Keeping skin nourished with plenty of water and exercise is more crucial than most people think. Drinking at least eight glasses of water a day hydrates the skin and keeps it supple and moist. Water intake also minimizes those dreaded dark circles under the eyes.

Exercise stimulates the entire body and gets your blood flowing, making you glow. The better the circulation, the more nutrients go to the skin. Keeping skin clean is one of the simplest ways of caring for your skin. Wash your skin with tepid water and a mild facial cleanser. How many times a day should you wash your face? It depends on your skin type. Oily skin may need two or three washes a day, while dry skin should only be washed once or twice. Use a face cloth or a gentle facial scrub to help remove dead cells.

Wearing sunscreen when you go outdoors can counteract a lot of UVB damage, which contributes to the burning. Keep in mind that sunscreen does not protect against UVA damage. Some daily lotions have built-in sunscreen with a lower SPF and then there are lotions formulated for the sole purpose of protecting you from the sun with higher SPF. SPF (sun protection factors) are measured by timing how long skin covered with sunscreen takes to burn in comparison to uncovered skin. For example, SPF 30 means that while wearing sunscreen it will take 30 times longer to burn. Because protection from UVA rays is below satisfactory, sunscreen often offers a false sense of security because UVA rays are the more insidious of the two types of radiation that the sun emits.

Avoiding excessive sun altogether is the true meaning of sun protection.

Good sun protection methods include: staying in the shade between 11 am and 3 pm (peak sun strength hours), wearing protective clothing and a wide brimmed hat, wearing sunglasses to protect the eyes from UV rays, knowing your skins limits and not allowing yourself to burn, applying sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or more and, lastly, not relying on sunscreen as sun protection. In short, the best sun protection on the market is you.

Antioxidant creams can serve as great warriors in protecting the skin. Theres plenty of evidence suggesting that if you take vitamins orally, the sun still depletes them. A limited number of studies have reported that the skin can absorb certain antioxidants such as green tea and vitamin C, which can reduce oxidation. More studies are underway to prove this point more fully.

As we age, we produce less and less GLA, which is one of the most important fats our skin produces. Now, in order for nutrient-rich blood to enrich the skin, the body needs a special fat called GLA. The body has incredibly small amounts of this miracle fat, certainly not enough to help the skin carry out all of its necessary duties. It's also hard to obtain GLA (Gamma Linolenic Acid) through our diets nowadays. This leaves our skin much more vulnerable to damage. GLA is not an easy thing to find. Aside from our hydrophobic barrier in our dermal zone where GLA is produced, the only other place GLA is available is in oatmeal.

Dr. Sears was able to find ways to implement GLA into an anti-aging skin care system that penetrates the layers of the skin. This way, when there are everyday attacks on the skin from UVA rays, dirt, bacteria, toxins in our water and normal aging problems from oxidation, there is enough GLA to counteract it.