Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Doing regular strength or cardio workouts for 16 weeks can make your skin tighter and healthier-looking by improving the support structure underneath it.
Causal
Working out with weights can lower certain inflammatory chemicals in the blood of middle-aged women, and those chemicals normally make a skin protein called biglycan — so when they drop, biglycan drops too, which might help slow down skin aging.
Mechanistic
Doing strength exercises like lifting weights for 16 weeks can make the skin of middle-aged Japanese women just a tiny bit thicker and boost a specific protein that helps keep skin firm—something that doesn’t happen with activities like walking or cycling.
Wearing sunscreen and staying out of the sun too much can help keep your skin looking younger by preventing wrinkles and sun spots.
Eating more fruits, veggies, and whole foods while cutting back on sugar and white bread can help keep your skin from getting damaged by sticky sugar molecules that make it age faster.
When sugar in your body sticks to skin proteins without needing enzymes, it creates gunk that makes skin wrinkle and lose elasticity — and scientists have studied this process more than almost any other cause of aging skin.
Descriptive
Eating too much fat can slow down how fast your skin heals after a cut or injury, make your skin more swollen and irritated, and mess up the natural repair process underneath, which could leave scars or weak spots.
Spending too much time in the sun is the biggest outside cause of wrinkles and aged-looking skin—more sun means more damage, and longer exposure makes it worse.
Using retinoid creams on your skin can help make it look younger by boosting collagen (the protein that keeps skin firm), blocking enzymes that break down skin, and helping your skin hold onto moisture better.
Mineral sunscreens with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide sit on top of your skin and don’t get absorbed into your body, making them safer than chemical sunscreens that can enter your bloodstream.
When you put on sunscreen with chemicals like oxybenzone or avobenzone, your body absorbs more of those chemicals into your bloodstream than the FDA thinks is safe — even if you just use it normally on your skin.
Quantitative
Putting on sunscreen every day can stop your skin from getting worse from sun damage, and might even help fix some of the wrinkles and spots you already have.
Spending too much time in the sun over the years is why most wrinkles, sagging, and sunspots appear on your face—sunlight breaks down the skin’s support system like collagen and elastin, and creates harmful free radicals.
If you don’t sleep well for a long time, your skin gets weaker, drier, takes longer to heal from sun damage, and ages faster — like your skin is wearing out before its time.
Doing just a few minutes of super-intense bursts of exercise—like sprinting or jumping—several times a day can make you stronger and better at using oxygen, even if you’ve been totally inactive.
Working out—whether you're running or lifting weights—can make your skin firmer and more elastic by boosting the production of key skin-building proteins, and lifting weights does something extra: it actually makes the skin layer thicker.
Eating too much sugar and fatty junk food can make your skin age faster because these foods trigger chemical reactions that damage skin cells and make them lose their bounce and glow.
Eating lots of fruits, veggies, and other plant foods rich in antioxidants can help protect your skin from sun damage and keep it looking younger longer by fighting off harmful molecules caused by sunlight.
Taking a daily β-carotene pill (30 mg) for almost five years won’t make your skin look younger or older than it would have anyway if you didn’t take it.
If you put on sunscreen every single day for almost five years, your skin will age about 24% slower than if you only use it sometimes—think fewer wrinkles and sun spots.
Using a special acne cream called adapalene 0.3% gel might help reduce wrinkles and sun damage on your skin as you get older — and it’s probably safe to use.
If you're using a skin cream to fix sun damage, adapalene and tretinoin are about equally gentle on your skin after using them every day for six months — neither causes much more irritation than the other.
A cream called adapalene works just as well as a stronger cream called tretinoin for reducing wrinkles and sun damage on the skin, after using it every day for 6 months.
When people used sunscreen as much as possible in a study, almost 1 in 3 of them got a rash — more than any other side effect.