(By: Glenn Taylor)
A time comes when we all start noticing wrinkles, dryness, and age spots on our once so youthful skin. Also, our skin loses its soft touch, becomes thinner, and less smooth. This is the time we realize that our skin has started aging. Now let’s have a look at what skin actually does, what are the factors that promote aging and what happens when the skin starts getting deteriorated.
Skin - The Protective Barrier
Skin is the largest organ of the body and covers all of the other regions of the body. One third of the total blood circulation goes to your skin. Your skin protects you from sunlight, physical, and chemical actions because it is very tough and elastic.
It also provides you protection
against germs, bacteria, and other harmful organisms by preventing them from
entering into the body. Moreover, your skin also receives sensory information
and allows you to feel pain, heat, and other sensations. Skin also stores fat,
water, and of course vitamin D.
Causes of Skin Aging
There
are various factors that lead to aging of the skin, but the most common is the
natural aging of skin. Some other major causes are discussed below:
When you cross thirty years of age your skin
starts looking less lively and wrinkles start to appear, indicating the
initiation of aging.
ü
Smoking has also been denoted as a common factor
of aging. Smoking advances the process of aging and the number of wrinkles
increases with the increase in amount of smoking.
ü
Pollution is also a cause of aging. Too must
dust, smog, and harmful gases in the atmosphere can progress the process of
normal aging.
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Stress, obesity, gravity, sleeping position, and
facial movement on daily basis can also aggravate the process of natural aging.
What Happens When Skin Ages?
The changes that occur during aging as a result of the above mentioned factor are; Development of lesions such as benign tumors.
Rough and dry skin
Thinning of the upper layer of skin which makes it more transparent
The skin starts to hang and loses its slack because of the loss of elastic tissue “elastin”.
Skin becomes fragile and more prone to cuts and bruises because of the flattening of dermis and epidermis
Loss of fat occurs beneath cheeks, nose, chin, eye area, and temples.
Eyes become sunken and give a skeletal appearance.
Skin starts to become puckered around the lips region because of the bone loss in this area.
The nasal tip starts to droop because of cartilage loss and prominence of bony structures within the nose.
In addition to this, the degeneration of skin can also lead to development of different medical conditions such as asteatotic eczema, allergic dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitits, and others.
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more information about the topic in this article, please visit http://www.phountainmedia.com. The
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References
Farage,
M. A., Miller, K. W., Elsner, P., & Maibach, H. I. (2007). Structural
characteristics of the aging skin: a review. Cutaneous and ocular toxicology,26(4), 343-357.
Farage, M. A., Miller, K. W.,
Elsner, P., & Maibach, H. I. (2008). Functional and physiological
characteristics of the aging skin. Aging clinical and experimental research,
20(3), 195-200.
Farage,
M. A., Miller, K. W., Elsner, P., & Maibach, H. I. (2013). Characteristics
of the aging skin. Advances in wound care, 2(1), 5-10.
Kennedy, C., Bastiaens, M. T.,
Bajdik, C. D., Willemze, R., Westendorp, R. G., & Bavinck, J. N. B. (2003).
Effect of smoking and sun on the aging skin. Journal of investigative
dermatology, 120(4), 548-554.
