Tag: skin health

How Screens & Devices Age Your Skin

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We know too much looking at screens has a negative affect on our eyes. I’ve never had such sore eyes, as when I worked in an office with zero natural lighting, stuck in front of a computer all day.

I did not last long in that job. Blue light glasses were not a ‘thing’ in those days 😜

The reason blue light affects the eyes, is because it induces oxidative stress, which leads to degenerative changes, like those seen in age-related macular degeneration.

But did you know, it’s not just our eyes affected by blue light? Our skin also senses light, and is also negatively affected by blue light exposure (TV, mobile phone/computer, LED/fluorescent lights).

It causes lipid peroxidation in the skin (this will happen to a greater extent, if you eat polyunsaturated fats, like vegetable oils/margarine, because they are unstable in the presence of heat, light and oxygen).

In small amounts, cells respond to oxidative stress by upregulating antioxidant activity, such as glutathione. But when constantly bombarded with oxidative stressors, the cells become damaged. On the skin surface, this looks like wrinkling, sagging, and lipofuscin (age spots/liver spots).

Through the photoreceptors of our eyes and skin, blue light waves even affect our circadian rhythms, hormone levels, female cycle…and even our metabolic rate. Pretty wild, right?! This effect is more pronounced when we are exposed to blue light after sunset.

There’s an program called F.lux (free for personal use) that you can use on computer to block blue light, and even adjust light levels and tone to reflect natural light levels, as per time of day. It’s apparently quite ‘buggy’ on mobile phones, though…

Also, Block Blue Light have blue-light-blocking lightbulbs, night-lamps, and more. (Free shipping worldwide on orders over $99 AUD. Use code ‘radical’ for 10% off at checkout.) I have one of their night-lights, since I often have to get up in the night to little ones, but don’t want to have harsh blue lighting wrecking my sleep hormones! (Let’s face it, mums need all the sleep hormones they can get…)

The older-style incandescent lightbulbs emit light as a result of being heated. Therefore their light is closer to natural lighting. Newer ‘green-energy’ LED’s emit more blue light, as do fluorescent lights. Why many offices/schools use fluorescent lights-to try keep people awake 😉

Beef Liver: Better Than Botox

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Botox (otherwise known as botulism toxin) is one of the most toxic substances known to man – a million times more toxic than a cobra bite.

The commercial products used today came about from experiments at Fort Detrick, in the quest to weaponise botulism toxin during World War 2.

The reason it ‘works’ on wrinkles is because it causes flaccid paralysis of the muscles underneath the skin, relaxing frown lines.

Or (heres a novel thought), you could deal with the underlying pressures that are causing you to tense up, and frown often?

Or (another novel thought) you could address the underlying deficiencies causing your skin to lose elasticity and plumpness?

One of the major causes of sagging, wrinkling skin is lack of bioavailable copper – either because of frank deficiency, or because the copper is not being used (due to lack of synergistic nutrients).

In the case of the latter, the person will have signs of both copper deficiency (sagging skin, fatigue, varicose veins/haemorrhoids etc) AND signs of copper toxicity (adrenal issues, racing mind, unable to sleep properly). This is because what copper is present, is unbound and wreaking havoc, meanwhile the person lacks bioavailable copper in the form of ceruloplasmin, which has massive implications for iron transport and energy production.

The good news is that the humble beef liver is the world’s highest known food source of copper.

But more than that, beef liver is also the world’s highest known food source of Vitamin A (retinol), which we need to make the copper bioavailable. (Only cod liver oil is higher in retinol, but I would consider it a supplement, more than a ‘food’ per se)

And we need zinc to utilise the retinol….everything works together! Beef liver is not the highest known source of zinc (oysters take that prize), but beef liver does still contain some zinc (approx. 4.5mg per 100g).

For many of us that have not grown up eating organ meats, the taste of liver can be overpowering. I prefer to ‘hide’ it in ground beef dishes. I buy the liver fresh, process in a food processor, than freeze in an ice-cube tray. They can be easily lifted out with a knife and added to beef dishes.

Or a convenient (albeit more expensive) alternative is to take in capsule form. I love Ancestral Nutrition products – they are a small Australian business selling 100% grassfed organ superfood supplements (check out the Primal Energy Women supplement). Use code ‘RADICAL’ for 10% off at checkout.

Nourishing yourself beats poisoning yourself! Always.

PS. Accepting that we are all growing older and finding joy in that journey is also a beautiful thing.