Over the course of life, our skin changes. It loses firmness and develops wrinkles.
Generally, we can distinguish between two types of skin aging.
What is Chronological Aging?
On one hand, there’s what we call chronological aging. Through this natural and gradual process, the skin loses its firmness and elasticity over the years, and pigmentation becomes somewhat uneven. How quickly these changes occur depends on individual genes and the body’s own hormone balance. Apart from estrogen replacement therapy, which can positively influence some skin changes in women based on estrogen deficiency, there is little that can actually stop chronological aging.
It is a natural process that we shouldn't necessarily view as a flaw. Instead, we could try to understand the changes in our face as testimonies of a long, eventful, and fulfilling life.
What is Environmental Aging?
The second form of skin aging is called environmental aging. Here, the condition of the skin is negatively influenced by external factors. Decisive factors include sun exposure, stress, smoking, and diet.
As little as we can do against chronological aging, we can significantly slow down environmental aging through certain behaviors.
Intense UV radiation, in particular, is one of the decisive factors. A large part of age-related skin changes is due to extensive sun exposure. The skin becomes flaky and dry, wrinkles, pigment irregularities, and enlarged blood vessels develop.
Cigarette smoke also has an unfavorable effect. Smoking constricts blood vessels, thus reducing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the skin. Substances in cigarette smoke also cause a breakdown of collagen and elastin fibers in the skin’s connective tissue. Air pollution in the form of exhaust fumes and dust has a similar effect.
Excessive alcohol consumption is also no friend to the skin. Blood vessels dilate, the skin becomes reddened, large-pored, and puffy.
Emotional suffering, lack of sleep, stress, or an unbalanced diet with too few vitamins are other factors that don’t necessarily positively influence the skin’s external appearance.
In summary, we can say that while we can’t stop time, we can significantly slow down environmentally induced skin aging through a healthy lifestyle with consistent sun protection, healthy nutrition, avoiding cigarettes and only moderate alcohol consumption, sufficient sleep, and a good dose of humor and zest for life.
Additionally, with minimally invasive aesthetic methods such as peelings or Botox, one can make the appearance look more youthful and fresh without looking unnatural or completely changing individual features.
Feel free to consult with me about this in my practice.