Hydration: Your Body’s Anti-Aging Secret

Standing in front of a magnifying mirror in good light and with your ring finger placed on your cheekbone, gently lift up toward the outside of your eye. Now place it at the corner of your mouth and lift up gently. Does the skin above and around your finger remind you of the crêpe-paper birthday streamers you’ve used for decorating for the party? This is a simple skin test that reveals what your body is trying to tell you: If you see the minute wrinkles, you just might be dehydrated.

Dehydration is a lack of water, not a lack of oil when it comes to the skin. Oily skin can be dehydrated and skin lacking in oil can be dewy and plump with water and vice versa. A lack of water not only affects your body functioning properly, but it can also contribute to how you feel and how you look, even how we feel about how we look. Have you ever felt like you were hungry even after eating? Or that you “need” or “crave” something?

Do you get annoying headaches during the day that come and go?

Do you suffer from midnight hunger or do you get drowsy during the afternoon just when you need to function at your best? Does your skin look ‘flat’ and lifeless? These can all be your body’s signs of dehydration.

There has been a lot of discussion on how much water one needs per day. The best way to find out is to determine what you are feeling and experiment with what happens within 20 minutes of drinking water and gradually adding a few ounces every hour until you sense a change in what’s happening to you, in your sense of self-awareness, how you feel and how your body responds. Make a note of how many ounces it may take to feel better. That headache goes away. You don’t feel that knot in your stomach. Your joints feel lubricated. Your skin glows.

In one case study done over a period of three years with 10-year-olds at a four-day outdoor education camp away from home, by day three, at least 10% of the children were going to the camp nurse complaining of having headaches and being “homesick,” inconsolable, wanting to call a parent to pick them up. After an understanding hug, a tissue for the tears and a 12-oz. bottle of Gator-Ade diluted with water, a 10-oz. cup of diluted punch or a 12-oz bottle of filtered water, they were allowed to rest on a soft couch. Within 10 and up to 20 minutes, the children recovered from their dehydration and went back to rejoin their groups. The reason for the dehydration: the mineral-rich water from the tap “tasted like rotten eggs” and the kids avoided it.

Fruity punch and fresh fruits and water-rich veggies were then offered frequently as snacks during each day in following years and the “homesickness” dropped to a mere 1-2 per cent from that point on.

In another case study, a woman in her early 20’s came in for a lower leg wax. She drank coffee, tea and soda-pop all day long, but never water. The skin on her legs had not been exposed to the sun and the hair was about 3/16 of an inch long. She was extremely uncomfortable with the procedure and had to muffle her complaints into a pillow. She insisted on finishing. After the waxing, her legs were not smooth as one would expect. They were covered with stubble, now too short to remove. The reason: dehydration. The skin, being dehydrated, wasn’t soft and pliable to allow the large bulbs of the hair underneath the skin to pass through easily. And the hairs on her lower legs, a large percentage of them being in the telogen, or “resting” phase of hair growth, each having a large, white and compacted ‘ball’ of dehydrated and keratinized hair cells, were breaking off just under the surface of the unyielding skin. That is why she ended up with stubble. We discussed this and she was asked to help with a hydration experiment. Even though she hated to drink plain water, she agreed to try something before her next appointment.

Six weeks later, she returned for a leg wax. She informed us that she had been drinking flavored bottled water since her last appointment, and had gradually increased her intake to at least 48 ounces per day. The wax went on and came off incredibly easy, and she was able to relax almost to the point of resting during the procedure, not complaining once. Afterwards the skin was smooth, with a very small percentage of hairs that had broken off and which could be removed easily with a second pass of ‘spot waxing.’ We couldn’t believe it was the same person in the same skin!

In another incredible instance, a young woman not even thirty years old came in for a facial. She was complaining of all the wrinkles and fine lines around her mouth and eyes. She didn’t smoke and was not yet showing signs of sun damage at her age. Her daily water intake was 12 oz. if she remembered to drink it along with coffee, tea and the occasional cocktail. After the ‘dehydration test’ revealed the ‘crêpey’ skin, she agreed to a hydration facial.

She was amazed at the results which revealed how just adding water and water-attracting ingredients topically to her skin during her facial had improved her appearance, and she committed to gradually adding 8 oz. of water to her daily water intake per week over the next month, working up to a daily goal of 2 quarts. She was advised to continue with the same skin care routine she always used, not changing that for our experiment. When she returned in two weeks, she wasn’t the same person. Her skin had a dewy glow, the wrinkles and fine lines had disappeared, and she remarked how good her body felt and that the afternoon headaches she’d suffered had waned. She was amazed that she noticed the change after drinking only 40 oz. of water per day, still short of her 2-quart goal.

A few anti-aging tips:

• Alcohol and caffeine can both cause the body to lose internal water. Try drinking water along with the cocktails, wine and coffee; your body will thank you. An added plus: water is amazing for avoiding hangovers!

• Take a bottle of water to bed with you and if you wake up hungry, drink a few sips and rest; most likely your body woke up needing water, not food.

• During the day, sip, don’t guzzle, as with more frequent, smaller amounts the body can use it rather than send it straight to the kidneys and bladder.

• If you feel ‘fuzzy-brained’ at 3pm, get up for a water break at work.

• If you see those wrinkles and fine lines on your face and you are afraid of looking older, drink your daily dose of quality H20 and watch the transformation!

By Linda G. Cowin, NCEA Certified Skin Care Professional

Instructor of Electrology, Esthetics, Cosmetology and Manicuring