Fight Premature Aging - Signs, Home Remedies, and Clinical Procedures

Introduction

Premature aging is a condition where one age quicker than their actual age. As a result, the skin starts to look saggy and dull, with fine lines, wrinkles, and dark circles below the eyes. The dermis is the inner layer of the skin; it contains connective tissue, including collagen fibers, and elastin, providing strength and elasticity to the skin.

What Are the Causes of Premature Aging?

Skin aging is a complex process. Factors influencing it can be: Intrinsic or Extrinsic.

Intrinsic - Genetic change such as Down syndrome, Progeria syndrome, Werner syndrome, metabolic process, hormonal change, oxidative stress, DNA damage, chromosomal degradation, or abnormal recombination of chromosomes.

Extrinsic - chronic exposure to sunlight, pollution, makeup, toxins.

• Too much sun exposure can damage skin with harmful ultraviolet rays, and the color of the skin may be tanned.

• An improper diet high in sugar, refined carbohydrates, and caffeine can cause skin inflammation.

• Excessive smoking and alcohol consumption cause dehydration making the skin appear dry, dull, and discolored.

• Stress hormones can cause wrinkles and fine lines on the face.

• Improper sleep can make a person look dull and low in energy levels. Sleep helps in the regeneration of cells, lack of sleep can cause a dark circle and can make skin look dull and dry.

• Applying too much makeup can damage the texture of the skin, skin pores get clogged, and cause inflammation leading to acne.

• Lack of collagen production due to nutritional deficiencies and genetic conditions can make skin appear saggy, dry, and dull.

• Loss of human growth hormone (HGH)makes skin appear thinner and loose.

• Air pollution, dirt, and dust on the skin can cause skin inflammation.

How Does the Sun Affect Aging?

Ultraviolet rays damage the skin by attacking the mechanism of cell growth, affecting collagen, and elastin production, due to the breakdown of collagen, Hyaluronic acid, Glycosaminoglycans, and elastin fibers skin starts to appear saggy, dull, and stretchy.

What Is the Sign of Premature Aging?

The signs of aging are different for everyone, usually, aging starts in the late 30s starting with wrinkles, fine lines and creases around the eyes, hair thinning, and sagging skin, these signs gradually become deep and skin loses its elasticity.

• Hyperpigmentation.

• Sun Tanning.

• Skin thinning.

• Age- spot.

• Dry, itchy Skin.

• Lips may look shrunken.

• Loss of bone mass in the jawline.

• Wrinkles, sagging skin.

• Hair loss.

How to Prevent Premature Aging?

As people age, skin becomes thin, dry, and saggy, which is unavoidable. But when skin shows signs of aging in younger people, several steps can help prevent aging.

• Wear sunscreen with SPF (sun protection factor) above 30 to protect from ultraviolet rays.

• Avoid a diet high in sugar, and caffeine, and include exercise in your routine.

• Regular intake of water, at least 1.5-2 liters.

• Make a routine of cleaning your face with salicylic acid face wash.

• Toxins in cigarettes can cause oxidative stress, so avoid smoking.

• Avoid intake of alcohol.

• Setting a sleep pattern, a minimum of 7-8 hours of sleep is necessary.

• Apply moisturizer to avoid drying the skin.

How to Fight Premature Aging?

Despite taking care of skin due to specific conditions there can be signs of Aging, to overcome that homecare treatment can be followed or for better results, some clinical procedures, hormonal therapy, are also available

Homecare Treatment

• Anti-aging creams with a composition of Niacinamide, and vitamin A(Retinoid) are popularly used to repair signs of anti-aging.

• Lotions and moisturizers containing glycerin can be used for repairing dull and dry skin. Night cream and under-eye cream can be used to recover dark circle.

• Including antioxidants containing vitamin C, E, Carotenoids, traces of copper, and selenium help against damage done due to ultraviolet radiation by increasing collagen production.

• Removal of Makeup before going to bed.

Clinical Procedures

• Ablative and Non-Ablative Photolaser Therapy: Non-Ablative procedure is a selective heat therapy that helps in inducing collagen production. The laser emits filtered light of various wavelengths, and the blood vessels absorb this light resulting in the production of elastin, and collagen helping in tissue repair.

• Hormone Replacement therapy improves skin thickness, elasticity, and hydration.

• Chemical Peels are used to increase skin elasticity by tightening the skin layer, the process helps in the regeneration and repairing of the dermis(skin layer)there are 3 types of peels depending on the depth of layer involved.

1. Superficial peels: Exfoliates the epidermal layer.

2. Medium depth peels: Exfoliates epidermal and upper reticular dermis.

3. Deep peels: involves the lower reticular dermis also.

• Dermal fillers: Enhance cell activity, hydration, and production of collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid. It is an invasive procedure grouped into temporary,semi-permanent, or permanent material, the product is injected beneath the skin to help the restoration of fat and volume lost by muscles.

• Platelet-rich plasma (PRP): Is collected from the fresh blood of an individual, it is injected beneath the skin it helps in rejuvenating the skin.

• Stem cell transplantation helps in increasing skin volume and improves skin quality at the recipient site.

What Diet Should Be Included to Fight Premature Aging?

Apart from all these One’s lifestyle also plays a vital part in fighting against skin aging, and avoiding excess sugar, caffeine, smoking, and alcohol. Having a nutritious diet will always help.

• Vitamin C-rich vegetables and fruits like berries, oranges, bell peppers, and guava must be included to help in the synthesis of collagen and an antioxidant.

• Vitamin E present in vegetable oil like sunflower, safflower, and almond helps against collagen cross-linking and lipid breakdown.

• Vitamin A available in papaya, carrot, mangoes, and pumpkin helps against UV radiation, wrinkling of the skin, and irregular pigmentation.

• Vitamin D present in egg yolk, and milk products, helps in inducing an immune response against inflammatory cells and prevents aging.

• Polyphenols present in vegetables, legumes, and grapes help protect skin from UV (ultraviolet) rays, improve cell survival, and prevent tumor growth.

• Flavonoids present in apple cherry, and pear also have anti-aging properties

• A pre and probiotic-rich diet including pulses, and dairy also prevent skin infection and allergies.

Conclusion

Aging cannot be stopped but we can delay signs of aging for some months or years with a noninvasive and invasive procedure. Although aging is inevitable certain precautions can help delay aging, a good diet, proper sleep, restriction on sugar, caffeine, alcohol, smoking, and avoiding too much exposure to the sun living a stress-free life can help along with topical medicine and some invasive and non-invasive procedures.