Prevention is way better than cure. It’s also way less expensive. Here’s a few simple tips to keep those nasty lines away:

Experts cannot stress this enough. Keep your skin healthy by keeping moist. The best way and most inexpensive way is to keep yourself well hydrated all day.

Drink lots of water, especially when the weather is hot, humid, even those chilly days. Moisturized skin requires water. Make sure to drink plenty.

Keep your skin protected from too much sun exposure. A healthy dose early in the day helps to improve health but prolonged exposure such as sun bathing can accelerate protein breakdown.

Prolonged sun exposure also causes more damage and reduce the skin’s ability to heal itself.

It’s not just the sun you should be protecting your skin from. You should also protect it against harsh chemicals, such as:

• too much and prolonged wearing of makeup
• harsh chemicals in skin care products
• dust
• extreme temperatures (too dry, too hot, too cold)
• smoke

A healthy body maintains healthy skin. Eat a well-balanced diet to feed the cells, including the skin cells with the right nutrients.

Examples are vitamin C and other antioxidants to boost the skin’s ability to protect, heal and restore itself.

Feeding the skin also means using products that can provide nutrients directly to the skin structure such as creams and serums.

Not all skin care products can be good for you. Not because a celebrity endorsed it or it is an expensive bottles means it is the best one for you.

You have to be very careful in choosing. Read the labels and understand what each ingredient means and what it can do for you.

Anything artificial must be avoided, including fragrances, colorants and preservatives. Look for natural ingredients.

Then again, not all products or ingredients labeled as “natural” is automatically good or effective. It has to have scientific proof for effectiveness and safety of use.

There are a handful of natural ingredients with a good body of research to back the claims. One such ingredient is called Pueraria mirifica.

This is a native plant in Burma and Thailand. The roots have been found to contain a good concentration of phytoestrogens.

These chemicals in act like estrogen (called estrogenic effects), which can have many benefits in the body. These include:

• Better blood cholesterol levels
• Antioxidant properties
• Reduced vaginal dryness
• Reduced incidence of painful sex
• Reduced severity of perimenopausal period’s climacteric symptoms

A few studies on animals also found that extract from this plant has the potential to improve bone strength and control the rate of bone loss in estrogen deficiency conditions.

One study also found it to have positive effects on the breast tissues, including potential anti-canceractions like breast cancer.

This natural ingredient also helps the skin in many ways. A few examples include:

• Improved skin hydration
• Better skin elasticity
• Significant slowdown in skin aging
• Reduced pore size and depth of wrinkles

This natural ingredient can be found in topical and oral forms. Topical use can be in the form of soaps, gels an creams. Oral Pueraria mirifica can be taken in tablets or capsule forms.

Clinical studies found that benefits from this plant can be produced when taking oral 200 to 400 mg of root extract per day. That is usually achieved by taking commercial oral preparations once in the morning then another dose in the evening.

Safety is use is imperative. The product is essentially safe and effective, based on numerous studies on its individual use. However, individual reactions do vary.

Some of the ingredients included in the preparations may induce allergic or hypersensitive reactions. Check the product label. Do not use if you are allergic or hypersensitive to any of the listed ingredients.

Use with caution because of its estrogen-like properties. That means cautionary use for conditions such as anemia, liver conditions, pulmonary embolism and estrogen-dependent neoplasia.