Every year, women are paying hundreds to thousands of dollars for high-end facials and creams, but biologically speaking, nothing can really outdo the effects of simple activities like exercise, meditation, and getting the beauty sleep you need for the skin. They are the three life habits that prevent acne and make you more resistant to aging, and in this lesson, we’ll go over why.

Exercise

Moving your body is critical for beauty because it stimulates the blood flow to bring nutrients to your skin. In addition to bringing nourishment to your skin, exercise lowers cortisol, which is the stress hormone behind breakouts.

It also stimulates lymphatic drainage, which is so underrated because a lot people don’t recognize how important it is to keep our elimination pathways clear in order to prevent toxins from sitting in our bodies. Our lymph nodes are responsible for remove waste from cells.

While a congested lymphatic system won’t be the underlying cause of acne, it can certainly make acne worse and accelerate the aging process because waste hangs out in your body longer than it should. That’s why it really important to move your body because a stimulated lymph system can support clear and youthful skin.

Studies show that exercise can also greatly increase insulin sensitivity. Increased insulin sensitivity means you are protecting yourself against hormonal imbalances that lead to breakouts. Any type of physical activity has the potential to increase insulin sensitivity, but studies have shown that resistance training, or weight training, appears to have the greatest effect because it focuses on building muscle, which is what burns glucose even when you’re not working out. So having more muscle is better because it reduces blood glucose levels faster, thereby increasing insulin sensitivity, which will ultimately help to get you clear. 

Research has also shown that working out has an impact on your gut microbiome by increasing levels of good bacteria that reduce inflammation throughout your body. Participants in a test study exercised for 30-60 minutes three times a week over a total of six weeks, and successfully got their gut microbiome to improve for the better. However, once they stopped working out, researchers found that their microbiome reverted back to how they were before the period of exercise. In conclusion, we need to be consistent if we want to keep the gut benefits. Having a strong microbiome ultimately means you’re protecting yourself from the bad bacteria that triggers acne.

Not only does exercise help prevent breakouts, working out is also a very potent anti-aging activity. It protects your skin’s cellular DNA, making it more resistant to aging.

Exercising will impact our telomeres, which are biological compounds on the ends of our DNA that protect our genetic information from harm. In a study, participants who exercised an average of 200 minutes a week had longer, healthier telomeres, the equivalent to 10 years younger, than the people who worked out less than 16 minutes a week.

These telomeres on the ends of our DNA naturally shorten as we age. If telomeres get too short, DNA gets damaged and our genetic information gets destroyed, resulting in cellular shutdown so they cannot be renewed. That’s why you want longer telomeres, which are associated with youthfulness and longevity.

But before you hit the gym, I want to share with you this routine for acne prone skin. Always wash your face before and immediately after a workout. Because sweating opens your pores, not washing your face before will allow the oils, dirt, and pollution you’ve accumulated throughout the day to sink into your skin, causing breakouts. Not washing your face after working out allows the toxins you’ve worked hard to purge out of your body to sit on your skin! Also, I would advise to always use a separate clean towel to wipe off sweat, specifically just for your face.

While there are many skin benefits to working out, pushing yourself too hard will increase cortisol levels in your body and trigger inflammation. If you don’t allow your body to heal in between workouts, that will also trigger inflammation. How much is too much exercise depends on the person, but if you’re starting to feel a lot of stress and dread before a workout routine, it probably means you’re efforts will be counterproductive for the skin because you’re pushing yourself too hard. Never underestimate the power of moderate forms of exercise on the skin.

Meditation & Prayer

Another beauty habit that doesn’t get the attention it deserves is the power of mediation and prayer. Multiple studies have proven that reliance on faith can improve mental well-being. Meditation is now gaining popularity in the U.S. but it’s also been practiced in Eastern cultures for centuries. From what we know about stress levels and acne, mental well-being is another cornerstone to clear and youthful skin.

Meditation and prayer can help to relax the mind and has been proven to lower cortisol, which is the powerful stress hormone behind breakouts. Cortisol is also the natural enemy of collagen, because it breaks down the connective tissue that keeps your complexion firm. So reducing these cortisol levels will also slow down the aging process.

Mediation also trains your mind to be focused on the present, which prevents you from going off into worrying about factors out of your control in the past or future. New research has shown that our minds can technically only focus on one thing at time before quickly switching to another. That’s why focusing on one thought is so powerful, because it makes you more effective as it displaces all the others from your mind.      

Not only does meditation reduce cortisol levels that can damage our collagen, it fights aging on a DNA level by lengthening telomeres. Again, telomeres are the ends of DNA that protect us from genetic damage, and they naturally shorten as we age. If they get too short, cell becomes inactive where it can no longer renew itself. That’s why longer telomeres are associated with youthfulness and longevity.

And there’s actual clinical evidence that shows the effect of meditation on telomere length – for example, In a study performed at UCLA, meditation not only increased mental well-being, it also increased levels of a compound called telomerase in test subjects by 43%. Telomerase is the enzyme that repairs our telomeres.

What’s even more interesting is that meditation was shown to be almost 40% more effective at increasing telomerase levels than through relaxation by listening to music. 

Because telomerase repairs the telomeres on ends of our DNA that protect us from cellular damage, the more you have of this enzyme, the more resistant to aging you will be. 

Beauty Sleep

And last but not least, to have clear and youthful, we must get enough sleep – It’s called ‘beauty sleep’ for a reason. Lack of sleep can be related to stress, having overactive thoughts, a busy schedule, or simply worrying that you can’t sleep! Chronic sleep deprivation accelerates the aging process and makes you more acne prone, so here are some reasons to make it a priority.  

There’s already a strong body of research that suggests getting enough sleep will help reduce inflammation, which is our number one enemy against clear skin. Studies have shown that when sleep is restricted for 24 hours or more, inflammatory activity elevates in the body.

Sleep repairs DNA damage that occurs every day through exposure of UV rays. Studies have shown that drooping skin and fine lines can appear only after a few days of sleep deprivation.

Night-time is also the primetime when our bodies form the most collagen to maintain the connective tissue that keeps our skin tight and firm. Although our cells renew throughout the night, the peak time for cell rejuvenation is during the first hours of the night between 10pm and 2am.

Sleep loss also increases cortisol levels, leading to collagen damage and increased oil production in the skin. So how many hours of sleep should you aim for? While exactly how much sleep you need is personal, most studies agree 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night is optimal.

Not only should we care about the number of hours, we should also care about when we get to sleep because sleep cycles are not created equal. Doctors believe that the most restorative cycle of our sleep occurs during the first hours of the night starting at 10pm, and this window of our most rejuvenating sleep ends at about 2am. So to take advantage of those deep restorative cycles, aim to sleep or to get into bed by 10pm.

If you’re consistently depriving yourself of the most restorative sleep cycle between 10 p.m. – 2 a.m., then you might feel fatigued when you wake up even if you sleep in to make up for lost hours. So if you are currently falling asleep past 10 p.m., be intentional about sleeping earlier by 15-30 minutes each week until you hit the 10 p.m. goal.

So how can you get better sleep?

Our body naturally produces melatonin, a youth-boosting hormone and antioxidant, to order to help us fall asleep.

Our brain is able to sense the change in light as it is received through your eyes and when it starts to get darker, that’s when your body beings to secrete melatonin. Usually, within one to two hours after sunset, you’ll start to feel drowsy and that’s when you know your melatonin levels are naturally rising, signaling you to go to sleep. It’s a light-sensitive hormone, so exposure to bright light prevents your body from producing the melatonin you need to fall asleep naturally.

Studies show that blue light emission from phone and tablet use at night can cut down melatonin production by 22%. Since melatonin is a youth-boosting hormone and antioxidant, you want to maximize your natural production of this hormone. So it’s best to turn them off 2 hours before sleeping. If you absolutely, cannot resist looking at your phone, some newer smartphone models have nighttime display settings that greatly reduce the levels of blue light emission that can keep you awake.

In the US, you can also buy over the counter melatonin supplements to help you fall asleep if your natural cycle is being disrupted and you have difficulties falling asleep. If you opt in for melatonin supplements, take 1-3mg one hour before bedtime. Melatonin supplements are safe sleep aids and they will definitely help you get a restful night. Simple changes in life, like getting quality sleep, can really carry you far on your journey to clear skin. Beauty sleep, meditation & prayer, and exercise all have a huge impact, and the combined effectiveness on the skin is much larger than what many beauty-industry giants want you to believe!

Featured photo by Haute Stock