5 Causes of Premature Wrinkles

The ultraviolet rays of the sun can break down the connective tissues under the skin, causing damage that becomes impossible to repair over the course of time. The fine web of connective tissue supporting your skin and holding it in place is made up primarily of the proteins collagen and elastin. Exposure to the sun literally destroys the collagen and causes the elastin to increase in thick, brittle clumps. This creates skin that is dry, inelastic, and that wrinkles easily. Aging alone, with no exposure to the sun, may cause a little decrease in the quantity of elastin; the collagen may become somewhat thin and fibrous but will remain relatively the same. With this particular knowledge, doctors have agreed conclusively that repeated exposure to the sun is often a far more important factor than your age in causing premature wrinkling of the skin.

When moisture is lost from your skin, the dried-out tissue shrivels up and wrinkles. Even young skin looks old and tired if it is dehydrated. Luckily, dryness is often easy to avoid. Some natural dryness comes with age, as our hormones change and the glands inside our skin reduce their secretions. But undoubtedly the worst causes of dryness are environmental. This means you must learn to protect yourself effectively from the elements. The sun remains your worst enemy. Always use a moisturizer, even under your sunscreen. The cold winter months can also damage the skin. Blustery winds and dry heat may take the moisture right out of the skin's delicate cells, leaving them shriveled and scaly. In winter, use a humidifier to control your environment.

Any habitual expression--whether it's biting your lip, wrinkling your nose, or resting your cheek in your hand --contorts your face and pulls on the tissues, eventually stretching your skin so that it sags and wrinkles. The main reason this happens is that the skin on the face is less tightly anchored to the muscles below it than elsewhere on the body. The connective tissues are fragile and require every one of the help they can get.

Stress is the greatest silent ravager of the human body. One of the noticeable places it shows its damage is on the facial skin. Tension contorts our expression, etching wrinkles and fine lines onto the face and adding extra twists and folds to otherwise even skin. As well as making us frown all too often, stress can deplete the body of many of the nutrients needed for healthy, youthful-looking skin.

Last but not least on the list of skin enemies is decreased muscle tone. It's one of the problems you should work faithfully to treat. When muscles lose their tone, they become flaccid or soft and hang loosely from your bone. On your face this can mean sagging that stretches out the skin and results in wrinkles. Muscle tone decreases slowly as we grow older, however it falls off sharply with lack of use. For this reason facial exercises can make an important difference in preserving it.

Sometimes merely preventing damage is not enough or it's too late. In cases where the skin is already wrinkled, using a quality anti-wrinkle cream is the best way to minimize the appearance of wrinkles.