Make It Tight: Improve Your Skin Elasticity
When we think of youthful, healthy skin, we picture skin that’s tone and taut. It’s held tight against the bones, accentuating the bone structure and creating a smooth fullness over the cheeks. The elasticity of skin allows it to perfectly contour the face.
Over time, the elasticity of your skin changes. Lifestyle factors, the environment, and the way your body works can change your skin elasticity. This leads to laxity in the skin commonly associated with aging.
What Is Skin Elasticity?
Pinch the skin on your arm and let it go. It won’t say pinched. It will snap back to where it was before, whether it was taut or lax.
This response occurs when elastin fibers in the skin respond. Elastin is a protein in your skin that functions similarly to elastic. It keeps your skin appropriately sized and shaped for its location and helps it return to its ideal shape after something happens to distort it.
Why Does Skin Lose Elasticity?
Consider your favorite pair of socks -- they have a band of elastic that holds them in place.
Over time, they may start to slide down into your shoes. Wear and tear on the elastic band over time ultimately makes your socks useless. The difference between the elastin in your skin and the elastic in your socks is that your skin is capable of healing and producing more of what it needs to maintain its elasticity.
The way you treat your skin, the lifestyle choices you make, and the things you eat can mitigate damage to your elastin. Some signs of aging are inevitable, while others can be carefully managed.
Time and Gravity
Gravity plays a role in the aging process. The same force that’s holding your body to your chair is also subtly pulling on your skin. After decades of this subtle pull, the skin may show signs of loss of elasticity.
There’s nothing you can do to avoid time and gravity, although carefully managing other risk factors can significantly minimize the impact time and gravity will have on your appearance.
Collagen Production Slows as We Age
Our bodies are geared to do different things at different times in our lives. Babies and toddlers have specific nutrition needs to help them rapidly grow.
The teenage body increases hormone production as it begins to mature. When the human body moves from its twenties into its thirties, its primary focus becomes maintaining its health.
Collagen production slows as the body ages. The body is no longer growing, so producing an excessive amount of collagen isn’t the best appropriation of the body’s resources.
Collagen and elastin are the two materials that provide structural support to the skin. A reduced amount of collagen can change the skin’s ideal balance, leading to the appearance of laxity.
Environmental Factors and Sun Damage
The sun and environmental pollutants can damage the skin. Free radicals from air pollution land on the skin’s surface, robbing electrons away from healthy cells and causing them to die. The sun’s UV rays kill healthy cells simply through exposure.
When your skin is damaged, it needs to work very hard to repair itself. This will take a toll on your collagen and elastin, as well as the general appearance of your skin.
Gaining and Losing Weight
When you gain weight (or become pregnant), you progressively stretch your elastin fibers. If they remain stretched for too long, they may not return to their former size if you were to lose weight.
In extreme cases, elastin may never rebound. This is why so many people who experience significant weight loss have loose skin.
Lifestyle Factors
Lifestyle factors like chronic dehydration, eating an unbalanced diet, living a sedentary lifestyle, and using tobacco or alcohol can negatively impact your overall health. Your skin will show visible signs of damage, including loss of elasticity if your choices aren’t balanced.
Can Skin Elasticity Be Restored?
Your choices, factors in your environment, and your body’s natural processes will ultimately dictate your skin’s elasticity. There is no way to assure complete repair or regeneration of elastin fibers in the skin, but making mindful choices can encourage your body to respond favorably.
Even though some aspects of the situation are out of your direct control, there are a few things you can do to improve the health of your skin and promote the appearance of youthful, firmer skin.
Improving Skin Elasticity
Attempting to reverse the signs of lax skin without making an effort to prevent them is a lot like mopping the floor with muddy boots on. You need both preventative maintenance and adequate skincare to notice a meaningful difference.
Changing Diet and Lifestyle
If you use tobacco, you’re undoubtedly aware that it’s damaging to your overall health. It can also negatively impact your skin. Limiting alcohol consumption and upping your water intake will help to prevent the damaging effects of dehydration in your skin.
Eating a balanced diet that includes adequate amounts of protein and healthy fats can help your skin repair itself and naturally protect itself. Get more omega three fats and lean protein on your plate.
Be way of collagen supplements. Your body doesn’t use collagen supplements as collagen. It can’t distinguish them from other types of protein, and they don’t directly correlate to an improvement in the skin. A balanced diet will do even more for your skin than a collagen capsule.
Taking Better Care of Your Skin
Your diet can take care of your skin from the inside, but that’s only half the story. Your skin needs to be protected from the damaging rays of the sun and environmental stressors. It also needs to be deeply nourished.
Every day, you should be wearing SPF 30 on your skin. It doesn’t matter if you won’t be outside for long. Your car windshield isn’t enough to shield you from UV rays sufficiently. You also need to supply your skin with antioxidants to counteract oxidative stress from pollution floating in the air.
Nourishing and hydrating your skin with active botanicals can help to promote its natural healing processes and ideal balance, making it easier for your skin to restore its own elasticity.
Caldera + Lab Naturally Supports the Health of Your Skin
Caldera + Lab’s The Good serum contains over 3.4 million antioxidant units per drop. Every single ingredient in the bottle comes from a plant. Our serum hydrates the skin while helping to promote the appearance of smooth, toned, firm skin while reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
There is no miracle cure for skin elasticity, but The Good is proven to work. Our clinical trial demonstrated that 96% of participants experienced healthier-looking skin when they used The Good for 60 days.
Combining the good with mindful lifestyle changes and protecting your skin from the sun can promote meaningful changes in the health and appearance of your skin.
Sources:
Decreased Collagen Production in Chronologically Aged Skin | National Institutes of Health
Air pollution and the skin | Frontiers in Environmental Science