Seven Daily Habits that are Aging Your Skin

The quest for ageless skin can be tedious and quite frankly, expensive.  Here are seven everyday (bad) habits to avoid doing to achieve the look of younger skin.

1.    Not Wearing SPF – Even though your tan looks great now, your skin will be covered in wrinkles years down the road. Wearing the proper sun protection not only protects against the formation of wrinkles, but also helps keep skin moisturized all year round. Dr. Lily recommends a daily SPF 45 or greater with UVA/UVB protection such as Elta MD. Harmful UV rays are not just present in the sunny summer months, but in the winter months too!

2.    Smoking – There are no benefits to smoking. Every time you smoke a cigarette you are breathing in carcinogens and toxins that are damaging the largest organ in your body: your skin… not to mention the wrinkles around your mouth caused by the repetitive motion of puckering your lips.

3.    Eating Sweets – A diet high in sugar leads to poor nutrition for your skin. Research shows that sugar attaches to the proteins that work to damage other proteins like collagen and elastin.  Once attacked, the ability to keep your skin firm is reduced and brittle, leaving dull, cracked skin.

4.    Not Wearing Sunglasses – You should be wearing eye protection everyday. Shading your eyes from the sunlight will prevent squinting, preventing future wrinkles in your forehead area and the area around your eyes. Unprotected sun exposure to the eyes can cause eye cancer, cataracts, and even blindness.

5.    Chewing Gum – A habit among many to cover up bad breath, chewing gum is linked to the formation of wrinkles around your mouth.  The repetitious up and down motion causes wear and tear on your skin resulting in wrinkles.

6.    Sleeping Position – We all have preferable sleeping positions that feel most comfortable to us.  Whether you’re a stomach, back, or side sleeper the position in which you sleep can expose you to sleep lines that ultimately become etched in your face. Side sleepers are more susceptible to chin, cheek, and chest lines, whereas stomach sleeps are more prone to forehead wrinkles.

7.    Stress – It’s true! Stress ages you! It weakens your immune system making you more vulnerable to oxidative damage to the skin.