How Does The Skin Age - Skin Aging Process - Why Do We Get Wrinkles

In this video we discuss how the skin ages, the skin aging process, why do we get wrinkles and how the tissue of the skin wears down over time.

Transcript/notes
How does skin age

If you look around at people in a public place, you may be able to, within reason, estimate their age. If I put Rodney on the screen here, he looks young and vibrant. Now lets look at a more mature picture of Rodney. Quite a difference. Mature Rodney has some wrinkles and much less hair.

So, why does this happen, or a better question is how does this happen? Well, it happens because our skin goes through an aging process. When Rodney was young, in his 20’s, it may take his skin 2 weeks to heal from some sort of damage, but mature Rodney, his skin takes twice that time to heal form the same sort of trauma.

This is because as we age, or as our skin ages, there is a reduction in the number and activity of stem cells in our skin. To be extremely brief, adult stem cells are found in various tissues and can divide to produce more of the same type of stem cells. Over time, as these cells decrease, our skin becomes thinner, which decreases its protection against damage or trauma, and recovery time takes longer.

Collagen fibers located in the dermal 2nd deeper layer of our skin decrease in number and elastic fibers, also located in the dermal skin layer, lose their elasticity, so they don’t bounce back, so to speak from a stretched state to a normal state.

Years of facial expression also affect skin aging. Squinting and smiling create crease lines in our skin forming wrinkles making the skin less resilient. There is also a decrease in dendritic cells in the skin, decreasing the immune responsiveness of skin.

And overexposure to the sun can accelerate skin ageing, as harmful uv rays can damage the DNA in epidermal cells or collagen fibers in the dermal skin layer increasing wrinkles and sags in the skin.