Lifestyle Factors Affecting The Skin, Part 2

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Lifestyle Factors and Your Skin

Two ways that exercise affects skin are that it increases myokine concentration and leaves skin more vulnerable to sunburn. Two ways that diet affects skin are that chocolate increases acne and Vitamin A reduces the chances of getting a type of skin cancer called utaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Two ways that air travel affects skin are that it increases dryness and can cause breakouts.

Findings

1. Ways Exercise Affects Skin

  • One way that exercise affects the skin is by increasing concentrations of myokines, which are "a group of proteins secreted by muscle cells and diffused throughout the body."
  • Research has found that exercises about "three times a week has been shown to keep skin younger and possibly reverse aging’s effects in people over 65."
  • A research study looked at this issue by creating two groups of participants and analyzing their results over a three-month period. The first did no exercise and the other exercised "three times per week at 65 percent their aerobic limit."
  • The results"found that women over 65 who worked out for a minimum of two hours a week for three months had the skin composition of women 20 to 30 years younger."
  • Researchers believed a key reason for that was due to greater concentrations of myokine found in those participants, totaling up to a 50% increase in such among the participants who exercised.
  • A second way that exercise affects the skin is by sweat causing the skin to get sunburn more easily.
  • The average number of sweat glands a person has totals 2.6 million.
  • The average amount of sweat that the body can produce each hour ranges between one and three liters.
  • The top two causes of sweat are exercise and temperature.
  • Research has found that "[a]fter athletes sweat, it takes 40% less ultraviolet rays to burn than when they are not sweating."

2. Ways Diet Affects Skin

  • One way that diet affects skin is that chocolate increases acne.
  • A research study gave one group of participants 25 jelly beans and the other group a bar of chocolate. Both of those servings had "the same glycemic load." Later, the groups switched and ate the other food.
  • The results found that jelly beans didn't affect acne. However, chocolate resulted in five times as many pimples.
  • A second way that diet affects skin is that consuming Vitamin A reduces the chances of getting a type of skin cancer called utaneous squamous cell carcinoma.
  • A research study published on "July 31, [2019] in the Journal of the American Medical Association Dermatology" found that individuals who consumed large amounts "of vitamin A were 17 percent less likely to get" the aforementioned cancer than those who consumed little Vitamin A, which is "the second-most-common type of skin cancer."
  • The findings of that research study were based on results of about 170,000 U.S. adults over the last few decades.

3. Ways Air Travel Affects Skin

  • One way that air travel affects skin is by making it dry. "The World Health Organization reports that humidity levels in aircraft cabins are typically less than 20 percent. Low humidity is one of the most common causes of dry skin."
  • Furthermore, approximately half of the air in an airplane cabin "is pulled from the outside, and at high altitudes the air is almost completely devoid of moisture."
  • A second way that air travel affects skin is through its potential to cause skin breakouts among some people.
  • That's because the skin produces more oil to compensate for its lack of moisture when flying.
  • As one source stated: "In excessively dry situations, our sebaceous glands can overcompensate, causing increased oil production. When this happens to an already oily complexion, the excess sebum can combine and stick to any build-up of dead skin cells and other impurities lingering on the skin's surface, which can then clog pores and lead to post-flight breakouts."
  • The skin breakouts resulting from the lack of moisture when flying are also due to low humidity levels on airplanes, as is also the cause of dry skin. According to Dermatologist Patricia Wexler, an airplane had about 20% of the normal humidity level.
  • Additionally, she further stated: "If your skin is normally dry, this can lead to the buildup of oil under the dehydrated skin cells. If your skin is naturally oily, this will only increase oil production."

Your Research Team Applied the Following Strategy:

We found the above data and corresponding information in articles citing research findings from reputable academic (such as McMaster College) and medical sources (such as The Cleveland Clinic), among others. We consulted articles for that because we found they did an excellent, clear job of presenting the results of the research findings from the underlying studies upon which they were based. We also included information and data provided by U.S. dermatologists, as they are subject matter experts on this topic involving the skin. We had to expand our research beyond the U.S. for information about how exercise affects the skin, as U.S.-only data wasn't readily available. The study that we included about myokine concentration appeared to be perhaps the most-widely cited study about how exercise affects the skin, as we found its resulted cited by many reputable sources both in the U.S. and abroad.

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