Skin in the Game

Apparently, neglect is not a good approach to lifelong skin care.

Aside from bathing and applying lotion, I didn’t do much—and I was not prepared for my skin to simply fail in place.

This is a bigger problem for people like me with fair skin and those who live in dry, sunny climes, but we all have noticed—or experienced—how our skin barely protects us anymore.

Indeed, I began wearing as many adhesive bandages at sixty as I did when I was six (easily resisting the Hello Kitty ones. There is a bridge too far, at least for me. But I am thinking there could be a line of stylish bandages for the more mature set, perhaps a collection of tie-dye ones in a rainbow of colors.)

This state of affairs may be because we abandoned our skin first,exposing it to sun that breaks down skin’s elastin, the fibers that allow it to stretch and regain its shape to remain firm. The elastin fibers can heal, but after a while they lose their ability to repair our skin. (Remember how your mother warned you about getting too much sun? Yes, she was right.)

Even though my body isn’t getting any thinner, my skin is. Caused by loss of collagen, the most abundant protein in our bodies, our skin can start thinning as early as in our twenties, but the problem may only become apparent when it becomes transparent and fragile, often in our sixties.

Collagen maintains our skin’s structure and forms the connections between our muscles and bones; it diminishes as we age, which means that our skin becomes less elastic and wrinkles form. The natural fat in the deeper layers of our skin retreats with the collagen, leaving space under our skin that allows the skin to droop or sag where it used to be firm.

You can help keep up your collagen by eating lean and clean protein such as beans, lentils, organic tofu, and fish. Keeping your muscles moving helps too, because it pumps blood and lymph fluid, which supply our skin with oxygen and nutrients, carry away waste products, and support the skin’s immune cells.

One result of our skin’s deterioration is crepey skin, and crepey skin is creepy skin. That papery feeling and the accompanying waves of wrinkles seem to suddenly appear without warning.

Wrinkling can be genetic, but it isn’t helped by smoking, frequent exposure to ultraviolet rays, extreme weight changes, and diets that include a lot of processed foods.