Don't blame genes for aging facial skin. 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 genetic susceptibility," Dr. Elma D. Baron, 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 without sunscreen, their weight, and their history of skin cancer, smoking, and alcohol drinking.

    The study group consisted of 52 fraternal 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 noted 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 lesser 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 risky behaviors.

    皮膚老化？別怪基因。一項針對雙胞胎開展的最新研究表明，皺紋、紅褐斑以及血管瘤等皮膚問題和長時間日曬、吸煙以及體重超標有關。

    位于美國俄亥俄州克里夫蘭的凱斯西儲醫學院的艾爾瑪？D?巴倫博士及其同事在最新一期的《皮膚病學檔案》中解釋稱，由于雙胞胎擁有相同的基因，但可能受到的環境因素的影響不同，因此研究雙胞胎可以"對基因易感性加以控制".

    研究人員對65對雙胞胎的皮膚損傷環境影響因素進行分析后發現，環境和生活方式對皮膚老化的影響大于遺傳因素。

    但在皮膚癌的問題上，研究人員稱他們的發現與之前的研究一樣，認為環境和基因對患皮膚癌風險均有影響。

    巴倫的研究小組對130個年齡從18歲到77歲的雙胞胎的面部皮膚進行了研究。這些雙胞胎大部分居住在美國中西部偏北地區和東部地區，他們于2002年8月參加了在俄亥俄州舉行的"雙胞胎節".

    在這項研究中，每對雙胞胎也分別報告了他們的皮膚在沒有涂防曬霜的情況下曬傷或曬黑的情況、他們的體重、患皮膚癌、吸煙以及喝酒的歷史。

    這些雙胞胎中包括52對異卵雙胞胎和10對同卵雙胞胎，以及三對不確定自己屬于哪種類型的雙胞胎。同卵雙胞胎的基因完全相同，而異卵雙胞胎只有大約一半的基因相同。

    研究人員通過分析這些數據發現，不論哪種類型的雙胞胎，受到環境傷害的面部皮膚與吸煙、年齡增長、體重超標有很大關系。

    相比之下，使用防曬霜以及喝酒的人皮膚損傷較小。

    巴倫及其同事稱，目前的這項發現強調了皮膚老化和可避免的環境因素之間的關系，如抽煙、體重超標、無防護措施地過度日曬等，該研究可以促使人們盡量避免這些傷害皮膚的風險行為。