Introduction
The aging process of your skin can be broken down into two main parts, intrinsic aging and extrinsic aging. Intrinsic aging revolves around what naturally happens inside your body as your skin ages, and the effects aging has on your tissues. Extrinsic aging deals with outside factors, such as exposure to sun radiation, that accelerate the aging process of your skin.
Collagen
The breakdown of collagen is one example of intrinsic aging. Collagen is an important protein that can be found in the connective tissues of your body, especially the skin. Collagen gives your skin structure and acts as a filler to keep the skin tight against your muscle tissues. Collagen breaks down on a regular basis, but is replaced with new collagen growth by the fibroblasts in your body. As you age, the production of collagen naturally slows, resulting in a loss of collagen in the skin tissue. You can see this in the formation of drooping skin and wrinkles.
Elastin
Another important protein in the skin is called elastin. Elastin provides your skin's ability to both stretch and return to its original shape when it's been stretched. Like collagen, the production of elastin slows down as you age. Without elastin your skin looses its flexibility, which can result in wrinkle formation.
Cell Turnover
Throughout your lifetime your body consistently turns over its skin cells, allowing it to slough dead skin cells and replace them with new, smoother cells. As you age, the process of cell turnover slows down. This leaves the skin looking old and rough.
Moisture
As all of the intrinsic aging factors combine, the skin itself becomes thinner. This is further influenced by the loss of fat layers beneath the skin. Thinner skin allows moisture to escape more quickly, and can result in dry, flaky skin. Moisture is needed for your skin to remain young-looking and healthy, as skin cells rely on water to operate correctly.
Extrinsic Factors
Extrinsic factors can accelerate the skin's aging process. For example, overexposure to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight or tanning booths can result in photoaging of the skin, which can be seen in premature age spots (liver spots), wrinkle formation, leathery skin and a mottled skin complexion, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Smoking can also negatively impact your skin, as harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke can constrict blood vessels, which limits the supply of oxygen and nutrients to skin cells.
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