Is your skin oozing, breaking out, or tearing apart? Rashes, hives, and moles are just a few skin disorders that affect millions around the world as they grow older. The aging process can affect the body in several ways; the severity is often based on lifestyle choices such as eating habits, exposure to harsh environments, smoking and alcohol.
It’s not surprising. As you age, your skin – the largest organ in the human body – becomes susceptible to disorders and diseases, which is why caring for the skin is challenging and proper treatment requires more effort on your part.
Here are some usual older skin problems:
Age spots and skin tags: Also called liver spots, these are brown spots resulting from years of exposure to UV rays. They have a larger size than freckles and affect fair-skin more than dark-skin. Age spots can appear on sun-exposed areas such as feet, arms, hands, face, and neck. Age spots may be accompanied by dryness, wrinkling, rough spots, and skin thinning. Skin tags can also appear along the eyelids, beneath the chest, and along neckline. While mostly harmless, skin tags are a menace to your physical appearance.
Skin thinning and lines: Older skin becomes naturally thin and with age, it gets injured easily. It heals slowly and becomes prone to bleeding, tears and bruising, even from a minor accident. Lines can also appear due to smoking and sun exposure: elderly who sit or lay on bed for extended periods of time are more prone to this condition.
Shingles: This is an outbreak of blisters or a rash on the skin. It is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, and may cause severe pain. Although this skin disease is common in people above 50, anyone who has had chickenpox may also develop the condition. Early signs of the condition include shooting pain or itching at one side of the face, and a rash may also appear as a patch of raised dots or band.
Overcoming these problems is difficult as you age because the skin becomes less responsive to conventional treatments. However, all hope is not lost as taking the following measures will significantly help:
1. Moisturizer
Many individuals don’t think they need a moisturizer because their skin is oily, but we need to restore whatever moisture has been removed from our skin over the years. A light, oil-free option can be used on oily skin, while people with dry skin can use heavier textures. There are also heavy moisturizers for parts of the body that are especially prone to flaking and dryness, such as the heels, elbows and knees. The skin is exposed to a lot of stress in these places.
2. Natural treatment alternatives
An all natural skin tag remover and along with other natural treatment alternatives can reduce the symptoms of skin tags and age spots. They aren’t considered complete treatments for skin problems, but such options can let you avoid surgical therapy or home remedies like duct tape removal.
3. Sun screen
Use a sun screen that has 25 to 30 or higher sun protection factor (SPF). A higher number translates into more protection. Go with an option that includes a label stating ‘broad protection’ – this means the sun screen will protect against UVA and UVB rays and will stay on the skin longer.
22 January 2015
Photography by Megan Robinson
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