Aging skin is inevitable, but it turns out there are things that we can do to help slow, or in some cases, reverse skin damage by changing our daily habits.
Amy Kassouf, M.D. of Cleveland Clinic said by now, most people know that the sun is the biggest offender when it comes to aging our skin.
While most people wear sunscreen in the summer, she said they may not know that wearing a broad spectrum sunscreen every day, all year round, is key to slowing the hands of time.
“You want it broad spectrum because it covers UVA,” said Dr. Kassouf. “UVA goes deeper and the deeper ultraviolet rays are more likely to break down your collagen and cause more of the aging changes.”
A lesser known offender is inflammation. Dr. Kassouf said inflammatory disease, as well as internal inflammation can take a toll on the skin over time.
“Local inflammation creates things – enzymes that break down elastic fibers; break down collagen - and sometimes those don’t get completely repaired.”
One way to help keep inflammation to a minimum is with a diet that’s full of antioxidants – like the ones found in brightly colored fruits and vegetables.
According to Dr. Kassouf, another major skin-offender is smoking.
“If you stop smoking, your skin will look better within weeks, because your blood flow will return to your skin, you will have more ability to heal some of the damage that’s been done,” said Dr. Kassouf.
Dr. Kassouf said when it comes to healing, our skin is quite amazing and that by changing every day habits, we can actually help reverse skin damage.
“If you stop going out in the sun, just like if you stop smoking, a lot of the healing can happen and then you’ll be better off for it – you still have a little accumulative damage that may not go completely away, but the sooner you prevent that the better.”
