Don't blame genes¹ for aging facial skin. A new study of twins suggests you can blame those coarse wrinkles, brown or pink spots, and dilated² blood vessels³ on too much time in the sun, smoking, and being overweight.

皮肤老化？别怪基因。一项针对双胞胎开展的最新研究表明，皱纹、红褐斑以及血管瘤等皮肤问题和长时间日晒、吸烟以及体重超标有关。

At age 61, identical twins Jeanne (l.) and Susan no longer look exactly alike. Susan (r.) smoked for many years and is an admitted sun worshipper, habits Jeanne does not share. A new study of twins suggests you can blame those coarse wrinkles, brown or pink spots, and dilated blood vessels on too much time in the sun, smoking, and being overweight.

Because twins share genes, but may have different exposures to environmental factors, studying twins allows an, "opportunity to control for genetic⁴ susceptibility感情，敏感性," Dr. Elma D. Baron⁵, at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, and colleagues explain in the latest issue of Archives of Dermatology.

Their analysis of environmental skin-damaging factors in 65 pairs of twins hints that skin aging is related more to environment and lifestyle than genetic factors.

But when it comes to skin cancer, the researchers say their findings support previous reports that both environment and genes affect skin cancer risk.

Baron's team examined facial skin of 130 twins, 18 to 77 years old, who lived mostly in the northern Midwest and Eastern regions of the U.S. who were attending the Twins Days Festival in Ohio in August 2002.

At this time, each of the twins also separately reported how their skin burned or tanned晒黑 without sunscreen遮光剂, their weight, and their history of skin cancer, smoking, and alcohol drinking.

The study group consisted of 52 fraternal兄弟般的，友好的 and 10 identical twin pairs, plus 3 pairs who were unsure of their twin status. Identical twins share all of their genes and fraternal twins share only about half.

From these data, the researchers noted⁶ strong ties, outside of twin status, between smoking, older age, and being overweight, and having facial skin with evidence of environmental damage.

By contrast, sunscreen use and drinking alcohol appeared correlated with对应的关系 lesser⁷ skin damage.

Baron and colleagues say the current findings, which highlight ties between facial aging and potentially avoidable environmental factors -- such as smoking, being overweight, and unprotected overexposure to the sun's damaging rays -- may help motivate people to minimize these risky⁸ behaviors.