Combating Aging Skin

The way anyone’s skin ages will depend upon a number of factors including genetics, race, and exposure to the environment. Barring extreme measures such as surgery, at a certain point everyone’s face will begin to show its age. However, before giving up entirely on your complexion, it is entirely possible to keep your skin looking good as you proceed through life.

Changes

Undoubtedly, the greatest change to women will come when they undergo menopause. This will typically occur approximately between the ages of 40 and 60. During this period the ovaries stop producing the hormones that contributed to a woman’s ability to bear children. After menopause is complete, childbearing will be impossible.

However, the inability to reproduce is not the only effect of menopause, it also has a direct effect upon the skin, and is probably the greatest contributor to aging skin for women. The skin of men will also show signs of aging, but these will generally occur more gradually than those of women.

• As we age, our skin will naturally produce less oil, meaning that older skin has a tendency to dry out. Dry skin is at more risk of becoming wrinkled as it cannot ‘bounce back’ as easily as moist skin.
• The worst time for acne is, of course, adolescence, but most adults can also experience outbreaks of pimples at different times, too.  Acne prone skin on an adult can be helped, there are solutions available that can help to keep this under control.
• Winter indoors can significantly dry out the skin of an adult, especially when changes are occurring that will lessen the natural production of oil in the skin.
• Those who have moved to a warm, dry environment after retiring will suffer even more from dry skin than those who merely have to contend with a dry house during the winter. The sun will also be a contributing factor to aging the skin, too.
• Smokers’ skins also show the direct results of a tobacco habit. Smoking causes the blood vessels to narrow, which means that not as much oxygen will be getting to your skin cells to help them renew. This reduces the amount of collagen and elastin in the dermis.
• And, of course, exposure to the sun will also wreak havoc on the skin. Some of the sun’s rays will cause sunburn on the upper layer of the skin, the epidermis, but others will penetrate through the epidermis down to the dermis and even hypodermis to destroy the elastin and collagen found there. The more years of sunbathing you have under your belt, the more likely it will be that your skin will be damaged.

Treat Your Skin Kindly

In an ideal world, all of us would have taken perfect care of our skin from our earliest age, but even if your skin is showing some negative signs of aging, it’s never too late to take measures to lessen these and help restore some of the natural loveliness of your complexion. At the very least, you will be able to slow down the aging process.

• Staying out of the sun is important at any time of our lives, and this includes our adult years. Not only will the sun contribute to wrinkling, it can also cause the development of skin cancer. While basal cell and squamous skin cancers are considered to be nonmalignant, melanoma is a dangerous condition caused almost exclusively by the sun. If you must be out for extended periods during the summer, wear a hat and use a sunscreen.
• Do your lips feel dry and chapped? If they do, you are actually slightly dehydrated. Drinking enough fluids during the day will help prevent your skin from drying out; dry skin not only can look dull and flaky, but wrinkles will stand out and become deeper. Skin that is dehydrated also loses vital collagen and elastin.
• Older adults do not need to wash their faces as much as might have been necessary when they were younger, for people over 50, once a day is probably just fine. A wash with tepid water and a mild soap in the morning will be all that is needed, and can help to keep the skin from drying out from over-washing. Avoid hot water as it will remove too much oil from the skin. However, women who wear makeup should remove it before going to bed.
• Choose a moisturizer that is compatible with your skin type. Even oily skin can benefit from a quality moisturizer. Moisturizers that use natural oils are better than those that are petroleum based, and there are oil-free moisturizers for problem skins.

It is not a given that you will wind up with badly wrinkled and sagging skin if you follow a few simple rules and take even minimal care of your skin. Remember, too, that you are never too old to start providing proper treatment for your skin, especially if you are experiencing any problems.