The generation of modern thirty-forty-year-old women has masterfully mastered anti-aging techniques and categorically does not intend to grow old. We stopped panicking about wrinkles, sagging, and the number of candles on a birthday cake. For every action of time, there is now a counteraction in the form of creams, procedures, injections, nutritional supplements. And the number in the passport is no longer a measure of appearance.
Until recently, old age for women in our country came early. And not so much physiological as moral. And what do you want to do if the prefix “old” in your address can be heard already after 25 years? In many maternity hospitals, those who have not had their first child before this age are still called old-timers.
Given that in Europe, most girls do not even think about marriage before thirty, and they prefer to give birth to children closer to forty, when many Russian women are already nursing their grandchildren. One age, but a whole generation difference!
Considering that the words “grandmother” and “old woman” are synonymous in Russian, should we be surprised at the withered appearance of those over forty?
But the situation is changing. Especially in big cities. The current generation of forty-year-old Russian women has a different mentality than their mothers, and categorically refuses to grow old. The example of Hollywood actresses and lean peers abroad was contagious. Wrinkles, sagging skin, swollen waists and other indicators of age are at war.
“It always seemed to me that my mother is very well-groomed and looks young. But recently, comparing photographs at her thirty years and at her forty-two, I realized that we are like the same age on them! — says Irina, sales manager of a large company.
From one extreme to another
There is another side to the fight against aging. With a purely Russian genetic ability to “go on a binge,” many go too far in the battle for youth. They try all new techniques, buy the most expensive cosmetics, go for massages, masks and body wraps several times a week. And at home they spend hours studying their bodies and faces in mirrors, looking for non-existent flaws as an excuse for a new witch hunt.
Such characters impoverish their own lives and become an eternal target for the witticisms of others. That’s why it’s so important not to cross the fine line between normality and beauty mania. And also to realize that eternal youth is still a myth.
“Until we find a way to delay menopause, all manipulations with appearance will be only symptomatic therapy. When someone rants that a person should live more than two hundred years, I laugh. Nature is too rational. Can’t reproduce? Goodbye!” says Professor F. Ronholt, President of the Danish Association of Gerontologists. He is sure that the increase in life expectancy and our youthful appearance are solely the merit of the development of civilization.
Youth in a bowl
On the other hand, Japanese scientists seriously argue that their compatriots, who daily eat miso soup and other soy products, menopause begins an average of five years later than their Western peers. Yes, and it flows easier, and the skin stays young longer.
The reason is the estrogen-like abilities of soy. That is, there are still levers of influence on our reproductive age?
Gerontologists are still cautious, although they advise closer to thirty to start taking anti-age nutritional supplements regularly. The composition of many of them is based on the same soy, coupled with vitamin C and lycopene. These tablets support skin tone well, which has been proven by experiments. But it’s too early to talk about the impact on menopause: the generation of women who take them regularly has not yet “grown up” to it.
The maximum of this component is contained in wines from northern latitudes: resveratrol is produced to protect grapes from the cold
By the way, in many respects, the external rejuvenation of Russian women also occurred due to a change in diet. Mayonnaise-potato feasts are increasingly giving way to healthy dishes. Fortunately, you can now buy fresh fish in stores all year round, which is rich in omega acids that are life-giving for the skin, as well as tomatoes, peppers and pumpkin – a storehouse of the same lycopene. Yes, and fruits with greens as sources of vitamins are available without queues.
And, of course, red wine. Every advanced Russian woman is aware that thanks to the content of resveratrol, it neutralizes free radicals in the body and improves blood circulation. True, to provide yourself with the right amount of resveratrol, one glass is enough, which many people forget about. But that’s another story.
By the way, wines from northern latitudes contain the maximum of this component: resveratrol is produced to protect grapes from the cold. So Italian and Spanish drinks lose in anti-aging properties to French and Swiss. It remains only to grow grapes in the Arctic and live forever.
Jars with a dream
Of course, we first of all owe our blooming youthful appearance to high-quality cosmetics, the composition and priorities of which are also changing dramatically today.
For many years, manufacturers have convinced us that wrinkles are an absolute evil, from which only active remedies can save. The brochures cheerfully reported: “Our cream smoothed the skin of the eyelids in 96% of women” or “…reduced forehead wrinkles by 31%.” Such formulations not only stimulated purchase, but along the way forced women to treat fine lines on their own skin as unconditional enemies. Each acquired means inspired hope: the enemy would be, if not wiped off his face, then thrown back by a few millimeters.
But few people thought that the promised results are visible only under a microscope or enlarged promotional photos.
In real life, no one looks at us under a magnifying glass, aging is not the depth of a particular wrinkle, but a change in the image as a whole. And, following the trend towards a positive attitude towards themselves and towards age, beauty brands have changed priorities.
The action of new smoothing agents is based on the establishment of certain processes in the skin that fade with age.
More and more new products appeal not to a specific sign of aging, but to the general condition of the skin.
The terms “optimize”, “supply”, “improve” came to replace the “struggle” and “destruction”. Our face is no longer an enemy, but an ally. And the task of modern creams is not to eliminate something on it, but to provide skin cells with those substances that they are deprived of due to age, poor ecology or other influences.
Of course, anti-wrinkle drugs are still being produced and have an effect, because many people are still saddened by the lines on the face. Another thing is that the effect of new smoothing agents is based on the establishment of certain processes in the skin, which fade with age. So, everything is based on the same actual complex impact. Here, each brand has its own recipe – from natural pomace to complex molecular complexes. It is difficult to say which one is better, because each of us is individual and chooses cosmetics based on our own desires, feelings and habits.
The main thing is to treat age with irony and gratitude. After all, the past years have brought us so many interesting things. And how many of them passed – it does not matter.