06.01.2021 •

Why You Should Protect Your Skin and How to Do It

Your skin—it protects you, so protect it. With summer just around the corner, you’ll want to do everything under the sun (wearing a big hat, of course) to shield your skin from the harsh elements. With a little preventative care and some helpful habits, you can safeguard your skin from damage, keeping it healthy and looking and feeling great for years to come.

There’s no doubt about it, when it comes to getting your vitamin D fix, nothing quite compares to the sun. But as with everything in life, a little too much of a good thing, can be…well, not so good.

The sun produces two kinds of skin-ravaging rays—ultraviolet A (UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB). While both of the terrible twins can cause cancer, UVA can reduce the elasticity of your skin, cause wrinkles and liver spots, with UVB doing its own number on your skin, causing sunburn and dryness.

Sun damage can creep up on you. Over time, prolonged exposure can wreak havoc on your skin that can not only create noticeable changes to the skin, but also lead to serious and deadly diseases.

What can you do to protect your skin from the sun?

It’s never too late to jump on the skin-protecting bandwagon. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to guard against the damaging effects of the sun. Some of the proactive tips you can do include:

  • Cover up with clothes that have an Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF)

  • Wear a wide-brim hat to protect your head, face, and neck

  • Sport sunglasses that protect against UV light

  • Limit your sun exposure time when the sun is at its strongest, between 11am and 3pm

  • Slather on that sunscreen and reapply every two hours

  • Keep tabs on the side effects of any medications you are taking that may increase your sensitivity to sunlight

Take Reishi Mushrooms

Dubbed the “Mushroom of Immortality,” reishi (or Ganoderma lucidum for all you lovers of Latin out there) has been revered for thousands of years by Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners. This miraculous mushroom is an adaptogen—a fancy way of saying that it can help you adapt to stressors, bringing your body back into balance.

HOW CAN REISHI IMPROVE SKIN

Living is not easy work. Pollutants, toxins, infections, and even just living (breathing and moving) causes cellular damage. Our bodies are constantly working to mend this damage, but over time, the amount of new cellular injury exceeds the amount of repair.

Reishi can help in a few ways. For one, red reishi is jam-packed with antioxidants, helping to reverse some of the oxidative stress that injured the cells in the first place. By taking this mighty mushroom, you can help protect your body from some of the harmful effects of free radicals that contribute to aging and skin damage.

Reishi also has anti-inflammatory properties, meaning it can help reduce skin-inflammation issues, including acne, wounds, blemishes, and swelling.

Additionally, reishi contains compounds that can help boost the immune system, helping to prevent cancer cell growth, while other compounds support the liver, playing an important role in detoxification.

While you can’t actually slow down the hands of time or stop aging, reishi has cell-protective benefits that can contribute to smooth, radiant-looking, and—most importantly—healthy skin.

Taking Japanese red reishi mushroom capsules is just one more way to protect your skin. You might also consider Mitsuwa’s reishi body cream to keep your skin moisturized and looking healthy

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Dr. Melissa Carr is a registered Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine with a B.Sc. in Kinesiology. In practice since 2001, Dr. Carr has a passion for sharing health information. She has been a nutrition instructor and a health consultant, lecturer, and writer for 24 Hours Vancouver newspaper, Fraser Health Authority, UBC, and the David Suzuki Foundation, amongst others.
    References
  1. Cai Z, Wong CK, Dong J, et al. Anti-inflammatory activities of Ganoderma lucidum (Lingzhi) and San-Miao-San supplements in MRL/lpr mice for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus. Chin Med. 2016;11:23. Published 2016 Apr 29. doi:10.1186/s13020-016-0093-x
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  3. Lin, Z., 2005. Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Immuno-modulation by Ganoderma lucidum. Journal of Pharmacological Sciences, 99(2), pp.144-153.
  4. Shichao Huang, Jianxin Mao, Kan Ding, Yue Zhou, Xianglu Zeng, Wenjuan Yang, Peipei Wang, Cun Zhao, Jian Yao, Peng Xia, Gang Pei, Polysaccharides from Ganoderma lucidum Promote Cognitive Function and Neural Progenitor Proliferation in Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease, Stem Cell Reports, Volume 8, Issue 1, 2017, Pages 84-94, ISSN 2213-6711, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2016.12.007.