Dr Fiona McCarthy details the biological influences on ageing and outlines preventative methods for patients.
Inflammation is now well-established as the principle biological mechanism in a wide variety of diseases including malignancy, autoimmune, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease, to name but a few.1-4 The link between chronic inflammation and the ageing process is now commonly termed ‘inflammaging’ and describes the low grade asymptomatic inflammation that characterises physiological ageing.5 The pivotal role of inflammaging in the context of skin health is the focus of much interest, and a growing body of evidence confirms the multitude of causative links between the inflammatory process and aged skin.
Extrinsic and intrinsic factors
Skin ageing is a multifactorial process in which causes have been simplified into intrinsic and extrinsic factors, both of which are linked to inflammation. Intrinsic ageing is often described as the…
