If you smile you’ll get wrinkles. If you stay in the sun you’ll get wrinkles. If you smoke you’ll get wrinkles. Why not face the bitter truth? If you live past the age of thirty, you’ll get wrinkles. It doesn’t matter what you do – live in a box, live with a fox, live in a train, stand in the rain – you’ll still get wrinkles. But the good news is: you’ve lived past the age of 30!

 Whilst there is some truth to some of the myths out there that various lifestyle choices can affect how many wrinkles we get, and how soon you will get them, recent research is showing that a big reason why we get wrinkles is written in the stars long before you start smiling and smoking. 

 Skin-ny dipping

Skin is the largest human organ. It has a whole bunch of useful purposes, including giving structural support to veins and arteries, and protecting your organs from the environment by covering them up. Skin is made of many different proteins, including collagen. Collagen makes up more than 90 percent of the inner layer of the skin (dermis) dry weight. It gives the skin its structure and elasticity. A scientific review of wrinkles, made in 2008, concluded that collagen losing its structure was the key to the appearance of aging skin.

 In humans, collagen is very stable. Unlike some cells of the body that are constantly dying and replicating, collagen cells will hang around for a long time (approximately 30 years) without being replaced. Part of the reason that collagen doesn’t get replaced is that humans only make a few enzymes that can breakdown collagen. The fact that collagen is stable and doesn’t breakdown quickly may seem like a good thing, but it isn’t.

 The old collagen starts to pick up alterations and doesn’t work as well as it used to. Scientists call this battered old collagen “fragmented collagen”, and according to research, it is this fragmented collagen that causes wrinkles. Fragmented collagen also leads to skin tearing and bruising easier than it otherwise would.

 Fibroblasts are special cells that make collagen. They live inside the dermis, surrounded by the collagen they make. Fibroblasts are badly affected by collagen becoming fragmented. In young skin, fibroblasts attach to collagen and stretch like children grasping onto monkey bars. When they stretch they make more collagen, and prevent the production of enzymes that break collagen down. But as collagen becomes more and more fragmented the fibroblasts can’t attach to it anymore. This makes the fibroblasts shrink instead of stretching, and because they can’t stretch, they can’t make new collagen.

 Even worse, as fibroblasts’ shrink they start making more stuff that will break down collagen. This means that fragmented collagen not only stops new collagen being made, but it encourages collagen killing enzymes which will lead to more fragmented collagen.

 The researchers call what happens next a self perpetuating cycle of wrinkled skin, only getting wrinklier. More fragmented collagen means less fibroblasts can attach to the collagen. This leads to even more shrinking fibroblasts, less new collagen, and more enzymes that break down collagen. The final result: thin, fragile skin with no collagen.

 Does smoking give us more wrinkles?

This process of fragmenting collagen happens naturally, without smiling, smoking or living in boxes. But studies show that smokers are almost five times more likely to have wrinkled faces than non-smokers. This is because smoking encourages to body to make more products that breakdown collagen. Smokers are therefore speeding up the process of fragmenting collagen and the cycle of wrinkles.

 And the sun?

Aside from the fragmented collagen theory many scientists believe that wrinkles are also caused by free radicals that accumulate over time in our body. Free radicals (also called oxidants), which bind to anything they can get their hands on, including collagen, could also be responsible for fragmented collagen, causing wrinkles. UV irradiation in the sun increases the amount of oxidants and reactive free radicals that are found in our body. So, the story that the sun causes wrinkles actually has some basis in fact, and many studies support the free radical theory of aging.

 Smiling?

There isn’t much research around to suggest that smiling encourages collagen to break down, or has any part to play in wrinkles. On the contrary, worrying and stressing has been shown to increase the amount of oxidants in the body, thereby increasing your chance of getting wrinkles.

 What can we do?

Collagen fragmenting is the main cause of wrinkles. So, therapies that build up collagen and prevent it fragmented have been shown to reduce wrinkles most effectively. Retinoic acid and retinol, a form of Vitamin A, was one of the first treatments on the market scientifically shown to do this. These products put new collagen into aged skin, which encourages fibroblasts to attach to collagen and stretch. This naturally encourages a positive cycle of collagen growth. Vitamin C has also been shown to increase the production of collagen in the skin after 12 weeks. However, long term studies on the benefits of these vitamins in moisturisers have not been performed. So we don’t know how long the benefits of moisturisers last.

 A few small studies have also shown that Vitamin B increases elasticity of skin, but it we don’t know why.

 While moisturisers might help to reduce wrinkles, fine lines on our face are still, and always will be a part of life. And if you live long enough, you will get them. So don’t live with a fox, in the rain or on a train to avoid them. Just smile, and put some vitamin A cream on, because when you smile, the whole world smiles with you (even if you have some wrinkles).