As you age, so does your skin. It becomes drier, thinner, and the amount of protein (collagen) that it produced reduces. All these factors can make your skin prone to developing the signs of aging such as wrinkles and fine lines. There’s no doubt that all of us would like to delay the aging process and keep these signs at bay. So, here are a few tips to prevent or even delay the development of fine lines and wrinkles.

Quit Smoking
Smoking not only affects your lungs but also your skin. The tobacco in cigarettes damages elastin and collagen. This makes the skin lose its elasticity. In addition, nicotine constricts blood vessels and reduces blood flow and oxygen to the skin’s capillaries. Thus, if you want to delay the development of wrinkles and fine lines, quit smoking.

Protect Yourself from the Sun
Exposing your skin to direct sunlight damages the cells and accelerates the development of fine lines and wrinkles. To protect your skin from damage, wear a wide-brimmed hat when stepping outdoors and always wear sunscreen. One of the key tips to prevent fine lines and wrinkles is to use a sunscreen with an SPF between 30 and 50. You can wear sunscreen even when it is cloudy.

Keep Your Skin Moisturized
Keeping your skin moisturized is ideal. As your skin dries with age, moisturizing it becomes even more important. Regularly moisturizing your skin also keeps wrinkles from becoming deeper. One of the important tips to prevent fine lines and wrinkles is finding a daily-use moisturizer for your skin type. For example, if you have dry skin, use a cream-based moisturizer.

Drink Plenty of Water
Along with moisturizing the skin, you need to hydrate your body from within. You should ideally drink at least eight glasses of water each day. This is in addition to caffeinated drinks, teas, and juices that you may be consuming during the day. Water helps keep your body cool, flushes out toxins, improves blood circulation, and keeps your skin supple.

Pay Attention to Your Diet
Your diet influences your skin to a great extent. To keep your skin looking younger, avoid eating processed foods, foods with high sodium content and red meat. You should include plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits in your diet. Also, include foods with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties to your diet. This includes foods such as green tea, pomegranate, avocado, berries, apples and oily fish.

There are numerous other tips to prevent fine lines and wrinkles that you could follow as well. It’s important to manage stress through one of many known ways. Yoga and meditation have proved to be very helpful in stress management as well as keeping your skin young. But fine lines and wrinkles are a normal part of the aging process, so one must accept that this cannot be postponed forever.