Part II of How to Avoid the Need for Cosmetic Plastic Surgery

In part I of How to Avoid the Need for Cosmetic Plastic Surgery, we looked at a couple of simple products to help protect your skin against the effects of sun and age: sunscreen and moisturizer.

In part II, we’ll look at some simple – not necessarily easy – but simple lifestyle changes to help preserve your youthful visage, at any age.

Lifestyle choices

Exercise More

Exercise helps protects your skin the way it helps protect every other organ in your body: it helps remove the accumulation of free radicals in the body.

How much should you exercise?  A recent study in the journal of JAMA Internal Medicine found that you need only 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise, though 450 minutes per week, or a little more than an hour per day, which can be accomplished with activity no more vigorous than walking, is the ideal amount — see The Right Dose of Exercise for a Longer Life.

Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Sleep has a powerful restorative effect on all organs of the body, including the skin, where it restores optimal collagen production and cell repair.

Unfortunately, we are not getting enough sleep — so few of us, in fact, that the CDC has declared our collective lack of sleep both an epidemic and a public hazard.

If you’re not getting enough sleep, try mindfulness meditation: a recent clinical trial published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that those with moderate sleep problems who practiced mindfulness meditation improved their sleep more than those who practiced good sleep hygiene.

If you have a serious sleep problem, however, you should instead first see your doctor to rule out any underlying physical causes; if you have no underlying physical issue, then you should get proactive and make a plan, because chronic sleep deprivation takes a steep toll on both your physical and mental health.

Stop Smoking! Just Stop It!

Smoking pumps massive amounts of free radicals into your blood stream, eventually taking a toll on just about every organ in your body, including your skin, wrinkling and prematurely ageing it.

It is tough to quit smoking  — but the stakes for your health could not be higher.

Fortunately, science has made great strides in both understanding addiction and in devising practical strategies to beat it. If you’re struggling to quit, check out these resources:

• The New Science of How to Quit Smoking
• What’s the best way to quit smoking?
• Cigarette Break: The Most Effective Ways to Quit Smoking

Need to Lose Weight? Avoid a Crash Diet

The appeal of crash dieting is that one feels one can get it (dieting) over with as quickly as possible. And this is true: you can lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time, but it comes at a cost —  it’s rough on your body, you can easily gain it all back, and it too takes a toll on your skin, from a sagging face brought on by water loss to a break-down in the skin’s collagen layer due to a shortage of skin-renewal minerals, like zine,  copper and selenium.

The best way to lose weight is to eat smart,  in a way that supports your body, your health and your goals, and we’ve compiled some resources to help you do just that:

• To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More
• Best Weight Loss Advice You’ve Never Heard
• The 6 Weight-Loss Tips That Science Actually Knows Work

In short then, if you want to avoid the need for plastic surgery, get up early, exercise, eat right, and then wind down and get to bed early – all the things your mother probably already told you to do.

In the next part of this series, we’ll look at what you can do, non-surgically, after age and wear & tear have already taken a toll on your skin.