• Question: why do wrinkles appear when you are old?

    Asked by sebisepic to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 17 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 17 Mar 2013:

      Your skin is made up of several layers of cells. The top layer is actually dead cells and it are these that fall off! The underneath layers are made up of proteins called collagens that give skin it’s stretchy-ness and other molecules called glycosaminogylcans (GAGS) that bind to water an give skin it’s plump, fleshy-ness. When you get older the quality of the collagen and GAGS gets worse and so skin loses its ability to spring back into shape and also loses water content so that’s why it looks wrinkly and saggy!

      Smoking and alcohol can also affect these molecules in your skin so smoking and drinking is not only bad for your insides but it doesn’t make you look very good either!

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