6 secrets for healthy, glowing skin

Unlike your other organs, you can apply medicines, moisturizers and other potions directly to your skin. So, there's absolutely no reason why you can't have good skin throughout your life, especially if you follow these tips.

Like any part of your internal body, your skin can be healthy or sick. In particular, aging causes the skin to become thinner and drier. While you can't control your age, you can control numerous other factors, such as a poor diet and cigarette smoking.

A study found that skin cells grown in a culture dish and treated with garlic had seven times the lifespan of cells grown in a standard culture. They also tended to look healthier and more youthful than untreated cells. Plus, garlic extract dramatically inhibited the growth of cancerous skin cells.

They'll help you to avoid sleep disturbances or insomnia caused by ambient light.

• Sleep is critical to your skin's health because most cell repair and regeneration occurs while you're out for the count; if you're not getting enough rest, your skin cannot renew itself.

Use a spray of rose, sandalwood or bergamot essential oils mixed with water.

• These oils are great for hydrating the skin.
• To create a herbal spray, mix a few drops of essential oil with water in a small spray bottle and spritz on your face whenever your skin needs a little boost.
• Your skin is more pliable when it's hydrated, so a spray helps to stave off frown lines and general movement wrinkles.
• The hydrator also keeps pollutants out and retains your skin's natural lubricants.
• An added bonus: your make-up will stay on for longer and look more natural.

Go for a run, ride your bike or work in the garden on a hot day – anything to get you sweating.

• Sweating is nature's way of eliminating toxic chemicals that can build up under the skin.
• Plus, regular exercise maintains healthy circulation and blood flow throughout your body, including your skin.
• If you're exercising outdoors, though, remember to wear a sunscreen on your face that protects against UVA and UVB rays, or a moisturizer with sunscreen protection.

Grill salmon brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with toasted, crushed walnuts.

• You've just had a skin-healthy dose of poly and monounsaturated fats, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, which studies suggest may affect the amount of sun damage and aging your skin experiences.
• By extension, make sure olive oil is the primary source of fat in your cooking each and every day, and try to have salmon twice a week.

Brew a pot of tea, chill it, then store it in the fridge and drink it throughout the day.

• Tea, as you probably know, is a great source of antioxidants, molecules that fight the free-radical damage caused by sun exposure and cigarette smoking.
• One study, for instance, found that the more tea people drank (particularly tea with lemon), the less likely they were to develop squamous cell skin cancer.