Does Dry Skin Cause Premature Aging?

Dry skin can occur year round, but tends to be worse during fall and winter. With dry skin, you can experience irritation, inflammation, itchiness, sensitivity, a feeling of tight skin, rough skin, skin flaking, severe redness, cracks that can sometimes bleed, and yes...even premature aging.

Dry skin can be genetic or a result of an increasingly stressful lifestyle mixed with continuous exposure to the sun, wind, and different toxins in the environment. It can also be caused by using the wrong skincare products for your skin type and/or overuse of skincare products (i.e. excessive washing or over scrubbing your skin).

Dry skin lacks oil. How much oil your skin produces mostly depends on genetics, but can also be affected by your diet, seasonal changes, and weather conditions. This means that if you have dry skin, you’re likely to have dry skin for a long time, unless you make some changes to your diet and how you take care of your skin. Skin gets drier as you age too.

What we can’t see has a major impact on the way our skin looks and feels. “Dry skin is the top skincare complaint among women of all ages,” says dermatologist Dr. Kathy Fields. Dryness goes much deeper than a few flaky patches or tightness. When your skin doesn’t have enough moisture, research shows it gets scaly, rough, dull, and can look like the skin of someone far older. That means whether you’re in your 20s, 30s, or 40s, you may want to start making sure your skin is properly hydrated now, long before your 50s, 60s, and beyond.

What Causes Dryness?

So what really goes on when you have dry skin? Everyday lifestyle, environmental, and seasonal factors can do a number on your skin: prolonged sun exposure, wind, harsh heaters in winter time, and foaming cleansers that strip away skin’s protective oil layer can leave the epidermis parched and fragile. Poor lifestyle habits like smoking, drinking too much alcohol, fat-free diets that deprive your body of skin-friendly nutrients, and taking certain medications can make it even worse. Also, skin’s ability to regenerate lipids comprising the protective lipid barrier layer of the stratum corneum declines with age, as does blood flow to the skin, which may cause a drop in oil production and skin dryness.

“When you have all that dry skin, moisture leaks out and the environment can come in,” says dermatologist Dr. Katie Rodan. “Your skin gets these little fissures or tears and it gets chapped and cracked. Pollution, hot air, cold air, bacteria, pollen can get in and touch the vital live skin and that’s when you get redness and irritation.” Plus, dry skin is more prone to showing fine lines and prevents skincare products from working as well as they could.

Research backs this up. According to DermRF.com, The University of Kiel in Germany conducted a study and found that dry skin, even in young people, acts like older skin. This 1997 study measured classic signs of dryness including scaliness, loss of smoothness, and loss of elasticity in test subjects age 20 to 35 versus a group over age 60. They found that dry skin was equally scaly in young and older test subjects. And young people with dry skin had rougher skin than older subjects with dry skin. But the good news is that both younger and older skin felt equally smooth once it was properly hydrated.

Hydration vs. Moisturization

If you already use a moisturizer, do you also need to use a hydration serum? The answer is yes. But, why? It’s because hydration and moisturization address skin dryness differently. While moisturizers work to form a barrier on top of the skin to prevent moisture loss, hydration actually ADDS water to the skin. All skin types need hydration, just like all skin types need moisturization. Hydration helps nourish skin from within, and a moisturizer helps seal in what is already there. Hydration helps to balance dry AND oily skin, reduce fine lines, add radiance, and provide visible firmness.

Exfoliation is another important part of combating dry skin. Cleansing away dry, dead skin cells makes it easier for skincare products to be most effective. Then follow up with an anti-aging hydration serum followed by a moisturizer. Moisture and hydration skincare products may seem synonymous, but these products do different things.

So, moisturizers stop water loss while hydration products bring water to the skin. If you want to show off a healthy glow at any age, make sure you give your skin the right combination of exfoliation, moisture, and hydration.

Looking for effective skincare products customized for your skin type and conditions? Learn more about what multi-med therapy and Active Hydration Serum can do for your skin!

Source:

https://www.dermrf.com/2017/05/dry-skin-looks-acts-like-older-skin-and-that-isnt-good/