By Mayo Clinic staff
Don't have time for intensive skin care? Pamper yourself with the
basics. Good skin care and healthy lifestyle choices can help delay the
natural aging process and prevent various skin problems. Get started
with these five no-nonsense tips.
1. Protect yourself from the sun
One of the most important ways to take care of your skin is to protect
it from the sun. A lifetime of sun exposure can cause wrinkles, age
spots and other skin problems — as well as increase the risk of skin
cancer.
For the most complete sun protection:
- Use sunscreen. Use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15. When you're outdoors, reapply sunscreen every two hours — or more often if you're swimming or perspiring.
- Seek shade. Avoid the sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when the sun's rays are strongest.
- Wear protective clothing. Cover your skin with tightly woven long-sleeved shirts, long pants and wide-brimmed hats. Also consider laundry additives, which give clothing an additional layer of ultraviolet protection for a certain number of washings, or special sun-protective clothing — which is specifically designed to block ultraviolet rays.
2. Don't smoke
Smoking makes your skin look older and contributes to wrinkles. Smoking
narrows the tiny blood vessels in the outermost layers of skin, which
decreases blood flow. This depletes the skin of oxygen and nutrients
that are important to skin health. Smoking also damages collagen and
elastin — the fibers that give your skin its strength and elasticity. In
addition, the repetitive facial expressions you make when smoking —
such as pursing your lips when inhaling and squinting your eyes to keep
out smoke — can contribute to wrinkles.
If you smoke, the best way to protect your skin is to quit. Ask your doctor for tips or treatments to help you stop smoking.
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