When thinking about anti-ageing or desensitizing treatments for a sensitive skin or cellulite reduction, we have never considered the negative oxygen ions.  But, it is important and feasible to have beauty and health at the same time.  Because beauty comes through health!  Besides, a body and skin with toxins never have a radiant and healthy look.

Those who have had the pleasurable experience of being in a waterfall will surely remember how well you felt at that time, but also in the following days.  This is not a random feeling because you just like waterfalls and it was an unprecedented experience for you.  The same, but at a lesser intensity, we feel after a mighty rainfall or beside streams or when we open the shower and the water drops with pressure on the floor.

The reason for this sensation is negative oxygen ions, which are oxygen atoms, charged with extra electrons.  They are created in nature at the points where water drops forcefully to the ground.  At these points, friction is formed with the water particles, resulting in the release of negative oxygen ions (anions).  Anions are molecules with an extra electron.

Conversely, modern living, namely air pollution, mobile and cordless phones and new technology devices, air conditioning and heating, synthetic clothes, smoking (passive and active), result in the increase in positive oxygen ions (cations), which, unlike their name, do not have a positive effect on the body.  They create acidic conditions in the body.  This is one of the reasons for modern chronic diseases.

The table below shows how many negative and how many positive oxygen ions are located in the following areas.  If you notice, when we work for a long time in an office, we “bathe” in positive oxygen ions, which are not the ideal conditions for our health.  All this results in poor health and premature ageing.

Negative oxygen ions in the body:

• Detoxify.
• Promote cell metabolism. Because of their nature, they maintain the body’s pH at a slightly alkaline level. This neutralizes the acid ph, created by the modern way of life (atmospheric pollution, ultraviolet radiation).
• Improve our mood.
• Improve the quality of sleep. They improve blood circulation, balancing the nervous system.
• Increase our energy.
• Slow down ageing.
• Help against muscular pains that result from stress. When muscles are tired, the lactic acid increases. Negative oxygen ions have the property of suppressing the action of lactic acid.
• Reduce illness. They neutralize free radicals, which are very toxic to the body. Essentially, free radicals are chemical compounds, too unstable, because they lack electrons.  Thus, since negative oxygen ions have extra electrons, they neutralize free radicals by making them harmless.

Chronic exposure to positive oxygen ions causes:

• Chronic fatigue.
• Headaches.
• Emotional problems (anxiety, depression).
• Excessive anxiety.
• Due to air deficiency, anxiety, asthma and breathing difficulty may result.

In the environment where they live, humans “swim” in a sea of oxygen ions.  Either positive or negative.  In order to live with health and quality of life, they need a lot of negative oxygen ions (anions).  An equilibrium between anions and cations is required, at a rate of 80% anions and 20% cations.

Studies have shown that if a person increases their contact with negative oxygen ions, i.e. about 1,500 anions per cubic centimetre of air, then the immune system gets stronger.  85% of the anions are absorbed by the skin, while only 15% is absorbed by breath.

However, those of us who live in urban areas and are unable to go to the forest and waterfalls or to the beach, we can have the benefits of negative oxygen ions with the help of devices that “take” the air from the surrounding area, strengthen it with negative oxygen ions and “send” it back improved to our skin.  A device of this type is Dermiolologie facial and Dermiologie Body.

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Maria Kyriaki Beautician – Cosmetologist
Graduate of the Technological Educational Institute of Athens