My post-beach recovery used to take 3 days at 50. At 58 it's a 2-week project.

I turned 58 in April and I've been pretty diligent about skin since my early 40s. Daily SPF 50, tretinoin three nights a week (started at 0.025, graduated to 0.05), a vitamin C serum I rotate depending on what's on sale.

In the last two years the math has changed.

A weekend gardening trip in May where I forgot to reapply sunscreen on my chest used to mean three or four days of slightly tight pink skin and then back to normal. This year it took almost three weeks, and there's a patch near my collarbone that still hasn't fully evened out. My routine hasn't changed. Recovery just takes longer now.

I asked my derm and she gave me the boring true answer. After menopause cell turnover slows down, ceramides drop off, and whatever antioxidant reserve the skin pulls from gets thinner. Topicals can only do so much from the outside, she said. She suggested I look at what I was putting in.

Sleep is handled. Protein I had to actually count for a couple of weeks to realize I was eating maybe 60g a day, not enough for someone strength training twice a week, so I fixed that.

Oral antioxidants is where I've spent the last six or seven months experimenting. Astaxanthin at 12mg for three months made my skin look more hydrated but didn't change recovery time. Last fall I did a stretch on NAD precursors (Tru Niagen, then a generic NR) and felt sharper mentally but couldn't see any skin difference. CoQ10's been on my shelf for years and I honestly can't tell.

The one that actually changed something was ergothioneine, which I'd never heard of until a friend in Boston said her dermatologist mentioned it. Apparently it accumulates in tissues that take oxidative damage and skin is one of the highest-concentration sites in the body.

Three months in, my most recent gardening burn cleared in about nine days. Faster than the May one but still not what it used to be.

Could be placebo. Could be the protein fix kicking in at the same time. Sticking with it through summer either way.

Submitted June 22, 2026 at 03:02AM by chamhezar https://ift.tt/apj8s1u