Beauty
Protect Your Skin Naturally
By
May 24, 2008, 12:16

(NAPSI)-For many today, a suntanned person conjures the image of a globe-trotting, sporting lifestyle-weekends on a yacht, trekking the Amazon, maybe even skiing in sunny Aspen.

But suntans weren’t always considered fashionable.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, tanning was considered unsightly.

This perception changed, however, when trains made it easier for people to vacation on “the coast.”

In the 1920s, Gabrielle (“Coco”) Chanel returned from a vacation in the French Riviera with a tan and, suddenly, headlines around the world ran the story.

By the next summer, tans began to represent a carefree lifestyle and “upper crust” status.

By the 1960s, however, scientists began to associate tanning with skin cancer. In fact, in the 1970s, Australia-the world’s beach capital-experienced an epidemic of skin cancer. By the 1980s and 1990s in the U.S., people were using sunscreens, but skin cancer continued to increase in incidence, especially in children.

Today, it’s known that tans are a sign of damaged skin, indicating future premature skin aging and possible skin cancer down the line.

But there is still plenty to do-in addition to reducing sun exposure and using safe sunblocks properly-and this is where nutrients enter the picture.

Vitamin D, for example, is an important skin protectant. The recent discovery that at least 30 percent of the U.S. population is vitamin D deficient is a wake-up call for Americans to start supplementing their diets with vitamin D and other skin-friendly nutrients, such as the beta-carotene cousin, astaxanthin.

You should make sure that you are choosing foods rich in vitamin D, such as milk and low-mercury fish, in addition to supplementation, where options include Solgar’s Vitamin D3, a highly bioactive form of the vitamin available in potencies of 400 IU to 2200 IU.

You should also try to consume beta-carotene-rich foods, such as carrots, in addition to supplementing with astaxanthin, where options include Solgar’s Astaxanthin Complex 4 mg softgels.

To find a health-food store near you and to learn more about nutritional supplements that may help support skin health, visit www.solgar.com.

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