Radiance Secrets: Aging, Hydration, Gut-Skin Axis
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Christa Elza: [00:00:00] You'll just see people with a lot of unmanaged stress, poor diet. It shows in their face.
I mean, they will look older. So you wanna make sure you have protein at every meal. Amino acids, collagen, all of that's important, right? And we want to have good nutrition. I think supplements play a role, but we want to get most of our things from what we eat, because they're perfectly have a good combination of micronutrients and minerals that just aren't found in supplements.
You know, it supplements boost it, but you wanna have good foundation with nutrition
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Christa Elza: Welcome back to another episode of The Wild and Well Collective, and today is episode two [00:01:00] of three in a series that we're doing around skin. And today we wanna talk about aging, anti-aging. So have you ever wondered why some women just glow, not from filler or from a filter, but from within. We're gonna talk today a little bit about how our inner world.
Is really showing up in our ability to have youthful skin as well.
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah. And I think this glow, and I feel bad men don't tend to get compliments on how much they're glowing. But the glow on the youthfulness, it isn't just luck. It really does come down to our biology. It's our mitochondria, it's your collagen, it's your hormones, it's your habits, and it's all speaking the same language, which is vitality.
And so. We're looking at the science of radiance today. Everything from peptides that Krista is just absolutely thriving in this space after to collagen, thinking about over training and some of the things that are actually gonna age you faster or make your skin look aging like you are aging a lot faster.
I literally had someone the other day think that that [00:02:00] was twin and I wanted to hug her. I was like, I'm obviously Doing something right. Don't quite agree that I look that young, but we'll take it. And it's just a reflection of, you know, making sure you're managing some of these key things that we're talking about, adding the right things in, but also not overexposing ourselves to some of the other stuff.
Because anti-aging isn't about fighting time. It's really about supporting your body through like optimal health.
Christa Elza: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, ultimately aging starts at the cellular level and there is all sorts of research being done on aging. Why we age, the science of aging. But ultimately we do know that when mitochondria, which are the little powerhouses within our cells, when they start to slow down, when they're not as healthy, when we start to have more oxidative stress in our body.
Collagen starts to break down faster than it's rebuilt. And we do know that we know that our face looks different at 20 than it does at 45 than it does at 65 than it does at 85. Right? Like we know that. There's really no stopping [00:03:00] that. But we de definitely can put buffers to it and we can definitely.
You know, kind of slow down this process. Lifestyle, we know, I mean, if you take two twins you're going to see that one who lives a really healthy life. Their skin will look different from one that is not living a healthy life and smokes and doesn't work out, et cetera. Right. So we know that lifestyle plays a role in this.
So there's a couple of things, like when we talk about wrinkles and loss of firmness and like, loss of that glow. So more dullness, we wanna think, okay, mitochondrial fatigue and you know, our mitochondria are doing the best that they can. All of our cells are working for us, right? But when we say mitochondrial fatigue, that is more like, there's exhaustion there, there's not enough nutrients, so there's not enough rest and there's too much stress.
And so our mitochondria kind of suffer there and we don't have the level of energy. That we could have physically like feeling energy, but also our cell turnover starts to slow down. So that's what we get more of that dull skin because [00:04:00] we aren't having that quick cell turnover that we used to have in our youth.
You know, an infant, a baby, a young child has really plump and you know, soft skin. And that's because things are working really, really well. And there's a lot of cell turnover. And then we have what's called glycation. And that is a chemical process that happens in the body. And that can increase when we have sugar in our body.
So that can produce the in products of glycation is what they're called. And that can lead to more stiff skin, brittle skin. And then inflammation really does lead to accelerated skin aging pigmentation. You'll see that you have more sun spots as you're aging. The age spots on the hands.
That's all from inflammation and that over pigmentation, again, that's a lack of cell turnover, right? So you kind of wanna look at your skin as almost like a metabolic dashboard. So when energy and inflammation are balanced, you're better off. When your energy is lower and you've got a lot of inflammation, [00:05:00] you'll start to notice quicker aging and kind of sluggish again, skin turnover.
So that accelerates that aging process.
Sheree Beaumont: Mm-hmm. And one of the things that really helps, you know, we talked a little bit about this in the last episode, but really just diving into this idea of cellular hydration, because this is more than just water. This is really about making sure that we keep the water inside of the cells and we have our sodium potassium pump.
Anyone who did biology in school will probably remember, I never understood the importance of this little pump. Thing until I learned about electrolytes. And so it's really just making sure that we are keeping those cells beautifully hydrated. You are. I've mentioned before is 70% water, and so it's making sure that you are keeping those cells with the effectiveness of being able to communicate with one another.
You know, is honestly so simple. I'm not even gonna overcomplicate it or go into massive science here. Essentially, you wanna make sure that you are having around two liters, which is about 64 ounces of water each day, even more if you are exercising, because if you're [00:06:00] exercising, you're sweating, which means you're dehydrating your body more now.
A lot of hearsay whether we should have electrolytes or not, because of the salt content. If you're exercising and moving your body daily, it's fine. The whole stigma around the sodium piece, I don't really believe. And there's a lot of science that's coming out to support the fact that too. So just being mindful that we don't want to over cleanse the skin, but also just we wanna really hydrate.
One of the, one of the other key things that's like really important that can slow the aging that I do wanna mention is exercise. So this normally goes hand in hand with hydration, like I mentioned. But one of the things that I always like to, it's probably not a great example for people who like to run, but if you're someone that's a long distance runner or a marathon runner, if you've ever looked at someone who's done this most of their life, you look at your average 40-year-old person, if they're a marathon runner versus another person that's just kind of done an exercise on a regular basis, you look at their face.
The marathon runners are generally [00:07:00] so. Aged, like they're far more wrinkled. Sounds so awful. But it's a really good example of how much over exercising can actually cause you to age faster. This over training under recovery, the elevated levels of cortisol, all of that sping, medox state of stress and we know how important antioxidants are for our body and our skin.
But if we're constantly depleting them and doing too much, we're never gonna be able to get to that point of recovery in it. That includes us breaking down more collagen and then our body reacting to both of these is dangerous. So it really is important to understand the level of exercise that you're doing and the impact that that can have on your skin as well.
Christa Elza: Yeah, I think it's always interesting to look at the Olympics and wash the sprinters, what they look like, what their bodies look like, what their faces look like, and then look at the long distance runners.
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah.
Christa Elza: And what their body looks like and what their skin looks like. It, it shows you the different types of exercise on the human body.
Sheree Beaumont: Mm-hmm. [00:08:00]
Christa Elza: Long term exercise really does you get into that muscle wasting because the body uses some of that. Whereas like the hi, which those sprinters do, they generate more of that growth hormone. Mm-hmm. Where they're, you know, they're stockier, you have juicier muscles. Right. It's just an interesting.
Observation of what different types of exercise does on the body. And you really, it, you know, exercise is certainly helpful until it's not in terms of like aesthetics and, and you know, moving is definitely important. A hundred percent. That's probably the foundational thing we have to be doing for anti-aging.
But you just want to recognize too that over training or under recovery elevates that cortisol, it spikes oxidative stress and it breaks down collagen. So you are going to have. More of that aging speed up in the skin, depending on, you know, the length and, you know, over exercising certainly contributes to it.
So, you know, if you are over training, even with [00:09:00] hit exercises, I mean, you've just gotta kind of have a balance, right? And movement is super important, but I would argue that zone two or you know, those longer walks longer slow. Slower paced exercises are gonna be more beneficial overall paired with weight lifting.
That's probably gonna be a better option, especially as you get into your. Older years midlife years even, because you'll have more of a hormonal balance there. So kind of combining the strength training, the walking and rest days, sleep, all of that recovery is a new anti-aging protocol, let's be honest, right?
Sheree Beaumont: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so we've looked at, you know, how we need to find this fine balance. And I think that it's the same goes for sunlight exposure. You know, this is something that gets a lot of. Bad press when it comes to skin health. And so, you know, we're not here advocating that you go out and spend hours and hours in the sun because one, it will aid you, and two, it does cause damage.
But you're, the sun is both medicine and a stressor. So looking at the fact that the sun is gonna wake you up in [00:10:00] the morning, reset your circadian rhythm, supports serotonin production, like obviously it does all those beautiful things, but from a skin perspective with collagen synthesis. So you know the thing that makes your skin nice and bouncy and elastic.
Actually needs vitamin D. And if you are someone that puts the SPF on first thing in the morning everywhere, that's gonna be exposed to the sunshine, and then you go out and that's it for the day, you're actually blocking any vitamin D being absorbed from the sun. So,
Christa Elza: mm-hmm.
Sheree Beaumont: We don't want to be putting, you know, all of the, like blocking all of the.
Intake of the vitamin D, but we also don't wanna be, especially during midday or you know, those dangerous hours not covering up either, because that is gonna be harmful. So making sure that you give yourself maybe 10, 15 minutes where you've got the skin exposed, where you are allowing your body to absorb that vitamin D especially, because our body can actually store vitamin D, which is beautiful 'cause it's a fat soluble vitamin. So during the winter months we can either make it last or [00:11:00] you may need to supplement if you can't get the sunshine in. You know, the moment I'm in California, I can't seem to get enough sunshine, which is amazing.
But I know that things start to wind down. Or if you're someone that's in Europe and you've got those longer, darker months, it may, it may be hard to get the sun exposure. So. Just bearing that in mind and the fact that we can support our collagen production with things like your vitamin C glycine and proline your things like zinc and copper for skin elasticity and our favorite nutrient protein.
So that's really where that kind of skin comes in. The skin factor comes in. I dunno if you wanna add anything about the sun because I know that that can play such a big role.
Christa Elza: Yeah, I mean, I think the bottom line is we definitely know that the UV rays caused. Skin damage.
Sheree Beaumont: Mm-hmm.
Christa Elza: So, although it's important to get it for vitamin D, it's important to get some of it.
We, you wanna, you always wanna wear SPFI mean, I think that the benefits outweigh sorry, the, what am I trying to say here? The benefits of getting some sun [00:12:00] exposure is rate limited. You don't wanna have a lot because at some point it is just, it's writing down. And. Exposing our skin to more harm than good.
Mm-hmm. So, in terms of vitamin D it is super important for our skin health, but we wanna be supplementing if you're not getting a ton, and then Yeah. Protecting your skin midday, like when the UV rays are high. I wanted to touch on peptides too. Mm-hmm. So peptides are, you know, having their heyday right now on social media.
I think it's great. They're lovely. Prescribe them left and right. But you wanna do it with with a practitioner who understands peptides that someone who does these safely, right? Because these can increase malignancy in people who are prone to them because they are promoting growth and cell turnover, right?
So you wanna do these responsibly, but some of my favorite peptides I'll break 'em down. There's about five I would say are. My, my top the Globe peptide is huge and it's kind of a combination of several of these. Mm-hmm. But it's a combination [00:13:00] of BPC 1 57, which promotes tissue healing, reduces inflammation.
So I like to use this for soft tissue injury as well. Mm. By itself. And then oftentimes that one is combined with TB 500, which aids in repair and regeneration. It kind of helps blood flow increases what's called vegf that helps. To build new vasculature, so it can be really helpful for healing for the scalp, for nails, for skin renewal.
And then GHK Copper, it's a copper peptide that helps to boost collagen elasticity, hair growth. These top three can be combined in what's called a globe peptide. So you've got BPC, thymus and beta for well, I'm sorry, TB 500. They're the same thing. And GHK Copper are all combined together what's called the globe peptide, and that can really help with that.
Skin turnover kind of gives you that glow because this helps with anti-aging in that way from really from a peptide perspective, which sends kind of messages. Peptides are naturally formed in our body and so our body responds really well to them because they are proteins broken down [00:14:00] into peptide and that sends our cells signals.
There's another combination of a on and mot C and those help to regulate mitochondrial health and slow down aging. Helps with blood sugar control clear thinking, that kind of a thing. You can also do some of these peptides topically. I've been experimenting with copper peptides. I've actually been combining estrogen.
So topical estrogen with copper peptides, which is kind of fun, and that can improve firmness and reduce redness. Again, you can do that injectable, but well it kind of mix both. I do glow peptide, but also I put 'em on topically the copper peptide, which is cool. So, yeah, I mean, there's safe, you just need to, you work with somebody who understands them and can know your risks and order the appropriate blood work to make sure that you're good with doing it.
But peptides are an amazing. New thing that are, I mean, they've been around for a long time. They were developed in Russia put together a lot of them in Russia actually, years and years ago. But the cool thing is, is that when you combine it with like collagen peptides, they work [00:15:00] synergistically with nutrition.
So combine with Lifestyle factors, they're kind of the cherry on top for what you're trying to accomplish in terms of anti-aging benefit.
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, and I think they offer like a more natural, you know, and there's absolutely no judgment here each to their own, but they offer a slightly more natural alternative to Botox and things like that, which I'm all for.
'cause I don't wanna put that in my skin. So I am like, hmm, this glow up. I remember my mom telling me when I turned like. 25, she's like, okay, now you need to start taking care of your skin because your collagen's starting to decrease. And so that's what I did. I got a skin membership. I started getting regular red lights.
I started doing all of the proper skincare. Prior to that it was whatever was at the supermarket. So I think it's important that we do, and you know, we know it's so good to nourish ourselves, not just from this like. Vanity perspective, but because the skin is a reflection of our health. So that speaking to that is really understanding the, and I found this, there were so many studies, it was so fascinating.
The link between what we're nourishing our body [00:16:00] with, particularly around fiber. Fiber being one of the key nutrients. And you know, before you roll your eyes, like eat your fruit and vegetables, please. Even if it's purely from an anti-aging perspective. We know that fiber is what feeds the beneficial bacteria in our gut, which then produce beautiful anti-inflammatory short chain fatty acids like butyrate.
They also reinforce your skin barrier. But what's so fascinating is, yes, this supports your gut health, and we know that if you've got a healthy gut, you're gonna be supporting your skin health. It's gonna be supporting the skin microbiome as much as it supports the gut microbiome as a two-way street, et cetera.
But higher fiber intake was actually linked to improved skin firmness and elasticity. They noticed a reduction in fine lines and wrinkles when you were consuming. Fiber each day. This started off as like a minimum of like at least 25 grams, but people aren't doing this. Fiber can be one of those hard things to track, but you know, back in New Zealand we have a five plus a day rule, and it should be that you're eating five, serves, at least five serves of [00:17:00] different fruits and vegetables to be getting your fiber intake up.
You know, we seal because of the things that come with the fruit and veggies you're looking at, you know, your polyphenols, your antioxidants, and that was also what was shown to reduce the wrinkle dip. In these , photo aging markers as well. So there was another study that was done in 2022, which demonstrated that fermentable fiber protects against allergic and inflammatory skin responses by improving the gut derived immune signaling as well.
So this is just showing that. Interconnectedness between the gut and the skin, but also the fact that what you really put into your body and how you nourish your body makes such a difference. So adding things like fibrous foods is not just your fruits and vegetable. It may be chia, maybe flax, dium husk is another great wine.
I quite often get people to add to the smoothies. And you can combine things, combine that with things like probiotics and fermented foods to really make sure your microbiome is super diverse.
Christa Elza: Mm-hmm. We'll never have a conversation without talking about the gut [00:18:00] microbiome.
Sheree Beaumont: I don't think so.
Christa Elza: Credible, everything else.
But to kind of top it Off with lifestyle and supplement support. I mean, you know, it's, your anti-aging is beyond just skincare, right? Mm-hmm. We do have to nourish your body. Your health is reflected in that. You'll, you'll just see people with a lot of unmanaged stress, poor diet. It shows in their face.
I mean, they will look older. So you wanna make sure you have protein at every meal. Amino acids, collagen, all of that's important, right? And we want to have good nutrition. I think supplements play a role, but we want to get most of our things from what we eat, because they're perfectly have a good combination of micronutrients and minerals that just aren't found in supplements.
You know, it, it supplements boost it, but you wanna have good foundation with nutrition and then adding polyphenols, berries. Green tea, pomegranate, those are great. Just have colors. Just have colors on your plate and you're gonna get those polyphenols. And then omega threes they really do help the cell membrane to be more fluid and flexible so that you can get [00:19:00] hydration in.
You can get nutrients into the cell. And so omega threes you're gonna find in fatty fish in avocados and some nuts. You can always supplement with a fish oil. But getting those in is gonna be really helpful. And then in terms of like targeted. Supplements just for, you know, skin collagen peptides.
So having it up to 20 grams a day of collagen. You can pop it in your coffee, you can put it in a smoothie. Mm-hmm. Vitamin C is great combined with zinc. I do like NAD. Precursors to NAD, like NMN Respiral, those can be helpful to magnesium. Important for everything. I mean, sleep, yeah. Relaxation, detoxification, like a hundred percent no matter who you are.
Take magnesium.
Sheree Beaumont: Yes.
Christa Elza: I prefer magnesium. Glycinate is my favorite form. I find that it's most tolerated by people and it's high quality. We mentioned omega threes. Again, I think that that's always just gotta be in your toolkit. And then making sure that you have the sleep for that growth hormone.
You know, our growth hormone [00:20:00] declines as we age. This is where peptides can really help kind of push that again. Mm-hmm. But growth hormone only is released when we sleep. So you've gotta have repair, you've gotta have all that. And that happens when we sleep. Really taking care of your stress management, doing breath work.
Doing some of the cold exposure, some exercise, you know, to kinda stimulate your body and wake it up. And, hey cells, we need you to be up and at it, right? And that happens through that hormetic stress, through some cold exposure through, you know, maybe a cold shower for three minutes. Just kind of end your shower without a couple times a week.
Even. Saunas are great too to help repair damaged cells. They, if your temperature gets high enough, you release heat shock proteins. And that can be really helpful. There's a lot of studies that show that saunas are cardioprotective, they're really great for anti-aging. And so saunas play a great role in that too.
And I try to do about 20 minutes, three times a week. Mm-hmm. And then just avoiding things that, you know, are going to speak like unhealthy [00:21:00] lifestyle, drinking, alcohol, smoking. These things go directly. They directly cause, oxidative stress, they directly cause detoxification, sluggishness, all of which we know is going to age you faster.
So consistency, not extremes, all of that is what we want to aim for. We wanna make this doable, right? We're not gonna do it if it's hard, but if you just kind of play with these kind of foundational things, I think you'll see, and you'll watch, you're running the marathon. When you go to that 30 year high school reunion, you're gonna look better 'cause you're running the marathon of like small, simple habits that are like in your favor, right?
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, but not actually running the marathon because we know that's gonna make you Yeah,
Christa Elza: that's right.
Sheree Beaumont: No, I think the key here is like the Fountain of Youth is not found. It is built and that is looking at all the things we've looked at today from blood sugar balance, gut integrity, adding in some amazing things that we now have access to, like our peptides and looking after our mitochondrial health.
So we really hope that you [00:22:00] enjoyed today's episode. We stay tuned for part three. We're really excited to keep diving into the skin and if you have any questions or this is like inspired, like, oh my gosh, tell me more about this, please reach out to us on Instagram, like we're always happy to chat and answer any further questions that you have.
Speaker 3: If you love this episode, be sure to leave us a review, download, and subscribe. If you know someone that could also benefit from this conversation, please share. That's how we Spread Empowered Health. We'll see you again for another episode of the Wild and Wild Collective.
