In this article, I am going to discuss about the relationship between chronic disease and skin care diet, and I hope this can give you more motivations and reasons to continue or start a healthy skin diet!
The link between chronic disease and skin care diet are very strong, and seems like most of the foods which are good for your skin are also foods which can help you to prevent from chronic disease. On the other hand, foods which are harmful to your skin increase the risk of getting chronic disease as well. In this article, I will explain the link between chronic disease and skin care diet by giving food examples which are good or bad for your skin. I hope this can help you from either improving your skin or preventing from certain chronic disease. : )
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the basic strategies of countering chronic disease such as “cancer, diabetes and obesity” (WHO, 2003, para. 1) are to have “Less saturated fats, sugar and salt, more fruit and vegetables and physical exercise” (WHO, 2003, para. 1). Since we might have heard a lot about the benefits of fruit and vegetables from different experts, in this article, I will focus on fats and sugar.
Saturated Fats
According to the WHO, “Not all fats or all carbohydrates are the same; it pays to know the difference… People should eat less high-calorie foods, especially foods high in saturated fat and sugar” (2003, para. 18). From what WHO says, having too much saturated fats can be a factor which causes chronic disease. Some examples of saturated fats can be cheese, fatty meats, whole milk and cookies which are more likely to be in a solid format at room temperature (Hales & Lauzon, 2010, page 102). As what I write about in the previous article, milk can actually cause acne, and that is proven by a study which is done by the Nurses Health Study II (please refer to http://skincareanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/06/acne-and-diet.html, para 2). Therefore, we can actually see the link between skin care diet and chronic disease from here, which saturated fats are not only harmful to your skin but also higher your risk to get chronic diseases.
Sugar
Sugar
Another important factor which causes chronic disease is overtaking sugar (WHO, 2003). On the other hand, Nicholas Perricone, a Medical Doctor and a dermatologist who has written several books also believe that “when your collagen is cross-linked by sugar, you end up with stiff and sagging skin” and “50% of aging of the skin is the result of this glycation reaction” (2005). By comparing both of the WHO and Perricone’s opinion, we can see that over taking sugar can lead to both chronic disease and skin damage.
Marine origin
What about food which can help preventing chronic disease and improve skin as well? Besides vegetable and fruits, marine origin is perhaps one of another best example I can give. According to the WHO, marine origin is another food which is good to take more in order to prevent chronic disease (2003, para. 18). The reason of that is because marine origin contains omega-3 fatty acids which help to improve our immune function (Douglas Laboratories, 2003, para 2). For the skin, marine origin helps us by “stimulating collagen production” (Ting, 2006 para 5) and “encouraging skin renewal” (Ting, 2006, para 5). To people who may do not know very much about collagen, skin collagen is a very important element to maintain our skin to look younger or good since “it is the principle structure protein holding the skin together” (Ting, 2006, para 10) and we should take more collagen since “collagen degrades in a natural process” (Ting, 2006, para 10).
Additional information: Tobacco
According to the WHO, during childhood and adolescence, tobacco increases the risk of developing certain chronic diseases, high blood pressure which can lead to other risk factors in early adulthood (2003, page. 34). In Fact, tobacco is also one of the huge factors which affect our skin badly. Akimichi Morita, an MD and professor and chairman in department of geriatric and environmental dermatology even writes a whole book on the relationship between tobacco and skin which called “Molecular Basis of Tobacco Smoke-Induced Premature Skin Aging.” Medical Doctor Richard D. Hurt also agrees that smoking can cause wrinkles by explaining that “smoking can speed up the normal aging process of your skin, contributing to wrinkles”(Hurts, 2009, para 2). The Action on Smoking and Health organization explains that “tobacco smoke released into the environment has a drying effect on the skin’s surface” and “smoking restricts blood vessel, it reduces the amount of blood flowing to the skin, thus depleting the skin of oxygen and essential nutrients” (ASH, 2009, para 3).
The above pictures show the study which is done by Louis Chang, a medical doctor who compares smoking and non-smoking twins14 years later… (Right Side: non-smoking twins Left Side: smoking twins)
Conclusion
From all of the evidences given above, we can see the potential link between the skin care diet and the diet which helps to prevent or avoid chronic diseases. Evidences from both sides of the comparison are all relatively trustful since they are written in the current period and came from either reputable organization or expert who is a medical doctor and has Phd on specific area of skin care. However, some other factors which go against each other may be still ignored. More research is needed to be done in order to investigate the link between the diet for skin care and the diet for chronic diseases.
References
Action on Smoking and Health. (2009, November). How Smoking Affects the
Way you Look. Action on Smoking and Health. Retrieved from:
http://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_115.pdf.
Douglas Laboratories. (2003). DEPA—A rich source of long-chain omega-3 fatty
acids. Douglas Labs. Retrieved from:
http://www.douglaslabs.com/pdf/pds/7980.pdf.
Hales, Dianne & Lauzon, Lara. (2010). The Invitation to Health. Toronto:
Wadesworth.
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