How To Practice Effective Anti-Aging For Your Skin?
Since ancient times, anti-aging has been the dream of many people.
We cannot change the length of life, we can extend the width of life.
Aging is one of the necessary stages of life. Whether it is affected by age increases, genetic factors, or environmental changes, this process is a necessary process of life.
But how to anti-aging and make us look younger than others?
Let’s dive right it.
How Does Your Skin Age Over Time?
The picture above is a virtual character. This is the L’Oréal Group has invited more than 200 female volunteers from teenagers to old ages, each 5 years old as a group, to take high-definition photos of each part of the face.
The thousands of selected photos are judged by skin experts on the severity of signs of aging. These scores are then inputted into a complex statistical system to finally draw a set of representative skin aging models.
This model is a record of a woman’s facial aging over the course of forty years.
First look at the changes in facial structure.
On the whole, the skin will be affected by gravity, and the skin will be firmer when young and can better resist skin sagging. However, as the age increases, the elasticity of the skin decreases, and the skin gradually sags under the influence of gravity.
With age, bags under the eyes will gradually appear, eyelids droop, neck wrinkles and double chin appear, making the original oval-shaped face gradually become trapezoidal.
The main internal reason for this change is the gradual loss of collagen and elastin in the skin, and the skin gradually loses its elasticity and gradually deforms under the action of gravity.
In old age, gravity can cause bone atrophy.
The appearance of wrinkles is also one of the signs of aging, the reason is similar to the above-mentioned changes in facial structure.
The main reason for the formation of static wrinkles, especially neck wrinkles, is the decrease in collagen and elastin content in the skin.
The formation of dynamic wrinkles, especially the expression lines on the eye area and forehead, is also related to frequent movement of the subcutaneous muscles. The muscles in this area are constantly pulling on the skin, accelerating the aging of collagen fibers.
It can be known from this model that 20 years old is the pinnacle of female skin condition.
After 20 years of age, some fine wrinkles slowly form on the upper part of the face, such as forehead wrinkles, crow’s feet lines, and tear groove lines. These changes are basically linear, and there seems to be no obvious sudden change in the later period.
By the age of 30, the changes around the eyes begin to accelerate, including drooping eyelids, the appearance of eye bags, and wrinkles between the brow.
There is a turning point between the ages of 45 and 50 when signs of aging on the lower half of the face begin to accelerate. Nasolabial folds and marionette lines will appear and grow rapidly, cheeks droop, chin shrinks, and slight neck wrinkles begin to appear at this time.
The model also tells us that color mottle goes through the following three main stages from non-existent to present:
- 18-30 years old, no visible color mottle.
- 30-58 years old, color mottle and chromatic aberration are mainly formed during this period. There seem to be two high-incidence periods after the age of 35 and after 55
- The color mottle peaked at about 60 years of age, after which there was no significant increase.
In summary, aging is not an independent phenomenon, but a combination of a series of phenomena.
What Causes Skin Aging And How To Anti-Aging Most Effectively?
The causes of aging can be divided into intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors (Intrinsic and extrinsic causes).
We cannot resist aging caused by intrinsic factors, but we can still minimize the impact of extrinsic factors on skin aging.
Now let’s take a look at what causes skin aging and how to delay aging.
Intrinsic cause – Gene
Telomere theory can better explain aging. At the end of the double strand of DNA that carries the genetic code, there is a “code” that is repeated many times, and this “code” is a telomere.
After each cell division, the telomere will be shortened by a small amount. When the maximum number of divisions is reached, few telomeres remain and the cell reaches the limit of the number of divisions and can no longer divide.
The discovery of telomeres was a sensational event, and people thought they had discovered the secret of immortality. It was believed that by replenishing telomeres, people would be able to live forever by constantly replenishing depleted cells.
This is indeed the case. Some cells can indeed use telomerase to attach new telomere fragments to the DNA ends to maintain continuous division. Cancer cells are one of them.
As long as the cancer cells in the petri dish are cultured properly, the cancer cells can continue to proliferate.
Ms. Henrietta Lacks
The famous “HeLa cell” in the medical field is a classic case of immortal cells. It is a cervical cancer cell from an American woman who died as early as 1951, and her cancer cells are still dividing and making great contributions to medical research.
Since the telomere theory was put forward, the main application is still in the pre-diagnosis of cancer. The real use of telomerase to achieve anti-aging and prolong life has not appeared.
Intrinsic cause – Hormonal secretion
The change of hormones in the human body is one of the important signs of age. It marks the various periods of a person’s life and affects our appearance and behavior at all ages.
Before puberty, our body secretes fewer hormones, and the skin at this time is the best in our life.
With the advent of puberty, hormones in the body change drastically. The production of androgens easily stimulates the sebaceous glands to produce oil. The production of estrogen makes it easy to gain weight. At this time, the skin began to appear acne, pores, blackheads, etc.
However, the metabolism in adolescence is relatively vigorous, and skin cells are renewed quickly, and the body’s immune system will automatically solve skin problems.
After puberty, hormonal changes will stabilize, and the skin condition will be more stable at this time.
After 30 years of age, hormone production is relatively stable, but the metabolism in the body gradually slows down. Our skin ages linearly, wrinkles gradually appear, collagen is gradually lost, and the face is less firm.
After the age of 45, hormone secretion began to gradually decrease, and the skin that was once particularly oily also felt dry. At this time, facial aging began to accelerate, the number of nasolabial folds and marionette lines increased rapidly, cheeks drooped, chin atrophy, and slight neck wrinkles began to appear at this time.
Extrinsic cause – Free radical damage
People need to continuously consume energy during normal vital activities, and these energies are obtained from food intake.
After we eat food, the human body breaks down the food into glucose and fatty acids, which flow to the whole body with the blood.
All organs and tissues of the human body are composed of cells, including skin cells.
The place where the human body converts glucose into energy is the mitochondria in the cell. So our whole body is transforming energy.
With the help of oxygen, glucose is converted into energy required for vital activities inside the mitochondria. But in the process of converting energy, free radicals are generated inside the mitochondria.
Under normal circumstances, mitochondria will wrap themselves with a double membrane to prevent free radicals from leaking to the outside. At the same time, the antioxidant inside the mitochondria is used to eliminate free radicals. Even if few free radicals are leaked to the outside, the antioxidants in the cells can eliminate free radicals.
But if mitochondria produce too many free radicals, and the free radicals are too active. There will be a large number of free radicals leaking to the outside, they will attack cells, damage proteins, and even damage DNA, causing gene mutations and degrading body performance.
Free radicals damage healthy skin cells, which can cause skin roughness, dullness, wrinkles, and aging.
All substances in the world (Including human tissue) are made of molecules. Molecules are made up of atoms. The atom contains electrons.
Free radicals attack human tissues by stealing electrons from cells.
The atom whose electrons are taken away by free radicals is extremely restless, and it will grab electrons from other atoms.
This phenomenon is similar to a person who has been bitten by a zombie and will become a zombie to infect other people.
Also, many factors in the environment can lead to the production of free radicals, including high-sugar diet, stress, smoking, drinking, pollutants, electromagnetic radiation, ultraviolet rays, etc.
Because free radicals exist in the form of active oxygen, such as superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxide, single oxygen, hydroxyl free radical.
Anti-oxidant is the process of resisting the damage of these reactive oxygen free radicals.
Fortunately, we have an innate immune system that can help us fight these free radicals and minimize damage.
When we are young, the body’s immune system works well and can effectively remove free radicals. At this time, even if we stay up late, eat unhealthy food, or get exposed to the sun, the facial skin is not easy to get worse.
With age, the ability to remove free radicals becomes worse, and facial skin will appear wrinkles, dullness, and aging.
There are 3 ways to resist free radical damage:
1. Use the free radical scavenging system in the body to remove excess free radicals in the body;
2. Eating foods rich in antioxidants can make the body produce more antioxidants and block the invasion of free radicals to the human body.
3. Use skin care products containing antioxidant ingredients to prevent free radicals from damaging healthy skin cells and delay skin aging.
Common antioxidants are:
- Vitamin C and Vitamin E (The effect is best when used together)
- Carotenoids, resveratrol
- Glutathione, lipoic acid
- Superoxide dismutase, catalase, and coenzyme Q10
Extrinsic cause – Light aging
The picture above shows a truck driver who has been exposed to uneven sunlight for a long period of time, resulting in a significant difference in the degree of aging between the left and right sides of the same face. This picture can fully illustrate the effect of ultraviolet rays on skin aging after removing the genetic influence Great influence.
The picture above shows two sisters of identical twins, whose genes are very similar. But because of the difference in living conditions, the sister on the left works in the sun for a long time, while the sister on the right works in an office, thus avoiding UV damage to the greatest extent. After a long time, the skin of the sisters also showed obvious aging differences in appearance.
This is because the ultraviolet rays in the sun can penetrate the surface of the skin and reach the dermis layer deep in the skin, destroying a large amount of collagen and elastin that exist in the dermis layer.
Collagen and elastin are important components responsible for making the skin plump, firm, and full of elasticity. Their breakage will cause the skin to dry out, slack, sag, and lose its elasticity.
The intrusion of ultraviolet rays can also stimulate the body to produce a large number of free radicals, which destroy healthy cells in the body everywhere and accelerate the aging of the body.
Ultraviolet rays can also disrupt the DNA sequence of skin cells, destroy the integrity of the DNA chain, and make cells lose the ability to synthesize collagen.
The combination of these two attacks will make the skin helpless, lose its ability to repair and save itself, and accelerate aging.
At the same time, ultraviolet light can also become an inflammatory factor, causing the body to produce an inflammatory response, causing the skin to enter a low-intensity chronic inflammation state that is invisible to the naked eye, causing inflammatory aging.
Sun protection is not just to prevent tanning, but to prevent aging.
Ultraviolet rays are the most important cause of skin and body aging. If you want glowing skin, you must do a good job of sun protection.
The best sun protection methods are:
- Try to stay indoors without exposure to UV rays
- Use sun protection clothing, sun hat, sun protection umbrella
- Use sunscreen cream
Extrinsic Cause – Skin Inflammation
Some external factors, such as ultraviolet rays, free radicals, bacteria, pollutants, certain skin care ingredients, extremely cold or extremely hot environments.
If the body is judged to be a harmful factor, the body will activate the defense and clearance mechanism. This mechanism is the inflammatory response, and these factors that cause the inflammatory response are the inflammatory factors.
If the inflammation is severe, this part of the body tissues, such as facial skin, will have symptoms such as redness, swelling, heat, and pain.
If the inflammation is not serious, your eyes will not see inflammation, but this piece of body tissue will always be in an imperceptible low-intensity state of inflammation.
The best anti-inflammatory methods are:
- Avoid skin exposure to UV rays
- Avoid going to heavily polluted areas
- Avoid environments with high
- Avoid electromagnetic radiation
- Avoid prolonged exposure to extremely cold or extremely hot environments
- Skin care during the day to do anti-oxidation
- Use skin care products containing anti-inflammatory ingredients, such as Phyto-C Superheal Olive Gel.
Extrinsic cause – Dry
Such a phenomenon is common in life.
People of the same age, especially after the age of 30, if the level of skin care is the same, or if they don’t care much, oily skin will have fewer wrinkles than dry skin.
There are two reasons for this phenomenon.
1. The body’s own sebum is rich in vitamin E, which is an excellent antioxidant component. Vitamin E can help us resist the damage of free radicals and delay aging. Therefore, oily skin is constantly secreting sebum, which is equivalent to using antioxidant skin care products for 24 hours.
2. When the skin is dry, the body will activate the activity of matrix metalloproteinases. Its role is to degrade facial collagen. This will cause the skin to lose its elasticity and become loose and weak, forming wrinkles.
Moisturizing is an indispensable work in skin care steps. All skin types must be moisturized, but moisturizing work needs to be determined according to skin type and environment.
For example, if oily skin is in a moist area, its own sebum may be sufficient for moisturizing. But if he is in a relatively dry and cold area, his own sebum may not be able to perform moisturizing work alone.
Extrinsic cause – Sweets
All kinds of sweets and carbohydrates we consume every day are broken down into sugars that can be absorbed by the human body through the digestive system. Part of these sugars will be transformed into the vital energy needed by the human body, and part will be accumulated in the body.
At a young age, with a high level of physical activity and high metabolism, most of the sugar is metabolized and does not accumulate in the body.
With age, metabolism decreases, life, and work pressure increases, coupled with irregular life and eating habits, the sugar ingested will not be metabolized immediately but will accumulate in the body.
The accumulated sugars will react with proteins in the human body to produce Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs).
Protein is an important part of our body, including hemoglobin, elastin, collagen, and so on. The collagen located in the dermis of our skin has a tough texture and is not easy to stretch. It can provide strength to the skin and hold the skin cells tightly together.
Collagen fibers are like tree branches and scaffolding, which can build a good supporting structure for the skin and help maintain the stability of this structure and keep the skin firm.
Elastin has a good stretching force, it can increase the elasticity of the skin. When the skin is stretched, elastin is responsible for quickly returning the skin to its original appearance.
AGEs not only cause diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis, but also kill collagen and elastin in the skin. This will cause the originally elastic skin to lose elasticity, sagging, and wrinkles appear.
The collagen of the skin is only renewed every 10 years, and the lost collagen is difficult to replenish, which accelerates the aging of the skin.
At the same time, sweets are still a major factor in acne, and too many sweets will greatly increase the probability of acne.
An Australian man once experiment. He used fruit juice, oatmeal, and raisins as staple food to record his body changes for two months.
In the past two months, he has not only become fatter, but his skin has also become rougher, and his whole person has been in an unhealthy state, and he has obviously grown old.
The best way to reduce the harm of sugar to the human body:
- Low-sugar diet, do not eat high-sugar snacks, supplement carbohydrates needed to meet physiological activities.
- Ensure enough exercise, exercise can accelerate the metabolism of sugar, not staying in the body for too long. You only need to exercise at a moderate intensity. The moderate-intensity will not increase your appetite, thus maintaining the balance between the body’s material energy supply and expenditure.
Extrinsic cause – Irregular life
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology was awarded to three scientists, Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young, in recognition of their discovery of the molecular mechanism of biological rhythm regulation.
These three scientists proved a very simple truth: Work at sunrise and rest at sunset.
There are 3 bad habits that cause our biological clock to be disordered and accelerate aging:
1. Time disordered lifestyle: Stay up late for a long time and lack of sleep
2. Exposure to light for too long affects sleep. Such as: the blue light of the mobile phone actually does not affect the skin, but too much light affects sleep.
3. Pressure
Extrinsic cause – Skin flora imbalance
There is a group of microbial flora on our skin, and these florae are called the microecology of the skin.
These bacteria are also divided into resident bacteria and temporary bacteria. Temporary bacteria are usually left behind through external contacts, such as touching your face with your hands or kissing each other on the cheeks. Temporary bacteria are the main pathogens that cause skin diseases, so frequent hand washing and more ventilation are important to prevent diseases.
The stability of the resident flora is the key to maintaining healthy skin. The normal resident flora is beneficial and harmless to the skin. They usually use our dander and oil as food to produce lactic acid that can suppress harmful bacteria. The resident flora can also produce a variety of amino acids and fatty acids that are beneficial to the human body. The resident flora has credit for maintaining the best condition of the skin.
If due to some factors, the number of resident flora on the face is too small or too much, it will cause a series of skin problems. For example, acne patients use too many antibiotics to kill both beneficial and harmful bacteria, which can cause other skin problems.
The dynamic balance technologies to maintain the resident flora, such as Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair and Lancome Advanced Genefique, and SK-II Facial Treatment Essence, all use the principles of probiotics.
They directly apply the beneficial ingredients produced by probiotics (Such as Bifida Ferment Lysate) on the skin, which are rich in lactic acid, amino acids, hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and other beneficial ingredients to maintain the balance of probiotics and nourish the skin.
What Skin Care Ingredients Can Anti Aging For Skin？
Retinol
Retinol plays an important role in our growth, eyesight, reproduction, and cell proliferation.
For the skin, retinol is absorbed through the skin into skin tissue cells and finally converted into retinoic acid to play a role.
Pros
- Retinol can speed up the metabolism of the skin and accelerate the renewal of epidermal cells.
- Retinol can remove hyperkeratosis of the epidermis and restore smooth skin.
- Long-term exposure of the skin to ultraviolet rays will cause the loss of collagen. Retinol can reduce the loss of collagen due to ultraviolet rays.
- Retinol can stimulate the dermis, accelerate the production of collagen, enhance the elasticity of the skin, and prevent the formation of wrinkles.
- Inhibit tyrosinase activity, reduce the production of melanin, accelerate the degradation of melanin, and achieve the effect of whitening.
Combining these functions, retinol can also be used to treat acne and keratosis follicularis. Skin prone to acne is most suitable for adding retinol to daily skin care.
Cons
- Irritating to skin.
Although high concentrations of retinol have a strong irritation to the skin, their anti-aging effect is also very good.
The method to reduce the irritation of retinol is to first use a low concentration of retinol, wait for the skin to accept the irritation of retinol, and then gradually increase the concentration used.
At the same time, use restorative moisturizing products to reduce the frequency of exfoliation.
Avoid using acid skin care products, and avoid being exposed to the sun.
- The activity of retinol is not stable enough
Retinol needs to be stored away from light, usually in a vacuum bottle or a pointed hose.
If you start using some skin care products containing retinol that are beige and turn brown after a while, it means that the retinol has become denatured.
Pro-Xylane
Pro-Xylane was originally discovered from beech. Because beech is expensive, if it is to be used on a large scale and added in high concentration, the price of Pro-Xylane will be very expensive.
In order to solve the cost problem, L’Oréal Group adopted green chemical synthesis technology. In the process, xylose is used as the raw material, and Pro-Xylane is produced through a gentle green technology. Because this green technology is very representative, Pro-Xylane has become the exclusive representative patent of L’Oréal Group in practicing environmental protection.
All the research data we know about Pro-Xylane comes from the Lancome laboratory under the L’Oréal Group, and all skin care products containing Pro-Xylane that can be used also come from the L’Oréal Group.
The effect of Pro-Xylane is anti-aging. The mechanism of action is divided into two parts:
1. Pro-Xylane can stimulate the synthesis of Glycosaminoglycans (GAGS), which is an important part of the skin barrier. GAGS has strong water absorption and water storage capacity. As we age, the water absorption capacity becomes worse, and the skin will lose its youthful plump state. Pro-Xylane can stimulate the synthesis of GAGS and improve the shriveled state.
2. Pro-Xylane can promote the synthesis of collagen VII and collagen IV, making the epidermis layer and dermis layer fit closer, and the skin becomes firmer and more elastic.
L’Oréal Group also passed the clinical trial and invited 5 women aged 60-75 to conduct the experiment. It is proved that under the action of 10% Pro-Xylane, the gloss of the skin, the degree of sagging of the face, and the fine wrinkles have been improved. The fiber content of collagen has indeed been improved.
Peptide
Peptide is a short protein composed of different numbers of amino acids.
Peptide is usually named according to the number of amino acids. For example, a peptide formed by connecting two amino acids is called dipeptide-2, and a peptide formed by connecting three amino acids is called tripeptide.
Peptide is a large family with many members. The mechanism and effect of each peptide are also different. Here are the main peptides used in skin care products and their functions:
