Aging is a privilege we should be honored to go through, but often fear the changes we start to see in our skin during this process. It is however, the natural law that this is to take place. So can we stop this process? No, but we can do a few things to help minimize the appearance of the aging process on the skin.

First let’s look at the two types of aging. There is extrinsic and intrinsic aging.

Extrinsic aging is factored by outside influences such a sun exposure and the environment. This contributes to premature skin aging and skin cancer. Medical and cosmetic scientists now believe that 85 percent of the aging process is due to extrinsic factors.

Intrinsic aging is from changes that happen within the body and not directly associated with external factors such as sun or weather. Examples of the “wear and tear” on our skin are: repetitive facial expressions, nutrition, stress, smoking and the major factor which is heredity.

Gravity is also a big factor in the aging process. Gravity from the earth constantly pulls on our bodies including our skin. This is a big factor that causes our skin and muscles to sag. No matter how good of care we take with our body and skin this will still cause our skin to sag over time. We naturally lose our skin’s elasticity. It’s just like when we buy a new pair of underwear and over time through washing and wearing them, the elastic band over time starts to wear out and doesn’t “snap back” anymore. Our skin acts the same way. What happens is our elastin in the dermis starts to wear down and we lose our elasticity. Our skin no longer “snaps back” like it used to when we were younger.

 

Babies are models of perfect skin. If only we could keep that flawless look with us as we grow older! As we get older we get cuts and scrapes, we go through puberty, enjoy outdoor activities, and not to mention people who sunbathed with baby oil and iodine, and then we look in the mirror and wonder who that person is that’s looking back at you!

 

So what can we do to prevent and slow down this process? Although there is very little we can do to control intrinsic aging, we can develop health habits that will slow down and possible lessen the severity of intrinsic aging. Of course prevention of sun exposure is the biggest prevention for extrinsic aging. Using an effective sunscreen/sunblock on a daily basis from the time we are younger will make a big impact on your skin and help prevent future sun damage. We should also incorporate good skin care products into our daily regimen, along with getting plenty of sleep, eating healthy, taking vitamins, exercising and avoiding stress. We are only given one body and skin covering, we need to take care of it like we take care of our automobiles!