What Do Nutrition and Exercise Have to Do with How Well Scars Heal?

Possibly because most treatments for scars and skin conditions are topical solutions, few realize the value that healthy diet and exercise have in improving skin condition. There are a variety of ways that exercise and proper nutrition can help improve skin health; your skin is affected by the way you treat your body in general, and proper nutrition and exercise can actually help heal scars.

While it should be noted that precautions should be taken for sensitive skin in certain situations to avoid overexposure to sunlight, such as when exercising outdoors, getting plenty of exercise will help improve skin moisture and softness. Combined with a skin-friendly diet, one can help increase collagen and naturally improve scars, blemishes and skin condition overall.

Exercise Spurs Collagen Growth and Cleans the Skin From the Inside

Moderate exercise has two main effects on the skin. The first is that it increases blood flow to the lower layers (interior layers) of the skin, which has the effect of “washing out” skin affected by scarring by cleaning out toxins and dead cells, increasing overall skin elasticity. The second is that moderate exercise also spurs the production of collagen, which improves the health of skin cells to their ideal, youthful state. In short, exercising incrementally reduces the presence of scar tissue in the lower levels of the skin, which eventually replace the epidermis as the newer layer of skin grows beneath. You’re literally replacing your old scar tissue with new, healthy tissue! That’s enough to persuade anyone to step up their fitness routine.

Improving Your Nutrition Helps the Body Heal

Collagen is often found in a variety of products over the counter that are meant to be applied to the skin. While these have some value, it’s important to remember that such topical solutions have very limited effectiveness on skin cells below the outer layer. To really rejuvenate your skin, you’ll need to help it rebuild its basic structures, like collagen.

Collagen is naturally produced by the body, though the amount produced naturally decreases over time. It’s important to remember when trying to bring your skin to its ideal condition that collagen is a protein, and choosing the right foods will make for a collagen-promoting diet. A wide variety of foods such as fresh green vegetables, turkey and soy products contain proteins that make up collagen and help spur its production.

A Skin-Vivifying Health Routine

In short, to improve skin quality naturally, there are three things to remember. The first is that exercise will help remove toxins and particulates from the skin naturally. The second is that there are a wide variety of foods that will aid in the stimulation of collagen, which will lead to better skin health longer-term. The third is to ensure that your health routine doesn’t accidentally damage your skin in the process, either through overexposure or overexertion. Good luck!