Time is not your skin’s greatest enemy. The natural raging process gets a tremendous push from:
- Sun exposure
- Cigarette smoke (inhale or secondhand)
- Environmental toxins
- A nutrition-poor diet, especially one lacking in vitamins A, C, E, and folic acid.
- Excess alcohol consumption
- Stress
- Harsh soaps or detergent-based moisturisers
- Sleep deprivation
Even if you try to have a healthy lifestyle avoiding these factors, your skin will follow this process:
- Dryness - The oil glands reduce their production after 30 significantly which continues for the years.
- Sun damage/ loss of skin tone - In the late thirties and forties, skin loses its ability to fight sun damage and causes uneven pigmentation.
- Thinning - At about the age of 40, the dermis and fat layer begin to thin. After your 50th birthday, this process picks up steam resulting in sagging and loss of plump, youthful softness.
- Loss of firmness - Fibroblast present in the dermis replenish the skin’s supply of collagen and elastin.
- Diminished immune response - Skin’s Langerhan’s cells register the presence of foreign agents and toxins. You are less likely to get a quick warning signal when you come in contact with irritants without Langerhans.
- Reduced ability to repair the damage - Overall, the body reduces its ability to repair free-radical damage, so changes in the cells become more pronounced, accelerating raging.
- Loss of temperature control - Due to the reduced ability of sweat glands to function, it becomes harder for the body to regulate and register heat/ cold.