Did you know that there are two types of aging? One is 'extrinsic' and the other is 'intrinsic'. Extrinsic aging is due to external causes and is considered to be somewhat under our control. Intrinsic aging is from internal, genetic causes and is the 'natural' aging process. While it is true that a certain amount of intrinsic aging occurs naturally, it is also true that much of it is avoidable. The secret lies in our diet and lifestyle, and in our choices of skin care products. Many products on the shelves accelerate aging and, if you want to slow the aging process, it is important to choose natural skin care treatment products that enhance natural function and defenses.

Intrinsic aging results in wrinkles, thin and transparent skin, hollowed cheeks and eye sockets from loss of collagen and underlying fat, sagging, loose skin on the face, hands and neck, bone loss that causes further sagging, and dry skin. All of these are considered to be part of a natural process and therefore unavoidable.

Studies have been conducted on several cultures in which people live into their 90's and even well over 100 with very little of this allegedly 'natural' degeneration. The people of the Hunza Valley in Pakistan, for example, routinely live into their late '90s and beyond without any sign of degenerative disease. Tests for cancer, heart and circulatory diseases, obesity and diabetes, to name just a few of the things they're expected to have at that age, have been negative. In fact, they are completely healthy. This is just one of many such cultures. They look decades younger than their years, and have beautiful skin.

Certainly they don't have access to the many skin care treatment products we have at our disposal so what do they have that we don't? In fact, the mystery is better solved by asking what they don't have: polluted air and water, processed foods, GMO's, depleted soils, preservatives, chemicals, manufactured hormones, drugs, antibiotics, animals raised in cages and force fed foods that are not part of their natural diet and contain even more drugs and antibiotics that we ingest, fruits and vegetables loaded with toxic chemicals, households crammed with poisons that clean our dishes, floors, walls and clothes and provide the fresh scent of 'natural' pine or lavender, sedentary lifestyles and, yes, skin care treatment products that profess to be the fountain of youth and in fact cause many of the conditions they allegedly treat. We are witnessing a classic example of the cure being worse than the disease.

While the picture looks bleak, there is a solution and it is not difficult to implement: make a list of the items above and systematically eliminate them from your household. Choose healthy, natural, organic, chemical-free, non-GMO foods grown or raised in their natural environment, find non-toxic cleaning products and use a little more elbow grease, turn off the TV and get out for a run, and switch to natural skin care treatment products that enhance natural function and structure and protect you from substances that cause 'natural' aging.

These actions alone will soon make your skin problems, not your natural beauty, a thing of the past.