Thinning skin? Try a change in diet, plus CoQ10

Yesterday we talked about how Advair can cause your skin to thin and become easily damaged. But what if you aren't taking Advair, or any other steroid medication, and you still have thinning skin?

My research tells me that one cause is aging, another is genetics, another is too much sun exposure. Of course, serious disease can be a cause too, but one shouldn't assume illness just because of thinning skin.

More research tells me that we can do a lot about it with diet and supplements. And water - drinking plenty of water is one of the keys to healthy skin.

Sugar seems to be a culprit - as it is in so many other cases. But back to the diet - try plenty of green leafy vegetables, anti-oxidant fruits such as blueberries and raspberries, and fish such as tuna and salmon.

Recommended supplements include CoQ10 (which is good for almost everything), multi-vitamins containing C and E, and alpha lipoic acid.

Seems like we keep coming back to the basics - plenty of water, good overall diet, a minimum of sugar, and anti-oxidant supplements to fight back against the pollutants in our modern environment.

Diet seems to be the toughest part - because we're all rushing around all day and it's so fast and easy to choose some kind of pre-prepared food from the grocer's shelf rather than buy ingredients and cook a meal.

But we do owe it to ourselves to try...

Yours for radiant health,

Marte

Do you take Advair? Here's the side effects

This week's doctor's column tells about a woman who experienced thinning skin from the use of Advair for her asthma. Her lung specialist had insisted that the Advair wasn't responsible for her bruising, and deep gashes resulting from just a bump.

The newspaper doctor was surprised that a specialist could be unaware that Advair contains steroids and that steriods can affect the skin. The official prescribing information lists bruising and wounds as potential adverse reactions. Other dangers are higher risks of cataracts, glaucoma and penumonia.

But do doctors read that information? With all the new medications coming on the market, do they have the time to read all that information?

We know they could, if they considered research a part of their duties. But do they? Or are they so anxious to run the next patient through and collect the fee that research gets shoved aside?

I keep harping on this - but we really do all have responsibility for our own bodies. It's our duty to ourselves to really read those package inserts, or to go on line and look for the side effects.

Not all people experience the side effects, because we each have a different body. But if we know what they are, then we know to stop taking the medication if we begin to experience them.

Leaving your health in someone else's hands is just plain goofy.

So I say it again: read.