Generally fine lines, wrinkles, blemishes and sagging of skin still remain! Having said that, there are however a few natural products that will help with firming up skin and reducing fine lines and blemishes but you have to accept that there are limitations to what they can do on their own. More about this later in article! So, what is answer... plastic surgery? Many people obviously think that it is, given booming cosmetic plastic surgery industry. But is it? In my opinion definitely not! I have met quite a number of people that have had plastic surgery and I have not been impressed.

I remember just a few years ago meeting up with some old friends from St Louis for dinner in Palm Beach Florida.

My friends who were in their late 70's brought along a friend who would have been in her early 60's. It was apparent that this friend had had a number of plastic surgery procedures on her face and not all of them were successful. I remember thinking at time that she would have looked better without them. Of course that is not always case. Some people get really good results, but they are very much dependent upon skill of surgeon. So, risks are high. So, what causes skin to age which results in sagging, wrinkles and blemishes?

If you want to maintain clear, healthy, and firm skin into old age you need to know this. So ... here is brief version ... FREE RADICALS. That's it in a nutshell.

I am sure that you have heard about free radicals and you may even know exactly what they are, but nonetheless I will give you a quick briefing about them. Even though free radicals age our bodies and skin they are a natural and essential part of life. They are everywhere, inside our body and out. They are more concentrated in cities or anywhere there is any form of environmental pollution. Sunlight also creates free radicals.

It is possible to see effect of them quite dramatically when you cut an apple open and leave it exposed to air. The parts without skin quickly go brown. This is because it is being attacked by these free radicals. If they were not there then nothing would decompose and whole planet would be a massive garbage dump. So, what exactly are they? They are oxygen molecules that have lost an electron through interaction with other molecules. As with everything in nature an effort is made (in this case molecule) to heal itself!

There is only one way it can do this... and that is by stealing an electron from another healthy molecule. So, it rushes around like a thief until it can find one!

When it does and it steals electron, what happens?

* Overall cancer risk reduced by 37% * Overall reduction in cancer mortality rates by 50% * 30% reduction of colorectal cancer.

Sounds like sort of claims someone standing on a soapbox trying to sell snake oil would make... but SURPRISE ... these statements are coming from mainstream ... and results are from simple natural multi-vitamins NOT pharmaceutical drugs!

But that is not all! It is now being said that if everyone over 65 took a multi every day that US taxpayer would save $1.6 billion over 5 years in Medicare costs due to a reduced incidence of coronary artery disease and other diseases triggered by weak immune systems.

These figures do NOT factor in financial savings brought about by reduction of colorectal cancer, diabetes, prostate cancer and a whole host of other ailments that can likely be avoided through proper nutritional supplementation. If these were factored in then savings would be MUCH greater. OK... who is saying these things?

Earlier this month there was a conference in Washington DC entitled "Multivitamins and Public Health: Exploring Evidence."

Presented at this conference were results of a study just completed by Lewin Group (a health care consulting firm). It was funded by Wyeth Consumer Healthcare which is part of Wyeth Pharmaceutical Group. This is what researchers did:

They analyzed more than 125 clinical studies plus scientific literature to determine whether or not multivitamins gave any health benefits and if so, whether these benefits translated into savings in healthcare bills for people 65 years of age or older.

The director of Lewin Group, Allen Dobson, PhD put study results into perspective when he said, "finding any cost savings for preventative measures is unusual and finding cost savings of this magnitude ($1.6B) is very rare."

It is a refreshing turn around for someone associated with 'mainstream' medicine to actually concede that preventive measures actually do work. As you have probably noticed over last couple of years there have been many misleading statements from spokespeople in 'mainstream' medical field doing their best to discourage people from use of natural preventive remedies.

More positive 'mainstream' comments...

The positive 'mainstream' comment doesn't end with this study! During same week that conference in Washington was held results of another study was published in American Journal of Epidermiology which is a 'mainstream' publication. This was a study carried out by Harvard during last twenty years.

The results will no doubt annoy many opponents of natural preventive medicines but facts speak for themselves. Here are highlights:

* The study involved approximately 145,000 middle aged or elderly adults. * In 1982 these adults were surveyed regarding their multi-vitamin use. * Their use was reassessed 10 years later in 1992. * They were then followed up again over next five years. * During that period 797 of participants developed colorectal cancer.