Basking in the sun used to be really fun - until you found yourself worrying about

getting rid of age spots that suddenly covered your hands, and especially your face. It would've been cute when you were three when they were called "freckles." But now that you're decades beyond that age, these age spots don't say 'cute' anymore, rather, they're screaming 'old'.

Age spots are caused by too much exposure to the sun, or they may just run in your family. Melanin, those pigment cells found in your skin are rapidly manufactured by your skin as a natural response to the sun's harmful rays. By producing more melanin, your skin builds up a barrier against further sun damage, which takes the form of brown spots - more commonly known as age spots.

Since this is a growing problem for most people, especially women, several age spot treatments have been developed to remove sun spots that are wreaking havoc over their body. There are chemical peels, laser resurfacing treatments, as well as creams just for removing age spots.

However the most important thing that you can do is prevent your skin from getting brown age spots or liver spots. Taking care of your skin, protecting it from the sun and using creams and eating healthy vitamins are the best you can do to avoid age pots on the face or any part of the body.

Since most of the age spots are caused by sun damage, the best protection you can take, is to avoid over exposure to the sun. Wear proper clothes, sunglasses and one of thing you should always use is sunscreen. Apply it to your body on every area, especially your arms, face and legs that are more exposed to the sun. If you skin is very light you should take special protection on your skin, because your skin is more vulnerable to developing skin age spots because you have less melanin. The other problem with people with very light skin is that is more difficult to reduce age spots on the body.

Another cause of hyper pigmentation in age spots is improper skin care. If you had acne pimples, wounds or rashes, they leave a dark spot. However this marks disappear easily after some time unless you expose your skin to the sun. If you expose your acne dark spots to the sun, it will be very difficult to get rid of age spots.

Your genes could affect your skin, sometimes when you inherit a skin that is vulnerable to the sun and skin damage or even allergies, you have to be very careful.

Be careful about what you put on your face too, as you may develop age spots as a result of using harsh chemicals on your face. As we mentioned earlier, melanin in the skin acts as a protective barrier against damage, and harsh chemicals can have the same effect - it may leave your face or any part of your body with dark spots and if excessively damaged, removing the age spots may take you quite a while, not to mention a lot of sessions with numerous age spot treatments.