Beauty & Longevity
With all of the talk about antioxidants and vitamins for preventing skin from prematurely aging, minerals often get lost in the shuffle, but many people ask what are the best minerals for skin health and how can they get more of each? Minerals are considered important for both beauty and longevity because they play a crucial role in maintaining healthy cellular function, protecting against oxidative stress, supporting collagen production, and promoting overall bodily health, which translates to healthy skin, hair, and a longer lifespan by mitigating the effects of aging.
Antioxidant properties: combat free radicals that damage cells and contribute to wrinkles and signs of aging.
Collagen synthesis: collagen is a protein vital for skin elasticity and youthfulness.
Skin repair and protection: Maintain healthy skin barrier function, protecting against environmental damage and promote healing.
Cellular function: Minerals are crucial for various cellular processes, including DNA repair and energy production, which are important for overall health and longevity.
Bone health: Some minerals are vital for strong bones, which can impact mobility and quality of life as we age.
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ZINC
At the top of every list of minerals for good skin health is zinc. It’s critical for collagen production, which prevents skin aging and thinning of the skin. Zinc is also extremely important for helping wounds heal. This applies not only to an injury or wound, but also for skin cell regeneration and repair. Zinc plays a prominent role in helping the body balance sugar levels and metabolism, and it also plays a key role in overall immunity. In addition, zinc has a role in preventing skin aging thanks to its own antioxidant properties. On top of its antioxidant properties, zinc acts as an anti-inflammatory, which helps to prevent or reduce skin inflammatory issues like acne, eczema and rosacea. Another role that zinc plays in the skin is that it helps to regulate the production of sebum, which is the oil secreted by the skin pores and follicles. Because of this, it helps to regulate overly oily skin.
SELENIUM
For healthy hormone production, nothing beats selenium, which is also a potent antioxidant. It works on skin elasticity and flexibility as well. In addition, selenium is an effective anti-inflammatory, helping to prevent damage to healthy skin cells. You can get selenium from Brazil nuts, sardines, and other cold-water fish. Selenium is mostly known for benefitting your thyroid and metabolic function, but it's also important for the overall health of your skin. This trace mineral is also an antioxidant and, as such, can help fight oxidative stress caused by free radicals and may help prevent wrinkles.
COPPER
Copper is another key mineral, as it enhances the function of antioxidants and works with zinc and vitamins to help create elastin, the protein that keeps skin flexible and firm. Copper helps stabilize and synthesize skin proteins, including collagen. Together collagen and elastin are the building blocks of youthful skin.
MAGNESIUM
Magnesium maintain skin hydration and can combat inflammation and has long been touted for its central role in promoting healthy bones, teeth, hair, and muscles. But perhaps it’s best known for it’s role in keeping the nervous system healthy. In fact, it’s often referred to as the “anti-stress mineral,” because it helps calm our nervous system by putting it into a relaxed state using enzyme activity.
When our bodies are stressed, our adrenal glands produce cortisol, which uses up a variety of vitamins including C, B, and magnesium, which are all important for not only good health, but good skin as well. By consuming and applying magnesium, our bodies can respond to stressful situations more efficiently, reducing the chance of oxidative stress doing damage to our skin.
Here’s something else to consider: when you have a deficiency of magnesium, your body responds with poor digestion and poor sleep, which both work to prevent optimal health and prevent you from having youthful, healthy, and glowing skin.
CALCIUM
Remember your mother reminding you to “drink your milk?” Well, she had the right idea, because milk is high in calcium, also known as vitamin D. Calcium is very important for bone and organ health, and skin is the largest organ in your body!
Most people get their vitamin D from sunlight, but just be sure not to overdo sun exposure or you risk damaging your skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays. Another benefit of calcium is that has antimicrobial properties, which is critical to promoting the skin barrier and defending the skin cells beneath it.
Studies have shown that calcium can also provide photoprotection. When vitamin D was topically applied to skin cells prior to exposure to UV radiation from the sun, there was decreased DNA damage, decreased erythema and increased cell survival. This is key to battling free radicals and oxidative stress damage.
Calcium also plays a key role in promoting wound healing and tissue repair. Lack of calcium can lead to a variety of skin disorders including psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, acne, rosacea, and others.
VITAMIN K2D3
Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin, as one of the ways we synthesize it is from exposure to sunshine. But vitamin D is also a powerful anti-aging vitamin, extended with longevity and a possible reduction in diseases and illnesses related to aging.
Research has also shown that vitamin D is effective in preventing premature aging by protecting the skin from ultraviolet light, one of the most common causes of wrinkles and lines.
And while vitamin D’s effects on aging have long gone unrecognized, new research is showing that the sunshine vitamin is much more powerful than previously thought, with a 2016 study discovering that vitamin D has the power to extend the median lifespan by 33%.
OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS
Omega-3 fats are healthy fats that can support longevity via improved heart, brain, and overall health. They are considered essential nutrients, as our body cannot make them on our own.
Omega-3 anti-aging benefits show their potential to increase life expectancy. Studies show consuming more omega-3’s reduces the natural shortening of telomeres with age. Telomeres are DNA structures that, when shortened, are associated with an increased risk of aging and cell senescence ,which leads to abnormal cell activity.
While we can get omega 3’s from foods like fatty fish and some nuts and seeds, many don't eat enough of these foods regularly. For people who lack these essential nutrients in their diet, a supplement can help ensure adequate intake.
B VITAMINS
There are several types of B vitamins, known as B-complex vitamins, and many are considered longevity nutrients.
Vitamin B anti-aging benefits include supporting brain health and reducing cardiovascular disease risk. One research study showed a member of the vitamin B3 family called nicotinamide riboside boosted a crucial enzyme in our cells that could slow the aging process.
B12 is another B vitamin tied to longevity. It plays a key role in helping the mitochondria to produce energy. It is essential for maintaining nerve health, aiding in the production of DNA and red blood cells, and contributing to the proper functioning of the brain and nervous system.
Due to decreasing stomach acid as we age, our ability to absorb another B vitamin - vitamin B12 - declines over time. Because of this, supplementing with B vitamins, particularly B12, may be beneficial as we get older, to prevent deficiency.
