I’m turning 40 this year, and I’m noticing that the nicks and cuts I’m used to getting which have always healed really quickly are leaving more scars and lasting longer than they have in the past. Im outdoors active, and accrue more than a few cuts often on my lower legs. Is this a natural part of growing old, which is in line with my observations of my parents’ skin as well, or am I not caring for my skin well?
In: Biology
Older than you, not in great shape but cuts still heal as fast as when I was 20. I cook a lot so every couple of months I get a fresh knife cut. Takes just a week to get past the bandage stage and another couple to finish healing.
Could very well be diet, especially vitamin C and A.
We eat a lot of foods rich in A, use citrus juice in meals and take multivitamins. Our diet is also rich in foods that provide iron, zinc and copper. Plus the RDA of proteins from mostly healthy sources (red meat is a once a week item if that. Chicken & fish are most common).
This may not be a factor but not knowing your health, diabetes can cause major slowing of healing, too, so I wanted to bring it up since it doesn’t seem to have been mentioned. If you know your blood sugar is good, then nevermind.
As you’ve said, you are active outdoors. Meaning you probably get a bit of sun and sun is tough on our skin. This could have something to do with it.
Also age has a lot to do with it, you’re not old but your skin isn’t 20 anymore and add sun exposure the health of your akin could be 5 to 10 years ahead of your actual age.
Keep your skin moisturized and wear sun screen this will help preserve your skin health in the long run.
Think of your cells dividing as a printer making paper copies. A copy can only be as good as the original but usually you lose a bit of quality.
Over time, the original document wears out and you’re making copies of copies. Each copies need to be a certain quality level or else they’re rejected. As you make more and more copies, the reject rate increases over time.
Your dividing cells undergo a check to make sure they’re copied properly. If they fail, they undergo planned cell suicide (apoptosis) and are recycled. As you age, a larger percentage of dividing cells fail the check because of DNA wearing out from copying, making it harder to increase the number of good cells to heal a wound.
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