If you’re anything like most baby boomers, after graying hair, poor
eyesight, weight gain and winkles, age spots rank fifth on your list of
aging nuisances. But you can find comfort in erasing those age
advertisers right from your own kitchen.
What Causes Age Spots
To
protect your skin against excessive sun exposure, your skin makes cells
called melanocytes. Melanocytes create the dark brown pigment called
melanin. The melanin makes your skin look darker or suntanned.
But
sometimes, your typical day in the sun causes an uneven jump in
melanocytes. This awkward production creates irregular coloring or
pigmentation of the skin.
The resulting solar lentigines, or what
most people call liver spots or age spots, can appear brown, black or
gray. Age spots pop up on the areas of the skin most readily exposed to
the sun, like the chest, back, face and hands.
Even youngsters can get age spots with too much unprotected sun exposure.
How to Avoid Age Spots Completely
Preventing age spots proves the best way to completely avoid them. This includes:
1. Avoiding intense sunlight hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
2. Wearing a hat and long sleeve shirt in the sun.
3. Applying sunscreen 20 minutes before going outdoors and reapplying it every two hours.
Precautions
Additionally, note that the sun and excess chemicals don’t mix. For instance,
most often in middle-aged women, might mistake irregular areas of reddish-brown pigmentation called poikiloderma for age spots.
Poikiloderma
results from chronic sun exposure combined with sun-sensitive chemicals
in cosmetics or perfume. Hence, poikiloderma most frequently appears on
the side of the neck or on the cheeks.
Sunscreen Is More Potent Than You Thought
You
may feel annoyed with the repeated advise of slathering yourself with
sunscreen, but a study published in the October 14, 1993 edition of the
New England Journal of Medicine gives you reason to appreciate your sunscreen an effective age spot eraser.
In
the study, researchers found that among sunscreen users, those who
rubbed on the most cream with the greatest regularity had the largest
reduction in actinic keratoses.
Actinic keratoses (AKs) describe
the rough, red, scaly patches, crusts or sores that measure anywhere
from one-quarter to one-inch in diameter. Like most other age spots,
you’ll find actinic keratoses on body areas most readily exposed to the
sun.
How To Minimize the Appearance of Age Spots
Eat your age spots away
Research studies also reveal the benefits of eating your nutrients to
reduce the appearance of age spots. The water-soluble pigment found in
most vegetables, fruits, grain, flowers, seeds, leaves and bark, called
flavanoid provides numerous antioxidant properties.
In research studies, flavanoids even prevented cancer formation in animals.
Likewise,
you’ll find age spot reducing properties in soy products. The protein
extracts of soybean and soymilk contain several different estrogen-like
substances called isoflavones. One study showed that soy isoflavones
might lighten age spots.
Home Remedies
Erasing your
age spots can begin right in your own kitchen. In Japan, the rice based
drink, sake, serves as an age spot lightener when applied to the skin.
You
can also use lemon juice to lighten age spots. Simply dab a cotton ball
in freshly squeezed lemon juice and apply the liquid to the age spots
twice daily- once in the morning and once in the evening. Warning:
Lemon juice makes the skin photosensitive so ensure to protect your
skin with sunscreen before enjoying the sunshine.
Pull a green
papaya out of the fridge and use the fleshy side of the skin to reduce
age spots. Just apply the papaya to the spots for 15-20 minutes daily
and repeat until you attain the desire lightness.
Of course,
since home remedies offer an inexpensive and gentle way to reduce age
spots, they require time to see results- usually six to eight weeks.
What To Do Right Now To Stop Age Spots
Because
age spots, poikiloderma and actinic keratoses can serve as warning
signs for skin cancer, the American Academy of Dermatology recommends
scheduling a professional skin examination each year.
You can
find out how to give yourself a skin examination by visting
http://www.skincarephysicians.com. Use this information now before your
forget, because before you know it, the sixth aging nuisance for baby
boomers- memory loss-will creep in on you.
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