4 Habits Making You Age Faster

With age comes the big ‘W’ that is wisdom, but there’s another inevitable ‘W’ lagging not far behind, which of course are the wrinkles that so many of us dread. Whilst you cannot physically Facetite time, there are a number of small changes you can take upon yourself to delay those crevices from sprawling across your face. Here are a few things you can do to minimize them.

Stress

According to studies, carrying around stress and holding onto grudges can not only deteriorate your psychological well-being but can also reduce the efficiency of the immune system and induce more wrinkles and. Think about it, if you are constantly frowning, as your mother used to say, ‘your face might get stuck like that’. The unwanted stress can also cause bad side effects such as higher blood pressure, depression and anxiety. Try to find your stressors and find a way to avoid them, better yet solve them, or diffuse their effects through certain relaxing techniques (meditation or exercise might just become your best friend). Relieve that weight off of your shoulders and see the benefits.

Smoking

Here’s one that most people have heard of, smoking and aging aren’t best friends. If there weren’t already enough reasons to kick that smoking habit here’s another one to put on your list. Smoking activates enzymes that physically break down the elastin in your skin. Wrinkles and pallor will be sure to follow not only from the chemicals in the smoke but also through constantly pursing the lips.

Chewing Gum

If the waxy fat from sheep’s wool found in chewing gum wasn’t enough to deter you fresh-breath fanatics then maybe knowing that gum leads to wrinkles will? Unlike mouthwash and mints, chewing on gum, forces your mouth to continually form different shapes. According to dermatologist Joel Schlessinger, MD, “For frequent chewers, those formations end up resulting in a downward turn in the corners of the mouth, as well as a pronounced muscle at the bottom of the jawline,” he explains that once formed they are extremely difficult to undo. Gum anyone?

Straws, Skipping Sunnies & Sleeping on Tummies

As Mark Twain so nicely said, “Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.” And essentially they are, but as dermatologist Ronald Moy, (former president of the American Academy of Dermatology) states “Any repetitive facial moment can cause wrinkles”. This means habits such as drinking through a straw can lead to wrinkles around the mouth and skipping sun glasses is a recipe for crow’s feet from all that squinting. As mentioned before, even frowning can leave an impression (quite literally). You have to decide if you want wrinkles representing where your smiles have been or where you have been using a straw or even smoking. That means you need to rethink those habits. Sleeping on your tummy or side can also lead to the same effect, it is recommended to switch to sleeping on your back and if that seems impossible, try a satin pillow case to reduce the effects of cotton lines across your face.

At the end of the day age and wrinkles are an issue of mind over matter and if you don’t really mind, it doesn’t really matter. But if it is something that gets to you, now you know a few things that you can do to at least minimize the effects.