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What is collagen?

What happens to it as we age?

Are there side effects?

How much do treatments cost?

What is elastin?

Why is my skin sagging?

Why has my skin recently aged so much?

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Why has my skin recently aged so much?


	Sun Damage accumulates over time
	Skin damage builds up and causes skin to look exponentially more aged
	Free radicals caused by sun exposure injure skin composition

Sun Damages Skin Building Blocks

The simplest answer is the sun. The accumulated damage your skin has received over years and years of unprotected sun exposure is catching up with you. The sun's rays damage the vital building-blocks of our skin, collagen and elastin, degrading them and resulting in aged-looking, wrinkled skin.

Whenever we go out into the sun we get inflammation from sun exposure, and we aren't just damaging our skin while we're in the sun. The sun is the gift that keeps giving. You can get inflammation from a bad sun exposure that can last up to a month, damaging your skin all the while. The culprits are the free radicals that get created in our skin from the sun and cause damage to our skin.

'Our Shields are Down'

Our body has natural defenses against these free radicals. For example, our bodies produce something called SODs which is our body's way of protecting us from free radical damage from the sun. There are also other systems which do this. However the reality is as we stay in the sun longer and longer we damage our body's way of defending itself. By the age of 30 or 35, our defensive shields are down. People come into my office and say to me "over the last five years I've just noticed so much damage." It's because our shields are now down. The sun is no longer damaging our defenses, its directly damaging our skin.

To learn how to treat aging skin, visit: Laser Treatment, Injectables Comparison, Choosing Your Doctor

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Last Modified: September 10, 2007

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The information contained in the above article is purely for educational purposes and is not intended to provide any medical advice. Always consult with your physician before having any medical procedure performed.