Nobody wants to get wrinkly skin as they age. Unfortunately, we will all hit that age where we get them. But, you certainly don’t want to hasten the appearance of wrinkles.
How 12 Ways To Eliminate Wrinkles
Unfortunately, many common things that a lot of you do can help contribute to the earlier than usual onset of wrinkles. I wrote this article in hopes of helping you avoid habits and behaviors that lead to premature wrinkles.
Number 1: Unnecessary Weight Loss
You always want to look your best and obviously losing that gut is something you should strive for. But what happens when you are fit? Do you keep trying to drop more pounds? No! Especially if you want to avoid premature onset of wrinkling, you should definitely not strive to keep losing weight after you’ve reached your fitness goal. The skin loses its elasticity as we get older and when you lose weight, you amplify the effects of that which leads to more wrinkles sooner in life.
Number 2: Not Fighting Gravitational Forces
The forces of gravity actually cause your skin to wrinkle faster. Now you might be asking: How the heck can I defy gravity to avoid this wrinkling? Easy, do some headstands. Seriously, just taking a couple minutes out of your day doing headstands will cause blood to flow to your face – giving your face skin beneficial nutrients to keep it looking youthful. This exercise also delays the onset of gray hair, which is quite nice.
Number 3: Drinking out of a straw
If you use a straw to drink your beverages on a regular basis, you are hastening the onset of wrinkles. The puckering of your lips that you do to use the straw helps to make wrinkles on your lips when you do it constantly. When you compound that with kissing your spouse (if you have one), it can lead to a very early onset of lip wrinkles. Avoid the straws – just drink directly from the cup or mug.
Number 4: Not getting enough sleep
Look – I am pretty sure that this entry is on almost every list of behaviors you should stop doing. Not getting enough sleep leads to a TON of health problems and causing wrinkling of the skin is probably one of the least severe ones. Getting plenty of sleep (not too much, though) is a great way to stave off wrinkles and keep you physically and mentally healthy. The concept of a beauty sleep is not a myth…
Number 6: Not sleeping on your back
Back to sleep again. This time, it has to do with how you sleep. You may notice some weird indents on your face when you wake up if you are one of those people who sleep on their sides. I used to be one of those people because I couldn’t get comfortable without sleeping on my side.
But guess what: if sleeping on your side becomes something you do every day for a long period of time, those indents can become permanent. It may be hard (I know it was for me), but you have to kick the habit of sleeping on your side. Sleep on your back. If you really can’t kick the habit, invest in a pillowcase made of silk. This will lessen the impact that sleeping on your side has on your face.
Number 7: Consuming some alcohol before bed
I am a strong advocate of not drinking any alcohol at all (except for the occasional red wine). But, the absolute WORST time to consume alcohol is right before bed. Remember how I said the concept of a beauty sleep isn’t a myth? Well, if you drink an alcohol beverage before bed, you will be preventing yourself from getting that beauty sleep because alcohol dehydrates your body and relaxes your throat muscles.
Number 8: Consuming butter substitutes like margarine
Butter substitutes such as margarine claim to be better for you than butter, but no health expert worth their salt would agree with that. And margarine is one of the worst butter substitutes – especially if you are trying to avoid wrinkles.
Margarine is LOADED with nasty trans fats which dehydrates your skin and has been found to cause early wrinkling of the skin. Stick to real churned butter or use a very small amount of margarine when you need it.
Number 9: Stress and anxiety
Among the many health problems associated with stress and anxiety, causing wrinkles is (same as sleep deprivation) one of the least you should worry about. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to avoid stress at all costs to prevent getting wrinkles, though. If you don’t care about avoiding all of the other nasty problems that stem from excessive stress, then sure, let avoiding wrinkles be your motivation to fight stress off. I won’t stop you.
But yes, stressing too much too often leads to a huge collagen deficiency in your skin which quickly dims your skin’s youthful glow and leads to an early onset of wrinkles.
Number 10: Refusing to put oily products on your face
This doesn’t apply to those who are dealing with severe acne. But for those that have little to no acne, you should rub a little bit of some oil-based skin product on your face and neck right before you go to bed at night. It doesn’t really matter what kind of oil product you use – it should keep your skin soft and youthful and help you stave off wrinkles.
Number 11: Consuming a lot of sugar
As is the case with stress and not getting enough sleep, aging prematurely is a less severe health problems associated with overconsumption of sugar. But it is true that eating too many sweets will cause you to get wrinkles sooner. This isn’t some fear tactic – it is backed by hard scientific evidence. Lay off the sugar and your health will almost seem to instantly improve.
Number 12: Not getting your vision fixed
If you find that your eyesight is diminishing as you age, you should see your eye doctor ASAP and get whatever treatment is deemed appropriate, whether that be laser eye surgery, or the prescription of glasses or contacts. Actions like constantly squinting to see something better can lead to frown lines on your forehead and wrinkles at the outside corners of your eyes (known as crow’s feet).
Conclusion
There are many other behaviors you can avoid to help stave off wrinkles (such as making sure to apply adequate sunscreen when you go out, and ensuring that the SPF of said sunscreen isn’t too high), but I feel the ones listed are the most common and most important behaviors to cut from your daily routine.
