Aging, Nutrition, and Skincare Newsletter

Time doesn’t do that much to our skin. But the sun does; approximately 90% of the changes that occur with age result from the sun. Melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, is strongly associated with excessive sun exposure, especially when the skin has been sunburned. Theoretically, a single sunburn can be enough to lead to melanoma many years or decades later. The American Cancer Society estimates that 90% of all skin cancers are caused by exposure to the sun.

Skin ages in two ways: intrinsically, which is controlled by our genes, and extrinsically, which covers all our bad and good habits and the effects of the environment. With sun damage, there’s irregular pigmentation and big dark patches as well as freckling. With intrinsic aging, wrinkling is just fine lines. With sun damage, it can be thick, coarse wrinkling like the farmers who have those crosshatched lines on the back of their neck.