin that you have.

While skin tends to differ a lot from person to person, skin types are commonly divided into the following main categories:

Normal

This is the ideal skin type. Normal skin always looks clear, smooth and healthy without many visible pores. It is neither too dry nor oily. It feels supple to the touch and needs minimum care.

Dry

Dry skin looks dull and is rough to the touch. It lacks moisture and tends to get flaky. There is tightness around the eyes and mouth. Dry skin needs thorough care as it can develop fine lines and wrinkles easily.

Oily

Oily skin has a shiny and greasy appearance. It looks thick and coarse with enlarged pores. It is constantly prone to acne breakouts, blackheads and blemishes and requires careful cleaning.

Combination

This kind of skin is oily on the forehead and nose (T zone) while the rest of the face (cheeks and around the eyes) is normal or dry. As combination skin has different types of patches, it requires a combination of care.

Sensitive

This is the most dreaded skin type as it is very prone to redness, itching, dryness and burning. Sensitive skin requires special care as it is very fragile.

You should be able to understand your skin type from the above descriptions. But if you are still in doubt, just take the simple tissue test. Blot your face with a clean piece of tissue as soon as you wake up in the morning and check the results.

If the tissue is clean and your skin feels normal, then you have normal skin

If the tissue is clean but your skin feels tight all over, then you have dry skin

If you find lot of oily spots all over the tissue, then you have oily skin

If the tissue only picks up oil in the T-zone, then you have combination skin

Sensitive skin will tend to look red and develops rashes or inflammation very easily.

There's more to skin type – your skin may be clogged with pores, acne prone, tired, sun damaged or prematurely aging. Therefore, you will need to use anti aging and sun damage repair products accordingly.

Another fact is that your skin tends to change with time. For instance, you may be blessed with normal skin, but it can become dry, oily or even sensitive due to age, weather, sun exposure, stress, hormonal changes, medications and so on.

In sum, identifying your skin type is essential for determining how to care for your skin, which products to use and how to treat skin problems.

Anti-Aging Diet

Anti-Aging Diet
A diet involving eating less, while still getting enough vitamins and nutrients is of great interest.  Researchers find that calorie restriction diets extend the lives of animals.  It is unknown if the anti-aging diets help people to extend their lives.  Limited studies have been done in people
Animal studies focused on insects and animals with short life spans.  Researchers found animals on restricted diets live longer.  They also found that calorie restriction diets are more important to the life span than striving to maintain healthy weight and exercising regularly.  There are studies under way involving animals with longer life spans and will take years to finish.  There is promise with the preliminary results in monkeys.
Although scientists have doubts about actual positive effects of the anti-aging calorie restriction diet, calorie restriction research may give doctors clues about the aging process and aging may be slowed.
The way a calorie restriction diet works is to eat less than your body needs to maintain your normal weight.  How much less a person eats varies.  People who follow a calorie restriction diet hope to slow the aging process and live longer.
The diet involves restricting how much food you eat and carefully monitoring food intake to ensure getting enough vitamins and nutrients.  Choices consist of foods full of nutrients, but low in calories, such as vegetables and whole grains.
The benefits of short trials of calorie restriction diets in people include:
·         Blood pressure
·         Blood sugar
·         Body fat percentage
·         Cholesterol levels
·         Heart rate
·         Weight
These benefits are healthy changes that may reduce the risk of chronic disease later in life and therefore create longer life for humans.
Risks of calorie restriction diets include:
·         Reduced bone density
·         Loss of muscle mass
·         Anemia
·         Memory loss
·         Dizziness
·         Depression
Studies show that getting inadequate amounts of vitamins and nutrients can lead to serious problems such as heart failure and death.  Studies show that people with the lowest range body mass index scores have a higher risk of death than do those with normal scores.  The studies do not take into account undiagnosed cancer or other serious illnesses that may have caused the weight loss.  However, the study results do give us a cause to be cautious when considering the calorie restriction diets as a means of prolonging life.  They may end up doing just the opposite for some individuals.  There is also very little known about long-term effects of calorie restriction diets in people who have a healthy weight.
If you are considering a calorie restricted diet first discuss it with your doctor.  He or she should be able to explore the possible benefits and risks of a calorie restriction diet for you in particular.  Getting enough vitamins and nutrients can be difficult when you eat less food, you may also need to consult with a certified dietary nutritionist.  He or she can help you decide which foods you should eat to provide you with the nutrition you need.
Calorie restriction diet studies may help researchers understand the aging process.  The studies may also provide necessary clues for developing new anti-aging drugs.  Once researchers study how calorie restriction diets work on the body their hope is to create drugs to work in the same way.
It might be just as good an idea to wait to see what kind of drugs researchers come up with, that is, if you are young enough to wait for that conclusion.  Otherwise, consult with your doctor first before starting a calorie restriction diet in the hopes of anti-aging.