With a multitude range of beauty products in market today, consumers are often seen cashing in on them for enhancing their skin and look beautiful. But can beauty be achieved only through them?
We receive loads of books about longevity with preposterous titles like Stop Aging, Start Living,
The New Anti-Aging Revolution: Stopping the Clock and The Science of Staying Young.
These books contain some practical advice. But at this stage of medical knowledge among most people, one has about as much chance of thwarting time as he or she does in personally preventing an ice storm, so that the New Year resolution can start right now by forgoing such books.
There is no way around the fact that every body skin included ages biologically over time, a process over which humans have forever grieved. It is the blight man was born for, the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote in 1880, anticipating the Botox era. Still, many skin experts recommend practical steps to maintain skin as it ages and to mitigate external factors like sun exposure and chronic stress that could accelerate changes.
These eight skin-care resolutions for 2008 are simple and inexpensive. Research in medical journals supports some of them. Others are based on the experience of skin doctors.
Discard old, used beauty products:
Because people may transfer bacteria from their fingers to pots of face cream, possibly leading to the growth of micro-organisms, some dermatologists recommend discarding products one year after opening them. Because micro-organisms may also grow in mascara tubes, creating the risk of eye infection, experts recommend replacing mascara three months after opening it. In United States, beauty products manufacturers are not obliged to print the expiry date. But European regulations require products whose minimum durability is less than 30 months to display an icon a graphic of a jar with an open lid indicating a products shelf life after it has been opened.
Stop smoking:What’s good for your lungs may also may have positive effects on your skin. Some dermatologists, for example, said that the nonsmokers among their patients generally had younger-looking skin than smokers, whose skin appeared to have aged prematurely. And sometimes smokers have sallower skin.
But the research into such observations is conflicting. One study published in England, based on interviews and physical examinations of elderly patients, suggested that smoking a pack a day over decades was associated with skin changes like wrinkles that added the equivalent of almost a decade of chronological aging to the face. But another study in Finland, in which researchers performed biopsies on the arm skin of volunteers, found no difference in skin elasticity between smokers and nonsmokers.
Several other studies have linked smoking to an increased risk of skin cancer. But doctors said it is not clear whether smoking per se may increase the risk of skin cancer or whether smokers tend to sunbathe more than nonsmokers.
Unhand those pimples!For those who can’t help squeezing their pimples, think again. People think they are squeezing something bad out, but they could actually be pushing bacteria deeper into their skin, creating an infection, said Dr Bradford R Katchen, a dermatologist in Manhattan. Subsequent inflammation could cause pigmentary changes, or worse. It could scar your face, Dr Katchen said.
More sleep, less stress:Psychological stress may impair the skins barrier function, which keeps bacteria out and water in.
Studies have shown that the skin of people under chronic stress caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients or medical students during exam time will heal more slowly, said Dr Ladan Mostaghimi, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Wear sunscreen:Clinical studies show that using sunscreen regularly can impede the development of squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. Less conclusive evidence suggests that sunscreen might also hamper basal cell carcinoma and melanoma, deadliest form of skin cancer. But dermatologists encourage patients to make sunscreen a habit for another purpose: vanity. Sunscreen use may inhibit sun-induced changes to skin’s texture.
If you look at your derrihre when you come out of the shower, its obvious that the texture is smoother and the coloration is more uniform than your face, which gets regular sun exposure, Dr Katchen said.
Look for sunscreens that contain zinc oxide, titanium dioxide or Mexoryl SX, ingredients that work against both the suns longerand shorter-length rays.
Simplify your beauty:Some dermatologists advise their patients to restrict skin-care regimens to no more than three or four products daily.
Dr Katchen’s prescription: a mild cleanser; a sunscreen or moisturizer containing sunscreen; a product that contains antioxidants like Vitamin C, Vitamin E, pomegranate, soy and green tea; and an anti-wrinkle product containing ingredients like retinoids, a form of Vitamin A, or protein fragments called peptides.
Wash your face:
Washing off minute dirt particles, along with makeup, every evening gives the skin a rest from exposure to possible irritants.
As a general hygiene principle, it’s good to wash your face at night, Dr Sundaram said. But if you apply a greasy night cream after that, it is just going to clog your pores.
Rethink products that cost more than $30:Consumers do not have a proven, objective method by which to determine whether more-expensive beauty products work better or whether they simply look fancier and emit more exotic perfume than less-expensive items containing similar ingredients.
Your chances of achieving good skin are not directly proportional to the amount of money you spend, Dr Sundaram said. All too often, what you are paying for is the packaging, the advertising and the celebrity endorsements.
For all the doctors’ advice and the follow-up, 2008 may be declared Year of the Drugstore.
Source:Timesofindia 
