Wrinkles

, wrinkles. The most well-known and worst sign of aging. We hate them, but sadly don’t think about doing anything about them until we have them. As with most common skin ailments, prevention is key.

Causes

Wrinkles are thin, noticeable creases in the skin. Wrinkles are a natural sign of aging. They can come much sooner and be much worse due to sun exposure and smoking. Years spent in the sun can cause a loss of collagen and elasticity as well as dry skin. These all cause signs of aging including wrinkles.

Smoking has a huge effect on the amount of wrinkles you can get. Over years of heavy smoking you can develop deep wrinkles as well as leathery and yellowish skin.

Effects

We can all see the effects of what causes wrinkles, whether on ourselves or on those around us. We see some people that are very old with deep wrinkles, saggy skin, and age spots, and we see much younger people with the same cases. Aging has to do with genetics, but also the simple things that contribute including smoking and the sun.

Wrinkles are only the cosmetic effect of smoking and too much prolonged sun exposure. Other problems can cause much concern for your health including skin and lung cancer, problems with breathing, and many more.

Prevention

Prevention is the key to healthy skin and, believe it or not, very easy. As far as smoking goes, just stop. Smoking has horrible consequences on your skin and health, and I don’t think I need to run down the list. Just google effects of smoking and you’ll be overloaded with them. If you have never smoked, that’s great! Keep it up. If you have and still do, it’s never too late to stop. You may end up suffering from the consequences, but there can be much worse consequences in the future. Don’t take the chance!

There are many precautions you can take with the sun. First off, stay out of the sun whenever possible! There is one benefit to the sun which is the vitamin D you can get from it, but only takes about 10 minutes per day of direct sunlight to get what you need, and if you take a multivitamin and have a balanced diet, you should be taken care of.

If you can’t help staying out of the sun all day, try to avoid it during the time of day when the UV rays are the strongest and most damaging. This is around 10 A.M. to 3 A.M. Further, when you are out in the sun, slather on lots of sunscreen such as any of copperone’s sunblocks or Neutrogena. Reapply frequently, especially after swimming.

To take care of your face, apply a moisturizer every morning with an SPF of 12 or more. I like Neutrogena Healthy Defense Daily Moisturizer SPF 45, Untinted.

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