New Study Reveals Why Skin Really Wrinkles & Ages

If despite your best efforts to fight the signs of aging you're still sagging and wrinkling and looking older than you'd like, don’t berate yourself - or yell at the lady behind the skin care counter in your favorite department store.

A group of Purdue University scientists believe there is a brand new reason why skin ages – and it happens from the inside out.

What’s more, say researchers, the discovery will likely lead to the rapid development of some amazing new treatments that work in a whole new and exciting way.

Discovery: How Skin Really Ages

Working in concert with researchers from NuSkin, the group nailed down the function of a protein present in skin cells that plays a role in how skin ages and when that process begins- a concept that, until now, has remained quite illusive.

Indeed, it's a well-established fact that outside forces - such as the sun, cigarette smoke and other forms of pollution – age our skin by producing free radicals. These are molecules that work to literally gobble up collagen and elastin, skin’s natural support system.

As collagen and elastin fibers weaken, skin loses that support. And like those old sofa cushions that start to sag and droop over time, so too does our skin.

But new Purdue research found there could be another factor involved in the production of those nasty free radicals - and it's coming from right inside our own body.

According to the new research it centers on an enzyme called arNOX, present in our skin cells from birth. Part of a newly identified group of proteins known as ECTO-NOX (external oxidaseENOX proteins), arNOX doesn't do a whole lot when we are young.

As we age, however, and our cells naturally begin producing less energy, these proteins kick in, working to generate additional metabolic energy. It is through this process that experts believe arNOX generates free radicals that, much like the sun, nibble and snack on collagen and elastin, causing skin to age.

Not surprisingly they say all this extra cellular activity picks up speed between the years of 45 and 70 - when the majority of skin wrinkling and sagging occurs.

So What's A Girl To Do?

Take heart, there's some good news: Based on the new findings, the scientists believe we now have a whole new area for the development of skin care treatments - and it may not be as far off as you think.

Scientists at NuSkin are confidant that methods of inhibiting arNOX activity and preventing the internal production of free radicals is on the horizon – with perhaps a whole new category of skin products coming forward in the next couple of years. (Get busy scientists, we’re not getting any younger here ya know!)

In the meantime, don't give this nasty little enzyme any help making you look older!

• Stay out of direct sunlight as much as possible.
• Choose a sunscreen designed to block both UVA and UVB rays (and only a few do), and then use it as if your life depended on it, (and it might!).
• Don't smoke - and try to avoid being around anyone who does.

These three steps can shave years off your face, even if wrinkling and sagging has already begun.

Moreover, if you also choose the right skin care - and some of the advances are really astounding - all you have to do is put on that red dress baby, and you should be facing the next couple of decades looking pretty good!

For more information on how to find the sunscreens with the best anti aging protection, and learn about the real breakthroughs in anti aging products you can really afford, visit www.TheRedDressDiary.com