Are Wrinkles Your Body’s Way of Telling You Something?
In the majority of cases, face wrinkles are
just a reflection of our natural age, lines that we deserve to wear
proudly, as they show our rich life experiences, both good and bad.
However, in some cases, wrinkles can be a sign of something more
serious, especially if these appear only on one side or part of your
face, emerge or deepen suddenly, or show up at a young age. More
specifically, wrinkles can be an early sign of dangerous health
conditions or a hint that you’re putting yourself through too much
stress. Here are 6 things your wrinkles can tell about you:
1. Cardiovascular problems
1. Cardiovascular problems
Although this may come as a surprise,
research shows that wrinkles can point to cardiovascular problems,
particularly to atherosclerosis and hypertension. More specifically,
deep forehead wrinkles may indicate atherosclerosis (blocked blood
vessels), according to a 2018 study.
The study looked at 3,200 adults over the course of 20 years and found
that the participants who had deep forehead wrinkles were 10 times more
likely to die of heart disease. The researchers suggest that the
correlation, though observational, can point to atherosclerosis, the
leading cause of heart disease because blood vessels in our forehead are
much finer, and so they are the first to be blocked by plaque buildup.
A different study drew a correlation between face wrinkles and hypertension, though only in women, pointing out that the participants who looked younger than their age had an overall lower blood pressure than their counterparts with worse skin.
2. Stress
Is there any function or organ in our body
that isn’t affected by stress? The answer is likely no, and our skin is
no different and is often the first to take the fall. Younger adults
swear that the so-called “stress breakouts” are a thing, and people who
have been through a lot of stress do seem to age faster than the rest of
us.
Of course, the frowning, the crying, and
the poor lifestyle choices don’t help (yes, we’re talking about all that
junk food we eat after a hard or sad day), but stress also affects our
hormones, which play a key role in our skin health, among other things.
Try not to submit to stress when you can, or at least try to avoid the
harmful habits that we mentioned, your skin will thank you.
3. Skin cancer risk
One of the major contributing factors of
skin cancer (particularly melanoma) is excessive sun exposure. But skin
cancer isn’t the only unwanted and non-refundable gift we get from the
sun, wrinkles, and sunspots are part of the package as well.
Crepey wrinkles on the cheeks and wrinkles
only on one side of the face (from UVA light exposure through the car
window) are especially risky. Also, remember that even if you have no
sunspots on your face, this doesn’t mean you’re safe, as we now know
that the majority of wrinkles are the result of sun exposure. The bottom
line is: how much and how often we wear sunscreen will show, whether we
like it or not.
4. Weak bones
Both our skin and our bones rely on this
one protein to keep them healthy and strong. You guessed it, we mean
collagen, the most common protein in the human body. Knowing this,
researchers at Yale looked at the correlation between the presence of
deep wrinkles on the face and bone density in 40-50-year-old women and
found that deeper wrinkles were linked to lower bone density,
irrespective of the age.
Though limited to postmenopausal women only, the results of the study
let you estimate the health of your bones and your risk of fractures
based on the appearance of your skin.
5. Too Much Screen Time
Remember the frowning we mentioned in the
section about stress? Well, it turns out that many people do a lot of
that, as well as a lot of squinting and eyebrow-raising while they’re
using computers and mobile devices. Predictably, this causes premature
wrinkles on the forehead, around the eyes, and especially between the
eyebrows.
These have nothing to do with the light
your devices emit and everything to do with the grimaces you make when
you’re deeply concentrated on the task at hand.
6. Your Personality
Sometimes, it’s not a dangerous disease or
bad habit that’s showing through your wrinkles, it’s just your
personality. Do you have smile lines, crows feet, and bunny lines? Well,
it might be just because you’re a happy person that smiles a lot. The
opposite is also true, unfortunately, and lip lines, the so-called
eleven-shaped wrinkles on your forehead and frown lines can point
towards you often being serious or looking grumpy when your face is
relaxed (the latter is also called a “resting bitch face” in youth
slang).
In the end, your wrinkles may just be showing that you’re an expressive
person and like to wear your heart on your sleeve, a character trait
many people really appreciate.