Skin Care
Healthy skin, both young and old, remoisturizes itself continuously. But dry skin doesn't retain moisture very well, and this inability to retain moisture worsens with age, cold weather, low humidity, and exposure to chemicals. The answer? Daily application of a long-lasting skin moisturizer that can penetrate the upper layers of the skin. Try wearing rubber gloves when your hands are in soapy water, keeping your bathing times brief (water evaporates quickly, taking your skin's natural moisture with it), and avoiding extra-hot water when you bathe, which can speed up the depletion of the skin's essential oils. If your skin is still too dry after taking these steps, it's time to consult a dermatologist.
Protection from the sun
Exposure to the sun should be balanced. Too little sun is almost as dangerous as too much. Your skin produces vitamin D, an essential nutrient, when exposed to the sun, and sunlight can help relieve psoriasis and acne. But many people overdo it. That's why the rates of skin cancer and other skin problems, such as more rapidly aging skin, are on the rise. If you sunburn easily, you should not even try to get a tan. If you do get sunburned, avoid getting overheated, because the skin cannot perspire normally for two weeks after healing. Some deodorant soaps, perfumes, antibiotics, diuretics, tranquilizers, and oral contraceptives can also make your skin more sensitive to the sun's harmful rays. If you must be out in the sun. liberally apply a sunscreen lotion to the exposed parts of your skin, the higher the amount of protection the better (indicated by a higher "SPF" number). Also wear hats, sunglasses, long-sleeved shirts, full-length pants, and socks.
How Diet and Exercise Affect Your Skin
Dermatologists agree that aerobic exercise can help keep the skin looking young. It stimulates bloodflow in to the skin, helping to form new skin cells more quickly. It also causes the skin to renew itself with its own natural oils and moisture, inhibiting the results of dried our skin cells: wrinkles. Regular exercise keeps the skin supple and flexible, so that it doesn't crack from inelasticity.
The Effects of Smoking on Your Skin
A smoker's skin ages and wrinkles prematurely. It is ravaged both from the inside and the outside, because of cigarette smoke displaces oxygen in the surrounding air and in the blood that feeds the skin. Skin cells that can't "breathe" eventually die.