Why Facial Skin Sags And How It Can Be Prevented

Jul 10, 2018 by apost team

According to Harvard Health, as we age, our skin loses its suppleness due to the epigenetic alterations in our DNA. This causes a consistent loss of muscle mass; hence, sagging skin begins to occur. But, there are also other factors that contribute to sagging skin:

This is an emotion that is triggered by stress and anxiety, and it not only is felt on the interior of our body but it is also exhibited on the exterior in what is commonly known as “worry lines” that begin to show on our face over time. Eventually, if we use this facial expression long enough, it will result in sagging skin as well as pronounced skin crevices.

apost.com

Whether we realize it or not, holding a phone on the side of our face for extended periods of time for dozens of times per day results in pulling down the skin. This is actually referred to as “smartphone face” since the result is that one side of the face appears to be sagging more than another since a person typically holds their phone in their dominant hand on a regular basis. Try talking to friends mostly on speaker phone or sending more emails and social media posts via private messaging.

Running may work amazingly well to burn fat, but it wreaks havoc with your skin, especially your breasts and facial area. The impact of your feet on a hard pavement actually has the effect of stretching out the ligaments in your body and causing skin, over time, to sag.

If your teeth are incorrectly formed with an underbite, overbite, missing teeth, and wisdom teeth crowding the back of your mouth, and even ill-fitting dentures can affect the way your skin appears on your face.  You could appear to have sunken cheeks or strained muscles leading to pulled and sagging skin depending on what needs to be fixed.

One of the biggest contributing factors to aging and dry skin is a reduction in estrogen as well as progesterone that both contribute to the rejuvenation of skin cells as well as the manufacturing of collagen that gives suppleness to the skin. Consultation with a doctor for hormone therapy can alleviate this.

Having an erratic sleep schedule does nothing to promote a rejuvenation of skin cells. The recommended healthy night’s sleep is at least 6-8 hours of uninterrupted slumber. This can be coupled with a good night cream that promotes skin cell growth and keeps moisture in your skin where it belongs.

Opting to eat more sweets means a consumption of excess sugar that will show in sagging skin. This excess sugar is harder for the body to digest and the sugar molecules are stored and act as a barrier to the much-needed collagen for skin elasticity.

If you have been dieting strenuously and find yourself more than fifteen to twenty pounds lighter than you were the month before, then your skin will not be able to react as quickly to this sudden enormous weight loss and will look saggy.  When weight is lost slowly, the skin has time to adjust the excess skin. Doing facial exercises to strengthen muscles and help the skin to become tight again will help.

If you are planning for a big event and are on a fad diet that calls for a complete removal of most fats from your diet, then your skin may react by sagging at some point.  There are still “good” fats in our diet including foods rich in Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids that keep the skin supple, glowing, and help to rejuvenate the skin cells when we sleep at night.

Even going outside and thinking your facial skin is completely safe from harm if you wear a sun protector doesn’t mean that you are not killing some skin cells and causing an acceleration in aging your skin. Ultra-violet (UV) rays mostly penetrate the layer of our skin known as the dermis. This deepest layer is where most of our collagen is stored.  The UV rays will destroy most of this over time and lead to sagging skin.

There is a multitude of creams on the market today that have been specifically developed to combat sagging, aging skin.  The ingredients to look for are retinol and Vitamins E and C to promote the production of collagen in the skin. The most expensive is not necessarily the best, so ask around to friends and read reviews to find the ones that show the best results.

Consult with a professional make-up artist who can show you how to effectively “hide” your sagging skin with the illusion of makeup. Choosing the precise shade to suit your skin color and coordinating the correct color scheme and how to apply it will take years off your face.

Eating fewer desserts will not only help with sagging skin, but changing your diet regimen to one that is full of foods that promote skin cell growth, elasticity, and suppleness will deter the aging process dramatically.  This comes with foods that help to produce collagen such as seafood, leafy-green vegetables, and nuts.

This may sound like a medical procedure performed at a hospital or doctor’s office, but you can do this once a week or once every two weeks on your own.  Because the lymph nodes of the face need to stay elasticized in order to keep your skin firm, they need to be exercised to remain that way for as long as possible. Select a face peel that has some fruit acid component. Apply then remove this and then put several drops of a massage oil with Vitamin E in it to your fingertips. Apply this to your facial skin and neck region in a gentle, circular motion.

• “Mona Lisa” – This involves smiling with only your lips—your eye muscles must not move at all
• “Marble Mouth” – Fill your cheeks with air as if you are blowing up an inflatable raft. Hold the air in your cheeks and roll it back and forth between both sides of your mouth. 
• “Window Press” – this should look like you are pressing your lips against a closed window in order to create the imprint of a kiss; instead, you can use two or three or your fingers held together in place of the window. 
• “Fish Face” – This exercise imitates the way a fish’s gills look when they are moving in and out.  Simply suck in both sides of your cheeks into your teeth and hold it there. 

Each of these exercises should be done 5 times and on a daily basis.

Have you experienced sagging skin and found a method that works for you?  Tell us about it here. 

Your health is important to us here at Apost! Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation with your doctor.