Attention, lady urbanites: it may be time to give up on city living. This, just in from the Daily Mail:
Women who live in the countyside look younger for longer, a study suggests.
City living makes the skin age 10 per cent faster than a rural existence.
The story is based on a study of 200 city and countryside women with “similar lifestyles” who were exposed to “comparable amounts of ultraviolet radiation”. Apparently, the pollutants in city air damage proteins in the skin.
The piece goes on to tell the story of Elizabeth Hunt, 46, who, by living in “rural Kent”, has achieved an appearance that “belies her age”. She told the publication:
My husband and I grow our own vegetables and try not to use supermarkets. Fresh air and long country walks help, too, but city life was never for me.
So there you have it. Convenient as it may be to live so close to your beloved cupcake shops and department stores (handbags! shoes!), your Sex in the City lifestyle is actually just making you look ugly and old.
There is a happy ending, of sorts. The study was funded by Proctor & Gamble, which produces and sells, among other things, anti-aging products. So, if you must wreck your skin by living in the city, at least you have easy access to the kind of over-priced face creams which can momentarily persuade you they will sort it out again. Huzzah.
