Your skin is a complex organ made up of many nutrients and proteins. These substances determine whether it looks youthful and glowing or dull and wrinkled.
Two of these proteins in your skin are collagen and elastin.
Elastin
Elastin is a stretchy protein your body naturally creates. It is a major component of the organs and tissues in your body that require flexibility in order to function, such as your bladder, lungs, and large blood vessels.
The amount of elastin proteins in your skin decreases as you age, which is why older skin doesn’t have the same ability to bounce back as younger skin does. This effect contributes to your eyelids sagging as you get older.
Collagen
Collagen and elastin are often confused with each other, but they are different proteins with distinct functions. For example, elastin is around 1000 times stretchier than collagen. It also doesn’t factor into wound healing to the same degree collagen does.
Collagen is one of the main proteins in your body, and it serves as one of the foundational building blocks for your skin, hair, muscles, and bones. It keeps your skin firm and strong instead of weak and saggy.
Just like with elastin, the amount of collagen in your body decreases with age, which is why the older you get, the more you’re prone to developing lines and wrinkles.
Fixing Saggy Eyes
There are non-surgical methods that can help improve the appearance of saggy eyes, but once the extra skin is there, it won’t go away — not without the help of surgical options like eyelid surgery.
