Can Wearing Sunglasses Help Prevent Crow’s Feet?

Causes And Solutions For Eye Area Wrinkles

Crow’s feet are the branching wrinkles on the outer corner of a person’s eye, which can abstractly resemble a bird’s footprint. Crow’s feet become more visible than other wrinkles because the skin around the eyes is much thinner. This thinner skin does not have the same structure as the thicker skin on your face and body that helps keep those areas stay firm. This thinner skin has less elasticity and is therefore more prone to sagging and wrinkling.

The Causes

The causes of crow’s feet around the eyes are the same as what causes wrinkles on other parts of the face. As we age, our skin’s ability to produce elastin and collagen slows. Elastin and collagen are vitally important in helping to keep skin smooth, supple and resilient to wrinkles. As collagen and elastin break down, skin loses its strength and elasticity, resulting in the development of noticeable deep creases, fine lines and wrinkles, including crow’s feet. Additional factors can make crow’s feet worse, including:

• Squinting: Any habitual facial expression can eventually cause a wrinkle in the areas of the face that are involved. With squinting, the eye area is the main expression area.
• Smiling: Though smiling may seem like it is primarily concentrated around your mouth area, it actually can take up to 26 of the 43 muscles in the face to smile…and that includes muscles around your eyes.
• Sun Damage: Sun damage is the #1 cause of aging, with some citing it as the cause of 90% of skin’s visible aging.
• Sleeping: Habitually sleeping on your side can cause fine lines to appear where your face hits the pillow.
• Free Radical Damage: Free radicals, found in the environment and in sun exposure, can cause changes to your skin at a cellular level that lead to aging.
• Increased Salt Intake. If you have been eating a lot of salty food, it can cause skin to inflame, thin and become puffy, leading to an exaggerated appearance of fine lines including crow’s feet.

The Solutions

Wearing sunglasses will help prevent squinting, which in turn will help prevent crow’s feet. They also block out UV rays and help prevent photo and free radical damage in the thinner, more sensitive skin around the eye area. However, the glasses you wear must have proper UV protection. Look for glasses that specifically have a UV filter in the lens, which should be denoted by a small sticker on the glasses. Wrap-around sunglass styles offer the best protection followed by glasses with large frames. The more area the glasses cover, the more skin you will protect. Wear sunscreen year round, with a particular concentration on your nose and around your eye area. Sun exposure has unequivocally been proven to cause wrinkles and advanced aging in skin. By wearing sunscreen everyday, you will not only reduce skin aging, but also your risk of skin cancer. Use a good eye serum or cream. Look for one that is clinically proven and formulated with natural ingredients. We recommend our Cell Revive Eye Serum Complete. In a 28 day clinical test, 87% of subjects reported a significant decrease in the appearance of crow’s feet.* Stay hydrated. Drink eight to 12 glasses of water a day to help flush toxins out of your body and rejuvenate your skin. What else? While smiling can definitely cause smile lines around the eyes, we absolutely recommend you still do it. Just put prevention into practice with the solutions listed above, and you can continue to smile and light up the world without worrying about what it might be doing to contribute to crow’s feet. How are you preventing crow’s feet? Tell us in the comments. Sources: Yahoo! Beauty, Women’s Health *Results vary. Study results on file.