There are two types of skin aging: intrinsic – caused by our genes - and extrinsic – the result of external factors like the sun and our lifestyle. In order to delay the process of aging and keep a healthy looking skin, you must have a healthy diet, use appropriate products to hydrate your skin, avoid smoking and unprotected exposure to sun rays.
People have always been concerned about their looks. Since ancient times they have used the power of nature in beautifying their skin (for example, the Ancient Egyptians were aware of the beneficial effects of Aloe Vera, a plant that nowadays is used as an ingredient in many cosmetic products for its regenerative power). Women spend a lot of money in a desperate effort to cover the traces of time on their faces but men have also taken an interest in facial treatments lately. Everybody realizes how much skin can tell of an individual and no matter the costs they do everything to preserve the youthful, natural glow of their skin. Billions of dollars have been spent, in the last decades only, on different modern methods, techniques and treatments meant to delay the aging process. Unfortunately, not all of them are effective and some even bring about undesired effects.
Above all, we should understand the process of aging before trying to delay it. Two types of skin aging may be distinguished: intrinsic or internal aging, caused by genes and body condition, and extrinsic or external aging, caused by sunlight and lifestyle. Intrinsic aging is determined by our genes, that’s why it begins earlier in some people and later in others; on average, skin aging begins round the age of 25 with a decrease in elasticity which gets worse in time, leading to wrinkles in the next few decades. The skin gradually loses its firmness and gets thinner. On the other hand, extrinsic aging depends on each individual’s lifestyle and habits, that it why it can be delayed if people take some measures while they are still young.
The sun rays are one of the most frequent causes of external aging. Exposure to ultraviolet rays for even five minutes a day may lead in time to freckles, age spots, rough skin and sometimes skin cancer. Sun rays are responsible for reducing the production of collagen, necessary to maintaining the elasticity of the skin. Research has shown that the effects of sun aging are more pronounced in fair-skinned individuals than they are in dark-skinned ones. Also, people who spend a lot of time in the open, under the sun, are more prone to such problems than people who keep in the shade. No wonder many people have given up their habit of getting natural sun tan and instead use other methods of coloring their skin during the hot season.
Facial exercises meant to reduce wrinkles actually cause more wrinkles as the elasticity of the skin decreases; muscles folding on the face will cause your skin to crease as well and by doing this on a regular basis, you will only get permanent wrinkles and a TCA peel will renew your skin completely.
Smoking, known to cause an internal damage to the human body has also an external influence, due to the changes that it produces inside the body whose result is the break down of skin cells. Smokers look a bit older than their peers, not only because of their wrinkles, but also because of that yellowish discoloration of their skin. Yet, quitting smoking brings about quick improvements to the skin.
