Collagen is the support system for your skin. As you lose collagen, you lose that support and your skin changes. Results? Wrinkles, folds and sagging.
Why does your collagen “let you down”?
Understanding how the body changes with age is key to understanding why collagen fillers began a cosmetic revolution over 2 decades ago. Most people don’t like to see themselves age – after all, don’t we all stay 25 forever? So filling the wrinkles and filling out the folds and lifting the sag become more attractive options as we attempt to match on the outside what age we feel like inside.
In all its simplicity, collagen forms and then dies off in a continuing cycle. When we are younger, the cycle is robust so we have smooth firm skin. BUT, as we grow older, something happens and our collagen cycle changes its behavior.
NOW we have a faster collagen die-off than we do collagen generation. This seemingly backward cycle progresses until it is obvious to anyone looking at us that we are getting old.
Collagen is the basic building block so its loss impacts our skin all over our body. The skin layers also lose fat, so there is the double whammy of losing some of the fat layer and the basic support. Wrinkles and sagging are inevitable.
Today we have a wide variety of collagen replacements – though none of them are all collagen. The popular fillers are Juvederm and Restylane, both hyaluronic gels; Radiesse, a long term filler and facial contouring agent; Sculptra, a collagen stimulator that helps you get your own collagen factory back to work; and Artefill, the only currently available filler which contains bovine collagen as a carrier for the permanent microspheres which also induce an increased collagen response.
Collagen might “let you down”, but there are a number of fillers and collagen-inspiring lasers which mitigate the effects of Mother Nature.
Total Dermatology provides complimentary cosmetic consultations for patients all over the Orange County area. Please contact us at our Irvine dermatology office for further information.
You mean all this time I’ve been blaming gravity and it’s just lazy collagen? So all the head stands in Yoga did nothing but give me a headache…bummer
Sorry to hear about the headaches. The head stands have to be great for circulation! Actually, anything that keeps the circulation going is a plus. We encourage the use of a cleansing brush (we like Clarisonic) which can also stimulate the surface blood supply.