How Your Skin Ages

Let’s face it people don’t mind growing old, but no one wants to look old. Anti-aging potions and creams have been used throughout history. Among the many cultures to document their efforts were the Chinese, who used herbs and mineral treatments on the skin. Throughout the ages, many people have searched for the secret of eternal youth without success.

According to scientists, our aging process is written into our DNA. Does this mean that whatever we do will make no difference? I do not believe that this is the case, there are many ways to slow down the aging process on our skin. Nevertheless, we should not follow a lifestyle that will make us look old before our time.

So, what exactly happens to our skin as we age? The dermis is the main area of change. The number of collagen fibres decrease with age, in addition and they become extremely brittle and break. The elastic fibres thicken into bunches and start to fray. This reduction in strength and elasticity shows up as a loss of skin tone and tiny blood vessels start to appear.

Those familiar wrinkles are caused by changes in the structures of the fibres within your skin. In addition to this the dermis itself and the subcutaneous fat gradually become thinner. Once this happens your skin loses its natural “plumpness," your skin becomes less supple and wrinkles appear.

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As the aging process continues your sebaceous glands become smaller, as a result your skin’s supply of natural oils decreases. This has the effect of causing your skin to become dry, flaky and prone to free radical damage. The number of immune cells in your skin decreases and therefore, becomes less effective at fighting infection.

Your skin starts to change color in places. This is caused by the melanocytes malfunctioning. When this happens your hair starts to turn grey and the pigmentation of your skin will become lighter or darker in places. Anyone who stays in the sun for an extended length of time without any protection will develop these changes of pigmentation. This is because the melanin will accumulate in uneven brown patches in the skin.

Some signs of aging are inevitable, but the wrong choice of lifestyle can cause premature aging. Therefore, in any anti-aging skin-care regime it is important to identify and eliminate these factors which contribute to skin damage and avoid them.