The most frequent aspect of skin health that most of us want to improve on or avoid is the most tell-tale sign of ageing of all – wrinkles.
Behavioral Causes
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The Ageing Process
Although sunlight is the major determinant of wrinkles, some wrinkling occurs as an inevitable part of the normal ageing process. With age, skin cells’ DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) becomes slightly damaged by a multitude of environmental factors, leading to faulty replication of skin cells that appears as wrinkles.
With age, your epidermis becomes thinner and less “sticky”. This thinning causes the skin itself to look thinner and become more prone to wrinkles. When the epidermal cells become less “sticky”, more moisture is lost from the skin, causing dryness, another contributory factor to wrinkles. Each decade your skin loses approximately 10% of its total number of epidermal cells, leading to decreased skin repair processes.
The dermis also thins with age and produces less collagen (the important dermal structural protein). Collagen depletion in the dermis inevitably leads to wrinkles. Elastin (another structural protein that provides elasticity to the dermis) also becomes depleted with age, further contributing to wrinkling and sagging. The deepest layer of the skin – the subcutaneous layer – contains fats cells (which “plump out” or ”fill out” the skin) that become thinner with age. Fewer fat cells in the subcutaneous layer means that they cannot “cover up” the age-related damage in the other layers of the skin.
Both men and women produce oestrogen hormones (although men produce much lesser amounts than women). With age production of oestrogens declines. One of the lesser-known effects of oestrogens is their influence on wrinkles, which occurs through them stimulating collagen production in the skin. Age-related decline in oestrogen production have been documented to cause a 2% reduction in skin collagen per year and a 1% reduction in skin thickness per year.
Free Radicals
Free radicals are unstable molecules that contain only one electron instead of the usual two. Their behavior within the body resembles that of miniature atomic bombs (setting off devastating chain reactions). There are several different types of free radicals, however the type known as singlet free radicals are intimately involved in the formation of wrinkles. Free radicals cause wrinkles primarily by activating enzymes such as collagenase and elastase that degrade the collagen and elastin content of the skin.
Facial Expressions
If you continually frown, the muscles in the forehead may permanently contract, causing the frown look to become permanent. The subsequent wrinkles between the eyebrows are known as frown lines. Squinting causes a similar effect around the eyes, causing crow’s feet. Smile lines also occur because from often-repeated facial expressions.
Sugar
Cross-linking is a biochemical reaction that is somewhat similar to the leathering process. It occurs as an oxidation reaction when unnatural bonds form between sugars and proteins or DNA in the skin. Cross-linking is a major cause of wrinkles when the proteins that are cross-linked involve collagen or elastin (the skin’s major proteins). Limiting your consumption of sugar can go a long way towards stopping cross-linking as a cause of wrinkles. Table sugar (sucrose), glucose and fructose are all capable of initiating cross-linking.
Alcohol
Too much alcohol over the long-term can cause wrinkles. It generates free radicals that cause wrinkling.
Smoking
Smoking is an easily avoidable cause of wrinkles. Tobacco smoke generates large numbers of free radicals that cause wrinkling.
Dehydration
Chronic, frequent dehydration has been observed to increase the formation of wrinkles. Drink more water!
