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The Mediterranean Way For Healthy Skin In The Summer  – InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode 552

Hosted by Amanda Williams, MD, MPH.

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InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InViteⓇ Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!†

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 Amanda Williams, MD, MPH. : [00:00:40] The heat of the summer is right around the corner, and for many folks, this means this is your time that you get outdoors and you are staying more active. And I have some tips for you as to how you can make sure that you’re staying hydrated and keeping your skin protected from the sun.†[00:00:55]

[00:00:56] I am Amanda Williams, MD, PMH. Scientific Director at InViteⓇ Health and I absolutely love the summer. They’ve done polling and it varies sometimes Americans as a whole really like spring, other times it’s the fall. But summer is always really consistent throughout the country. People really just enjoy that warmer weather and having more sunshine, especially if you’ve been in an area where you’re you’ve dealt with a long harsh winter. As soon as that sun comes out in the spring and the summer, you just want to get out there and you want to enjoy it. But I want to make sure that you are doing the right things to make sure that your body isn’t taking a beating in the process. And this is really important because at the end of the day if we are exposing ourselves to greater amount of U.V. radiation. We certainly don’t want to accelerate any type of photo aging or making the skin itself age quicker because of sun damage.† [00:01:58]

[00:01:58] So what should you do? Well, most of the time, people think, well, let me just lather on a bunch of SPF. Well, keep in mind that SPF, which is the most common way that people try to protect their skin from the sun, that can create a couple of problems. One, it can actually block your natural absorption of vitamin D, which can be problematic because we certainly understand that vitamin D is critical to so many functions in the human body. It’s actually a hormone so we have to make sure that we always maintain good, healthy, stable levels of vitamin D. The other thing that we know about SPF is all of the chemicals that we are then putting onto our bodies largest organ, which is our skin. So as soon as that SPF and all those chemicals start absorbing in, now your poor liver has to deal with this. So while I’m not saying don’t use SPF, I am trying to encourage you to try to find much cleaner ways to keep your skin safe and protected from the sun’s harmful rays. Because I know you want to get out there and you want to enjoy it, but you want to do it in a very healthy way.†[00:03:04]

[00:03:05] So one thing that we definitely know is that the foods that we can actually provide a natural barrier of U.V. protection. So maybe we don’t even need to run out to our local drugstore and get an SPF that’s loaded down with chemicals. Maybe if we are doing the right things when it comes to the foods that we are eating. Let me just give you an example. There was an interesting study that was published over a decade ago in the Nutritional Review Journal looking at how nutrition can actually yield sun protection. The way that they were addressing this study is analyzing areas in the world where high levels of solar radiation or UV exposure is very high. But then also correlating that to low rates of skin cancers. And in the Mediterranean region in particular, they found this to be very prevalent they found that people in the Mediterranean areas had much higher rates of exposure to UV light, but yet much lower rates of skin cancers. So melanomas, when you think about squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and so what they drew that back to was their dietary intake of antioxidants and vitamins and minerals and all of these powerful phytochemicals, in addition to omega three fatty acids.† [00:04:31]

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[00:04:32] Now, certainly, there have been multiple clinical trials that have shown the importance of staying hydrated from the inside out. So with the use of things like vitamin E and Omega three fatty acids, we know that this can help create this barrier of protection for our skin. We know that UV radiation has really deleterious effects on our skin, and the more we can start to increase our omega three intake the better we do when it comes to offsetting the harmful effect of the sun’s rays. Quite interesting, right? Well, there was a study that was published in the Experimental Dermatology Journal also about a decade ago that looked specifically at this looked at omega three fatty acid intake. So when we think about fish oil or krill oil or maybe you prefer a vegetarian options such as flaxseed, we know that when people have higher intake of those very powerful and essential omega three fatty acids, this actually led to skin protection. So it made the skin less impacted by acute and chronic U.V. exposure. They’ve even done studies showing how dietary fish oil supplementation could actually eliminate or greatly reduce the likelihood of getting sunburns. Which is very interesting. We know that our foods matter. We certainly understand that if we have a strong adherence to a Mediterranean style diet, this is beneficial for every single system in the body, including your skin.† [00:06:10]

[00:06:10] So as we trend into the hotter months where your likelihood of having greater exposure to the sun’s rays, we want to make sure that our diet is also following this pattern of healthiness. So we have to make sure that we include in fresh fruits and vegetables, those green leafy vegetables, those, bright colored berries, all those powerful anthocyanins are certainly very beneficial. When you look at the individual vitamins, vitamin E and vitamin C, we know that that combination of vitamin E and. C certainly leads to a protection against that skin damage that UV rays can actually produce. So this is why we want to have that high intake of those fruits and vegetables. Dietary antioxidant intake is essential when it comes to having this photo protective ability within our skin.† [00:07:05] 

[00:07:06] And of course, we. Always have to make sure that we stay hydrated. So hydration is really quite essential. I always turn to our alkalizer powder, which is a wonderful combination of magnesium, potassium along with the amino acid beta alanine, which is incredibly nourishing to muscles that get kind of fatigued when they’re overworked. Well many times in the warmer months maybe you’re out there and you’re pushing yourself a little harder than you normally would riding your bike or running and you get home at night and you think, Oh gosh, I have muscle cramps. Well, if we start to incorporate in that alkalizer powder during those hot summer months, this many times can minimize that potential of stripping the electrolytes out of your muscles. And this is always key. So hydration has to come down to being cognizant of the fact that we have to have a good intake of water from the minute we wake up to the minute we go to bed. This is very important because during the hot, humid months we have more of a tendency to lose a lot more fluid than we actually recognize. I’m not talking about just pure out sweating. We lose a lot of that hydration and many times people aren’t quite aware of that and you can get yourself to a point where you are slightly dehydrated or worse than that fully dehydrated.† [00:08:28]

[00:08:29] And this can really lead to significant problems of electrolyte imbalances. So water, water, water, this is important. Not drinking sugary beverages so put away the sodas, the sugary juices. Those are not going to be your friend, certainly during the hot, humid months. So you can always look, as people oftentimes say, I don’t like to drink water, I don’t like the taste of water. And I always say, well, water is not supposed to have a taste, but if you are a flavor type of a person and you want to have that punch of taste, then I would certainly look at incorporating in things like the Oranges HxⓇ, or the Purples HxⓇ, which are loaded down with powerful anthocyanins coming from fruit and vegetable extracts. So we’re going to be powering up all of those vitamins and minerals, those powerful phytochemicals and antioxidants, to give our skin that protection once again from that UV damage. We know that the power of carotenoids is really essential when it comes to being able to fend off all of that harmful light. This is also true when we think about our eyes this is why things like lutein and zeaxanthin are so essential to protect our eyeballs from the blue light damage that comes off of your computer screen or from your cell phone.† [00:09:47]

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[00:09:47] Well, we also want to make sure that we include foods. That are high in those carotenoids, those are your orange colored fruits and vegetables. So power up on all those green leafy vegetables, your berries, of course the orange pigmented fruits and vegetables during the summer. And stay hydrated. This is all very important to make sure that we don’t increase our chances of photo aging. We don’t want to accelerate the aging of our skin just because we want to spend some more time out in the sun.† [00:10:19]

[00:10:20] So that’s all. That I have for you for today. I want to thank you so much for tuning. In to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting invitehealth.com/podcast. Now do make sure that you subscribe and you leave a review. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at InViteⓇ Health and we will see you next time. For another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.† [00:10:20]

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