What Causes Wrinkles?
The tissues in your body are comprised of a variety of different proteins and other substances. For instance, collagen is the most prevalent protein in your body, and it is predominantly concentrated in your bones, connective tissues, and skin.However, your collagen levels deplete as a natural consequence of the aging process. This depletion comes with a number of consequences; your bones weaken, your connective tissues become thinner, and your skin slackens. In young, healthy skin, collagen is the substance that plumps out your face and makes your skin thick and robust. However, as you age, reduced collagen levels cause your skin to become thinner, become more prone to injury, and develop wrinkles.
A number of environmental consequences can also speed along this process. Smoking, drinking heavily, or being exposed to chemical pollutants can reduce your skin's health and make wrinkles appear earlier in life. In addition, not getting enough sleep or experiencing high levels of stress can also produce wrinkles. In these cases, wrinkles are caused by the presence of free radicals, which are one of the primary causes of cell degeneration and death.
When oxygen molecules split in two, they produce atoms with unpaired electrons, and these atoms then steal electrons from other atoms, which weakens your cellular integrity. Certain substances, which are known as antioxidants, have a large number of excess electrons, and they share these electrons with free radicals to end their destructive rampages. When you apply antioxidants topically, this practice helps slow down your skin's aging process, and antioxidants can help with skin health at any stage in life.
It should also be noted that UV exposure can cause wrinkles. If you spend too much time out in the sun, your skin will start to break down and produce free radicals, which cause your skin to age prematurely. You can avoid this situation by using sunblock, and antioxidants also help reverse the effects of sun-related skin damage.
Top 7 Wrinkle Fighting Tips
Now that you have a basic grasp of why wrinkles occur, it's time to get right down to it and learn how to get rid of these unsightly folds and return your skin to its youthful vigor. All of the following techniques are all-natural, and they are widely recognized as valid treatments for age-related skin conditions:1. Use Vitamin C Topically
We're all aware of the benefits associated with vitamin C when it's taken orally. This compound is one of the essential vitamins and minerals, and observing a diet that's high in oranges, lemons, and other vitamin C-rich foods is a necessary part of maintaining optimum health.
However, vitamin C also has potent beneficial effects when its applied topically. Vitamin C is a renowned antioxidant, which is the characteristic that accounts for this compound's efficacy whether it's ingested orally or applied topically. When vitamin C is applied to your skin, it delivers high doses of antioxidants to your skin cells, which protects them from the aging effects of free radicals.
Before you rush out and attempt to apply any old kind of vitamin C to your face, however, you should keep a few things in mind. First, natural vitamin C is relatively unstable, which means that it's hard to use the vitamin C found in fruits and vegetables to your face and neck. Also, ascorbic acid, which is the most common type of synthetic vitamin C, is a skin irritant that causes acne, so it shouldn't be used on your face.
In fact, sodium ascorbyl phosphate is one of the only synthetic varieties of vitamin C that has been shown to be stable and benign when applied topically. Therefore, if you're interested in the potential that vitamin C has to repair your skin, replenish your collagen levels, and reduce wrinkles, you should only use topical products that contain this innovative form of synthetic vitamin C.
Within a couple of weeks of applying vitamin C topically, you should notice your wrinkles reducing in severity and your collagen levels rising. The best part about sodium ascorbyl phosphate is that, since it's well tolerated in human subjects, you can use it for as long as you want without needing to worry about deleterious side effects.
2. Apply Topical Hyaluronic Acid
Science has discovered that there's a simple compound to thank for your skin's natural plumpness: hyaluronic acid. Also known as hyaluronan, this naturally occurring substance helps lubricate your joints and your eye sockets. In addition, hyaluronic acid is found in large concentrations in your skin, and it helps keep your face looking firm and moist.
However, as you age, levels of hyaluronic acid in your body are depleted. This natural condition affects your joint health, and it can also cause your skin to become dry and saggy. Oral supplementation with hyaluronic acid can improve your skin's health, but applying this substance topically is the most direct way to get your skin what it needs to stay young and radiant.
As you search for a topical hyaluronic acid product that fits your needs, just remember that not all varieties of this substance are made equal. For instance, some less-than-reputable skin care companies still use animal-based hyaluronic acid in their products, which can only be created by killing roosters. To ensure that you're sourcing your hyaluronic acid ethically, make sure that it is botanical.
3. Sleep Deep
A variety of different studies have associated lack of sleep with premature aging. For instance, a 2015 UH Case Medical Center study found that women who slept less scored lower on an overall "skin aging" test. Among other factors, this test measured signs of wrinkles, fine lines, and uneven pigmentation.
If you're an office professional or a full-time parent, it can be tempting to skip sleep in order to get more done. However, if you don't sleep for at least 7-9 hours per night, your skin will age faster, and you may be finding wrinkles in the mirror much earlier than you expected.
4. De-Stress
Prominent skin researchers have also noted the role that stress plays in aging and your overall skin health. In clinical nomenclature, stress has been split into two varieties; eustress, which is a beneficial type of stress that occurs during exercise, mental concentration, or other types of effortful activities, and distress, which is a negative reaction that occurs when you're given a load that's too much for you to bear.
If distress persists for a sustained period, it can develop into what is called chronic stress, which usually occurs when you feel like you have no control over your life. When your body is subjected to chronic stress, it starts to break down at the cellular level as the building blocks of life no longer flow freely through your body as they once did. Chronic stress can directly result in a number of diseases, such as ulcers and high blood pressure, and since this condition also causes inflammation, it may even cause conditions like diabetes and cancer.
If you want to help your skin look young for as long as possible, it's absolutely critical that you cut sources of chronic stress from your life. Since this condition is typified by being stuck in a situation that feels like it's out of your control, finding ways to reduce your stress can be hard. However, simple solutions like meditation, yoga, and nature walks have been shown to significantly reduce stress levels.
If you reduce sources of stress early on by learning techniques that help you balance and soothe your emotions, you may be able to clamp down on one of the most notorious causes of skin aging before wrinkles begin to present themselves.
5. Use Sun Protection
It's never too early to start protecting your skin from the rays of the sun. When you're young, it can be tempting to throw caution to the winds and go full-on to get the deep suntan that you desire. However, research has been shown that 80 percent of the sun damage that your skin endures happens within the first 20 years of your life, which means that protecting your skin from the sun early on can reduce your likelihood of developing wrinkles decades later in your life.
It's important to use sunblock when you're outside in the sun for significant periods of time, however, make sure to only use sunblock products that are free of parabens and other ingredients that may cause hormonal disruptions or cancer. In addition, applying an antioxidant-rich facial serum starting in your early 20s can help reduce your levels of free radicals before they become a problem.
6. Cut Out Your Vices
It's never too early to make responsible decisions that will protect your skin's health. Despite decades of anti-smoking propaganda, many young people still choose to smoke cigarettes, and some of them become addicts who are incapable of kicking the habit well into their 40s and 50s. However, every cigarette you smoke is filled with hundreds of thousands of free radicals, and these dangerous toxins get to work as soon as they reach your skin to reduce your health and cause wrinkles.
Even cannabis smoke has free radicals in it, so smoking of any kind should be carefully avoided. It's also been shown that consuming excessive amounts of alcohol can damage your skin, so you should keep a strict limit on your consumption of this popular social inebriant.
7. Eat Dark Chocolate
In decades past, urban legend had it that chocolate caused skin conditions like acne. While this theory might still hold water in the case of milk chocolate, types of chocolate that haven't been cut with dairy products may actually help your skin. Dark chocolate is filled with antioxidants, and if you eat a bite of this delicious treat early in the day, these beneficial compounds will work their way throughout your body over the course of about eight hours.
Natural Wrinkle Reduction: Final Thoughts:
When you start to notice the onset of wrinkles, it's normal to panic a little bit. After all, when your skin has had a youthful appearance for your entire life, any change can be distressing. When confronted with the problem of wrinkles, some people are tempted to "hack" their appearance with expensive surgeries and dangerous treatments.However, these treatments inevitably do more harm than good. Even if they are successful, you simply don't need to pay that much to look good. Our modern scientific model is reductionist, which means that it focuses on the individual symptoms instead of the root causes of problems. However, when you realize that there are a few simple mechanisms that contribute to the aging process in your skin, it becomes easy to use safe and natural treatments that get rid of the intrinsic causes of wrinkles without needing to opt for expensive and dangerous treatments that ignore the real reason why your skin is aging and brutally attack the symptoms instead.
If you opt for natural, safe treatments to solve your age-related skin issues, your skin will stay healthier for longer, and you won't be caught in a perpetual game of whack-a-mole as new symptoms keep showing up. In the end, it's easier to take the natural path when it comes to skin care as you age, and your skin will thank you for making this responsible and cost-effective choice.