Americans spend billions of dollars each year on skin care products that promise to erase wrinkles lighten age spots and eliminate itching flaking or redness. But the simplest and cheapest way to keep your skin healthy and young looking is to stay out of the sun.
Sunlight is a major cause of the skin changes we think of as aging changes such as wrinkles dryness and age spots. Your skin does change with age. For example you sweat less leading to increased dryness. As your skin ages it becomes thinner and loses fat so it looks less plump and smooth. Underlying structures veins and bones in particular become more prominent. Your skin can take longer to heal when injured.
You can delay these changes by staying out of the sun. Although nothing can completely undo sun damage the skin sometimes can repair itself. So it's never too late to protect yourself from the harmful effects of the sun.
Wrinkles
Over time the sun's ultraviolet (UV) light damages the fibers in the skin called elastin. The breakdown of these fibers causes the skin to lose its ability to snap back after stretching. As a result wrinkles form. Gravity also is at work pulling at the skin and causing it to sag most noticeably on the face neck and upper arms.
Cigarette smoking also contributes to wrinkles. People who smoke tend to have more wrinkles than nonsmokers of the same age complexion and history of sun exposure. The reason for this difference is not clear. It may be because smoking also plays a role in damaging elastin. Facial wrinkling increases with the amount of cigarettes and number of years a person has smoked.
Many products currently on the market claim to ?revitalize aging skin.? According to the American Academy of Dermatology over-the-counter ?wrinkle? creams and lotions may soothe dry skin but they do little or nothing to reverse wrinkles. At this time the only products that have been studied for safety and effectiveness and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat signs of sun-damaged or aging skin are tretinoin cream and carbon dioxide (CO2) and erbium (Er:YAG) lasers.
Tretinoin cream (Renova) a vitamin A derivative available by prescription only is approved for reducing the appearance of fine wrinkles mottled darkened spots and roughness in people whose skin doesn?t improve with regular skin care and use of sun protection. However it doesn't eliminate wrinkles repair sun-damaged skin or restore skin to its healthier younger structure. It hasn't been studied in people 50 and older or in people with moderately or darkly pigmented ...
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