In these days of extended life, there has grown up a whole new industry dedicated to making women and now, increasingly men, look younger than they really are, anti aging is big business. In days gone by, people were happy just to make it to 60 or 70 and to hell with how they looked, in fact it was seen as a sort of 'badge of honour' that they had survived so long. They were venerated for their years and treated with great respect, which still happens in many different cultures around the world and they would not consider any form of anti aging as it would mean a drop in status. In the west however, youth rules and today it is seen as something terrible that a person is actually growing old.
Although make up has been around for hundreds of years, the modern youth culture really started with Hollywood film stars and then progressed when television became popular. Stars wanted to appear as young as their first big film role so that the public would always recognize them and. more importantly, they kept getting offers of work. From there, it filtered down into modern society resulting in todays' obsession with looking younger. An increase in the divorce rate, resulting in a lot more single women, has also played a part.
Skin, the largest of the bodys' organs, is the first to show signs of aging because it is bombarded by many different factors, all related to making it look old, even before its time. When it comes to premature aging, there are two main areas of concern., for the face it is sun, wind, smoking and general pollution which are the main causes, for hands, often overlooked, it is their contact with any number of different chemicals we use in everyday life that cause the damage by drying out its natural oils. Skin,despite its amazing ability to repair and replace itself, gradually slows down this process so that a young taut skin becomes wrinkled and creased. The loss of fat and muscle tone also contributes to the aging process. Skin is made up from three distinct layers, the epidermis (the outside), followed by the dermis, then the hypodermis which is the layer that attaches your skin to your body and in which your fatty deposits reside.
Today there are an incredible number of ways to try to stop you from looking old, from creams and unguents, right through to full cosmetic surgery where they will cut pieces off you or add bits to you.
There are many different things you can put on your skin, ranging from the natural, like mashed avocado right up to the very expensive that have had scientists creating who knows what, all saying that they stop the aging process, but may not be any better than the avocado. Another idea is called a chemical face peel where a quite harsh chemical is pasted onto the skin to remove several layers and show a new, younger you. The trouble with this is, it is also a new more vulnerable you, as the top layers of skin are what help to keep bacteria and other nasties from attacking you.
For the more adventurous, there are injections which fill the wrinkles or tighten the face. The most well know of these is botox which is a more acceptable name for a bacterium called clostridium botulinum which is possibly the most poisonous thing in the natural world. Another well known substance is collagen, we have it in our bodies but the stuff injected comes from cows or pigs. ,There are other substances used for injections, possibly the best being our own fat which is sucked out of one part of the body and pumped into another.
For the most natural and least invasive method of looking good there are facial exercises because as you grow older, your face loses muscle structure and so begins to sag and you get droopy skin. However, even these come with some risks attached as some exercises can promote wrinkles rather than rid them. It is important to find a good facial exercise program that will give your facial muscles the correct type of exercises that will improve muscle tone to reshape the face. When these are used in conjunction with a good facial massage which promotes blood flow and helps eliminates toxins a younger looking face will result. An initial rigorous regime is needed to get the muscles up to scratch, but after that, only a few minutes per day are enough to keep them looking good. This is possibly where things can go wrong because human nature being what it is, people will start to neglect their daily routine and things start going south again.

Author: Ian Richards
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