Mona SharmaCelebrity nutritionist and wellness advocate

🧬 Why Most “Anti-Aging” Skincare Doesn’t Actually Work

7 May 2025 · 0 min

Watch on YouTube

0:26

In this YouTube conversation, Mona Sharma and a guest discuss why many anti‑aging skincare products fall short, emphasizing that societal pressure pushes women to chase youthful looks rather than healthy, vibrant skin. They explain that skin aging is driven by two main processes: intrinsic aging (natural cellular senescence) and extrinsic aging (environmental stressors). UV exposure is highlighted as the primary extrinsic factor, with pollution, diet, lifestyle choices, and alcohol also accelerating aging. The speakers note that genetics account for roughly 10‑20% of skin aging, while lifestyle choices make up about 80%, underscoring that individuals have substantial control over their skin’s health through prevention and lifestyle adjustments.

For women, despite knowing better understanding that we should get to the root cause, understanding prevention, we're still caught in this society where we're taught that younger is better. We have to look a certain way. And instead of the pro aging aspect, so wanting to look your age, but just wanting to look vibrant and healthy. And I think that word prevention is just so, so, so key. So can you maybe paint a picture? What would you say are the biggest drivers that age our skin? What triggers our skin to age faster?
Yes. So basically we have what we call intrinsic aging. You know, your cells fighting, and then eventually they accumulate like old cells. And that's happening internally as a natural process. And then we have the extrinsic aging process. That's basically all the environmental stressors that we are exposed on a daily basis. And UV exposure is the major one that can accelerate skin aging. So in terms of environmental stresses, UV aging, pollution, obviously what we eat, our diet or lifestyle, this has a major impact in our skin as well. So usually we say that our genetics about 10 to 20% and our lifestyle is about 80%. So a lot of what we can do to manage our skin ages, it's in our hands to control, which makes it more exciting because it shows that we are in charge.
Living in our modern world, we're just exposed to so many things. And alcohol, I'm guessing is another one that's up there, right?
Alcohol, sleep, smoking, stress. I would say that this is probably like major drivers of aging, inflammation.