Skin Age Related Changes
When we age, our skin starts to go through many changes. Your skin may appear as radiant and youthful as it once was, with wrinkles, fine lines, bags, and more. But why does age play a role in skin related changes? And how does our skin really change over-time? We’ll be taking an in-depth look at the aging process discuss many skin age related changes.
1. Loss of Regeneration and Elasticity
Many skin age related changes involve loss of skin elasticity and decreased ability of skin to repair itself. Your skin is an extremely complex system, that may begin to falter as you age. The skin has a natural ability to regenerate, which you see every day with dry skin, the healing process, and even sunburn. As you age, the skin’s ability to regenerate begins to slow-down.
Without a fast regeneration-rate, your skin cannot protect itself against wrinkles, bags, and more. This is also why many older people may have issues with healing or scarring. Because the skin does not reproduce at a fast-rate anymore, the elasticity of your skin begins to decrease over-time; meaning it cannot “bounce back” as it once did.
2. Long-term Exposure to the Sun
Skin age related changes also occur from sun exposure. The sun can have serious effects on your health, including your skin. You have more than likely been exposed to the sun every day of your life. The sun can dry your skin out and cause dehydration within your skin. This makes you more prone to wrinkles, fine lines, sags, and that “leathery-look.” Naturally, the older you become, the time you spend in the sun accumulates. This is why it is important to limit your exposure to the sun and protect your skin with SPF products.
3. Repetitive Facial Expressions
You probably have heard the term “laugh lines” before and there’s some serious truth to the expression. If you are 60 for example, you have spent 60 years making various expressions. Whether from squinting, crying, laughing, or smiling, repetitive expressions leave an impression.
Each time you make an expression with your face, you contract the same muscles. After years of these same muscles being contracted, the lines your face make become permanent. This is the main culprit behind many wrinkle and fine lines.
4. Lack of Nutrition
No one is perfect, and neither is your diet. What you eat and the nutrition you put in your body has a great effect on aging and your skin. After years of not providing your body with exactly what it needs, the natural processes in your body begin to slow and halter. As this is a natural aging-process, your skin will inherently become affected. Older people who have focused on eating right and taking vitamins tend to have less skin-related aging issues.
5. Hormonal Imbalance
As you age, your body beings to go through continuous changes. This includes changes in your hormones, which should be a huge consideration when asking “why does age play a role in skin related changes?” Hormones influence things inside your body like your metabolism, sleep, sex drive, mental focus, bone growth, and aging.
When you are young, your hormones mostly function as they should, and are fairly-good at balancing themselves out when it is needed. As your hormones begin to shift with age and become imbalanced, you may begin to develop all of the symptoms associated with aging-skin, like wrinkles, dryness, and more.
6. Decrease in Regular Exercise
Studies have shown that regular exercise (no matter the age), improves overall circulation, boosts your immune system, and decreases stress-levels. All of these factors are serious risk-factors for all of the symptoms related to aging and your skin.
And as you age, it is natural that you stop exercising regularly or do not exercise as often as you used to. Because of this, your youthful appearance may begin to decrease over time. Older people typically tend to have decreased circulation, higher body-stress levels, and at-risk immune systems, with a lack of exercise playing a major role.
7. Lifestyle Choices
If you’re trying to figure out why does age play a role in skin related changes, you may want to look at your lifestyle choices throughout your life. When you are young, you may have thought you were invincible, but all of the choices you make impact you down-the-line. Bad lifestyle choices like smoking, drinking, bad diets, lack of exercise, etc. have effects on your health and the aging of your skin. And the more you choose to participate in these choices, the stronger the effect will be as you age.
8. Dry Skin
The natural “rebounding” ability of your skin starts to decrease as you age, which leaves most older people with dry, itchy skin. This dry skin is caused by years of exposure to the elements, a decrease in natural oils, and even some medications that have been taken for extended periods of time.
All of these factors are only exacerbated by your body’s physical transformation. Unfortunately for most older people, dry skin becomes a vicious cycle as age causes dryness and dryness causes effects of aging. However, there are ways to care for dry skin and keep it hydrated.
9. Thinning/Sagging Skin
As you age, your skin becomes thinner and may even have an almost-translucent look to it. This is because of the natural aging process. And if you’re wondering why does age play a role in skin related changes, this natural process is a serious consideration. With age, blood vessels and other internal structures begin to thin and show through the skin, because of slow regeneration. And as your skin starts to thin and pull-away, it begins to sag. This is responsible for sagging, bags, wrinkles, and fine lines.
Final Thoughts
The question of “why does age play a role in skin age related changes” is not a simple one to answer. Your body goes through many changes as it ages, and these changes can be responsible for the loss of your youthful, radiant appearance. The first step to prevention is the proper education, and the considerations you’ve seen here will help you make better choices for the future of your skin and your health.
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