Some sagging of the skin is inevitable as you age, there's no need to dread a natural process that can be kept to a minimum. Maturing skin gets progressively thinner and loses some of its firmness, but there are external factors besides age that you can control. You do have many options. There are, in fact, kinds of skin-firming treatments available to tighten and improve your skin.



As always, it is smart to first know what you can and cannot change about your aging skin. Sagging skin is a normal part of the aging process. As you get older, your body produces fewer of the chemicals, fats and oils that help to keep your skin firm and supple. Over time, gravity also takes its toll on the body. The downward force of gravity pulls not only on your skin but every part of your body. These are two unavoidable factors you can't change.



You can control other variables in this process. First, always use sunblock. Apply it generously to your face and neck. Continued exposure to the sun ages your skin considerably. It also causes your skin to lose firmness by breaking down the chemicals it needs to maintain its elasticity.



Secondly, don't smoke. Smoking harms many of your organs, but it is particularly damaging to the appearance of your skin.



Third, keep up with the major breakthroughs in anti-aging technology, including techniques to firm aging skin. There have been many interesting ones in the last decade. You may be thinking about creams, lotions, lasers or even cosmetic procedures. They are all out there available to you.



To understand how skin-firming treatments work, first you have to understand how this organ operates. Skin has three layers: the epidermis on the outside, the dermis in the middle, and the hypodermis, or subcutaneous layer, on the inside of the skin. If you want to keep your skin firm, the layer you want to pay closest attention to is the dermis, or middle layer.



The dermis layer of the skin contains both collagen and elastin. These are types of proteins that your body makes. They work together to keep the skin elastic, strong and moist. As you get older, your body doesn't make as much of these proteins, and the elastin and collagen that you do produce just don't work as well.



If you hope to succeed in firming your skin, the treatment has to reach the dermis layer of the skin. Any other treatment with more superficial results, will only be a temporary fix, but it won't actually affect its firmness. Among the more substantial treatments, some effective ones work by stimulating more collagen and elastin to grow, while others tighten skin, fat, muscle and underlying connective tissues.



Which product will be right for you? It depends on the overall state of your skin and even on your lifestyle habits. In part II of this article we will review the many types of treatments and cosmetics that have flooded the market in these past few years.