Aging is a natural process that is unavoidable. However, whether you grow older than your actual age or still look younger than your age depends upon various habits. There are several habits that unknowingly affect your aging process and may result in premature aging of skin and body. Here is a list of habits that accelerate the aging of skin.
Seven Habits That Accelerate Aging of Skin
Many times, inadvertently, the habits we choose determine our overall health and skin health as well. Discover the habits that determine the aging of the skin and act accordingly!
1. Smoking and drinking alcohol
Smoking damages collagen and elastin in the skin. As a result, the skin loses its suppleness and elasticity causing wrinkles to appear on the skin before time.
Initially, aging signs may not be visible but continuous long hours of smoking show up on your skin after some years. Besides, tobacco smoke also adversely affects blood circulation, narrows the blood vessels under the skin, and thereby accelerates the aging process.
Alcohol also affects your appearance in the long term as it dehydrates your body and skin. Excess consumption of alcohol deprives the skin of vital vitamins and nutrients. Besides, it may also cause stress and affect your sleep which may lead to premature aging and wrinkles.
2. Sleeping patterns
Believe it or not, some bad sleeping habits cause the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines prematurely. Insufficient sleep or poor sleep quality shows on the skin. The lack of proper sleep gives lesser time to the skin to repair itself at night and thus speeds up aging.
Besides, sleeping on your stomach or sideways also cause early signs of aging. This could be in a form of the appearance of lines on the forehead and cheeks as compared to those who sleep on their back.
3. Stress
Too much anxiety and stress expedite the aging process. The high-stress levels badly affect the internal as well as external health of the body. Stress interferes in everyday life routine and the result shows on the skin in the form of frown lines, tensed muscles, wrinkles on the forehead, and premature graying of hair.
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4. Sedentary Lifestyle
Leading a sedentary lifestyle affects blood circulation and thus puts you at greater risk for skin problems and hair loss. A regular exercise program will not only tone up your muscles and gets your blood flowing but will also slow down the process of aging skin. So, exercising should be an important part of your anti-aging skincare program.
5. Eating habits
Bad food choices can make you look older than your age. The inclusion of transfats and saturated fats add empty calories to the system resulting in faster aging of the body and skin. In addition, the lack of nutritious foods like fruits, vegetables, dairy products, etc in the diet deprives the skin of essential nutrients and thus accelerates the aging of the skin and organs of the body.
Yo-yo dieting also causes premature aging of the skin as it takes away the natural collagen and elasticity of the skin and causes the skin to sag or lose its shape.
6. Improper skincare routine may accelerate the aging of the skin
To look younger and attractive in old age require a proper skincare routine from the beginning. Lack of cleanser–moisturizer routine day and night makes the skin uneven and prone to problems.
Moreover, other habits such as over-exfoliating or not using sunscreen also damage your skin.
7. Experimenting with too many products
Many women change their skincare products frequently or experiment with any new products that may have adverse effects on their skin. Some women use a number of products or a combination of multiple products at a time that may do more harm than good to their skin.
Using many products may contain ingredients that can interact negatively with other products or neutralize them entirely. Sometimes ingredients of these multiple products may give bad reactions and wreak havoc on your skin.
All these bad habits accelerate the aging process of the skin as well as the body. Therefore, take measures to keep your habits in place and look younger than your age.
