Healthy and supple skin is not so much of a dream if you take proper precautions and pay attention to your diet and exercise.

Our skin’s functions are too many to go through here in detail, however it protects our ‘insides’ from the external environment, acting both as a barrier and a filter between ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ our bodies.

The skin helps in regulating our body’s temperature, like when we have a fever or we’re physically working hard, we tend to sweat, which is the body’s way to attempt to lower the temperature.

Beauty skin care is not just a facial issue; serious skin care must include all of your skin from head to toes. According to dermatologist MD Dennis Gross, the absolute worst thing we can do to our skin is unprotected sun exposure. Doctor Gross goes on to say that 90% of the skin's wrinkles, dark spots and sagging skin are caused by unprotected sun exposure. This is why doctors highly recommend always wearing SPF 15 sun protection products all of the time. This is especially important to start these habits at an early age for those with the most sensitive skin.

The reasons for our skin changes over time, have to directly do with skin collagen breaking down. As already mentioned, there are several reasons why this happens, but there is now ways to change some of the damage done. We can do things to prolong and even make some skin reversals of damage that will take off years without the expensive doctors office treatments. There now are proven products out there with collagen repair that will improve the damage. Retinol and organic skin care antioxidants such as green tea extract and vitamin C are also affordable and proven to bring back your skins beauty without even having to use harsh or expensive products.

Internal factors such as lack of exercise and rest, stress, dehydration, poor diet and genetics may attribute to skin problems such as dryness, acne, dark circles or puffiness around the eyes, dull skin and wrinkles. The first step to healthy skin is to eliminate as many of these internal forces as possible. Try it and you might be surprised by what a difference it can make in the appearance of your skin.

With all of these outside forces trying to debilitate your skin you need to fight to keep it healthy. It is possible to have the beautiful skin that you think only celebrities can afford. You probably will need to invest in professional skincare products (I use Phytomer) but you don't need to buy the entire line at once. The body expends this effort to replace skin every month because the skin constitutes the first line of defense against dehydration, infection, injuries and temperature extremes. Skin cells can detoxify harmful substances with many of the same enzymatic processes the liver uses.

In some cases, the body actually can’t eliminate these substances and has to store them. This is a potential problem and could cause health issues down the track. Pure essential oils, or herbal extracts are usually good ingredients to have in your skin care products.

So there you have it - the importance of good skin care. These steps, if you follow them, will help you to achieve the results you want and your body will thank you too.