Over the Counter Natural Cures (3 page)

What's the worst thing about aging? Wrinkles. The first thing we see in the morning, wrinkles are a daily reminder that we are getting old. And that's discouraging. Corporate America leverages this discouragement to rake in billions of dollars.

An array of so-called antiwrinkle cures in the form of lotions, sunblock, and cosmetic surgeries exist. Yet very few of them fulfill the promise of helping our skin age beautifully. In fact, many of them accelerate wrinkling or, in the case of medical operations, leave us looking “old with surgery.” This is what motivated me to uncover the simplest, safest, and most inexpensive way to wake up with younger-looking skin. And I found it.

In addition to helping your skin age beautifully, the principles taught in this chapter also help protect you from the ravages of skin cancer, diabetic neuropathy, memory loss, and even an aging heart. You won't have to make an appointment with your doctor; you won't have to shell out hundreds of dollars; and you won't have to hide from the sun.

But don't take my word for it. Apply what you learn in these pages, and test it yourself. I'm certain that after a few weeks, your friends and family
will be commenting on how great you look while secretly wondering,
What are you doing to look so good?
At the same time, you'll notice a
welcome boost in energy, mood, and mental focus.

THE BIOLOGICAL FIASCO: UNDERSTANDING YOUR SKIN

Skin is the largest organ of your body. It covers about 16 square feet and weighs approximately 8 pounds. With unceasing collaboration, your skin cells perform lifesaving functions that protect you from toxic chemicals, heat, and cold. Most important, they collaborate to keep us healthy by shielding our insides from the invasion of foreign bacteria and viruses. If we don't protect our skin, this collaboration ceases. First come wrinkles, then cancer. Fortunately, this biological fiasco can be prevented naturally. Let's look at how skin damage occurs.

FREE RADICALS AND OXYGEN SHOCK

Skin cells, like all healthy cells, are rich in oxygen. When your skin is exposed to the sun, high-energy rays collide with the skin. The collision, akin to a bowling ball hitting pins, causes the oxygen molecules in your skin cells to each lose an energy-stabilizing electron. With the loss of an electron, the oxygen molecule becomes unstable. This instability is known scientifically as a free radical, and it's highly reactive within the skin and the molecular components responsible for keeping it looking vibrantly young and cancer free.

Free radicals are completely normal. In fact, they are essential to the immune system. They help to eradicate foreign bacteria and viruses that may pass through the skin. Once free radicals do their job within a cell, they are quenched—or rather controlled—by free radical scavengers known as antioxidants.

Unlike other cellular content, antioxidants are electron rich and, therefore, can donate their electrons to electron-deficient free radicals—like a rich banker lends or donates money. This “natural intelligence” of antioxidants keeps our outer layer looking vibrantly healthy, while warding off premature wrinkles and skin cancer.

But if antioxidants are not plentiful, the cell undergoes oxidative stress, which I call “oxygen shock.” Free radicals are no longer halted by antioxidants, so they begin to attack the main structural component of skin known as collagen. This is bad news for anyone who values vibrantly healthy skin. A phenomenon known as cross-linking—a fancy name for wrinkling—occurs. Instead of sliding smoothly across each other, collagen molecules that succumb to oxygen shock get jammed together, making your skin rigid and immobile. What was once smooth and supple can become like a cracked, desert floor—adding age to your features.

To understand oxygen shock, consider its everyday occurrence in other areas. Such examples include the browning of an apple after it is sliced, a nail rusting in the open air, and the formation of rancid food. These processes are all mediated by oxygen-free radicals that go unregulated due to lack of antioxidants. The same type of damage occurs among nutrient-deficient skin cells when the number of free radicals being produced exceeds the number of health-preserving antioxidants.

The message here is that sun exposure and free radicals themselves are not dangerous. They are an everyday part of life—the inescapable by-products of living in an oxygen-rich world. Free radicals only become dangerous when their production exceeds the number of health-preserving antioxidants. The oxygen shock that ensues gives rise to a biological fiasco that leads to the crow's feet and wrinkly brows we all fear. But that's not the end of the story.

As oxygen shock continues, free radicals attack more than just collagen. Vital cellular components that guarantee proper cell and skin function are targeted. If this process is left unchecked, cancer can arise.

WHEN WRINKLES BECOME CANCEROUS

In addition to attacking collagen, oxygen shock can initiate a cascade of insults and accidents within skin cells. This can lead to three distinct types of cellular damage.
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Understanding these types of damage is crucial to your quest for younger-looking, cancer-free skin.

First, cumulative damage may occur to a skin cell's genetic blueprint—deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, as we usually call it. This can prevent the cell from knowing when to stop growing like a steroid-ridden bodybuilder.

Second, damage may occur to the cellular system responsible for repairing damage to our genetic map. Miraculously, every cell stores a “template” used to make a new map when (not if) our DNA becomes damaged. The oxidation process can erase this template from cellular memory, preventing restoration.

And third, oxygen shock can damage molecules responsible for interpreting our genetic blueprint. When a gene from DNA is “expressed,” or activated, its DNA sequence is copied into a “messenger RNA” molecule. (Think of this molecule as an interpreter.) The messenger RNA uses the DNA sequence to interpret and direct proper cellular function. But when this process is compromised, cell function ceases.

The end result of all three types of damage is a rogue skin cell known technically as a malignancy. A single malignant cell among trillions can become the biological superpower we know as skin cancer. Rather than collaborating to ensure proper function, a malignant skin cell is granted a host of superpowers that it uses to overcome the entire body.

To acquire allies in its war against younger, cancer-free skin cells, malignant cells replicate faster than healthy ones. They learn to invade other regions of the body, while at the same time becoming invisible to our immune system. These superpowers enable a malignancy to convert the human body into a playground for infection and disease. Skin deteriorates rapidly.

But don't freak out—you can beat this diabolic process. And you don't have to fear the sun and slather on sunblock to do so.

THE SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT SUNSHINE

If you stopped a hundred health professionals and asked them, “What causes premature wrinkles and skin cancer?” what do you think they would say? Overlooking the phenomenon of oxygen shock, the vast majority of them would instantly tell you, “The sun.” Most would go into a long-winded, nerdy explanation of how sunshine and free radicals lead to unsightly wrinkles and even skin cancer. If you didn't fall asleep, you would walk away vowing to never again expose yourself to the Death Ray we know as the sun. Logic always trumps this argument.

We have lived under the same sun for millennia. The rate of skin cancer has just begun to grow rapidly—and it has been increasing every year. In the United States, the rate has doubled over the past thirty years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). A grand total of 1.1 million Americans are expected to be diagnosed with some form of skin cancer this year, according to the CDC.
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Worldwide, the skin cancer rate per thousand people is also increasing. While skin cancer has become a growing threat, the sun has remained unchanged in its actions. Logic dictates that the increased incidence of skin cancer cannot solely be explained by exposure to the sun.

Critics of this argument will cite ozone depletion as the cause of the
increasing skin cancer rate. But if ozone depletion were the cause of skin cancer, then people living close to the equator would be eaten alive by sunshine. Here's why: ozone depletion has been purported to increase exposure to ultraviolet sun rays by up to 20 percent. That might seem like a lot, until you consider that as you travel from pole to equator or go on a tropical vacation, UV exposure can increase by 5,000 percent, according to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration!
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This is due to the changing angle at which the sun's rays penetrate the atmosphere. Still though, the so-called UV Death Ray doesn't harm those who are living under it. In fact, skin cancer rates are lower among people who live in regions with strong UV exposure.

One of the best ways to avoid oxygen shock is to use nutrient logic. Learning to consume the right nutrients will help your body stop oxygen shock before it leads to the biological fiasco of wrinkles and cancer. This is your best bet for having vibrant, glowing skin.

 

NUTRIENT LOGIC KEEPS SKIN LOOKING VIBRANT AND YOUNG

I didn't always want to be a chemist. Being a rock star was at the top of my list. But I can't sing to save my life. I can't even hold an instrument properly. And large crowds make me anxious. Fortunately, as my college years progressed, I learned that I was good at one thing: rote memorization. This allowed me to get through college successfully, without too much hardcore studying. This talent even helped me earn a scholarship for graduate school in organic chemistry and eventually a well-paying job, with great stock options, for a top pharmaceutical company. Turns out, having a single talent can get you far. The same is true for antioxidants.

Most antioxidants have a single action that benefits the human body. For instance, vitamin E (all-natural) works solely as a fat-solubleantioxidant. This helps it operate with the cell membrane to protect the membrane from oxygen shock. Without vitamin E, squishy cell membranes suffer from oxygen shock and become brittle and unresponsive to nutrient absorption. Vitamin E–deficient cells age prematurely.

Vitamin C (from acerola) is another well-known antioxidant. It acts solely as a water-soluble antioxidant that maintains iron content within the water environment of the body. This action is crucial for the preservation of enzymes (molecules that ensure proper biochemical reactions) and collagen, which is vital for proper cardiovascular function.

ALA is different from both vitamins E and C. ALA is good at more than just one thing. And this makes it the best choice to use for nutrient logic and to have awesome-looking skin.

THE MULTITALENTED ANTIOXIDANT

With ease, the antioxidant alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) protects both the water and fat environments of the body from oxygen shock. While the other
antioxidants are good, this is what makes ALA great. The multifaceted talents of ALA allow it to ward off oxygen shock more effectively than any other antioxidant.

What if, in a matter of weeks, you could erase excess wrinkles and help your skin take on a vibrant glow? ALA can help you do just that. It's your best bet for a natural face-lift. Acting as a molecular cosmetic surgeon, ALA activates a transcription factor known as AP-1.
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If you don't have ALA in your diet, wrinkles come on like gangbusters. But in the name of nutrient logic, ALA helps your body put AP-1 into overdrive. Working in unison, AP-1 and ALA promote the digestion of damaged, wrinkle-inducing collagen that results from previous oxygen shock.

In sharp contrast, if we deprive our bodies of ALA, AP-1 increases oxygen shock within the skin cells. This, in turn, makes the cells produce collagen-damaging and micro-scarring enzymes! Hence, as a preventive measure, ALA works within the skin cells to keep them from undergoing oxygen shock and collagen damage. The teamwork of these two antiwrinkle agents isn't the only skin-rejuvenating mechanism at work. ALA also preserves and strengthens our cells' ability to rid themselves of harmful toxins that can get jammed into collagen.

Our skin is bombarded with toxins. Like oxygen shock, each one of them shatters collagen. The most common toxins include mercury, lead acetate, petroleum distillates, ethylacrylate, polyethylene glycol, and dibutyl phthalate. Whether they are inhaled, sprayed, or slathered on your skin via perfumes and skin-care products, these collagen twisters age your skin prematurely. In an attempt to fight back, the body produces a cellular cleaning lady. Known as glutathione, she attaches to toxins, makes them water soluble, and then escorts them out of the skin and into the toilet. But without nutrient logic, courtesy of ALA, this cleaning lady fails to show up. Skin gets old fast.

Biological cleaning ladies aren't made out of thin air. Glutathione is derived from a molecular substrate known as cysteine. When we supplement with ALA, we enhance the amount of this building block. The cleaning lady glutathione starts working overtime. Heavy detox follows. She goes right to work and cleanses foreign toxins from the skin. Your collagen is preserved. And when you're at your thirtieth high-school reunion, old friends will compliment you on how great your skin looks. To further attain the highly revered look of youth, you'll want to learn how to stop age spots by avoiding foods that scar skin forever.