What causes the Aging of Skin?

Nobody wants to get older, but it’s the looking older part that is least irritating. It’s hard to deal with something that we don’t understand. What exactly causes the aging of skin? There are two different types of aging.

Internal Aging

Internal, or intrinsic, aging is probably the least desirable type of aging. There isn’t much you can do about it. It is the natural aging process that usually begins in your mid-20s. We begin to produce less collagen and few new skin cells. Also, our skin loses its spring. Luckily, the effects often don’t show up for years.

With internal aging, we begin to see the natural signs of aging such as wrinkles, dry and saggy skin, and gray hair. The normal aging process is part of your genes. Keep an eye on how your parents’ age and you should expect the same. Of course, this is not including external aging. If you parents had bad habits that greatly affected their aging, you have a chance to correct them yourself and hopefully slow your aging.

External Aging

Premature aging is what we all dread. This means we are looking older than we should be. If you understand the external causes of premature aging you should be able to prevent most, if not all of them.

Sun

The sun is probably the biggest factor that can affect the appearance of your skin. If you loved to spend your youth bathing in the sun, you can probably count on your later years to pay for it. The sun can cause freckles, age spots, wrinkles, and leathery skin. Even just an hour or so of extreme sun exposure on a regular basis can cause a significant amount of premature aging.

Those with darker skin are less prone to sun damage because of the greater amounts of melanin in their skin, which is why those with dark skin often seem to age slower.

The effects of the sun aren’t visible right away. They can damage the skin underneath which shows up later on, but sometimes to an extreme effect. If you live where you are constantly under extreme sunlight and UV rays, where a strong sunscreen everyday and reapply when necessary. I recommend any of the Coppertone sunblocks.

Smoking

Smoking is another winner in the premature aging process. It causes biochemical changes that speed up the aging in our entire bodies. Those who smoke, especially heavy smokers, develop deeper wrinkles and leathery skin. Even if you are only in your 20s, smoking has probably already caused wrinkles that you can’t yet see. Also, smoking can cause a yellowish hue to your skin. Stop smoking and you can stop most or all of these possible side effects.

Other aging factors

Some other external factors to aging are constant facial expressions, gravity pulling on your bodies, and the way we sleep. Sleeping with your faced pushed against your pillow can cause wrinkles because your skin is forced into a wrinkled position for a long period of time.

If you are still very young, you are in luck. If you can avoid all of these, you can put off aging. If you are older and already seeing the effects of aging, don’t worry. Read on and find out how you can help yourself.

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