How to Retain Youthful-Looking Skin in Your 40s

Once you reach a certain point in adulthood, your body begins to show signs of aging. Around your mid-20s, your production of collagen will slow down, thus reducing your skin’s elasticity. And while it’s not possible to reverse aging, you can still slow the process by making certain lifestyle changes.

Specifically, the right skincare routine, diet, and exercise will help you keep your skin healthy and looking youthful, even as you age (and well past those mid-20s!).

Moisturize

Moisturizer plays an important role in any healthy skincare routine. When applied, these substances effectively trap moisture in the skin. The hydration provided by the moisturizer in turn keeps your skin healthy, and brightens its complexion. Furthermore, moisturizers with humectants –– which draw moisture from the environment –– will also help young skin cells stick to the topmost layer of your skin, preventing the appearance of flakiness. All in all, while moisturizers do not reverse aging or even prevent the gradual formation of wrinkles, they go a long way toward helping your skin to maintain a supple and radiant look.

Apply Sunscreen

Excessive exposure to sunlight typically accelerates the aging process, at least where skin is concerned. UV rays that penetrate the skin cause damage to the elastic fibers keeping that skin firm, thus increasing your likelihood of developing wrinkles. UV damage can also cause sunburn, dark spots, and ultimately, beyond cosmetic concerns, skin cancer.

All of this is preventable with the correct approach. While so much of the focus tends to be on moisturizer and cosmetics, skincare routines for dull skin should also include sunscreens that boost the skin’s defenses against environmental stressors. By protecting your skin from sun damage, sunscreens can give you skin that’s smoother and more resilient –– not to mention it protects you, in part, from more serious health concerns.

Use Vitamin C Serums

Wrinkles aren’t the only feature that can make skin look aged. Damaged skin may also, as mentioned, have dark spots from sun exposure –– as well as from acne scars or excess tanning. To get rid of these dark spots, you can nourish your skin using vitamin C serums. Vitamin C helps to break dark spots down into smaller circles; consistent use can fade out each small dot until the discoloration ceases to be visible.

Eat The Right Food

You can also include Vitamin C in your diet to boost your body’s natural production of collagen. Other changes to your diet may also help your skin in different ways. Animal foods like poultry and meat, for instance, also contain collagen –– which you can consume to help your body produce its own collagen, on top of other hormones and enzymes. Soybean oil, canola oil, walnuts, and almonds, meanwhile, provide linoleic acid, which can reduce the risk of your skin thinning or developing wrinkles.

On the other hand, there are also foods and substances you should cut down on. Chief among them is sugar. Sugars and carbohydrates cause damage to collagen and the elastic fibers keeping your skin firm. Swap out sugary foods for safer, natural desserts, such as grapes, watermelons, and pineapples.

Exercise Regularly

The chemical responsible for creating collagen is called ATP. It’s produced by the mitochondria (commonly known as the “powerhouse of the cell”). As you age, your body tends to produce less ATP. To slow this process however, you can improve your mitochondrial function by engaging in regular physical activity.

Similarly, overexposure to stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline can also damage the body’s supply of collagen. Exercise, however, also regulates stress levels in the body (not to mention it boosts the production of mood-boosting hormones like endorphins and dopamine). Thus, to protect and kickstart the body’s production of collagen, you need to exercise regularly.

As you consider all of the above, recognize that women don’t have to resort to expensive skin treatments to maintain youthful-looking skin. Simple lifestyle changes like the ones recommended here go a long way toward keeping the skin in great shape even as you age.

One Comment Add yours

  1. Gayle says:

    I love almonds! Didnt know they prevented wrinkles too!

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