Aging is the enemy and we try to fight it in every way we can, right? Make sure you are aware of all of these culprits and do your best to avoid them or do what you can to keep them at a minimum in your life!

• Sun: This one won’t surprise you! If you have spent your days basking in the sun, you are more likely to age prematurely.  Especially if you are one who burns or tans easily.  The sun’s effects are cumulative and you’ll be noticing things like age spots, broken blood vessels, sagging and precancerous lesions.  Sunscreen will protect you for much of the damage but wearing SPF does not mean you can bake in the sun without consequences.  Getting any kind of tan, by definition, is damage to your skin.
• Sugar: There is nothing sweet about how sugar affects your complexion.  When you ingest sugar, collagen and elastin can be destroyed by the way that sugar in your bloodstream attaches to proteins and breaks down.  This prevents your skin from staying strong and supple and you will notice sagging and wrinkles as a result. Do your best to choose whole grains instead or add protein to the meal to keep your sugar levels from soaring and doing more damage.
• Stress: When you are under stress, the cell renewal process suffers, your skin becomes more dehydrated and your lines and wrinkles are magnified. Stress also gives people a tendency to smoke more, drink more and sleep less. All bad things for your face. If you are stuck in a stressful season of your life, at least do your best to find a way to get some relaxation and de-stressing exercise in.
• Lack of Sleep: Your facial muscles relax and rejuvenation of the skin layers happens when you catch your ZZZs so if you cut yourself short on beauty rest, it will show! Sleeping in the same position every night is not recommended, either.  This can create permanent creases in your skin over time.  Sleep on your back to keep these away!
• Alcohol and Nicotine: This one ties into sleep, too.  Despite what you may have heard, drinking alcohol does not lead to a better night’s sleep. It can do the opposite. Drinking on a regular basis dehydrates your skin and can negatively impact the absorption of nutrients to keep your skin supple. 20% of women in the US still smoke.  Smoking  causes skin damage and keep the skin from getting the oxygen it needs. If that isn’t reason enough to quit, smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer, accelerates aging and also slows down healing.