Are wrinkles and fine lines your worst enemies? 5 ways to defeat them

Are you battling with wrinkles and fine lines? With age comes many bodily changes, including changes to your skin. Certain components that are prevalent in youth, like hyaluronic acid and collagen, begin to be produced in smaller quantities, leading to skin that doesn’t bounce back quite so easily from the stressors of everyday life. Fine lines, wrinkles, and creases, as well as dry, thin, and sagging skin follow. Fortunately, there are things you can do to minimize their appearance and slow down the process. 

Hydrate your body and skin

We can’t stress this one enough. Hydration is perhaps the easiest way to ensure healthy-looking skin. Aging skin is dry, and that dryness highlights fine lines and wrinkles, making them appear worse than they would otherwise. Stay hydrated both by drinking water often and by moisturizing your skin twice daily (during both your morning and night time skincare routines). Drinking water keeps your body hydrated from within. It won’t instantly make your skin look better, but has many benefits for skin health (not to mention bodily health) in the long run. Moisturizing, however, delivers that hydration directly to where you want it and will have an immediate effect on the appearance of your skin. Moisturization reduces ashy or dry looking skin. It also plumps up skin, helping to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. 

Protect your skin from the sun

This one is all about prevention. The sun’s harmful UV rays can lead to premature aging, so it stands to reason that any steps you take now to protect your skin from the sun will pay dividends as you get older. Follow all sun safety rules, avoid going out in direct sun unnecessarily during peak hours, and use sunscreen with appropriate SPF daily, even in the winter. Avoid tanning beds as well; they cause damage to your skin, just like getting a sun tan.

Wrinkle and fine line treatments

There are some treatments you can do to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, which range from injections to surgery. Injections like Botox can help keep the muscles relaxed and prevent dynamic wrinkles from turning into static wrinkles. Injectable fillers help volumize problem areas, filling them out so that the skin looks smoother. Microneedling, microdermabrasion, and radiofrequency treatments can also help. Surgical options include things like face-lifts and brow lifts. 

How to maintain treatments

Whether you decide to go for more intensive treatment for your wrinkles and fine lines or not, there are many products out there that can help your skin on the daily and maintain results in between treatments, if applicable. When looking for a good anti-aging product, look for one or more of the following key ingredients:

• Hyaluronic acid: This is an intensely hydrating ingredient! Remember, hydrated skin is young looking skin. Our skin actually naturally produces this, but as we age, production slows down. Deliver it right to your skin for plumped up, intensely moisturized skin.
• Vitamin C: Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps protect against free radical damage. This includes sun damage, which, as we discussed above, further ages skin. What’s more, it’s also involved in the synthesis of collagen, another component of skin that is produced less and less as we age.
• Retinoids: Vitamin A is the “forefather” of these powerful ingredients. Different retinoids have different purposes and can help with discoloration and wrinkles. They encourage cell turnover, ensuring fresh new cells. They can also help increase elasticity by slowing down the breakdown of collagen in the skin.
• Vitamin E: Another important antioxidant ingredient, vitamin E, helps protect the skin against free radical damage. It also carries the benefit of helping the skin retain moisture.