Winter Prep and Summer regeneration - Supple skin anybody

Astaxanthin: A nice little intrinsic sunscreen and super antioxidant

Winter support: Astaxanthin

I don’t usually talk about products, because I prefer to focus on the body’s natural ways of healing however this great natural resource, that can be found growing locally from producers in Nelson is a great adjunct to what we all face in the Southlands winter….lack of SUNLIGHT!!

It came to me with a funny origin though….

In the first section of my mission into New Zealand at the start of Covid times, I had an alignment with Invercargill. Finding the right car to both promote awareness of my business, the rough times we were in, and some forward thinking alongside my usual paradigm of seeking ways to both heal and enrich life, meant succumbing to the laborious chore of owning a Lada Niva. The often reliable little beast, unfortunately one day puttered to a stop, along the main highway of Invercargill. With the rear heated windscreens, I was able to comfortably push the Lada that could across the three lanes and into the corner of Herbert street.

With very little experience of diagnosing and fixing cars, I set about trying to find the cause. After an hour or so of head under the bonnet and attempting to fix the broken fuel pump and fuel leak, I found myself inextricably high on petrol fumes with a nice puddle of fuel forming at my feet. At this point I decided to walk across the road and enquire with the pharmacy if they had anything for this. I think the first two checkout people got the wrong impression of what I was asking for, however eventually, an older lady found me the super highly antioxidant Astaxanthin. Like a super dose of vitamin C (6000 times stronger) in a sense of its antioxidant properties it was a nice introduction to this interesting product.

But apart from this, what amazed me most about this algae extract, was two things, it was sourced locally in NZ, and that it can help reduce skin damage in response to UV light! It acts like your own internal skin sunscreen, assisting in producing protective skin changes of melanin, as well acting as a strong antioxidant preventing damage of cells in response to reactive free oxygen molecules. In this process, it assists in your body’s skin health and will help you maximise that little exposure to sunlight that occurs in the depths of Southland winter.

Depending on your schedules different varieties of use will occur but one example is- I start cranking this supplement heading into winter as I’ll be in the intense sun of the snowy alps, and then build it up through to about mid summer for skin protection, where I give my body a break and let it find its own resources to regenerate skin.

It is a strong antioxidant and so has other effects on the body, but expect less weather aged skin and expect positive effects on

• heart (protects cell membranes of mitochondria)

• brain (reduce brain inflammation and oxidation)

• joint (anti-inflammatory)

• eyes

WATCH OUT - Some supplements are actually produced from the petrochemical industry (quite a lot of them apparently). For this reason I’ve opted to list one product which I know comes from red algae grown in Nelson.

Fun fact - If you consider that it is this pigment that makes flamingo feathers have their colour, it would be interesting what an overdose would give to a human………..not recommending but lol:)

Honestly, I probably would’ve recommended this to more people in southland NZ at the time of landing during covid, but I just didn’t know that many people then!

Enjoy:)