Preventing Age Spot Formation
August 5, 2008
Also, known as liver spots, age spots easily give away your age, including the health of your skin. Caused mainly due to long-term exposure to the sun’s damaging UV rays, they can be found on the face, arms, back, and hands. As a rule, they usually begin to appear in one’s early forties, especially for those who worship the sun, spending hours and hours sun bathing in the hope of acquiring a healthy, glowing tan.
Quite harmless, age spots are harmless flat, brown-black spots that usually occur in sun-exposed areas of the body. Though, also called liver spots, they have no connection to the liver or to the liver function.
Dermatologists classify them as benign skin blemishes, and there is no cause for alarm or medical treatment, though you are advised to have suspected age spots that grow bigger or change shape or colour checked out by the doctor.
Like most things on the face and body, age spots are difficult to get rid of completely. Like most things, the best advice one can give is that prevention is far better than cure. Protect your skin from being overly exposed to the sun; apply sunscreen regularly when going out in the sun, even if it is in winter. Starting this regimen while still in your twenties and thirties makes it far less likely that you will develop age spots in your forties and fifties.
However, if it’s already much too late and you have probably spent your youth basking in the sun’s harmful rays, what you probably are interested in is cure rather than prevention. There are reasonably effective fade creams and retinol creams that you can try out, or you can go in for the far more expensive though effective laser treatments and chemical peels.
While, dermatologists recommend rectifying skin damage in professional cosmetic clinics, for those who can’t afford it, there are chemical peel kits that one can buy for home use. These contain alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) to help fight the appearance age spots by gently removing the top layer of skin and revealing new skin underneath. Follow the instructions carefully to improve stubborn age spots and have fewer wrinkles and a smoother complexion.
There are fade creams also, which seem to work well on fair-skinned people as they gently bleach them out. These creams work well combined with a moisturiser that contains glycolic acid (an AHA). This may cause temporary irritation and redness in sensitive skin, though. Direct exposure to the sun is to be avoided to keep age spots and irritation at bay.
Whatever the method for reducing the appearance of age spots, make sure you protect your skin from UV exposure during and after the treatment. Remember, prevention is better, and cheaper, than cure.
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