Do you ever feel like skin care has gotten out of hand? Between our daily serums, moisturizers, pore minimizers, face masks, and fascia tools, you would think that we would all be walking around with perfect, glowing skin by now.
However, many of us continue to seek the holy grail of skincare, searching endlessly for the perfect product that delivers dewy skin, diminishes our pores, eradicates under-eye bags and banishes wrinkles.
Well, at The Hao Life, we believe the age-old saying rings true: real beauty starts on the inside.
Yes, we can all agree an amazing personality can make any person immediately more attractive, but what we’re really talking about is how our nutrition and the foods we consume can have an impact on our appearance, especially our skin.
If you’re sick of trying yet another topical solution promising to deliver beauty and youth in a bottle, it may be time for a different approach - one that tackles your skin care problems at the source.
In particular, we’ve become fascinated with one mushroom that has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years. Aptly known as the “beauty mushroom”, we’d like to introduce you to our holy grail of skin care: the tremella mushroom.
What are Tremella Mushrooms?
As if to indicate their superpower, Tremella Mushrooms are a beautiful, pearlescent-looking fungi that tends to grow on dead tree branches, especially in tropical regions. These mushrooms have earned many names, coming to be known as white jelly mushrooms, snow mushrooms, and silver ear mushrooms.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, tremella mushrooms are considered a Yin tonic, and they have wide-ranging medicinal uses: they are often used to treat respiratory ailments, such as a cough or asthma, are used to support the immune system, and they are touted for their anti-aging benefits.
According to legend, one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China,Yang Guifei, attributed her beauty to using Tremella mushrooms to maintain her radiant complexion. The use of Tremella mushrooms in Traditional Chinese Medicine dates as far back as 200 AD, with references to the mushroom found in ancient medical literature. ‘
Today, tremella mushrooms are widely cultivated to capture their beauty-boosting health benefits.
The Benefits of Tremella Mushrooms
Tremella Mushrooms, while known to be one of nature’s “fountains of youth” , have benefits that extend beyond improving our physical appearance.
Tremella mushrooms contain a high concentration of polysaccharides, which are antioxidants that stave off harmful free radicals and prevent oxidative damage, promote nerve health, and have neuroprotective benefits.
Snow mushrooms may help to stimulate Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), which can help to protect and stimulate the production of new nerve tissues in the brain.
Tremella is also high in Vitamin D, fiber, and has adaptogenic properties that can help the body to better manage and cope with external stress.
The chemical structure of Tremella yields major benefits for those who consume these mushrooms, including:
- Reduced inflammation in the body
- Lower cholesterol levels
- Nerve cell regeneration
- Prevention and treatment of degenerative brain disease
- Improved digestion
- Anti-aging
In summary, even if Tremella mushrooms weren’t able to make our skin more radiant, we’d still likely be recommending them for their excellent support of our overall well-being. As such, we are thrilled to report that this is not the case: the amazing benefits tremella mushrooms have for our skin are inarguable.
Skin Benefits of Tremella Mushrooms
Tremella Mushrooms are a core component of our latest herbal superblend, Surface Appeal, because they help support several of the key elements of healthy, radiant skin.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tremella Mushrooms are often used to support healthy Lung qi (energy) and Lung yin (fluids). Lung health and the health of our skin are closely interrelated in TCM, as it is believed that clear skin is dependent on a healthy balance of Lung qi and Lung yin.
Lung qi can help to enhance skin healing, reducing inflammation and preventing blemishes. Lung yin, on the other hand, nourishes the skin, helping to prevent dryness and signs of aging.
On this, Eastern and Western medicine agree: consuming tremella mushrooms is a natural way to promote healthy, glowing skin.
Here are some of the science-backed ways in which Tremella Mushrooms support our skin health:
1. Tremella Mushrooms can boost collagen levels
Collagen has exploded onto the beauty scene, and has come to be known for its contribution to youthful skin. Collagen is a structural protein in the body that helps make up our connective tissues, and can be found in our bones, skin, and cartilage.
As we age, our bodies tend to produce less collagen, which can contribute to our skin becoming less supple and elastic over time. Research has found that Tremella Mushrooms can actually help remedy this problem, supporting the production of collagen in the body and helping us to maintain and restore healthy collagen levels.
Tremella contains plant collagen and polysaccharides, which support skin collagen synthesis and protect fibroblasts. The result is improved skin elasticity and reduced fine lines and wrinkles, which helps validate reference to Tremella Mushrooms as the Fountain of Youth.
2. Tremella Mushrooms have antioxidant properties, which help to prevent visible signs of aging
If you’ve read about some of our other herbal supplements, you’ll know that we love antioxidants at The Hao Life. These powerful compounds have many health benefits: they can help fight disease, prevent signs of aging, and protect our bodies from environmental stressors.
Antioxidants work by fighting free radicals that accumulate in the body. Free radicals are unstable atoms that can destroy our healthy molecules, resulting in oxidative stress. Over time, this can contribute to the development of diseases like cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Oxidative stress is also bad for our skin. It causes inflammation, breaks down collagen, and causes visible skin damage like acne, wrinkles, and uneven skin tone.
Luckily, Tremella Mushrooms have abundant antioxidants. This rich antioxidant content can help to prevent aging, strengthen skin, and help you to maintain a youthful radiance.
3. Tremella Mushrooms reduce inflammation
If your skin care woes include redness, discoloration, and acne, Tremella is a great nutritional solution for you. Tremella Mushrooms are able to reduce the underlying inflammation that causes these skin effects, helping skin to look even and calm inflammation-induced breakouts.
Helping prevent skin irritation, breakouts, and sensitivity is just one of the many ways that Tremella can be used for better skin appearance.
4. Tremella Mushrooms can help to hydrate skin
In addition to their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits, tremella mushrooms are also able to help boost skin hydration, contributing to a dewey, glowing appearance.
Tremella mushrooms are often used topically to provide skin hydration: tremella can hold up to 500 times its weight in water, and has small particles that are able to penetrate and hydrate skin.
If you experience dry skin, Tremella mushrooms provide benefits similar, if not better than, hyaluronic acid for skin hydration.
5. Tremella Mushrooms increase Vitamin D levels
Tremella mushrooms are an excellent natural source of Vitamin D, which has a variety of skin-boosting health benefits.
Vitamin D plays a crucial role in protecting our skin from damage: it can help to repair sun damage caused by harmful UV rays, build our skin’s protective barrier, and promote faster skin healing.
Vitamin D has powerful antioxidant properties, and can also help to prevent skin inflammation.
Are Tremella Mushrooms Safe?
Tremella mushrooms are widely considered to be safe.
We advise consulting a health care professional before introducing new supplements into your routine, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions, are pregnant, or are nursing. That said, no serious side-effects have been identified from tremella mushrooms.
Natural Supplements for Skin Health
Tremella Mushrooms provide excellent support for skin health due to their excellent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits, collagen and lung support, and vitamin D levels. On its own, Tremella Mushrooms, either used topically or orally, can have a profound effect on skin.
But, why stop at the benefits of Tremella on their own? We’ve combined Tremella Mushrooms with other skin-loving herbal medicines like astragalus root, polygonum, and Chinese peony root (among others) to deliver an effective, skin-nourishing formula that heals your skin from the inside.
By incorporating these natural supplements for skin into your daily routine, you can address the internal imbalances that cause our most stubborn skin problems without breaking the bank on ineffective topical solutions.
Remember, when it comes to your skin - beauty starts from the inside. Tap into your inner Yang Guifei, and tackle your skin health from the inside out with tremella mushroom skincare supplements from The Hao Life.
