Skin Ageing Anatagonists: Face the Facts by Dr Tess Mauricio

Here are five ways to ensure you continue to put your best face forward and delay skin ageing.

1. Avoid drinking through straws
I'm sure many of you drink dark sodas, tea and coffee through a straw to prevent staining your pearly whites or to avoid putting your mouth on a can or bottle, right? Do not sip from a straw! Over the long-term, pursing your lips to sip out of a straw causes extra wrinkles around the mouth.

2. Train yourself to sleep on your back
Resting your face on the pillow in the same way every night for years on end leads to wrinkles. Called sleep lines, these wrinkles eventually become etched on the surface of the skin and no longer disappear when the head is not resting on the pillow. Women, who tend to sleep on their sides, are most likely to see these lines appear on their chin and cheeks. Men tend to notice these lines on the forehead since they usually sleep face down on the pillow. People who sleep on their backs do not develop these wrinkles since their skin does not lie crumpled against the pillow.

3. Pull down the shade in an airplane
You're much closer to the sun in a plane than on land, so it stands to reason that solar rays, which can penetrate windows, are more intense at higher altitudes. This may explain why pilots and flight attendants have been found to be at an increased risk for melanoma and other skin cancers. Plus, the air up there is notoriously dry. Drink as much water as you can in flight; avoid alcohol and salty foods, which are dehydrating. Apply a rich moisturizer with SPF 15 or higher 30 minutes before boarding, as sunscreen needs time to be absorbed before it's effective. And if you're sitting next to a window, pull down the shade.

4. Beware beauty creams with toxic ingredients
Exposure to some beauty cream chemicals do more harm than good. You may be surprised to hear this, but many ingredients in beauty creams actually speed up the aging process.  Avoid buying any that contain parabens, mineral oil, paraffin, petrolatum, dimethicone, and other toxic ingredients.

5. Maintain a healthy weight
Packing on pounds can make your skin look plumper on the surface, but carrying excess weight can cause your body's levels of insulin (a hormone made by the pancreas that controls the amount of sugar in your blood) and cortisol to rise, which can break down collagen. You'll see increased sagging from putting and keeping on as little as ten to 15 extra pounds. Loss of facial fat causes sagging and a gaunt, aged appearance. In addition, repeatedly gaining and losing weight can take its toll on the skin's elasticity, leaving behind stretch marks and jowls.  Yo-yo dieting also causes premature aging. The repeated weight gain and loss stretches your skin and makes it loose and saggy. Maintain a healthy weight with proper diet and exercise. Aim to keep your weight in the normal range, with a body mass index between 18.5 and 24.9.

Dr Tess Mauricio, "America's Favorite Dermatologist", is an international field authority and a renowned educator and media personality worldwide. Dr Tess is the founder and owner/operator of multiple Cosmetic Dermatology centers throughout the Southern California region.