Premature Aging Of The Skin

Although you can’t prevent aging you can definitely slow it down, especially when it comes to premature aging.

Premature aging means that your body is aging faster than it should do for your present age. The result of this manifests itself as an older looking face, and a body that is less youthful and has less energy.

Normally a person should maintain a youthful appearance well into their 40′s, with soft supple skin and minimal wrinkles and sagging skin.

The first signs of premature aging tends to appear in the face, because this part of your body is constantly exposed to the outside environment.

People who age prematurely tend to have lots of wrinkles and fine lines. Their skin looks dull due to poor blood circulation, and loose due to degradation of the underlying collagen and elastin which normally support the skin keeping it tight and firm.

Who Is Susceptible To Premature Aging Of The Skin?

Some people are born genetically susceptible to premature aging. You can usually determine this by looking at your parents, and looking how they aged throughout the years.

However just because your parents aged quickly doesn’t necessarily mean you will too. As long as you maintain a good skin care routine and live a healthy lifestyle, you are likely to age much slower than they did.

Skin Types & Aging

Premature aging also tends to affect people with certain skin types. For example, if you have oily-dry skin and you don’t look after it properly, it is likely to age more quickly because it naturally produces less sebum which normally functions to moisten and lubricate the skin.

The same applies for people with sensitive skin, because sensitive skin can be over dry at times or over oily.

However for people who have an oily skin type, consider yourself lucky. Even though you may not have felt so lucky when you were younger, the fact that your skin is naturally well lubricated means your skin will age much more slowly than other skin types.

Effect Of Lifestyle & Environment On Skin Aging

Whilst your genetics do play a significant role in how quickly your skin and body ages, it is not the most important factor you should be concerned with.

The type of lifestyle you live is the primary cause of skin aging, which is good news because it means you have the power to control how quickly your skin ages.

Some of the worst things when it comes to skin aging are eating sugary food and refined carbohydrates, smoking, sunbathing and not exercising.

Unfortunately many of these things can become a habit, which then makes them hard to stop. However if you do manage to stop such bad lifestyle habits, you can expect to see a significant improvement in the health and quality of your skin within a month.

If you don’t give up these bad habits, your skin will continue to look older than it is and you will age faster.

The Natural Anti-Aging Ability Of The Skin

The skin is a remarkable organ. It can take many years of abuse, yet if you look after it your skin will recover within a relatively short period of time.

Of course this does depend on your age and the type of abuse your skin has been exposed to, but for most people making simple changes to their lifestyle will have a significant positive impact on the overall appearance of their skin.

Below you will find a list of things you can do to assist this natural anti-aging ability of the skin. Try to incorporate as many of them into your life as you can.

Your Skin Care Routine

If you are serious about looking after your skin and maintaining a youthful appearance, then you need to develop a good skin care routine.

At a minimum you should cleanse, tone and moisturise your skin morning and night.

Exfoliate Your Skin

Your skin naturally sheds dead skin cells, and when this process is hindered by having dirty skin your skin becomes congested and inflamed. This accelerates aging of the skin.

You can help to prevent this from happening by exfoliating your skin 1-3 times a week. This will keep your skin looking fresh and healthy.

Just be sure not to over exfoliate your skin, because this will damage your skin in the long run.

Use Sunscreen

The sun is one of the biggest external causes of visible skin aging. Over exposure to the sun can cause skin pigmentation, the development of fine lines and wrinkles and sagging skin.

Always protect your skin with sunscreen or sunblock when you will be outside for long periods of time.

However be careful not to avoid the sun entirely, because 10-30 minutes of sun exposure (depending on how strong the sun is) is needed for vitamin D production in the body, which itself has anti-aging properties.

Food & Your Skin

Sugary food, white flour and soft drinks all cause inflammation in the body. This accelerates aging, so stick to a low glycemic index diet.

Nutritional Supplements For Healthy Skin

The skin needs vitamins and minerals to stay in top condition. The best supplements to take for the skin are B vitamins, vitamin C, lysine, proline and vitamin A from cod liver oil.

Exercise

The skin has a network of blood capillaries that run under itself surface. Blood supplies oxygen and nutrients to the skin, and takes away waste products.

If you don’t exercise very much your skin won’t receive much nutrients or oxygen and will be congested with waste.

This not only causes congestion and breakouts, but also inflammation which is one of the biggest enemies when it comes to premature aging of the skin.

Stress Accelerates Skin Aging

Stress is another major contributing factor of premature aging, and one that many people overlook. Stress creates inflammation in the body, which as you already know accelerates aging.

If you are stressed, be sure to take brewers yeast on a daily basis to replenish your levels of vitamin B and turmeric to help minimise inflammation.