Is Drinking Our Supplements The Answer To Younger, Fresher Skin?

Now that I have reached the age of 52, I'm on a mission to find ways in which I can stay looking younger for longer - without necessarily going under the surgeon's knife.

I recently wrote about some of the non-surgical treatments available but these will only have a temporary effect if your diet, and your lifestyle in general is not up to scratch.

In our menopausal years we face the double-whammy of hormonal upheaval both mentally and physically. Our skin becomes less firm and begins to sag.  Our hair loses colour and becomes coarser or thinner and our nails become weaker and more brittle.

It's not surprising then that the old adage about a woman having to choose between her face and her figure after a certain age makes sense because we have to decide whether to lose those stubborn middle-age pounds that we can gain or keep them and maintain a relatively plump and unlined face!

A sensible diet with the right balance of protein, carbs and healthy fats plus lots of fruit, veggies and water has been drummed into us all daily.  But if you are still working and raising kids, it's not so easy to spend time in the kitchen pursuing the latest 'clean eating' strategy, substituting digestive biscuits for almonds and covering everything in Chia seeds.

It's not just the cooking either.  It's the organisation needed, the planning, the shopping and, with many of these diets, the cost.

And, much though we would like to pretend we are all nutritionists (unfortunately buying a Nutribullet does not automatically give you that qualification), how do we know we are getting the right balance of vitamins and minerals?

As we get older, the needs of our bodies change and there are a number of supplements which are recommended to help protect against ageing.

You may have heard of some of these, such as Hyaluronic Acid, which plays an important role in skin hydration and stimulates the production of collagen in the skin.  The bad news is that by the time we're in our mid-40s we are producing roughly half the amount of Hyaluronic Acid we need with the consequences of wrinkles and thinning hair.

Then there's Glucosamine which occurs naturally in our body as part of our cartilage and when used as a supplement can treat UV damaged skin and hyper-pigmentation, and Biotin (also known as Vitamin H) which supports the B vitamins in our bodies to correctly metabolise our food so that we can extract the nutrients we need from it.  As a supplement, Biotin helps with hair loss and dry or scaling skin.

I often joke that my favourite liquid supplement is red wine because of the anti-aging effects of the mysterious compound it contains - Resveratrol - which is also found in nuts.  It is a renowned anti-inflammatory agent and an antioxidant that helps repair the damge 'free radicals' do to our skin.

Free radicals are generated by our bodies when we convert food to energy and, broadly speaking, they are toxic compounds which can start a chain reaction causing cells to function poorly or die.

Too much red wine, of course, is horrendously dehydrating and I don't know about you but one large glass tends to be my limit as I find any more and the hangover I get seems far worse than it did in my youth!

Have you got the time to make sure you have the right amount of anti-oxidants each day?

So short of spending an arm and a leg in the supermarket loading up our trolley with berries or at our local natural health store buying a wide range of supplements (don't forget Vitamins C and E or Selenium), is there a way we can quickly top up our supplies of these without the expense of buying multiple bottles of different supplements?

Liquid supplements offer a convenient solution to this problem and there is a wide variety of these available in combinations to suit any number of healthcare issues, particularly for those of us in the 40+ age group. Liquid supplements have the advantage of being quickly absorbed and easy to take.  The last vitamin supplements I bought in tablet form were so big I had difficulty swallowing them!

Are liquid supplements effective?  It certainly seems so.  Some research has suggested that only 3-20% of vitamins and minerals in tablet form are absorbed by the body whereas a whopping 98% of liquid vitamins are absorbed because digestive processing is bypassed and they enter your bloodstream within minutes.

This may well be a more effective approach to anti-ageing skincare than relying on face creams alone, no matter how much sunscreen we diligently apply or whatever the latest miracle serum claims to do.

It all depends on your lifestyle and budget, of course, but an excellent skincare regime supported by skin-enhancing liquid supplements may well reduce the need for more intrusive skincare treatments - and will certainly benefit our overall health, not just our complexions.

You can find out more about liquid supplements here.