At Bulletproof, we talk about hacking brain fog, infertility, and obesity. Why not hack your attractiveness, too? Your skin says a lot about your overall health and vitality.

Attractiveness isn’t just a vanity thing. It turns out your looks affect more than furthering your gene line. Attractiveness gives you an edge in everyday life. People perceive attractive people as:

• More persuasive[ref url=”http://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/teaching/articles/Chaiken_JPSP_1979.pdf”]
• More trustworthy[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title%20Word&term=Van%20%27t%20Wout%5Bauthor%5D%20AND%20Friend%20or%20foe%3A%20The%20effect%20of%20implicit%20trustworthiness%20judgments%20in%20social%20decision-making”]
• More electable for public office[ref url=”http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004727270900142X”]

Physical appeal isn’t necessarily about how tall you are or the shape of your nose. Healthy, energetic, happy people are more attractive. Period. Read on for a list of hacks that you can do at home (and a few you’ll need professionals for) to maintain a youthful glow.

GHK-Cu for wrinkles and dark spots

GHK-Cu is a peptide (a chain of amino acids) that reduces inflammation, enhances brain function, and blocks oxidative stress among other benefits. You have plenty of GHK-Cu in your bloodstream when you’re young, less and less as you get older.

GHK-Cu can thicken and tighten your skin, too. It stimulates collagen production, which reduces the appearance of dark spots and wrinkles by making skin thicker, tighter, and more elastic.

Skin creams that are 2% GHK-Cu or higher will take years off of your skin. For whole-body anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, tissue repair and brain benefits, you can inject GHK-Cu. This anti-aging article has a section on how to do it.

Cryotherapy to increase collagen

Cryotherapy increases collagen production and slows the breakdown of collagen at the same time. Cold blasts inhibit the release of the enzymes and hormones that destroy your collagen.[ref url=”http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM197401032900101″][ref url=”http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM197401032900101″]

Cryotherapy also decreases inflammation while rallying the immune system into action.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10735978″] If you have red, inflamed, painful acne, a cryo (cold) facial or whole body cryotherapy will decrease inflammation and boost your immune system to battle the bacterial component of acne.

A strong immune system is essential to combatting acne and other skin issues. Drastic temperature drops increase your production of the antioxidants glutathione and superoxide dismutase, which help support your liver and immune system.[ref url=”http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0046352″]

If you don’t have access to a cryochamber, simply flip your shower to cold for up to 5 minutes or drag some ice cubes over the delicate skin of your face and neck for a few minutes before bed. The below-freezing temperatures of the cryochamber will produce more drastic results, but you will benefit from a brief cold blast that you do in your bathroom.

Microneedling (aka dermarolling) for better skin texture and tone

Microneedling improves your skin’s texture and thickness. Rolling a dermaroller (a small roller with tiny needles) all over your face stimulates growth factors that trigger collagen production. Fans of microneedling do it regularly to smooth rough spots, improve acne scarring, reduce wrinkles, and generally thicken skin. Roll at home or visit a professional for post-puncture upgrades.

Microneedling at home

You’ll easily find inexpensive dermarollers to use from the comfort of your own home. To avoid nasty infections on your face, use a clean, sterilized roller on freshly washed skin, and don’t share your equipment with anyone. People typically follow microneedling with a vitamin C serum or plant stem cell serum, although there is no evidence that following with plant stem cells does anything more than microneedling alone.

Professional microneedling

Professional microneedling is a little more intense. Post-puncture, your dermatologist or naturopathic doctor can add either platelet-rich plasma (PRP) or a live stem cell serum into the treatment.

To get platelet-rich plasma, the doctor will take your own blood and separate out the platelet-rich plasma by spinning it in a centrifuge. The yellowish liquid at the top is packed with extra platelets that contain growth factors. The doctor applies the serum to your face before and after microneedling and these growth factors work in tandem with growth factors stimulated by the punctures. The process produces noticeable results in fewer treatments than microneedling alone.[ref url=”https://miami.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/combined-use-of-skin-needling-and-platelet-rich-plasma-in-acne-sc”]

Microneedling with stem cell serum works the same way. Before rolling, the doctor spreads human stem cell serum all over your skin. The serum comes from a lab or your doctor makes it from the stem cells in your own fat or bone marrow. The doctor then rolls the microneedles over your skin and applies the stem cell serum again. The combination produces a faster and more dramatic reduction in wrinkles and hyperpigmentation (dark spots) than microneedling alone.[ref url=”http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4198585/”]

Advanced antiaging with stem cells

Stem cell therapy is more accessible than ever. Costs dropped from $50,000 per treatment to around $3,000-4,000, and you no longer have to leave the country to get it.

Aging and thinning skin became thicker and wrinkles reduced after injecting a complex containing 20-30% stem cells derived from fat cells.[ref url=”https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00403-009-0951-9 “] Researchers saw an uptick in activity of insulin-like growth factor and glutathione in skin tissue after stem cell treatment, both of which make you look way younger.[ref url=”http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1196/annals.1354.044/full”] Insulin-like growth factor promotes new skin cell growth and glutathione is a powerful antioxidant that scavenges free radicals in the skin.

The benefits of these procedures go well beyond your face. It’s likely you’ll also get sick less often and your energy will skyrocket. Self-experimentation will let you know what treatments work with your biology, so test away to find out what makes you see and feel a difference.

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