What is skin aging and how do I prevent it?

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Skin is the outermost layer of your body has great exposure to the open environment making it prone to get easily influenced in an undesirable manner. It is greatly affected due to our erroneous lifestyle and some natural factors causing it to age before the actual lifecycle of our skin.

Skin aging is characterized by features such as wrinkling, loss of elasticity, laxity, and rough-textured appearance. Aging is a gradual process occurring at the cellular level, due to various factors that lead to an irreversible arrest of cell division also known as “REPLICATIVE SENESCENCE.”

Factors giving rise to aging can be broadly categorized into two categories as follows along with their causing agent:

Intrinsic Factors:

· Genetic programming

· Reduction in DNA repairing capacity

· Hormones

Extrinsic Factors:

· Sun exposure

· Air pollutants

· Sleeping patterns

· Stress

· Smoking

· Nutrition intakes

How to prevent aging?

You can prevent aging through small routine changes and with different types of therapies. The primary goal of any antiaging therapy is to achieve smooth, tight, blemish-free, and translucent skin.

Antiaging therapy can be grouped under the following two agents that will your skin look young:

· Topical agents– In the form of sunscreen, being the first and foremost step to prevent photoaging as exposure to the Sun is the main cause of it. Other topical agents include topical retinoids, vitamin C serum, etc.

· Systemic agents– In the form of oral tablets or injections like vitamin C and E, glutathione, and antioxidants, targeting the affected spots by directly supplying the nutrients to the body by mixing well with blood.

What is the procedure for antiaging?

There are many treatments to prevent skin aging, based on your skin type and wrinkled areas. Here are the names for the procedure that will help you to understand the antiaging process:

1. Chemical Peels: It is the most basic, safe, and effective procedure taking about 15 to 20 mins for the treatment. It exfoliates the dead skin cells and can be used to prevent aging, hyperpigmentation, pimples, and darkening.

2. Intense Pulse Light Therapy: It is used to perform various skin treatments for aesthetic and therapeutic purposes. The treatment involves the use of intense pulses of non-coherent light over a range of wavelengths that helps to alleviate dermatologic diseases by heating up the target.

3. Microdermabrasion (Skin Polishing): It is a minimally invasive procedure that helps to renew your skin tone and texture. This procedure uses a special applicator with an abrasive surface to gently sand away the thick outer layer of the skin to rejuvenate it. The treatment helps to improve the appearance of sun damage, wrinkles, fine lines, age spots, acne scarring, melasma, and other skin-related concerns and conditions.

4. Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy or Vampire Facial: PRP is an effective procedure for skin rejuvenation. It includes a superficial injection of growth factors from your blood (plasma rich in platelets). It can be mixed with micro-needling (performing minute holes in the skin) which is a very effective measure to induce collagen synthesis and to prevent aging. Usually, it is done once in 2-3 months and the effect is long-lasting with maintenance therapy.

5. Fillers and Voluma: While the photoaging takes place, the skin starts to loosen up changing the face shape. Voluma treatment is therefore recommended as the procedure includes facial filler made up of hyaluronic acid. Acid is a naturally occurring substance that helps to bind water to cells. It is extensive cross-linking helps to provide an excellent lifting capacity, making it an excellent choice for restoring volume in the cheeks and midface.

6. Thread lift: This treatment uses thread to lift your dangling skin. The threads are carefully placed under the skin areas where lifting is required and supporting from inside by providing a solution to sagging jowls or deeply ingrained wrinkles.

7. Botox: It is an injectable wrinkle muscle relaxer treatment. The procedure involves the use of botulinum toxin type-A that temporarily paralyzes the muscle, resulting in reducing the facial wrinkles. The injected procedure is just for the surface around the eyes including the eyebrow region as the wrinkled lines appear mainly in those areas.

This is the basic knowledge about skin aging and its preventive measures that you should know.

Apart from this, skincare is important also at the base level starting from one’s self. One should take all the cautious measures as skin is the most important element of the human body that protects it from all types of exposures.

A healthy lifestyle is a must habit to keep your skin younger and beautiful naturally!!