Photoaging

Abstract

Aging and photoaging of the skin are now well-accepted concepts, but formerly it was equivalent to heresy to propose that these were anything but natural events. Aging skin was to be accepted as an inevitable, irreversible, and trivial consequence of getting old. It became obvious early on that skin damage was an inevitable sequela of the medical use of x-rays; only in the past two to three decades has the extremely damaging nature of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) become increasingly clear to both scientists and the general population, and attempts to circumvent and reverse such damage have become extremely popular. These observations have coincided with several pertinent phenomena: (1) the incredible growth of scientific knowledge in recent years; (2) people in western populations living longer and spending increased leisure time exposed to sun in outdoor activities; and (3) the rampant cosmetic claims for products that will “turn back the clock” to youth overnight. In the midst of this chaos, there exist two opposing hemispheres. One is the northern hemisphere, where life is rigid, cold scientific proof is difficult, and only the hardiest survive in the frozen Tundras of pharmaceutical bureaucracy and governmental regulation. The southern hemisphere is friendly and warm and things that make you “feel” better are considered good, rather than inherently evil because they are not “natural” and may prevent us from looking our age. War has inevitably existed between these two spheres ever since south’s cosmetics were defined as bad and the north’s pharmaceuticals were defined as good. Advocacy of the term cosmeceutical, as an attempt to compromise and