To Keep Your Skin Looking Youthful, Improve Your Circulation

Wanting to look youthful does not necessarily mean you want to look as you did as a teen. Nor does it mean you’re trying to stay young. It can also be that you just want to grow older gracefully, and embrace the potential for younger-looking skin. Something that we can do aside from using products; natural or human-made is to improve our circulation.

Having good circulation is crucial for many processes and phases the body goes through; keeping healthy and youthful is one of them.

What exactly is good circulation?

To understand what good circulation is is pretty simple; it is your bodies ability to transport blood about your person successfully. The more successful the process, the better your flow is.

 

What good circulation means for your general health?

Your circulatory system is responsible for carrying oxygenated blood around your body to your vital organs, muscles and cells. Giving them oxygen not only keeps them alive, but it keeps them working at their maximum potential. A healthy blood flow encourages cells to grow and replenish, and your organs to function correctly including the heart which will be under a lot less pressure.

Let’s not forget your brain, having an excellent steady blood flow to your brain helps you concentrate, deal with stressful situations and also keeps your mind sharp.

 

The effects of reduced circulation on the skin

Uneven skin tone

Your blood not only carries oxygen around your body, but it also carries minerals and nutrients that your body needs to remain healthy. A slower circulatory system results in your skin not receiving the vital nutrients it needs to keep glowing. And so results in quite a dull, uneven skin tone, it can also result in anaemia.

If you want to maintain your even complexion, you need to concentrate on how efficient your circulatory system is, and making sure that your skin is receiving the nutrients it needs.

Skin Discolouration

Skin discolouration is not to get confused with an uneven skin tone. From the outside, they can seem like they are quite similar. But, their causes are entirely different. Adding to the delivery of nutrients and minerals via the bloodstream is the addition of hormones and most importantly oxygen. A reduction in the amount of oxygen your skin cells receive can result in a change of pigmentation in the skin, or even worse cell death leaving dark spots.

 

Acne & Inflammation

Now, having poor circulation does not cause acne and inflammation. In fact, it does not directly affect it at all. If the circulation problem becomes bad enough, it will begin to cause problems with your organs. If they do not receive proper blood flow, they throw a tantrum and stop working correctly. Then leaving you with poor digestion and detoxification otherwise known as.. bad news, and also a potentially severe issue.

If the liver and kidneys fail to work as they should, harmful toxins will remain in the body, thus creating chronic inflammation. Eventually the toxins are going to have to be secreted somehow, and unfortunately, it’ll be through your skin.

Decreased ability to heal

Again, this is down nutrient availability and intake. If the blood isn’t flowing right, then your skin isn’t growing. If the necessary hormones and nutrients that the body uses when repairing the skin are no longer available, it becomes near on impossible to heal at a reasonable rate.

Wrinkles & Early Ageing

As previously mentioned one of the crucial steps to help detoxify the body is good blood flow. One of the main reasons we get wrinkles is inflammation and toxification of the skin. If the toxins cannot be removed from the body, we end up with something that causes wrinkling.

Dark eye circles & Puffy eyes

I think we should start calling it the ‘T’ word because the dreaded toxins are back again. Have you noticed your eyes sometimes become red and puffy, and dark circles have appeared or seem to have been around forever? This could be because your liver and kidneys aren’t working correctly due to poor circulation, and therefore not removing toxins from the blood.
All the toxins that are gathering gang up on your body in so many ways and one of them shows under your eyes.

Tips on how to improve your circulation

I hope at this point there is an understanding of just how important having a healthy blood flow around your body is. We often forget how important the miracle that is our skin, and we forget how to look after it. Our face is the first thing that people see, and so it gets all the preferential treatment, but what about the largest organ of your body? How do you look after that? You improve your circulation. You do this by:

Exercising:

Exercising is an excellent way to improve blood flow around your entire body. It also does not necessarily mean having to go down to the gym. You could be doing something as simple as playing with your kids, or your pets at home. Having a walk around the park, that sort of thing. Anything that gets your heart beating faster than usual will help.

 

Mix it up in the shower:

Alternating between hot & cold showers may sound horrible, but your body will love you for it. It stands as not only a great way to improve your circulation, but also to help with depression, hormone imbalances and the functionality of your immune system. (You could also take this opportunity to dry body brush before hand)

 

Have a look at your diet:

There are many foods out there that taste delicious but do absolutely nothing for your health (I should know-tut!) or if anything makes it worse. Foods high in saturated fats, cholesterol and carbohydrates are all going to make the heart work so much harder. Following a healthier lifestyle (really need to start taking my own advice- tut tut) will help your blood flow, but also may help you feel a bit more energetic in your day to day activities.

With so many aspects of life that are outside of our control, it is nice to feel in control of something. Let that something be your health. We should always want to stay on top of our health both internally and externally. Improving and maintaining good circulation is a great start.

 

 

 

Image credits:

Featured:

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2: https://dailyhealthpost.com/

3: www.massagecentral.com.au

4: http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/1093915/signs-of-poor-circulation

5: http://acnetreatmentguidelines.com/conscious-about-your-acne/

6: http://www.club-cleo.com/facial-ageing/

7: http://c.mi.com/thread-117923-1-0.html

8: http://blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com/tag/strength-training/

9: https://theabuadtimeline.com/2016/05/23/5-bad-shower-habits-to-get-rid-of-for-better-skin/

10: http://www.womansday.com/health-fitness/nutrition/news/a53214/best-healthy-diets-2016/