Lifestyle Choices

When it comes to treating skin, everyone is looking for the fountain of eternal youth. At one time it is thought to be vitamins, at other times plant essences, minerals, fetal or placental extracts. In recent years all of these somewhat exotic substances have been frowned on not only by many dermatologists but also by the so-called hard-hitting journalists who insist that nothing external can be done to keep skin looking beautiful and to protect it from premature aging other than to follow the three basic steps in the craft of skin care outlined in the previous chapter: cleansing, protection from moisture loss, and screening from ultraviolet light. (more…)

Not only are your eyes the truest of all physical reflections of who you are, they are also an ageless expression of beauty. For there can be something breathtaking about the eyes of an old woman, as there is about the eyes of a child. Like any other part of your body, to be beautiful your eyes have to be healthy, and to be healthy they need care.

But the care they need is quite different from what we are usually led to believe. For eyes are not the delicate, poor, vulnerable things we have been taught they are—overworked, constantly struggling against inadequate light and overstrain, and longing for some well-deserved tinted glasses to rest them. Far from it. Your eyes are tough. They were made for use, and the more you use them, to read and to see with, and the more you exercise the muscles around them, and the more they are exposed to the full spectrum of natural sunlight, the healtheir and more beautiful they will be. And not only will your eyes benefit, so will the rest of your body. (more…)

This is not to say that sunglasses don’t serve a purpose. They do. Wear them when your eyes are exposed to excessive quantities of light to which they are not accustomed—when you are near the sea, for instance, or when you go skiing. A good pair of sunglasses can be a great boon, for your eyes need time to accustom themselves to the increase in light, and wearing sunglasses can make the changeover easier. Also, prolonged exposure of unaccustomed eyes to large doses of ultraviolet light may lead to the inflammation of the cornea known as snow blindness, while too-intense infrared rays can burn the retina. The skin covering the front of your eyes is transparent. (more…)