IN my job as this newspaper’s resident beauty skeptic, I receive a lot of books about longevity with preposterous titles like “Stop Aging, Start Living,” “The New Anti-Aging Revolution: Stopping the Clock” and “The Science of Staying Young.”

These books contain some practical advice. But at this stage of medical knowledge, you have about as much chance of thwarting time as you do in personally preventing an ice storm, so you can start your resolutions for the New Year right now by forgoing such books and saving about $24.95 (for a hardcover) apiece.

There is no way around the fact that every body  skin included  ages biologically over time, a process over which humans have forever grieved. “It is the blight man was born for,” the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote in 1880, anticipating the Botox era.

Image Credit... Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Still, many skin experts recommend practical steps to maintain skin as it ages and to mitigate external factors  like sun exposure and chronic stress  that could accelerate changes.