Why Skin Sags: Can We Prevent It?

Knowing the answers to why skin sags only begins to address the problem. Even when researchers completely understand the whys and wherefores of this inevitable condition, it still remains to be seen what we can do about it.

Mother Nature

First and foremost, it’s a fact of life that the main reason skin sags lies at the feet of Mother Nature: It begins to head south due to the effects of gravity and plain, old age. As we grow older, the mechanism in our bodies – certain enzymes, scientists suspect – that works automatically to replace old cells with new cells gradually begins to stop doing its job.

The age at which this happens varies from one person to the next, but in general, begins somewhere in the mid-twenties. Eventually it stops completely. Muscle tissue begins to break down; skin begins to sag. The sixty-four-dollar question for researchers looking for a “cure” to old age lies not in discovering why skin sags, but in how to prevent this enzyme mechanism from slowing down and then stopping its job.

Weight Loss

Another answer to the question of why skin sags lies in weight loss. This, of course, has little to nothing to do with the aging process, but more to do with the simple facts of physics. When people have put on weight, their muscles and skin have had a chance to gradually get used to the condition of this added fat.

When the weight is dropped – especially quickly, as what happens with severe dieting and/or under conditions of starvation – the muscles and skin do not have time enough to adjust and, therefore, sagging ensues. Sometimes some of this type of sagging can be alleviated over time with exercise, but most often, sagging skin must be trimmed off by a plastic surgeon in order to look more like it would had there not been a sudden loss of weight or if weight gain had never occurred.

Smoking

A third reason of why skin sags has to do with smoking tobacco products. This really has more to do with aging. All the chemicals in cigarettes, pipe tobacco, and cigars – as well as the tobacco, itself – play havoc with the skin, especially on the face. Doctors can tell simply by looking at the face of someone and discern whether or not that person smokes.

Lines appear at the mouth, lips, and along the nose (“marionette” lines) years earlier on smokers than on non-smokers. And perhaps almost as scary as sagging, the skin actually takes on a grayish tint on smokers that doesn’t exist with people who do not smoke.

These are just a few of the reasons skin begins to sag. What can we do about it? Outside of plastic surgery, not much. We can avoid smoking; keep our weight at an even, healthy amount; exercise; and drink plenty of water and other body-loving fluids to stay well-hydrated. But what we cannot yet do is stop or reverse the chemical process programmed into our bodies by evolution, Mother Nature, or God to prevent our skin from aging.

So in the end, why skin sags should probably not be at the top of the list of human priorities. But, rather, how to grow old gracefully, with dignity and with wisdom should be what we strive for. Once we’ve gotten that down, then maybe it will be time to look more searchingly into the relative unimportance of why our skin has begun to sag.