Why do some people have more wrinkles and dark spots?
Influence of chronic UV exposure and lifestyle on facial skin photo-aging--results from a pilot study.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Hyper-pigmentation was not linked to total lifetime outdoor hours, despite being higher in high-UV areas.
Common belief is that dark spots = sun damage, but this study shows the link isn’t to sun exposure time—making it counterintuitive and potentially revolutionary.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a woman over 50 with dark spots, consider checking your zinc levels and discussing hormonal skin changes with your doctor—not just using sunscreen.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Hyper-pigmentation was not linked to total lifetime outdoor hours, despite being higher in high-UV areas.
Common belief is that dark spots = sun damage, but this study shows the link isn’t to sun exposure time—making it counterintuitive and potentially revolutionary.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a woman over 50 with dark spots, consider checking your zinc levels and discussing hormonal skin changes with your doctor—not just using sunscreen.
Publication
Journal
Journal of epidemiology
Year
1999
Authors
S. Akiba, R. Shinkura, K. Miyamoto, G. Hillebrand, N. Yamaguchi, M. Ichihashi
Related Content
Claims (6)
The more wrinkles you have on your face, the more sun you’ve been exposed to over your life—and that might help doctors guess how likely you are to get skin cancer, without needing any blood tests or scans.
Spending lots of time in the sun doesn’t seem to cause dark spots on your face—something else like your hormones or how much zinc you have might be the real reason.
Women tend to get darker patches on their face more than men, especially after menopause, and it’s worse if they’ve been in lots of sun—but it’s not about how many total hours they’ve spent outside over their whole life.
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.
The more sun you’ve been in over your whole life, the more wrinkles you’ll likely have on your face as you get older—and guys tend to have more wrinkles than women.