Skin ageing may be divided into two types:

• Intrinsic ageing which is genetically determined and
• Photoageing (dermatoheliosis) which is caused by excessive exposure to the sun. Fair-skin individuals and those occupationally or recreational exposed to the sun are likely to develop photoageing early. Eighty per cent of the signs of ageing is believed to be caused by sun damage. Accordingly, the best way to delay ageing is to minimise exposure to the sun (see sun protection).

  
  Symptoms
  The symptoms depend on the site of damage:

   

• Epidermis (superficial skin)
  • Xerosis or dryness.
  • Atrophy or thinning of the skin.
  • Seborrhoeic keratoses or age warts.
  • Actinic keratoses (solar keratoses).
  • Basal cell and squamous cell cancer cancers.

   

• Melanocytes (pigment cells)
  • Ephelides or freckles.
  • Actinic lentigines (solar lentigines) or "age spots".
  • Malignant melanoma
  • Idiopathic guttate hypomelanosis.

   

• Connective tissue
  • Wrinkles and frown lines.
  • Yellow appearance of the skin.
  • Solar elastosis.

  Coarse wrinkles due to photoageing.

• Sebaceous glands
  • Senile comedones

   

• Hair
  • Thinning of the scalp (see androgenetic alopecia)
  • Increased in facial hair (see hirsutism).
  • White hair (see canities).

   

• Blood vessels
  • Cherry angiomas.
  • Telangiectasias or broken capillaries.
  • Senile purpura (easy bruising).
  • Venous lakes.

   

• Subcutaneous fat
  • Fat atrophy leading to sunken cheeks, thinned skin.

  
  What you can do
  Obviously you cannot prevent ageing but the following measures may help you retain younger skin longer:

   

• Avoid sun-damage (see sun protection).
• Get enough sleep and rest.
• Exercise
• Healthy diet.
• Don't smoke.
• Don't take too much alcohol.
• Don't do drugs.

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