Your skin is the largest organ of your body and a shield from the outside world. As such, healthy skin is more than just about looking good. It is a reflection of your underlying health. Ensuring you are getting essential skin nutrients your body relies on will do more than just improve your appearance.

Healthy skin focuses on three major goals – keeping collagen levels intact, keeping moisture in and the barrier intact, and providing antioxidant protection to help protect the skin from various stressors. Scientific research is even showing that feeding your skin the right nutrients is key in helping to improve dermatitis, wrinkles, acne, irritation and redness, dry skin, and more.

Nourish your skin from within with these skin-loving nutrients:

1. Collagen
Supplementing with collagen peptides has been shown to effectively improve skin quality. Collagen makes up about 80 percent of skin structure. Collagen breaks down with age, sun, hormone changes, stress, and inadequate nutritional support. Rather than topical application, research demonstrated that oral ingestion of bioactive collagen peptides was able to help from the inside out.

Taking collagen peptides stimulates fibroblast cells that make collagen in the deep layer of skin. This signals fibroblasts to increase collagen production within the skin, helping to rejuvenate collagen that is damaged by aging, UV rays, or other factors.

2. Ceramides
Ceramides are crucial for the formation of the skin barrier and help skin cells stick together. This helps keep moisture in. Ceramides are types of fat naturally found in the skin. Psoriasis, atopic or allergic dermatitis, aged skin, acne vulgaris, and dermatitis, have decreased levels of ceramides. Supplementing with plant ceramides have been shown in both animal and human studies to be safe and effective for improving skin hydration and skin barrier reinforcement.

3. Hyaluronic Acid
Hyaluronic acid is a natural anti-wrinkle compound for the skin and helps the skin hold onto moisture. Healthy skin is made up of about 50 percent hyaluronic acid. Decreasing levels of hyaluronic acid in the skin are associated with dryness, reduced flexibility, and wrinkles. Hyaluronic acid has also been shown to improve acne scars and skin damage from the sun. Avoid using synthetic sodium hyaluronate as it is too large to be absorbed and does not provide the same health benefits as natural hyaluronic acid.

4. Essential Fatty Acids
Fatty acids are essential to the skin's natural oil barrier, which is critical in keeping skin hydrated and looking youthful. Healthy oils are what give a healthy glow to the skin. Dry skin is an early sign of an essential fatty acid deficiency. On the contrary, acne sufferers are found to have lower levels of the good kind of skin oils. Due to the anti-inflammatory nature of essential fatty acids, supplementing with the right kind of oils for skin can help to improve dry skin, acne, and other inflammatory skin disorders.

Certain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids play a critical role in skin health and must be obtained from diet. DHA, EPA, GLA, and squalene are four oils the skin needs in particular to stay healthy. Supplementing with these oils orally will cause them to accumulate in the sebum that moisturizes skin, helping to maintain the protective barrier of skin and reduce inflammation. Several inflammatory skin concerns may even be improved with supplementation of these oils.

5. Vitamins and Minerals
Healthy skin is beautiful skin. The skin relies on several vitamins and minerals to stay healthy. In particular, B vitamins and vitamins A, D3, E, and C play very important roles in maintaining healthy skin. The minerals selenium and zinc also help keep skin healthy. These vitamins and minerals play roles in healthy collagen production, wound healing, UV protection, effective communication between skin cells and more.

Taking a complete antioxidant complex is a good way to ensure you are getting adequate levels of these essential skin nutrients. The positive effects of these nutrients are more effective when delivered orally, rather than topically where nutrients can only reach the top layers of skin. The skin relies on the circulatory system to deliver these essential nutrients to the skin so regular cardiovascular exercise that gets the heart rate up is a sure way of giving your skin a health boost.

Skin is an important organ, as it provides a structural barrier to the environment. Maintaining skin in a healthy condition is an important part of maintaining healthy body structure. The real key to youthful skin is to nourish your skin from within. Give your skin the nutrition it needs!