Your Skin’s Worst Enemy Isn't the Sun - It's Your Metabolism!

**Dr. Mark Hyman** (0:00)
Can you naturally slow your skin aging and reduce skin sagging by improving your metabolic health? Well, the best anti-aging treatment for your skin isn't sitting on your bathroom counter, it's happening inside your cells. Most people think younger looking skin comes from finding the perfect moisturizer, the best collagen powder, or the newest anti-aging treatment. Those things can certainly help, but they don't address the biology that's actually driving your skin aging. And here's the truth, your skin doesn't age from the outside in, it ages from the inside out.
Every wrinkle, every loss of elasticity, every bit of sagging reflects changes happening deep inside your cells long before you ever notice them in the mirror. Today I'm going to show you five biggest things that accelerate skin aging and more importantly, what you can actually do about them. We're going to talk about why some people develop loose skin after losing weight, by blood sugar, maybe aging your skin faster than the sun, what's one of your body's most powerful cellular repair system and what it has to do with healthy aging. And we're talking about the simple daily habits that help your skin stay stronger, healthier and more resilient over time. Because healthy skin isn't something you apply, it's something your body builds, one healthy cell at a time. Here's the first thing most people don't realize. Your skin age isn't just reflecting your age, it's reflecting your health, because your skin is much more than a surface. It's your body's largest organ unlike every other organ. This health depends on the health of your cells, which means if you want healthier looking skin, you have to start by building a healthier body. This episode was brought to you by Function. Get access to over 160 latkes annually at functionhealth.com/mark. Most people don't think of skin as an organ, but it is. In fact, it's your body's largest organ. Its job simply isn't to make you look younger, it's protecting you every second of every day. It regulates temperature, supports immunity, keeps bacteria out, produces vitamin D, and it's constantly repairing itself, which means the healthier your cells are, the healthier your skin becomes. That brings us to the first thing that ages your skin, chronic inflammation. The inflammation is wonderful when it's short-lived. It's how your body heals. If you cut your finger, inflammation helps stop the bleeding, it fights infection, helps rebuild healthy tissue. If you lift weights, a small amount of inflammation signals your muscles to repair and become stronger. That's exactly what it's supposed to do. The problem isn't inflammation. The problem is when your body never gets the message to turn it off.
That's what we call chronic low-grade inflammation. Unlike other inflammation, you notice that for an injury, this kind of often is silent. You don't necessarily feel it, but over time, it begins damaging healthy tissues throughout the body, including your skin. Remember, your skin is constantly trying to repair itself. It's replacing millions of skin cells every day, producing new collagen, repairing damage from sunlight, maintaining a strong, healthier barrier.
But chronic inflammation makes all of those jobs harder. It increases the breakdown of collagen. It interferes with your skin's natural repair process. It contributes to what we call oxidative stress, which damages healthy cells and accelerates visible signs of aging, like wrinkles. Over time, that means, of course, more wrinkles. It means less elasticity. It means slower healing in skin that simply doesn't look as vibrant as it once did. So where does all that inflammation come from? Well, for many people, it's not one thing. It's not one dramatic event. It's accumulation of everyday habits. It's a diet high in ultra-processed foods. It's poor sleep. It's chronic stress. It's too little movement. It's smoking. It's excess alcohol. Even unmanaged blood sugar. Each one adds a little more fuel to the fire, and eventually, your skin starts reflecting on what's happening beneath the surface.
Which is why healthy skin isn't just about what you put on your body. It's also about what you put in your body.
How well you sleep, how much you move, how well you manage stress.
Every one of those choices influences inflammation. And inflammation influences how your skin ages. But inflammation isn't acting alone. It's another process that's going on that may be aging your skin every time you eat. It has everything to do with your blood sugar and glycation. This is one of the biggest drivers of skin aging that almost nobody talks about. Now, most people think high blood sugar is only a problem if you have diabetes. But long before someone develops diabetes, replete blood sugar spikes can begin affecting tissues throughout the whole body, including your skin. Here's what happens. Every time you eat, your blood sugar naturally rises. That's normal. The problem comes when your blood sugar is elevated too often or if it stays elevated for too long. Over time, some of that excess sugar begins sticking to proteins in your body, especially collagen. Scientists call these compounds ages or advanced glycation end products or AGES.