Give Your Skin a Youthful Appearance

Aging is something that happens to all of us - but if you look around, there are some people who just don’t look their age. In fact, some of these people even look decades younger.

It’s not that they’ve found the elusive fountain of youth. What these people have done is look for ways that slow or reverse the damage that aging does. When you find ways that can reserve the damage, it’s the same as if you’ve actually reversed the years on your life’s clock.

But what these people have done is not some big secret. You can have the same youthful appearance in your own life - starting with how your skin looks.

What You Might Not Know About Age Spots

Everyone calls those different colored spots that crop up on your skin as you get older - age spots. It makes sense that these spots would be linked to aging because they sure seem to appear in groups with every birthday that you have.

But the truth is that these different colored marks that pop up on your skin aren’t really connected to how much time you’ve spent accumulating birthdays. These spots are actually signs that your skin as sustained some notable sun damage.

You can test this theory simply by noticing that your skin that’s not exposed to the sun doesn’t have these blotches at all. You might be wondering why these spots seem more noticeable as you grow older.

The reason that this is the case is that your skin loses collagen - it’s not as firm - so you start to see more of the damage under the skin showing up on the surface of the skin.

These spots are showing you that your skin was damaged - but sometimes it can take months or years for this damage to actually show up. That’s how people started relating them to age.

But what you should know is that a lot of time spent in the sun can make these age spots look worse and can create even more of them. Age spots are different from freckles.

These are usually not nearly as large as age spots, but being in the sun can make them look darker because of the way that the sun affects the pigmentation of them.

True age spots don’t usually present themselves until someone is in their forties - and again, this is the reason why people assume they’re linked with aging. Age spots are known as liver spots or lentigines.

Fortunately, these can be reversed. You don’t have to live with these spots on your hands or face - especially if they make you feel uncomfortable. What you can do is use a drug that’s known to lighten the age spots.

These drugs contain hydroquinone, an agent that’s known to stop the melanin that’s responsible for darkening your skin. You have to be careful when you put it on because it will bleach any skin it comes in contact with.

There are some things that have been around awhile on the market that can help - creams like Renova or Avita. But what’s been discovered when it comes to age spots is that some prescription acne drugs can actually be used to lighten age spots as well.

One of these is adapalene gel. If you want to use a natural skin lightener, then you want to look for ones that have a good concentration of Vitamin C in them to address the discoloration.

How to Tighten Sagging Skin

Whether you’re a man or a woman, you know that as you age, your skin loses its tightness. This is what some people refer to as their skin ‘going south’. It’s simply that your skin is stretched with aging.

As a result of this stretching, you end up with sagging skin in virtually any part of your body. You can have it in an area that maybe someone else won’t have it in. This can be part of your genetic makeup.

The reason for the start of sagging skin is because the collagen starts to break down. When it starts to break down, the skin just doesn’t hold together like it did. But you can defy age and even reverse those sagging areas.

You don’t have to choose an invasive method to fix your skin - although that certainly is one option for you.  Many of the solutions that you can turn to in order to reverse the aging process and restore your skin’s tightness is something that you can buy right over the counter.

You can begin with a nice moisturizer. But you have to use specific ones. Look for creams and lotions that have terms like skin recovery cream, skin strengthening or skin plumping and any one of those can help.

One product that’s been scientifically proven to reverse the sagging skin that happens with aging is vitamin A. You can find this in creams or serums. Look for it under the name Retinol.

As part of a beauty routine, you would need to use this product daily - and as you use it, it firms the skin. You can use hydroxy acids to get a lift from sagging skin. Also, any product that can cause your pores to tighten up will give your skin a younger look.

However, that’s not a long-term fix - and if you go that route, you’ll have to use it consistently. If you want something that’s a little faster acting and is a more permanent solution, you can talk to your doctor about getting treatments for collagen.

These treatments are performed by lasers - but they’re not invasive like a face lift would be. What these treatments do is promote the growth of new collagen when the lasers target a sagging skin area. Patients who undergo these treatments can take years off their appearance.

Get Rid of Wrinkles

Seeing wrinkles around the eyes and mouth can also happen as you grow older, but there are treatment options available that can reverse them. You might be surprised to learn that some of these treatments are probably in your kitchen cabinet right now!

Foods that are rich in antioxidants are one of your first helpers when you want to reverse wrinkles. These foods - especially ones that are rich in vitamins A, C and E - are instrumental in repairing skin that’s damaged by aging.

Damage happens and in turn causes wrinkles because the protein elastin is your connective tissue that gives skin its firm, wrinkle-free appearance. You lose elastin as you get older because it begins to break down. The skin begins to sag and wrinkle because of this process.

If you’re wondering how consuming foods with antioxidants can help reverse wrinkles, the answer is simple. It’s because the antioxidants in foods fight free radicals that damage your skin.

When used together with collagen stimulating products such as Retinol, you end up with youthful looking skin. You also want to eat a lot of omega 3 foods because this helps fatty acids tighten cells, giving your skin a fuller look - which reverses wrinkles.

In order to stimulate the growth of collagen, you body must have the right amount of the mineral copper. You’ll find this mineral in shellfish and lentils. There are also topical solutions that you can use to combat and reverse wrinkling.

What’s so interesting about these products is that if you read the ingredient labels, many of them have the exact same vitamins and minerals contained in the foods you eat.

But natural herbs can also get rid of those wrinkles. Witch hazel has some antioxidant properties. Not only that, but witch hazel can reverse wrinkles because it has tannins in it. When applied to skin, tannins cause the skin to tighten up and smooth out.

You also want to make sure that you’re drinking plenty of water. If you’re dehydrated, that can lead to your skin becoming too dry, which in turn can lead the skin to wrinkle. By staying hydrated, you can reverse the effects of some wrinkles.

If your problem area is around the eyes, there’s a reason that you get wrinkles here. This skin area is thinner than it is around the mouth, so you’ll notice wrinkles more easily.

Since this area is so close to the eyes, you have to be careful using anti-wrinkle cream that you can use around the mouth. But one product that’s popular among some celebrities is wrinkle reversing products that contain apple stem cell extract.

The creams containing this ingredient work to rejuvenate the skin by protecting the skin cells as well as regenerating new skin cells.

Protecting Yourself from Skin Cancer

Besides age spots and wrinkles, skin cancer can also be linked to the sun. Most people don’t think of their skin as an organ - and yet that’s exactly what it is. It has to be protected when you go out in the sun.

Skin cancer can appear as a direct result of not protecting your skin. Damage can happen the first few times you get exposure to the sun. Even if you never get a sunburn, you can still sustain damage.

Damage to your skin by the sun’s harmful rays is the leading cause of almost all cases of skin cancer. Your skin has three layers. It has the epidermis, the dermis and the subcutis - basically, the first, second and third layer.

The second layer, the dermis, is where you’ll find collagen. Collagen is what helps your skin look younger and smoother. Unfortunately, this is also the layer that bears the brunt of the sun’s rays.

When the sun’s rays damage fibers in this layer, you’ll see wrinkles. But more dangerously, when the cell mutations begin in your skin’s layers, it can lead to cancer.

You can develop either basal, squamous cell or melanoma. Regardless of how you’ve allowed the sun to touch your skin up to now, you can still reverse some of the damage and protect yourself from skin cancer.

First, make sure that you always wear sunscreen outside. Pick a lotion or spray on sunscreen that’s at the minimum of SPF 15. Secondly, take off the dead skin cells.

Dead skin cells can accumulate and leave your skin looking weathered. You can take off dead skin cells by having an exfoliating regimen that you follow. Third, you can use creams that have hydroquinone to get rid of brown spots on your skin.

Fourth, make sure that you don’t allow yourself to become dehydrated. When you feel thirst, that’s a sign that your body is already mildly dehydrated. Becoming dehydrated is bad for your skin.

Finally, the reason that you want to treat your skin and reverse any signs of sun damage is because it will make it easier to notice areas that don’t look normal. You should see a dermatologist on a regular basis, but you should also do body checks to look for anything suspicious.

The American Academy of Dermatology has skin screening guidelines that you can follow. When checking spots or moles on your body, remember A, B, C, D, and E.

The A stands for asymmetry. If one side is different from the other side of a mole, that can be a sign of skin cancer. B is for border. If the border of a mole or spot doesn’t look well defined, it should be evaluated.

C is for color. If the color looks different (more than one shade) in a spot or mole, that can be a warning sign. D is for diameter. If it grows beyond the size of an eraser at the bottom of a pencil, get it checked out. E is for evolving. If you have a spot that’s changing in any way, get a dermatologist to look at it.

Reverse Aging for the Hands

People are usually faithful to take care of lines or wrinkles on their faces. But they usually don’t pay that much attention to what’s happening during aging for their hands.

That is, until the day that they suddenly notice that their hands are criss-crossed with numerous fine lines and age spots. You might not even realize that before your face will show any lines or wrinkles, you’ll see tell-tale warnings on your hands.

Faint lines will begin to appear on the backs of your hands that can be noticeable when you hold them straight out in a relaxed state. Your hands show aging quickly because you don’t have the same amount of fat in those areas that you have in other areas of the body.

When you begin to lose collagen as you age, you can see that easier on the backs of the hands than anywhere else. Your hands need to have moisture in order to stay youthful looking.

But because your hands are constantly dealing with things - including being in and out of water numerous times a day - keeping that moisture balance can be tough to do.

What you can do to stop your hands from wrinkling as quickly is to make sure that you’re using products for your hands that are gentle for them. Look for cleansers and soaps that provide moisture rather than ones that are harsh and abrasive to your skin.

You want to seal the moisture in your hands by using a lotion that will act as a sealant. You can find these lotions by names such as Curel or Eucerin. Look for hand creams that will reduce fine lines and contain ingredients known to reverse wrinkles. Retinol Correxion is good for this.

You can also look for creams that use the word recovery or restorative in the label. These creams can reverse the skin damage that leads to fine lines and wrinkles.