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Email UpdatesSome Things You Should Know About Skin Aging
Beauty Information, Personal beauty Comments (3)
Factors that cause skin to age
As we all know, aging largely manifests in the skin. Once the skin ages, it’s quite a challenge, in fact, nearly impossible to get back its former pristine appearance. However, as our genes dictate how and how soon our skin age, there are certain factors to skin aging that we can do something about to somehow stall the skin’s aging process.
But first, let’s take a look at how inevitable skin aging is. There are actually two sides to skin aging; one is intrinsic and the other is extrinsic. And as we go along, we’ll also take a look at the different cosmetic procedures that will drastically take away the signs of aging from our skin.
The Intrinsic aspect of aging
The human body’s aging process could be delayed with the aid of modern technology. Scientists have recently discovered a way to stall the human cell’s aging. However, although the cell’s aging may be decelerated, aging remains inevitable. This is because of the intrinsic or natural aging process of the human cells as dictated by our genetic makeup. Generally, signs of aging may begin to manifest in the mid to late 20s – hair turns gray, fine lines begin to appear on the face, and some portions of the face – especially the chin – starts to sag.
As we age, our skin’s ability to produce collagen slows down, and the elastin within our skin loses its flexibility, making our skin more prone to breakage. The skin also loses its ability to retain moisture, allowing fine lines to become more visible, and wrinkles to appear much sooner. These are all programmed into our genes. As intrinsic aging unfolds, there isn’t quite anything that we can do to reverse it. Well, at least not just yet due to the limitations to what today’s science can do.
Extrinsic aging
Extrinsic aging is aging caused by outside factors such as environment conditions, the sun’s harmful UV rays, cigarette smoke, pollution, and chemicals found in bar soaps, among others. These elements can actually speed up the aging process as they combine with intrinsic aging processes.
While the sun is the source of energy and life for most living organisms in the planet, it also plays a vital role in skin aging. Too much exposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays can accelerate skin damage and aging. This is why it is wise to avoid excessive exposure to the sun. But walking in the shade is just not enough – skin care experts also recommend applying sunscreen during the day to protect skin from the harsh beating of the sun’s damaging UV rays.
You think smoking will only cause lung cancer and untimely death? Think again. Cigarette smoke can also cause untimely skin aging. Facial wrinkles appear sooner on people who smoke. Thus, many smokers look much older than their actual age.
Other extrinsic factors that can contribute to skin aging include gravity and sleeping position. Gravity pulls down portions of our face like the eyelids, the tip of the nose, the skin underneath the eyebrows and the chin, making our facial skin sag.
When all else fails, cosmetics procedures can actually save the day. Laugh lines, crow’s feet, wrinkles and facial folds can all be corrected with modern surgical procedures such as BOTOX® or dermal filler treatments. A combination of deep structural filler such as RADIESSE® along with the softer, superficial filler JUVÉDERM® can greatly take away the obvious effects of aging when done by a highly qualified medical practitioner.
Find out how cosmetic procedures can help you reverse the skin aging process by visiting American Laser Centers.
AmericanLaser @ November 9, 2009
It’s important to prepare for skin aging physically, and psychologically. While we can somehow reduce the effects of aging on our skin, I don’t think we’ve discovered actual age reversal yet. We can strive to stay healthy all our lives and avail of the most advanced ‘anti-aging’ technology, but nothing’s going to hinder our golden years from coming. At the end of it all, what we need to learn is to live as well as we can, and understand the intrinsic beauty of our bodies so we can age happily and gracefully.
Skin aging is what I am trying to avoid. As an early age of 19, I was too exposed with pollution from transportation vehicles and UV rays from the sun that is why I am using skin aging products to avoid this. Also, I do some of the important things in protecting the skin by making it clean as much as possible through means of washing my arms and face (when im outside) and taking a bath long enough for me to really feel refreshed.
This is very educational and it helped me learn more about the dangers of skin aging and how i can prepare myself in slowly down my skin from aging. Thank you so much.
I am learning and discovering a LOT of things from this site! Indeed, growing old is unavoidable; eventually at some point in time we’ll notice how much our looks changed and realize how much we transformed for such a short period of time.
I’m not afraid to grow old, what scares me is what I’ll look like when I’m old; the youthful glow that makes me confident and feel good about myself will slowly fade and it won’t come back for sure. Thank you for helping me realize that aging is not something to be feared about, it is something we should just accept and be prepared for. Reading this also motivated me to take care of my skin and to work my way towards living a healthier life! Thank you!