Posts Tagged ‘Aging’

Sleep ‘n Beauty

Posted on November 21st, 2008 by Rob under Uncategorized

Early to bed,
Early to rise,
Makes a man
Healthy, Wealthy and wise.

But the saying should add—younger looking too!

I write this after a roller coaster ride on wall street this week. No one I know is sleeping well and everyone is afraid that their job is on the line.

One thing I am sure of: like all cycles, these bad times will end. However, the stress of the times and what it does to your skin may not! You see – every night when you go to bed, the levels of a stress hormone called Cortisol goes down. Conversely, diminished sleep and added stress makes the level in your bloodstream rise.

What does cortisol do to you? Well, Cortisol modulates many bodily functions: it effects your ability to think, to reason, to love, but most importantly it affects your skin and youthful looks. The most important thing to keeping your skin looking and feeling young is to keep the content of collagen and elastin in your skin high. When you were a baby, collagen and elastin levels were extremely high in your skin hence the term “soft as a baby’s bottom”. But if you can read this, those levels are getting lower each and every day. One of the enzymes that assists in reducing the levels of collagen and elastin is called metalloprotease. This bad enzyme which makes you look older, goes up as cortisol rises. Thus, lower the cortisol level and you lower the level of metalloprotease and subsequently collagen and elastin rise – this means healthier, younger looking skin. A great example of what not to do is to become the president of the United States. That sleepless, thankless, stressful job makes everyone age rapidly during their term. I guess the reason presidencies only last 4 years was to give president’s skin a chance to recover.

In the end, the more sleep you get the better you look.That advice is the cheapest advice on beauty that you will ever get on this Blog!

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