You know, when I first heard about an anti aging pillow, I almost had to stop myself from laughing out loud. I am not going to tell you that you must buy one, but I will say that my original opinion regarding these pillows has changed quite dramatically. When I first started looking into these pillows, I came across quite a few websites that warned against using them.
According to some websites, using an anti aging pillow can have a negative impact on the quality of your sleep. An anti aging pillow forces you to sleep on your back, and many people find this to be uncomfortable. Naturally, if you are not comfortable, you are not likely to have a good sleep. I agree with this 100%, and to be honest, it did take me awhile to get used to sleeping with an anti-aging pillow, but now I really enjoy my sleep.
Now, I am by no means a very vain person, but like most people, I am forced to look in the mirror shortly after I wake up. I am sure you will agree with me when I say that this is the worst time to look in the mirror because your face is usually still creased from sleeping all night. I remember the surprise I got when I looked in the mirror in the morning after using my anti aging pillow for the first time. I had never looked as good in the morning as I did that morning.
How They Work
Earlier, I mentioned that an anti aging pillow requires you to sleep on your back. Now, some people may question this because if you do a search for anti aging or anti wrinkle pillows online, you will likely see several designs which do not require you to sleep on your back. The companies that make such pillows can call them whatever they want, but any pillow that allows you to sleep with your face pressed against it is not an anti aging pillow, at least not in my opinion.
The whole purpose of anti aging pillows is to prevent your face from being squished against something while you are sleeping. By supporting your head on either side while you are on your back, they prevent anything from coming into contact with your face while you are asleep.
If you sleep with one side of your face pressed against a pillow, the resulting pressure/force puts your skin under a great deal of stress, and usually results in crease or sleep lines. These generally disappear quite quickly, but over a long period of time, these lines and creases become more permanent. Anti aging pillows are supposed to prevent this from happening.
Give Your Night Creams and Serums a Boost
We have already looked at how anti aging pillows can help slow down the arrival or worsening of lines and wrinkles on your face, but the sort of anti aging pillow I have described above also serves another purpose.
If you like to apply a moisturizer and/or some other sort of skin care product on your face before going to bed, then you stand to benefit even more from using one of these pillows. Because the pillow prevents anything from touching any part of your face, skin care products that you apply on your face will have the entire night to do their job with any sort of disruption or interference.
Say No to Chemical Laden Skin Care
Okay, I think I have gone on long enough about anti aging pillows, so let us move on to something else. If you have read any of my other posts, you will almost certainly have noticed that I am a staunch advocate of only using skin care products which are free of chemicals. Many of the top and most well-known brands add all sorts of chemicals to their skin care products. Some of these chemicals are even used in fertilizers and in the manufacturing of things like garbage bags, toilet seats and urinals. By the way, I am not kidding either.
Many of the widely used chemicals have been shown to be hormone disruptors, while quite a lot of them are suspected of being carcinogenic. In very small quantities, they are not seen as being a serious risk to human health, so skin care manufacturers can add them to their products as long as they add less than a certain amount. However, what happens when you are using 4, 5 or more products each day that contain one or more of these chemicals. Now you are not only exposed to the supposedly “safe” amount.
If you ask me, the only safe option is to steer clear of any and all skin care products than contain chemicals. In the not too distant past, all-natural skin care products were typically a lot more expensive than regular products. However, all-natural products have and still are becoming increasingly popular, and this has forced prices down as a result of higher demand and increased competition.
You may find this article useful: Kanapa Paraben Free Luninous Facial Serum – Product Review
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
- On average, women in America use around 12 different personal care products on a daily basis. Together, these 12 products contain approximately 168 different chemicals.
- American men, on the other hand, use an average of 6 different personal care products every day. Together, these 6 products contain approximately 85 different chemicals.
The figures above are staggering, but let us not forget that they only relate to personal care products. If you want to read more about skin care and the chemicals that are widely being used within the industry, you can do so by visiting the Environmental Working Group website here. The EWG is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to protecting the environment and public health.
Leveraging the Power of Herbs
Before I continue, I just want to point out that I am definitely not one of those people who believe that any and all illnesses can be cured or prevented with herbs. I do believe that herbs can be wonderfully beneficial in many ways, but they cannot produce miracles. In the case of serious illnesses, herbs are not the answer. On the other hand, for less serious problems, herbs can often be very effective.
If you were to book yourself into an anti aging center, you will almost certainly notice what a prominent role herbs play. While some anti aging centers are simply medical facilities offering a range of different cosmetic procedures, others are holistic wellness facilities. Most of these places offer various types of massages, including herbal massages. Of course, different types of beauty treatments are also usually available, as is yoga and meditation classes.
The biggest problem with these places is the fact that they are typically very expensive. They are great places if you only want a few days of relaxation and pampering, but they cannot do much for you as far as your anti aging goals are concerned. If you are serious about slowing down the aging process, your home is the best place to start. Let us just say, your home should be your anti aging headquarters.
As is to be expected, nutrition plays a significant role in the aging process. While I am tempted to write a few paragraphs about anti aging nutrition, I think I will leave that for another time. For now, let us rather look at some really good anti aging herbs instead. Here are 5 easily obtained herbs that could help you to slow down the signs of aging:
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Turmeric
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Ginseng
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Gingko Biloba
- Improved skin moisture by 27.88%
- Improved skin smoothness by 4.32%
- Reduced skin roughness by 0.4%
- Reduced wrinkles by 4.63%
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Garlic
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Ginger
Curcumin, which is the active compound in turmeric, has long been known for its numerous health benefits. The good news is that you can reap the benefits of turmeric by including in your diet, and also by using it topically. Turmeric is well-known for its anti-inflammatory qualities and its impressive concentration of various antioxidants. It has also been shown to have a potent anti aging effect.
Please read this interest article: 3 Easy Steps to Enhance, Retain and Restore Youthful Beauty
I have mentioned and discussed turmeric in a number of posts I have written, including one which I wrote about homemade facial masks. The use of turmeric for treating health problems might still be a relatively new concept in the West, but it has long been used in Ayurveda and other traditional medical systems in India and China for centuries already.
In one study that involved 139 patients with knee osteoarthritis, one group was given a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug twice a day, while the other group was given 500mg of curcumin three times a day. In this study, 97% of those taking the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, and 94% of those who were given curcumin reported an improvement of at least 50%.
It is important to note that when added to your diet, curcumin is not very bioavailable. In other words it is not easily absorbed into your bloodstream. To increase bioavailability, it should be consumed along with some black pepper and some oil or fat. I highly recommend reading an article about all of this on the Harvard Medical School website.
Many people tend to associate ginseng with a popular anti aging tea, in which ginseng is the key ingredient. Ginseng tea has been around forever, and of course you will nowadays find an almost infinite number of ginseng based dietary supplements. The reason for this is clear. Ginseng is an excellent source of various phytochemicals or phytonutrients that can help to activate and also stimulate your skin’s metabolism. These natural phytochemicals can also help to rid your skin of free radicals that accumulate as a result of your skin being exposed to pollution and sunlight.
If there are any guys out there reading this post, you may be interested to know that a study carried out in Korea reported that Korean red ginseng improved erectile dysfunction in 60% of the participants. You can also read more about this study on the National Library of Medicine website.
A Word of Caution: Ginseng is a powerful herb, and I strongly recommend talking to your doctor prior to taking any type of ginseng supplements. Although ginseng is widely considered safe to consume, quite a long list of side effects have been reported over the years. Most of the reported side effects are not very serious, but some of them certainly are.
Gingko has long been used in traditional medical systems and it is well-known for its memory boosting qualities. However, it has a range of other health benefits as well, including its ability to moisturize and smoothen rough skin, and can also reduce the appearance of wrinkles. In one study which you can read about on the PubMed.gov website, a gingko extract that was applied topically over a period of 28 days produced the following anti aging results:
The above figures might seem somewhat small and insignificant, but every little bit helps, and if you are already using a good and effective anti wrinkle cream or serum, adding gingko to your skin care regimen could give it a further boost. If you want to give gingko a try, I would recommend making a homemade facial mask with some gingko extract in it.
For a mask, my choice would be a blend on bentonite clay mixed with some pure raw honey and some gingko extract to form a paste. The paste should then be applied to the areas you want to treat and left on until it is dry before rinsing it off with some lukewarm water.
My great grandmother would religiously take garlic supplements every day, as did many other elderly members in my family. They all lived long and healthy lives, but I am certainly not going to say that it was because of daily garlic supplements. However, I am pretty much convinced that garlic probably did play a role. When garlic is crushed, it releases a compound called allicin, and allicin is widely accepted to be one of the most powerful antioxidants known to man.
Among other things, garlic has been shown to lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol. It has also been shown to lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation and boost the immune system. Garlic has also been described as being a potent natural antibiotic. Aging does not only cause lines and wrinkles. It causes several other problems as well, and regular consumption of fresh garlic can help to keep many of those problems at bay, including lines and wrinkles.
I certainly would not want to rub raw garlic or garlic paste on my face because I do not think anyone would want to be anywhere near me, but I consume plenty of garlic in my diet, and it is something I would recommend doing to anyone who wants to try and slow down the aging process. I could provide hundreds of links to different studies involving garlic, but I do not believe it is even necessary.
Please read: Enjoy Flawless Face Beauty the Safe, Pure and Natural Way
Ginger has been used in Chinese medicine for treating a range of ailments, including aging related problems for more than a thousand years. As with garlic, if you want to use ginger in your war against aging, it really is best to use fresh ginger rather than processed versions. Ginger is packed full of antioxidants that can help to reduce inflammation, enhance skin tone, and even reduce the appearance of hyperpigmentation.
Apart from adding fresh ginger to your diet, you can also make your own ginger paste which can then be used topically for treating wrinkles and hyperpigmentation. If you want to use it topically, I would recommend testing it on a small area of skin first just to make sure that it does not cause any skin irritation, which could possibly happen if you have very sensitive skin.
Well, that brings me to the end of this post. I really hope you have enjoyed reading it, and if you have, please be sure to check out some of my other posts as well.
