Wrinkles
What are Wrinkles?
Ask anyone what they consider to be the most noticeable signs of aging, and they will no doubt place wrinkles in their top five. This is because wrinkles, the fine lines and deeper crevices that form in the skin, will rather visibly show up on the face, neck, arms, and other aspects of a person’s skin as they enter the second half of their natural life span. This turns out to be a development that people care about a great deal; the anti-aging market, which includes anti-wrinkle products, is estimated to grow to $200 billion in global, annual expenditures within a couple of years of this writing.
As people grow older, the amount of oil in their skin naturally diminishes. This leads to the skin being less nourished, and therefore less elastic. Wrinkles are caused not only by the natural aging process but other factors as well. People are likely to develop greater and deeper wrinkles on the parts of their skin that receive the most sun exposure, for the sun’s ultraviolet radiation has an adverse effect on the connective tissues that maintains the skin’s elasticity. Furthermore, smoking is known to heighten the incidence of wrinkles as well. Western modalities to eliminate wrinkles includes the use of moisturizing products, facial peels, injections like with Botox, laser resurfacing, and plastic surgery.
How Does Ayurveda View Wrinkles?
If you were to review Western resources on the nature and source of wrinkles, you would likely come upon information that states how some people are more prone to wrinkles than others. This will include explaining how certain people’s heredity makes them predisposed to greater, deeper wrinkles than that of others. People of fairer skin and with certain eye colors tend to be associated with a greater incidence of wrinkles as well.
This falls in line with the broader strokes of Ayurvedic tradition. Those who have a lot of Kapha energy exhibit more earthy qualities, which includes having thicker, more abundant bodies and oily skin. If gaining wrinkles is the result of a person’s skin losing its natural oils, then those who are constitutionally predisposed to having oily skin are less likely to grow wrinkles in their skin; the oil nourishes the skin and helps it to maintain its elasticity. Conversely, those who have a lot of the airy Vata energy are prone to dryness. They will both be prone to having dry skin in general and more wrinkly skin as they get older.
How Does Ayurveda Treat Wrinkles?
To treat wrinkles Ayurvedically is likely to lessen the imbalances associated with Vata energy. This, at its core, involves reducing the abundance of air energy through nourishing, moisturizing practices like the consumption of oils, the topical application of oils, the use of specialized oil massage and other treatments of the body, and the consumption of foods and herbs that help to nourish the body as a whole.
Lifestyle Changes for Wrinkles
When we neglect to establish the root cause of one illness, it can turn into another, stronger illness in the future. The first step in resolving a specific ailment or disease in the body is to assess the nature of our lifestyle and make general modifications. Living our day-to-day life with a deliberate intention to improve our health will help us to both resolve the disease we are suffering from and prevent further incidence of it and other diseases in the future. The following lifestyle changes will both help to generally resolve imbalanced Vata energy, and specifically help to lessen wrinkles.
- Favor cooked foods over raw and dried foods, as these foods are not only easier to digest but will help to ground the body.
- Favor nourishing foods such as white basmati rice, barley, ghee, milk, and cooked vegetables.
- Melt ghee over cooked foods on a regular basis, as this can help to lubricate the body and ensure greater moisturizing of the skin.
- Be sure not to go without nourishment for long periods of time, as a lack of food can lead to excessive lightness and further aggravation of Vata energy.
- Take a tablespoon of ghee or sesame oil with half a cup of warm water.
- Stay out of the sun.
- Massage the body with slightly heated sesame oil on a daily basis.
- Avoid synthetic moisturizers made from ingredients like chemicals, water, and alcohol, for this is likely to dry out the skin in the long-term.
- Enlist the help of an Ayurvedic practitioner to administer oil enemas, medicated oil massages, and other treatments that help to nourish the body.
Better Foods For Wrinkles
Ayurveda teaches us that disease and sickness is derived from poor digestion and inappropriate food choices, so we make deliberate and conscious choices as to what foods we do and do not put in our body. When we suffer from a specific ailment, we then have an opportunity to make even more specific food choices to increase the chance of resolving the body’s imbalance. Food needs to be in season, in moderate combinations of one or two food groups, not too hot or cold, in a modest enough quantity to allow for room left over in the stomach, consumed without too much liquid which hinders digestive power, and fresh and not left over from more than a few hours before. The following foods will help to settle excessive Vata energy and therefore nourish the skin in response to wrinkles.
Ghee
Milk
Cherries
Bananas
Berries
Apricots
Mangoes
Peaches
Plums
Figs (fresh)
Beets (cooked)
Carrots (cooked)
Sweet potatoes
Asparagus (cooked)
Zucchini
Avocado
Oats (cooked)
Rice (white basmati)
Whole wheat (unbleached)
Mung beans
Almonds (soak overnight, then peel skin before eating)
Vegetable Soup
Sesame Oil
Foods To AVOID In Response To Wrinkles
While some foods can help to balance an aggravated dosha, other foods can cause further imbalance. Dry and cold foods as well as pungent, bitter and astringent tastes will dry out the body and aggravate the Vata dosha; sour, salty and pungent tastes as well as spicy foods will add more heat to the body and aggravate the Pitta dosha; sweet, sour and salty tasting foods will add heaviness to the body and aggravate the Kapha dosha. The following foods can aggravate Vata energy and therefore dry out the body, thereby worsening the incidence of wrinkles.
Apples
Pears
Watermelon
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Tomatoes
Celery
Eggplant
Corn
Oats (dry)
Barley
Most legumes including green lentils and garbanzo beans
Raw and cold foods
Dry foods
Beverages For Wrinkles
Generally, Ayurveda discourages the consumption of too many cold beverages, as doing so hinders the strength of the body’s digestive fire. Instead, favors room temperature or hot beverages to encourage the strength of the digestive fire.
- Hot water, especially during meals, first thing in the morning, and a few cups during the day
- Warm milk with a small amount of ghee and honey melted into it (be sure to first heat milk and let it cool slightly before adding honey and ghee; honey when heated can become toxic)
- Herbal teas of Ginger, Cinnamon, and Cardamom
- Avoid cold and frozen drinks
- Avoid sugary or fizzy drinks that blend with the digestive juice and make it weak
- Avoid alcohol, black tea, and coffee
- Avoid fruit juices from concentrate
Herbs For Wrinkles
Herbs are used in the Ayurvedic system much like Western medicine utilizes drugs and vitamins and can be taken like tea 2 to 3 times a day. Herbs aid in the digestion of food, the breakdown and elimination of toxins, and help to strengthen the cellular structure of our system for greater vitality. Herbs become more potent once mixed with other herbs of similar properties. Mix together 2 to 4 different herbs from the below list by adding a quarter to a half teaspoon full of each, for a total of 1 teaspoon. Drink these in half cup of hot water.
Ginger (fresh)
Fenugreek
Guggul
Haritaki
Bhringaraj
Brahmi
Ashwagandha
Yoga Postures For Wrinkles
When applied therapeutically to specific ailments, yoga postures provide an opportunity to strengthen the body, rid it of toxic matter, and restore balance. The postures included in this section can be practiced as part of a more general sequence or can be focused on in short sessions. When first exploring yoga postures, it is best to only practice them for twenty minutes or so per day and buildup from there once the body becomes more flexible.
Knee to chest
Corpse
Hero
One leg extended/Paschimottanasana
Locust
Aromatherapy For Wrinkles
Aromatherapy utilizes the fragrances of essential oils when applied to the skin. Essential oils can burn the skin and therefore must be diluted with a base oil such as sesame, coconut, sunflower, canola, or mustard oil. Mix 1 fluid ounce of base oil with about 12 drops of essential oil before applying to skin. You can also just mix 5 drops of base oil to one drop of essential oil if using on one spot.
- Wrinkles can be treated with sandalwood, ginger, lotus, basil, or lavender oil.
- Use a sesame oil base.
- Apply oil between the eyebrows, in the third eye region of the face. Oil can also be applied to the affected areas associated with pain.
Mantra Therapy For Wrinkles
Ayurvedic tradition suggests that repeating certain words or sounds can help a person suffering from an ailment to restore subtle balance to nerve tissue and enhance one’s mental clarity. Different sounds are prescribed to either repeat mentally or chant outwardly. These sounds are also used and repeated in the mind for the purpose of spiritual growth.
To help control and resolve wrinkles, repeat the syllable “Ram” (pronounced rahm) for several minutes a few times a day and build more practice over time.
As a Vata-related disorder, it is helpful to internally repeat this syllable for the duration of time it is practiced without chanting it out loud.
Breathing Practices For Wrinkles
Controlling the breath is a central practice toward developing peace and stillness in the mind and body. When the breath is under our control, we are no longer at the mercy of the senses that are stimulated by everything and lead to greater fluctuations of the mind. When applied to the context of resolving specific ailments, the breath is used as a tool for developing lung capacity, heating and cooling the body and resolving mental afflictions like anxiety and stress.