Aging gracefully may include accepting changes to your body and finding new activities, but why settle for wrinkles if there are ways to improve their appearance or prevent them? Wrinkles are an inevitable part of the aging process and are usually first noticed with repetitive facial expressions (like laugh lines) and exposure to the sun, smoking or chronic dehydration. While these are natural (and expected) parts of aging, the question becomes, can anything help prevent or mitigate wrinkles? While signs of aging will start to show eventually, there are successful ways to alleviate the appearance of wrinkles. We’ve scoured the web and found 5 of the best ways to reduce wrinkles:
5Limit sun exposure
Sun exposure is one of the most common reasons for premature aging of the skin and one of the only wholly preventable reasons that you will get wrinkles. While tanning beds and lying out on the beach for hours can give you a toasty glow in your youth, as you age that vanity will pay you a visit in the form of sagging, dry, dark and wrinkled skin.
New advances in sunscreen and in combination products can make remembering to protect your skin a breeze. Consider getting a moisturizer with a built-in SPF or even a foundation. There are many options on the market for these combination products that will offer you more bang for your buck and give you no excuse to say you forgot to wear your sunscreen.
4Stop smoking
We know, you’ve heard it a thousand times, but quitting smoking is the single best thing you can do for your skin (and your health). Not only will smoking age you, giving you sallow-looking skin dotted in age spots and wrinkles, but it also runs the risk of giving you a variety of cancers and preventable diseases.
If you’re not sold on what a difference smoking can make to your skin, consider searching online for the two identical twins, one of who was a smoker for 14 years, and see if you don’t want to go buy a pack of Nicorette.
3Stay hydrated
This is one for the long game. Drinking sufficient amounts of water is so important for your health. Not only is it necessary to life, but it also benefits the liver and kidneys and helps flush toxins from the body. This includes your skin.
Unfortunately, drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day will not have an immediate effect on your skin, though over time it will do you wonders. Sufficient hydration shows with plumper, more even skin and less blemishes, as well as increased healing time on injuries.
Aim for this long-term goal to keep your skin dewy and young
2“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
This famous quote from Michael Pollan’s ‘In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto’ may seem simplistic, but it says so much. A clean, nutritious diet that is high in fiber and vitamins and low in fat, salt and sugar does wonders for your skin.
Skin is highly susceptible to vitamin intake and responds especially favorably to Vitamin C, which promotes collagen growth (this gives your skin firmness and resilience) and antioxidants (which neutralize free radicals and protect cells from toxins).
Some good sources for these beneficial vitamins and antioxidants are grapefruit, cantaloupe, sweet potato, squash and kale. The list doesn’t stop there, though. Do some research on healthy plants or ask a nutritionist for advice.
The more good foods you eat, the better your skin will look.
1Sleep
Ever looked at yourself in the morning after a night spent tossing and turning? Not only are your eyes puffy and red, but also your skin seems dull and lumpy, unwilling to wake up to the bright new day.
That’s because sleep is the time of regeneration and new growth and this especially applies to the largest organ on your body (that’s your skin, by the way). While you sleep, your body produces Human Growth Hormone, which encourages cell production, and lack of sleep means your body produces cortisol, which slows growth and tissue maintenance. As you age, you produce less HGH, so you need to keep those sleep levels solid if you want to keep those wrinkles at bay!