The Effects of Ageing
How the skin ages is a complex process. A series of external factors such as sun damage, pollution, free-radical damage, and smoking combine with internal factors, such as our genes, hormone depletion and decreased fat cells, to create ageing skin.
Wrinkles
Wrinkles appear around the eyes, fine lines start around the lips, and age spots appear on the hands. Although some of these factors are natural and unavoidable, many of the visible signs of ageing can be slowed.
Dynamic wrinkles
Dynamic wrinkles are the wrinkles that are caused by movements of facial muscles, the lines caused by expressions such as smiling and frowning-crow's feet, forehead lines, and lip wrinkles.
Static wrinkles
Static wrinkles are due to lack of elasticity of the skin caused by sun damage, smoking, and genetics. Static facial wrinkles are visible regardless of muscle contraction.
A third type of skin ageing, called skin folds, is often due to sagging of the underlying facial structures, causing the deep grooves between the nose and mouth known as nasolabial folds, often called smile lines.
Fat
It's interesting to discover that, although we tend to put on weight in some areas as we get older, younger skin has more fat cells in the dermis than older skin. This is what makes older skin looks more transparent and thinner than younger skin.
Also, bizarrely, the skin keeps growing and expanding as we age, despite the fact that the supporting fat tissues of the lower layers of skin are decreasing. This, along with the fact that facial muscles lose their shape and firmness, causes the skin to sag and droop.
Moisture loss
On top of all this, the water-retaining and texture-enhancing elements in the intercellular structure such as hyaluronic acids (HA), ceramides, polysaccharides, and glycerin are used up as we age and aren't replenished. Plus, the skin's support structures, collagen and elastin, deteriorate with age.
But, it's not all bad news. Thankfully, there are things we can do to slow down the effects of ageing on our skin, which we'll look at here.
Hyaluronic acid and wrinkles
Hyaluronic acid is present throughout our bodies, with 50% of HA located in the skin. It occurs naturally in the deeper layers of our skin (the dermis), where it helps to keep skin smooth and 'plump', through its ability to hold up to 1,000 times its weight in water. A way to think of HA is as our skin's own natural and internal moisturizer.
Hyaluronic acid also supports the formation and maintenance of collagen, an important connective tissue. The loss of collagen is believed to cause a decrease in skin tone and elasticity.
Hyaluronic acid is plentiful in our bodies when we are born but its levels gradually decrease over time. In fact, 50-year-olds are estimated to have less than half the amount of HA they had in youth. The drop in HA starts at around the age of 18-20 years and by the age of 40 signs start to show-skin starts to lose its elasticity as lines and wrinkles appear.
The most noticeable lines that appear are the nasolabial folds that run down from the side of the nose to the corner of our mouths. As these deepen, they give us a sullen or unhappy look. The loss of volume is most noticeable in our cheeks and, as we age, our cheeks begin to take on a sunken or hollow appearance.
Collagen and volume
Collagen is the main component of the lower layer of the skin (dermis), which accounts for 75% of the dry weight of skin and is responsible for the skin's strength. Collagen is produced in the dermis by cells called fibroblasts. Collagen is a connective tissue, which holds together all of our smooth muscle tissues.
It's also, along with elastin, a key structural component of the skin and provides structure and firmness to body tissues, while elastin provides flexibility
As ageing occurs, these cellular proteins change shape, resulting in a loss of collagen and less volume and firmness to body tissues. It's been estimated that we lose 1% of the collagen in our skin each year.
Lack of volume particularly affects the lips, which develop lines and become less defined, and also affects the cheekbones, which become less prominent. All this contributes to making us look older.
Next page: How And When Wrinkles Form
