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Looking Your Best As Years Go By
Skin, Wrinkles and Make-up
In any discussion of aging one of the first and usually the most often brought up subjects is skin
care. When people talk about the 'signs of aging' the first thing they think of is wrinkles, and the cosmetics and skin care industries
spend billions each year producing and marketing the next big thing in anti-aging skin care. And women the world over try any and
everything to make their skin look and feel younger.
But before we talk about what to do to look younger, let's talk about how age affects the skin. All
skin contains proteins called collagen and elastin. Collagen gives skin its firmness and plumpness, while elastin gives skin its
resiliency. As we age, the proteins break down and the skin often begins to naturally lose its firmness and resilience. In addition for
women, who have a thin layer of fat cells distributed all over their bodies, age causes these fat cells to shrink over time causing
sagging and wrinkles.
Environmental and dietary factors can play a role in increasing the breakdown of the skin's collagen
and elastin as well. Exposure to the sun's harmful rays, pollution, bad diet, illness, smoking, and drinking alcohol all can have damaging
effects on the skin, and can make you look years older than you actually are. Yet you can avoid, and even repair some of the damage that
may already have been done by paying heed to these factors:
Diet: A good healthy diet is very important for healthy skin. Focus on foods high in
Vitamin A and beta-carotene (milk, cheese, cream, butter, eggs, liver, leafy dark greens, dark orange fruits and veggies like apricots,
cantaloupe, carrots, winter squash, sweet potatoes and pumpkin). Try to get vitamin A and beta-carotene through foods rather than
supplements as these vitamins are stored in the body's cells and could reach toxic levels when improperly taken in supplement forms.
Vitamin C is also important to your skin as it aids in immune system health and helps the body heal from injury and illness by
facilitating protein metabolism.
Cleansing: Clean skin may not always be healthy, but skin with clogged and dirty
pores will certainly not be. There are many cleansers available on the market and you can use the one you prefer. You should cleanse your
face at least twice a day, especially before bed to remove the day's accumulation of grime and to remove any traces of make-up. Don't
hesitate to repeat the cleansing process twice if there's any doubt that your face is truly clean, but ALWAYS rinse your skin thoroughly.
Leaving traces of cleanser can actually cause more blemishes than not washing your face under some circumstances. Follow the cleanser and
rinsing with a mild astringent to tighten the pores. Another trick for tightening the pores is to follow a warm water rinse with cold
water.
The Sun: Without sunshine, ours would be a cold dark world - cold, dark and lifeless.
Even so, we have to be on our guard of too much sun exposure because of the harmful UV rays of the sun. The ultra-violet rays of the sun
come in two forms: UVA and UVB rays. UVA rays (the Aging rays) account for about 90-95 percent of the ultra-violet radiation of the sun
and penetrate deeply into the skin destroying collagen and elastin, which leads to wrinkles and sagging skin. UVB rays (the Burning rays)
don't penetrate as deeply as UVA, but they are the ones which cause sunburn. They affect the skin's melanocyte cells, which produce
melanin to protect from the sun's rays. One positive effect of sunshine is that it causes the skin to produce its own Vitamin D.
Alcohol and Smoking: These two addictions take a serious toll on the skin (among
other health concerns). Smoking can cause the skin to turn sallow and dull, while reinforcing the formation of lines around the mouth.
Alcohol has the effect of dilating the capillaries in the skin causing the skin to appear flushed and susceptible to bruising and
discoloration. Alcohol also dehydrates the body, which can further damage the skin. Both tobacco and alcohol should be used only in
moderation, if at all.
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