Many of the substances in this book activate several anti-aging mechanisms at once, often benefiting both cellular and hormonal mechanisms. This makes it possible to use the same natural substance for several purposes, which makes designing your own DIY treatment program easier. You can add several essential oils to a base oil, for example, and use the resulting treatment to help anti-age your under-eye area, your hair, and your body. I frequently use the same formulation for my face, neck, body, and hair, and even my eye area. You can create your own program using your favorite treatments from specialized chapters, Bio-Young Treatment boxes at the end of each chapter, or any of the more specific programs in chapters 12 through 14. You know your body better than anyone, so I welcome your interest in creating a custom program that is made entirely for you and by you.
When designing a program, the most important point to remember is the central thesis of this book: aging is the result of the decline in the two essential life processes of the human body—cellular and hormonal function. Keep this in mind, and make sure you use treatments that address these two all-important instigators of aging. Your reward can be fast, visible anti-aging results. Until the age of thirty, the most important anti-aging mechanisms to concentrate on involve cellular function. After this age, and particularly after forty, hormones decline very rapidly, and restoring hormonal function should be your primary focus, while of course keeping cellular function optimal. As you have seen in this book, when you raise hormonal activity in your body, skin, and hair, cellular function should improve, too. You never want to neglect either one of these two vital aspects of anti-aging.
I hope you are excited and encouraged by the range of possibilities that are now available for you to plan your own anti-aging strategies. Just as millions of books are written using only the letters of the alphabet, many possible programs can be designed using the information in this book.
Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind as you make your choices. These are the general areas of concern that bother most women, so I hope they will provide you with useful starting points when you come to design your own program.
• When treating the eye area, make sure that the treatments you apply around your eyes contain a lower concentration of essential oils than your body and hair treatments, and apply them with a gentle touch. Use a third of the essential oil dose recommended for your face, body, or hair when preparing treatments for the delicate area around your eyes.
• Dull, flaky skin benefits from proteasome activation using instant yeast granules (chapter 3) and aquaporin balancing using apple cider vinegar (chapter 7).
• Sagging skin needs fibroblast-stimulating help, provided by elastin synthesis enhancers such as dill essential oil (chapter 2).
• Sun damage is treated with amla, gotu kola, rice bran oil, and rosehip oil (chapter 4).
• The thinning skin that comes with declining levels of estrogen responds amazingly well to fennel, sandalwood, or ylang-ylang essential oils, mixed into an oil base (chapter 11).
• Get rid of flab with ginkgo and apple cider vinegar (chapter 7).
• Make your skin smooth, young, and dewy by stimulating skin stem cells with comfrey (chapter 5).
• Make sure your bone structure provides your face and body with youthful support (chapter 6).
• Grow your hair and make it gorgeous with rosemary and eucalyptus essential oils (chapter 8).