How to Prevent Wrinkles

In this article, we’ll look at three ways to deal with wrinkles. The first method, the superficial method, focuses on hiding wrinkles temporarily. The second method focuses on preventing skin damage from external factors. Finally, we’ll explore how to address the main cause of wrinkles, which is aging itself.

In a previous blog post, we discussed some reasons why we get wrinkles. Of course, an important question is: what can we do to slow down skin wrinkling?

There are three ways to address wrinkles:

1. The Superficial Method

This entails treatments that mainly want to camouflage or reduce the appearance of wrinkles. This can be done via: 

• Skincare: Adequate skincare products could influence skin biology and stem cell dynamics. We cover this topic extensively in this article.
  
• Fillers: Injections with hyaluronic acid, fat or collagen.
  
• Micro needling: Puncturing small holes in the skin, so that the skin repairs itself more which could also improve wrinkles. Micro needling is believed to mimic an acute wound healing event, eventually leading to collagen synthesis, but the drawback is that precise collagen deposition (crosslinking) is hard to influence. There is a possibility that micro needling could negatively impact stem cells in the skin because they have to work more to repair the damaged skin every time, and because some stem cells may be damaged in the process (R).
  
• Dermabrasion: Scraping of the skin, so that the skin repairs itself more which could reduce wrinkles. As with micro needling, dermabrasion could potentially impact the stem cells in the skin.
  
• Botox injections: Botox is a substance that prevents the nerves from activating the muscles in your face. You move less facial muscles, so you get less wrinkles. 
  
• Laser therapy: Laser light to stimulate skin cells.
  
• Chemical peels: Chemical peels gently coax skin stem cells to produce healthier cells, but this may take more time.
  
• Facelifts, including micro-face lifts. 
  
• Injections with regenerating substances like platelet-rich plasma (PRP) or stem cells.  

2. Preventing Extrinsic Skin Damage

This method involves trying to reduce as much as possible extrinsic damage to the skin. This involves things like:

• Protecting the skin against too much sun exposure: Apply sunscreen daily (at least SPF 30), wear protective clothing like hats and UPF clothing
  
• Not smoking.
  
• Not drinking too much alcohol.
  
• Eating a healthy diet. Incorporate vegetables, fruits, nuts, fatty fish, legumes, mushrooms in your diet and avoid unhealthy fats and too much sugars and carbs. To learn more about a healthy longevity diet, click here.
  
• Hydrating the skin: drink a lot of water and use hydrating skin creams twice daily. You can also drink green tea or white tea, and fruit juices, which all have shown to improve skin health. 
  
• Reducing stress. Stress causes accelerated aging of the skin and can even accelerate hair greying, scientists found out why. We listed the best ways to reduce stress and improve happiness here.
  
• Getting enough sleep. We compiled the best tips to sleep here.
  
• Taking specific supplements that help the skin to maintain itself: copper, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin A, B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids are all important ingredients the skin needs to prosper. We listed the best supplements to take here.
  
• Taking supplements and foods that reduce inflammation. When we get older, our body becomes more and more inflamed (this is called “inflammaging”). This inflammation also damages the skin. Herbs like ginger, turmeric, oregano, cinnamon, garlic, and thyme reduce inflammation. So do omega-3 fatty acids (whether from supplements or foods like fatty fish, walnuts, chia seeds or flaxseeds), pterostilbene, fisetin, olive oil and green tea and white tea. 
  
• Avoiding repetitive facial movements. If you always frown your forehead, or squint your eyes, or raise your eyebrows you will get more wrinkles in these areas. Become aware of these automatic muscle contractions and try not to do them. Try to relax your face more. 
  
• Exercising more. Exercise improves blood circulation to your skin, and improves the immune system, and releases all kinds of substances that repair the body.  
  
• Prevent cleaning your skin too much and too harsh: soaps, specific oils, and other detergents can actually dry out or always remove the thin oily layer that is naturally present on your skin.

3. Addressing The Root Cause of Wrinkles: Aging

The third method is perhaps the most important one. It goes to the root causes of why we get wrinkles: aging (learn more about why we get wrinkles here). So we are speaking about interventions that slow down the aging process itself. However, it’s not easy to slow down aging, let alone reverse it.

One approach is to take specific supplements that have scientifically proven to slow down aging and that can also reduce wrinkles. These are supplements like: 

• Alpha-ketoglutarate
• Glucosamine
• Glycine
• Oral hyaluronic acid containing acetyl-glucosamine

Click here to learn more about how these supplements can reduce wrinkles. 

Learn more about the anti-aging supplement NOVOS Core