July Focus: Aging

Aging is inevitable; but it’s not all doom and gloom. If you’re looking at your parents and (in terms of their skin) thinking “it’s a no from me” - you absolutely CAN age well. It takes commitment, but caring for your skin isn’t a luxury; it’s a health care necessity. Your skin has to endure throughout your lifespan, and it’s pretty important- especially if you like and want to keep your “insides” where they are!

Aging as a skin concern is multi-faceted. Understanding the factors that contribute to an aged appearance is essential to helping address the issues we may see in the mirror.

The primary concerns tend to be related to skin laxity, volume loss, lines/ wrinkles and unwanted pigmentation. Unwanted facial hair is also a prominent concern, but that’s an entirely different blog post!

Looking at aging from a bioscience perspective, many of these concerns have interrelated pathophysiology. Let’s look at some causes/ factors:

Volume Loss/ Skin Laxity:

• often occurs due to weight loss or trauma.

• Also occurs with age, due to the depletion or movement of facial fat pads/ muscular atrophy in the face.

  Treatments that build collagen, such as skin needling, help to address this by stimulating collagen and elastin synthesis to re-volumise the space. This is a slow process. Immediate, short-term, visible results can be attained with a visit to a good aesthetics Nurse (if this is your jam, I know some people you should meet!).

Lines and Wrinkles:

Remember those UVA/ “Aging Rays” I mentioned back in February in our SPF Blog? This is where Sunscreen becomes the most underrated anti-aging product on the market. The genetic hallmarks of aging include:

• shortening of the telomeres (found at the end of your chromosomes and kind of like the plastic bit on the end of your shoelaces- they are necessary for cell division and protection of your genetic information),

• genomic instability/ epigenetic modification of DNA,

• altered cellular communication,

• dysfunction in ATP production in the mitochondria and detecting nutrients,

• stem cell exhaustion, cellular senescence, and;

• loss of proteostasis (homeostatic control over protein building and turnover).

  SPF specifically protects against the skin mounting an inflammatory response to the UV radiation, which reduces the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) - a type of free radical- attacking and damaging the proteins in the skin structure responsible for support and structure- collagen and elastin.

  Who’s ready to “slip, slop, slap” now?!

  Unwanted Pigmentation:

I want you to visualise an apple that’s been cut in half and left on the bench for an hour. When you come back to it, it’s turned brown and kinda gross, right?

This process is called oxidation and it’s happening to you right now if you’re unprepared and unprotected. If you’re protecting yourself from the elements with an antioxidant serum (eg Mesoestetic AOX Ferulic), you are preventing unwanted pigmentation by:

• The Antioxidant component neutralising the free radical assault that leads to DNA damage that often initiates melanogenesis (“making pigment”) as a trauma response, and

• Vitamin C/ Ascorbic Acid is known to have tyrosinase-inhibiting effects of the skin, which suppresses the body’s inflammatory response in terms of melanogenesis.

Treatment- wise, we can look at fighting the signs of aging with a combination of peels (to remove surface level indications like sun damage, textural abnormalities and dull skin) and skin needling (to restructure the skin from the Dermis) to start treating the deeper issues surrounding loss of volume, laxity and structural integrity.

The Age Element facials are launching soon for those who want a bit more luxury with their age-targeting treatments, as it’s a combination of synergistic compounds to aid in brightening, redensifying and strengthening the skin. The ingredients we need to look at for your homecare will include some gentle AHAs to encourage desquamation, Vitamin A to normalise cell function and repair DNA Damage, Antioxidants to protect against free radical damage and brighten and hydrating humectants to reduce hydration loss.

You’re never too early to start the discussion. When you’re ready to chat, I’m listening.

Katie J xx