Causes of wrinkles on the face

The first thing we associate with aging is wrinkles.

We directly associate their appearance with age.

Whether it’s nasolabial, eyebrow or so-called crow’s feet around the eyes, we attribute all these wrinkles to age-related changes.

Indeed, as our skin ages, it loses its elasticity and firmness, which leads to the appearance of hated wrinkles.

Causes of wrinkles

But there are also physical signs of aging that have nothing to do with age at all.

Other lifestyle and environmental factors can also negatively affect your appearance. These include poor diet, poor diet, lack of sleep and chronic stress.

Unfortunately, negative factors actually contribute to the appearance of early wrinkles. The wrinkles you see in the mirror may have more to do with your daily habits than you think.

To turn back time and slow down the appearance of new wrinkles, be sure to take into account the main reasons for their appearance:

Everyone knows that the main enemy of healthy skin is the sun. Ultraviolet rays, penetrating into the deepest layers of the skin, not only cause sunburn, but also lead to premature aging, sagging and wrinkles.

By avoiding the sun, you protect yourself from cancer and also prolong the youth and beauty of your skin.

According to dermatologist Jerome Polozkin, the most common cause of wrinkles is the sun. By damaging our skin, it provokes the appearance of wrinkles.

The thing is that exposure to the sun on our skin leads to loss of collagen and elastin, which, in turn, contributes to skin wrinkling.

To protect your skin and prolong its youth, be sure to use sunscreen (at least SPF 30).

When you go out in the sun, especially if you plan to swim in the water, be sure to reapply high-protection sunscreen. It will protect the skin from sunburn and also prevent the appearance of premature wrinkles.

You may not have thought too much about the benefits or harms of the environment in which you live. However, it has been proven that it can have a significant impact on the appearance of deep and fine wrinkles.

Pollution is another factor that contributes to free radical damage, explains Maral K. Skelsey, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and director of the Dermatologic Surgery Center in Washington.

A 2010 study published in a scientific journal found that women who lived in urban areas had more wrinkles and age spots than women who lived in rural areas for 24 years or more.

If you live in a densely populated city (large metropolitan area) and take good care of your skin, be sure to wash your face at night before going to bed to remove pollutants.

Harm to facial skin

Sleep plays a very important role in how good we look.

You've probably heard that healthy and adequate sleep is essential to feeling better, and it can even help you lose weight.

But did you know that good sleep also helps your skin stay smooth and beautiful longer? “Lack of sleep leads to the development of wrinkles because the pH of the skin changes and it loses moisture,” explains Skelly.

“Additionally, it is during sleep that harmful toxins are flushed out of the body.”

Be sure to try to get enough sleep. Adequate sleep should be at least 6-8 hours a day. By getting enough sleep, you bring maximum benefits to your health; remember: sleep is not only good health, but also fresh beauty.

A busy work schedule or personal drama not only takes a toll on your mental and emotional well-being; they can also affect you physically, making you look worse.

"Stress increases cortisol levels, which reduces the skin's ability to retain moisture," says Skelly. “In addition, elevated blood sugar levels damage collagen and elastin fibers in the skin.

These two main building materials provide support to skin cells and prevent sagging and the development of wrinkles on the skin."

Try to reduce the level of stress present in your life. An ordinary walk after dinner and simple communication with friends help fight stress.

Everyone knows that sugar causes weight gain, especially in the abdominal area. By giving up sugar, you will begin to notice improvements in your figure.

But there is another reason to give up sweets - sugar causes your skin to age.

"Consuming too much sugar will undoubtedly lead to premature aging. Once sugar enters the body, it undergoes a process called glycation, which affects the quality of our skin," explains Christina Goldenberg, MD, a dermatologist at one of the scientific centers of dermatology.

“Unfortunately, sugar, as well as sugar-containing foods, destroys collagen and elastin, killing the beauty of our skin.

When sugar binds to these building blocks of skin (collagen and elastane), it weakens them and causes fine lines and wrinkles to appear. When glycation occurs, the body also produces toxic products that cause premature aging."

To reap maximum health and beauty benefits, try eliminating sugar for at least 2-4 weeks and you will see results very soon.

You'll have more energy, lose weight, and start to notice how your wrinkles become less pronounced.

If you've been wearing the same old pair of glasses for years and are desperate for a new prescription, you're not only harming your eyes, but also worsening the condition of your skin.

"Squinting and other active facial expressions are the result of muscle contraction. The more we use our muscles, the stronger and more developed they become," explains Goldenberg.

"These muscle movements cause skin cells to shrink, resulting in wrinkles. Therefore, excessive squinting will lead to deeper wrinkles and loss of skin elasticity."

So stop squinting, feel free to wear glasses, and be sure to visit your eye doctor to get the right prescription as soon as possible. And one more piece of advice: don’t neglect sunglasses; be sure to wear them when in direct sunlight.

7. Drinking through a straw

Some people really like to drink liquids through a straw.

Of course, using a straw when drinking drinks like tea or Coca Cola can protect your teeth from stains, but there is another, negative side to using a straw.

It can cause so-called nasolabial wrinkles around the mouth.

Just as squinting causes wrinkles around the eyes, drinking with a straw creates fine lines and creases in the skin around the mouth.

This is due to contraction of the muscles around the lip area. If you drink through a straw frequently, your muscles will become stronger and your wrinkles will become deeper, more pronounced, and more obvious, explains Goldenberg.

Dry skin isn't just a nuisance; it can add several years to your life at once.

"Unfortunately, chronically dry skin is more susceptible to wrinkles," explains Skelly. “A drying environment can lead to a loss of skin tone as well as some skin changes, including the appearance of wrinkles.”

Make sure to keep your skin well moisturized both day and night, especially paying attention to your facial skin.

Buying a nourishing eye cream is also a good idea; the skin under the eyes is thinner and more sensitive and more susceptible to negative factors, so it needs careful care.

The nicotine in cigarettes causes the blood vessels in the skin to constrict, making it more prone to wrinkles because vital nutrients cannot reach the epidermis,” explains Skelly.

In addition, smoking is associated with lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. But you've probably heard this before. Therefore, we advise you to definitely quit smoking as soon as possible!

Are wrinkles normal?

Where do they appear?

What affects the appearance of wrinkles?

When is it time to treat wrinkles?

How to get rid of them?

What to do to reduce wrinkles?

Homemade masks probably won't work. You will have to wage a real war against wrinkles.

Are wrinkles normal?

Yes, wrinkles are a common occurrence Facts on Wrinkles and Their Causes for healthy skin. These are folds and grooves that appear because the skin loses its elasticity and strength over time.

However, even newborns have folds in the area of ​​the joints where their arms and legs bend and extend, and “bandages” where they have too much subcutaneous fat.

Where do they appear?

Wrinkles do not appear suddenly and all at once, except in the form of exceptions such as systemic diseases, when a mass of cells suddenly accumulates in the skin. Therefore, it is easy to predict where wrinkles will appear:

1. Places where muscles most often contract. For example, if you frown or smile, wrinkles appear around the eyes and on the forehead.
2. Places that are most often exposed to ultraviolet radiation. The sun, which gives us a tan, contributes to the appearance of wrinkles.
3. Places where the skin is thin. There she simply loses collagen (the protein that is responsible for strength and elasticity) the fastest.

What affects the appearance of wrinkles?

First of all, this is age, which does not spare anyone.

Secondly, wrinkles are the result of the work of Wrinkles ultraviolet radiation. The sun also colors them, changing the structure of collagen. And the lighter the skin tone, the more prone it is to the appearance of sun wrinkles.

And the third main enemy of smooth skin is cigarettes (this is another reason to quit smoking and even vaping).

When is it time to treat wrinkles?

Since wrinkles do not affect overall health, but only aesthetics, it all depends on the state of your wallet and your personal view of beauty. Of course, it is always easier to do prevention, since wrinkles are unlikely to become fashionable in the near future. Moles, unnatural whiteness of the skin, tan and shine were at their peak, but wrinkles were never the subject of envy.

How to get rid of them?

All wrinkle treatments are cosmetic procedures. Even if we are talking about surgery, it is not plastic surgery for health reasons. Such manipulations do not radically change anything in the patient’s condition, but they can improve well-being. And as we remember, health is not only physical, but also mental well-being, which is influenced by the reflection in the mirror.

Cosmetic procedures that treat wrinkles can be grouped roughly like this:

1. Paralysis of the superficial muscles of the face. This is Botox and everything that looks like it. There is such a dangerous bacterium - botulinum clostridium. Her toxin (that is, the poison she secretes) causes paralysis. And if, for example, you eat a can of canned food contaminated with botulism, you can die from paralysis of the respiratory muscles. But humanity has learned to use this effect to its advantage.

Enterprising researchers have purified and weakened the toxin so that it can be injected into spastic and superficial facial muscles. Due to the action of the toxin, they are paralyzed for two to three months, depending on the dose and characteristics of the body. As a result, those wrinkles that appeared due to muscle movements are smoothed out. The risks of Botox injection are headaches and flu-like symptoms.

2. Filling the recesses. There are many medications that can be injected into the deep cavities of wrinkles to smooth them out from the inside. For example, the same hyaluronic acid, which is now used to fill wrinkles, and to enlarge lips, and to correct the shape of the face.

There is a huge list of fillers approved for use by the FDA (American Food and Drug Administration), ranging from the patient’s own fat cells (pumped out in one place, pumped into another), collagen (and a lot of drugs based on it), lactic acid, hydroxyapatite, as well as various combinations thereof. Don’t forget about silicone and mineral oils, which, although they are becoming a thing of the past due to their unsafety, are still popular.

3. Changes in collagen through invasive destructive procedures or medical means. There are procedures that are supposed to improve the quality of collagen in the skin and change its appearance. The use of lasers, chemical peels, and dermabrasion remove dead cells and encourage fibroblasts to produce more collagen to remove fine lines and wrinkles. However, these same procedures can cause serious damage - a chemical burn - or leave a scar, so choose better. Ultrasound and low-frequency devices are used for this purpose.

4. Surgical removal of excess skin. This procedure belongs to plastic surgery and is performed in the operating room under anesthesia. The result depends on the skill of the surgeon and can be impressive.

Some procedures are as simple as applying a cream to the surface of the skin (though this doesn’t always work: as Study: Most Wrinkle Creams Don’t Work shows, most homemade anti-wrinkle creams are just a marketing ploy). Others are major interventions that require anesthesia. What exactly will help in each specific case depends on the skin type, the depth of the wrinkles and the cost, of course.

What exactly to use and how should be decided by a cosmetologist. Much depends on what drug the clinic or salon uses, how much you are willing to pay and how much you are willing to risk. Most injection methods of rejuvenation require constant repetition, because the fillers dissolve under the skin and it returns to its original state (this is if you are lucky, but if not, we see terrible side effects and disfigured faces).

What to do to reduce wrinkles?

There are not many ways to avoid wrinkles. For example, you can always walk with a straight face so as not to provoke the appearance of facial wrinkles (well, at least not frown).

We must not forget that no matter how you look at it, genetics will influence the quality of your skin.

On the other hand, we can reduce the harmful factors that spoil our skin and cause damage to it. This, of course, is the sun and smoking. Therefore, you should always carry UV protection cream with you and never carry cigarettes with you.

Tanning has come into fashion relatively recently, and there is an opinion that it is time to take it out of this fashion - after all, skin health is more valuable to us. A light tan, obtained naturally or on the beach, but with sunscreen, may well fill the need for vitamin D (especially if you eat fatty fish), and only hyaluronic acid (or something similar) will fill wrinkles.

In this article you will learn how and why does the face age, as well as where wrinkles, folds, swelling and other unpleasant changes on the face come from.

Why do you need this information?

1. Firstly, so that you clearly understood, which rejuvenation methods work and which don’t, which ones are dangerous and which ones won’t harm.
2. Secondly, so that you don’t just mechanically perform gymnastics exercises for the face, but do it consciously, understanding how every movement rejuvenates your face.

I. WRINKLES

Let's start with wrinkles, because these are the most common age-related changes that women experience.

How and why do wrinkles appear?

To understand the causes of wrinkles, we need to understand how the facial muscles work.

Why are we talking about muscles? Do wrinkles form on the skin?

It's simple. The fact is that almost all areas of the facial skin attached by tendons to muscles, and there are more than 55 of these muscles on the face. If the muscles under the skin are healthy and relaxed, the skin is in an excellent toned (tight) state.

But when we experience some emotions, we tense our muscles, for example:

1. We smile - the zygomatic muscles, the muscles of laughter, and the muscles responsible for squinting the eyes contract.
2. We frown and raise our eyebrows - the frontal muscles contract
3. We squint our eyes - the orbicularis oculi muscles contract

When muscles contract, they decrease in size. But our skin can’t do that; it can’t shrink several times in size. And the only thing left for her is to gather into small folds, which we call wrinkles. This is how most facial wrinkles appear. Here's a simple illustration:

This is how horizontal wrinkles appear on the forehead

If, after such tension, the muscles relax and return to their original position, the skin straightens out again, and no unwanted changes occur on the face. That is, we frowned - wrinkles appeared on the forehead; we relaxed our forehead and the wrinkles on our forehead disappeared.

However, often, for a number of reasons, the facial muscles do not relax and are fixed on the face in the form muscle spasms and tension. That is, the muscles in this case are in constant overvoltage. And the skin, accordingly, is also constantly in a wrinkled state. It is in this case that both fine and deeper wrinkles appear on the face.

As a rule, the situation is complicated by the presence bad facial habitsSuch as pursing your lips, squinting your eyes, frowning your forehead... And such constant actions only strengthen wrinkles in the corresponding areas of the face.

For example, if we have poor vision, we constantly squint, as a result the orbicularis oculi muscles become overstrained - and this is the main reason for the appearance of “crow’s feet” and other small wrinkles in the eye area:

This is how crow's feet appear

How to remove wrinkles?

To remove wrinkles in an environmentally friendly way, you need to eliminate causes their appearance, namely:

1. Relax tense and spasming muscles
2. Ideally, to prevent overstrain of the facial muscles in the future

The working algorithm here is as follows:

1. Activating tight muscles. First, using specially designed exercises, we set the spasmodic, overstrained muscles in motion in order to pump blood through them and warm them up. This way we prepare them for relaxation and stretching, and also ensure the safety of all subsequent actions.
2. Relaxing the muscles. After activating and warming up overstrained muscles, we relax them using special relaxation practices and self-massage techniques. Even if you only perform relaxing practices, you can already remove wrinkles from many areas of your face. But it is much more effective to perform all the practices in combination.
3. Stretching the muscles. Finally, we stretch the warmed and relaxed muscles, thereby restoring their natural state and position and helping them to free themselves from toxins and lactic acid that have frozen in them.
4. We tone antagonist muscles. If we work with muscles for which there are antagonist muscles (performing the opposite movement), to consolidate the effect, we tone these antagonist muscles with the help of strength exercises in facial gymnastics.

The techniques from the last point are necessary to completely remove wrinkles in some areas of the face. For example, drooping corners of lips and the resultingfolds of sorrow“appear due to chronic overstrain of the triangular muscles, which pull the corners of the lips down. To remove such folds and raise the corners of the lips, we first activate, relax and stretch the triangular muscles, and then we make sure to tone those muscles that are responsible for raising the corners of the lips:

Causes of drooping lip corners and the appearance of “folds of sorrow”

One last point: if the skin has been in a wrinkled state for too long (too long we haven't done anything with our muscle clamps), it could lose its elastic properties. In this case, after removing the muscle tension, the wrinkles may not be completely smoothed out.

This indicates that the skin lacks nutrition and oxygen, and also that the skin is poorly cleansed of waste and toxins. What to do in this case, read on...

II. SWELLING, WORSE SKIN COLOR, LOSS OF ELASTICITY AND TONE

P Why do bags, bruises and swelling occur?

The main cause of swelling on the face, loss of skin tone and deterioration of complexion is lymph stagnation and other liquids. These fluids are naturally removed from the edema area primarily through the lymphatic system: through the lymphatic capillaries and vessels to the lymph nodes. This is how lymph removes toxins, waste, decay products...

But there is one problem here: the movement of lymph through lymphatic vessels and capillaries is carried out mainly due to the work of muscles, because the lymphatic system, alas, does not have its own heart.

What state should the facial muscles ideally be in to ensure sufficient lymph flow:

1. On the one hand, the facial muscles must be sufficiently work actively, thus acting as a kind of pump that pumps lymph through the lymphatic system.
2. On the other hand, the facial muscles should relax, because overstrained muscles compress the vessels - and the movement of lymph slows down or stops altogether.

How muscles work as a kind of “pump” for pumping lymph

And for most people, as a rule, things are in the most unfavorable way: some facial muscles spasm, while others are practically don't get the load, weaken or even atrophy.

Thus, somewhere there are vessels pinched, and somewhere, on the contrary, under-stimulated. In both cases lymph movement is disrupted. As a result, the skin is not cleansed enough and becomes flabby, dull and dry. Due to the stagnation of toxins and decay products, blackheads, pimples, spots and other signs of aging appear on the skin. Due to loss of elasticity, the skin sags, swelling, jowls and double chins appear.

III. DEGRADATION IN SKIN QUALITY, LOSS OF ELASTICITY AND TONE

Such phenomena occur if the skin lacks nutrition or oxygen, or if skin cleansing deteriorates due to disruption of the lymphatic system.

We discussed the reasons for the disruption of lymph flow above. But the deterioration of nutrition and oxygen supply to the skin is caused, oddly enough, by exactly the same factors.

Nutrients and oxygen are delivered to the skin through blood vessels and capillaries, which (like lymphatic ones) first pass through the muscles and only then reach the skin. Therefore, overstrained muscles partially or completely block the blood flow through the capillaries passing through them. Weakened and atrophied muscles, on the contrary, do not provide sufficiently active work.

How to remove swelling and return the skin to its natural color, elasticity and tone?

I think you already understand everything perfectly:

1. Weak muscles on the face we train and tone with the help of specially designed gymnastics exercises for the face.
2. Overstrained muscles first we activate, then we relax, and then we stretch, returning them to their natural state.

IV. FACIAL ASYMMETRY

If facial asymmetry is not congenital and is not caused by injury, its cause is always that symmetrical muscles in the right and left parts of the face are in different states.

For example, if the zygomatic muscles on the right are more tense than on the left, a curvature of the mouth appears:

This is how facial asymmetry appears

To get rid of such asymmetry, it is necessary to tone weakened muscles and relax overstrained ones.

V. FOLDS AND SAGING ON THE FACE

Why do deep folds and sagging form?

Almost our entire face under the skin is covered with muscles. And the skin not only covers the face, but is also attached to these muscles by tendons. In other words: the facial muscles hold the facial skin in the necessary tension.

If the facial muscles are not used, they weaken And sag. Along with them, the skin sags in those places where it is attached to weakened muscles.

Thus, for example, when the zygomatic and cheek muscles weaken and sag, shaved, better known as “bulldog cheeks.”

The problem, as a rule, is aggravated by the fact that in places where the muscles are weakened, blood circulation and nutrition of the skin, as well as its cleansing, are disrupted. As a result, stagnation occurs in this area, and they, in turn, lead to the formation of excess fat deposits, which further tighten the skin and make the face even more plump.

How to get rid of sweetness and sagging on the face?

Well, here, I hope, everything is already clear for you: we activate and tone weakened facial muscles with the help of facial gymnastics exercises, and also enhance lymphatic drainage with special self-massage techniques.

VI. KEY TAKEAWAY

To restore or maintain the natural youth and beauty of the face, it is necessary to train the facial muscles. In this case, it is necessary to comply balance: on the one hand, give the muscles dosed loadto keep them in good shape, and on the other hand - relax And pull out them, preventing the formation of muscle tension.

VII. OTHER CAUSES OF FACIAL AGING

The problems with the facial muscles described above are the direct causes of facial aging. But there are a number of factors that worsen the condition of the face as a whole. Here are the main ones:

1. Poor posture, problems with the spine (stooping, overstrain of the cervical spine, shoulder trunk, spinal diseases). Any problems with the spine, especially in the cervical region, lead to pinching of blood vessels and deterioration of the nutrition of the facial skin, deepening of wrinkles on the neck, formation of a double chin, deepening of the nasolabial lips, jowls, sagging of the oval, swelling on the face. In addition, any curvature of the spine causes uneven distribution of the load on almost all muscles of the body, including the facial muscles. And this can cause muscle spasms and asymmetry.
2. Stress, overwork. If a person constantly experiences a lot of stress, lacks sleep and is overtired, this increases fatigue, and therefore overstrain of the facial muscles and aging of the entire face.
3. Chronic habits (wrinkle forehead, frown, squint eyes, clench teeth...). Everything is simple here: in the corresponding areas, the facial muscles are even more overstrained, with all the ensuing consequences.
4. Psychological factors (restraint of emotions, depression, frequent bad mood, dissatisfaction with oneself, and so on). There is a common misconception that supposedly too active facial expressions lead to the formation of wrinkles. In fact, it’s just the opposite: exactly suppression of emotionsincreases overstrain of the facial muscles. So smile and laugh to your health!
5. Aggressive illiterate skin care (selection of cosmetics that are unsuitable for the characteristics of the skin, abuse of products with surfactants, alcohol, soap; frequent peelings, and so on). All this leads to a violation of the integrity of the skin (for example, it washes away the outer hydrolipid layer) and its imbalance (dryness, oiliness, sensitivity), skin diseases, loss of elasticity, and deepening of wrinkles.
6. Unhealthy food (abuse of fatty, fried, salty, sweet foods, flour, dairy; insufficient consumption of fresh vegetables, herbs, berries, fruits, etc.). This clogs the body, leads to intestinal dysfunction, disruption of the lymphatic, hormonal systems, other internal organs and ultimately to skin diseases (dryness, oiliness, sensitivity, acne), swelling on the face, hernias under the eyes, “painting bags”, deepening of wrinkles and folds.
7. Insufficient or illiterate consumption of clean drinking waterleads to the fact that the skin does not receive sufficient hydration from the inside. As a result, dry skin, swelling occurs, and all aging processes are accelerated.
8. Lack of sleep patterns, often sleeping on the side, face into the pillow. This leads to poor posture, deepening of wrinkles, folds, sagging, swelling (especially under the eyes); hormonal imbalance (the production of the hormone melatonin is disrupted) and skin aging.
9. Sedentary lifestyle is the cause of a slowdown in metabolism, as a result the functioning of internal organs is disrupted, the body as a whole and the face in particular age faster.
10. Frequent work at the computer, eye strain from reading leads to deepening of wrinkles in the eyes, eyebrows, forehead, sagging eyelids and other changes in the face as a whole.
11. Problems with internal organs (gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary system, endocrine system; lymphatic system, etc.) lead to skin aging, skin diseases, facial swelling, sagging, deepening folds on the face.
12. Habit of sleeping on one side, chewing on one side leads to asymmetry in different areas of the face.
13. Injections and some cosmetic procedures (for example, chemical peeling, mesoscooter, ultrasound, etc.), tattooinglead to a violation of the integrity of the skin, disruption of the inner layers of the skin, changes in the functioning of the facial muscles, swelling, sagging, deepening of wrinkles and folds.
14. Age-related changes can also be aggravated by skull injuries, respiratory problems, malocclusion, dental problems, smoking, alcohol consumption, excess fat deposits, sudden weight loss, illiterate performance of certain massage techniques (for example, Asahi massage), and illiterate exercise. gymnastics for the face (for example, abuse of strength exercises).

VIII. SO MUCH! WHERE TO BEGIN?

Here are some useful links:

1. If you want to know what results can be achieved without Botox by performing only environmentally friendly exercises for facial rejuvenation, click on this link.
2. If you want to find a lot of high-quality and free materials on natural facial rejuvenation, take a look here.

And, of course, don’t forget to like and share this article with your family and friends!