Your skin is an organ – in fact, the largest organ of your body. As such, it serves numerous functions: from protecting your body from environmental stresses to immunizing your body from germs to regulating your body temperature.
Your skin is made up protein (that’s why good nutrition is important to skin health), fiber, and collagen (a protein). Collagen is an important substance that provides strength to blood vessels. When collagen is damaged, your skin loses its elasticity, and wrinkles and folds begin to form.
The surface layer of your skin is mainly dead cells. These dead cells are quickly removed when you are young. As you age, it takes much longer time to remove these dead cells, and that explains why older people have drier and more wrinkled skin.
Beneath the layer of dead cells is the epidermis, where the living cells of your skin reside. These living cells regenerate every 30 – 45 days.
The dermis, which is the skin beneath the epidermis, cushions and supports the epidermis. Sweat glands, hair follicles, and nerves are located in the dermis. In addition, there are certain muscles, which may contract when you get cold.
If your skin type has more fluid, giving more resistance to sun exposure, your skin will age more slowly. Other factors contribute to skin aging are smoking, nutritional and enzyme deficiencies.
As you age, the protective mechanism is your skin is further weakened, and your DNA is more damaged. In addition, reduced collagen contributes to thinning in the dermis, making your skin more “transparent” such that your blood vessels are more visible. Loss of fat tissue further increases the thinning of the dermis.
The aging of the skin is almost completely sun-induced.
Free radicals can cause irreparable chain reactions that damage the DNA and collagen in your cells. Free radicals are caused by illness, chemical pollutants and toxins (tobacco, poor diet, extreme exercise, and over sun exposure.
By the age of sixty, the obvious signs of aging are loss of 50 percent of skin elasticity, and skin thinning due to less protein, less fluids, and less cushion in the dermis.
It's never too late to get rid of your wrinkles.
Stephen Lau
http://www.stephenlau.name
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