How to reverse sun damage to your skin

Sun exposure and environmental pollutants can cause free radical sun damage that leads to wrinkles, hyper-pigmentation and premature aging of your skin.

popcorn overdoing it on the beach

Excessive exposure to the ultraviolet rays of the sun is the surest way to damage your skin and ensure you age fast!

In this outdoors and sun loving age, how to reverse damage to your skin is an increasingly popular question. 

Solutions involve:

• sunscreen
• antioxidants
• Vitamin D
• exfoliation
• diet

Sun damage results:

Actinic keratosis skin damage

When your skin absorbs the sun's UV rays, damage to the DNA in your skin's cells can occur, thereby causing them to become dysfunctional. This in turn can result in:

• Reduction of collagen and elastin production, which are the substances in our skin that make it plump and healthy looking
• Thinning of the top layer of skin
• Skin's natural ability to slough off its dead layers stopping
• Rise in pigmentation
• Cells becoming cancerous

Reversing sun damage recommendations:

apply sunscreen

• Wear sunscreen.
  The process of additional sun damage stops whenever you protect yourself from the sun
• Antioxidants.
  Help to protect the skin's DNA to prevent cancer while also protecting the collagen and elastic tissue from free radicals that can cause wrinkles and sagging skin. Though eating antioxidant-rich foods is important, you should also apply creams and serums with additional antioxidants, that the skin can absorb directly
• Vitamin D.
  I also believe in getting some sun without protection in order to obtain the Vitamin D benefits, as well as to boost my own body's abilities to deal with the sun. Build a tan up very slowly and NEVER get burnt
• Exfoliate the dead skin cells. 
  Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) work as exfoliants to slough away dead skin cells as well as stimulating the production of collagen and elastin at the cellular level. This helps reverse sun damage and improves the appearance of aging skin. Except when you have a sun burnt skin.
• Diet helps enormously.
  Avoid polyunsaturated fats with deep fried fast foods. Avoid highly processed foods and sugars. Eat plenty fresh green leafy vegetables and colorful fruits. Eat foods high in Vitamin D content.

Antioxidants excellent for sun damage reversal

Antioxidants for sun damage

Antioxidants in general are an excellent boost to the skin's overall health and a huge help when wanting to reverse skin damage.

We can absorb antioxidants through diet as well as cosmetics.

Because this is being recognized more frequently these days in the organic and natural focussed world, so much so that many sunscreens contain added antioxidants in their formulas.

Where cosmetics are concerned, Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) is an example of an extraordinarily powerful antioxidant that is actually better being absorbed transdermally (through the skin) than the gut, so is far more beneficial in a transdermal cream.

The cutaneous antioxidant system is complex, interlinked and operates as a network. Because of this, an enhanced photo protective effect can be obtained by applying appropriate combinations of antioxidants. These combinations can act synergistically for powerful results that include a reversal in the damage caused to your skin.

Sunscreen antioxidants for sun damage reversal

Some antioxidants that can be found in sunscreens include:

• Teas - Black tea extract or Green Rooibos extract
• Broccoli Sprout extract
• Astaxanthin
• Superoxide Dismutase 
• Raspberry seed oil
• Acai berry extract
• Grape Seed Extract
• Lutein extract

Watch this fabulous video on How antioxidants work...