Play Your Aces, to Help Prevent and Reduce Wrinkles.
The following information has been gathered and compiled through personal experience while traveling, teaching T’ai Chi, Qi Gong, Chinese Herbal medicine, martial arts and other health related subjects. The article also contains feedback from students and anecdotal information from readers of my columns. The following are my opinions and deductions from those sources.
Vitamin A, C and E are antioxidants and combat free radicals. Free radicals contribute to symptoms of aging, including wrinkles. As we age our skin grows thinner and drier contributing to wrinkles. Deep moisturizers, especially if applied while the skin is wet, can add elasticity and body. Heavy creams plug the pores and defeat your efforts. Rubbing a light bodied hand lotion into the wrinkles three or four times daily can soften skin to the point that eventually the wrinkles may disappear. Plastic surgery is a temporary fix if the underlying causes aren’t addressed and changed. Natural remedies may take longer, but when we take the time to find out how and why they work, we’re more likely to affect a lasting solution.
For skin to be healthy it needs linoleic acid. Linoleic acid is an essential fatty acid; essential means the body can’t manufacture it and it has to be obtained from outside sources. Linoleic acid is found in fish oils and many vegetables. Purslane (Portulaca Oleracea) contains more Omega 3 EFA’s than any other vegetable source. Purslane, of which there are two main varieties, grows wild in almost every area of the U.S. Other vegetable sources are spinach, mustard greens, walnuts and walnut oil, wheat germ oil, rapeseed oil, (most rapeseed, better known as canola, is GMO contaminated, the same is true with non-organic soy products) butternuts and seaweed.
The highest fish sources are all salmons (with the possible exception of farm-raised salmon), tuna, American eel, anchovy, halibut, herring, Lake trout and sardine. An authors note: I had farm-raised salmon once. I’d dropped my wife off at the airport and on the way home stopped to pick up some food for the 10 days she’d be gone. Farm raised salmon was on sale. I’d never had farm-raised salmon before, or since, but I’d been a successful amateur salmon fisherman when living in Oregon and I like salmon, so I bought a package. The fishy smell was like an uninvited and unwelcome guest; it hung around the house and refused to leave. The sponge I washed the dish and pan with smelled so bad I threw it out and I had to soak the pan in bleach overnight. A few days later I saw where farm-raised fish contained a high percentage of heavy metals and pollutants. Fool me once, shame on you: fool me twice, shame on me. Even without pollutants, I doubt I’ll try it again.
Using a light touch and a quality hand or face cream, you can do big V’s, little v’s, m’s and I’s to help remove facial wrinkles. The same would probably work on wrinkles anywhere on the body. As an example: put a liberal amount of facial cream on the forehead. In all of the following use the middle finger, ring and little fingers and do 15 to 20 repetitions. Starting at the top of the nose stroke up and out on a diagonal, ending at the hairline above the temples. Using the same technique do shorter versions starting at the top of the nose and going diagonally up/out about 2”. Starting at the nose and using an M motion go up, out and then down at the top of the cheek bone/temples. I’s are straight up from the eyebrows to the hairline across the forehead. I had a wrinkle in my brow between my eyes. Using the techniques above and rubbing hand lotion into it on a dialy basis, it was gone in a month.
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