Hello Beautiful! I am sure you know, it’s not only the sun that prematurely ages the skin. Anything that disrupts your skin’s optimal daily routine, pollutes it, or generates excessive free radical activity will also speed up its rate of decline. Examples include toxins and food. Toxins, such as cigarette smoke, pollution, and inflammation and food, such as alcohol and diet.
Toxins and other triggers:
The effects of cigarette smoke are threefold. Firstly, smoking constricts the capillaries restricting blood flow to the tiny vessels of the dermis. This means less oxygen and fewer nutrients are carried in, with waste products not as efficiently carried away, the net result of which is compromised skin function. Secondly, the repeated action of pursuing the lips to draw on the cigarette causes the more rapid formation of lines. Thirdly, cigarette smoke is a potent source of free radicals. Moreover, you don’t even need to smoke the cigarette yourself to suffer this effect, just being in a smoky room induces a marked increase in free radical activity.
If you are a smoker and can’t give up, you can fortify your skin’s free radical quenching capacity with antioxidant face creams and your entire body’s defense mechanisms with a diet rich in vitamins A,C, and E.
Pollution:
The airborne toxins in urban and industrial environments have a similar action to cigarette smoke. They deprive you and your skin of oxygen and generate free radicals. It’s considered a worthwhile safeguard to wear daily sunscreens supplemented with antioxidant vitamins to help offset the effects of pollution.
Inflammation:
Just as it is now known that stressed personalities age faster than their carefree counterparts, skin that is under stress will also tend to age more rapidly. Whether the redness you see is because of sunburn, physical injury, something you applied to it or even eczema, the effect is the same. Free radicals are produced, they go on the rampage, and instead of going about its daily maintenance schedule, your skin has to stop and do some major repairs. This is important to remember when buying and applying face creamers; if your face flares up in protest when you apply with the latest anti-aging potion, it is likely that it is having the very opposite effect of the one you were hoping for.
To learn how to counter act these triggers, read the blog post on ageing skin, and try out the treatment – if the ingredients do not harm your skin. That’s all for today! Next time we will discuss how alcohol and diet affect your ageing skin.
Stay Beautiful
~Jacqueline
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