Alcohol Consumption and the Health of Your Skin.

You don’t have to be vain to be concerned with the state of your complexion, or to feel the pressure of the rush of the upcoming years. We all feel a bit of the pinch that comes after our life seems to hit the accelerator in the early twenties. We try different facial creams and sample different regiments. We consume plenty of water and watch our salt intake, keep up with the beneficial fruits and veggies and try to keep our balance in mind, but there is a little known enemy in the war against premature wrinkles, one that many wish they had heard of years ago.

When you go out to the club, what time do you put down your drink? If you said last-call, you may be inviting those wrinkles to pay you an early visit. Experts say that if your are alcohol consumption is even a moderate amount, you should put that drink down at least three hours before you are going to bed. After consuming alcohol, your capillaries tend to shed some of the water that they contain. The soft tissues in and around your body are picking up the water that is seeping from your bloodstream. No doubt, after a long night when you get up, you find yourself bloated.

When you are losing this water to your soft tissues and you are in a supine (lying down) position, the swelling will distribute throughout the body, including your face. Puffiness beneath the eyes can lend to your skin taking a bit of a stretch in an unwelcome way. As your body ages, the skin is less elastic, and that elasticity is what has offered you protection from things in the past such as scarring, stretch marks, and wrinkles, in your youth.

You may have noticed that your ability to heal from scars, as well as reduce stretch marks has been hindered since you have reached adulthood. Unfortunately, that means that you won’t be able to recover from other damage as well, regular stretching of the skin will lead to wrinkles. Yes, that means that if you are doing your fair share of drinking just before you turn in that you are opening the door for wrinkles about the eyes.

Okay, now that you have identified the problem you want to do what you can to reverse the effects of the party days that you already have lined up in your past. What do you do now? Well you follow the same steps that you would take regularly to keep your skin healthy in adulthood.

You will want to eat healthy foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables to ward off free radicals. Hydration is very important to keeping your skin in shape, so drink plenty of water. Exercise is an undersold contributor to your skin’s health; increased blood flow to the skin’s surface is strong medicine to aging skin. Use alcohol-free products on your face to retain the essential moisture, use collagen-rich moisturizers, and for goodness sake put that drink down!