When they were growing up, teenage sunbathers, who are now women in their 30s and early 40s, were told by their mothers that they would look like a cross between Elephant Man and a swamp alligator if they got too much sun. Age spots, rough texture and fine lines would make them recognizable only if they wore nametags.

Hats off to nagging mothers! A Mt. Kisco, New York dermatologist tells More magazine, “I see a number of these women who I calculate to be younger than they actually are. And certainly most look better than their mothers did.”

So, how did these women dodge the sun-damage bullet? Quite simply, they had the brains to listen to their mothers and change their sunbathing habits years ago, becoming slaves to sunscreen and a retinol product.

Sun is to skin as cigarettes are to lungs, so a freeze on sunbathing will allow your skin to repair itself. Your body naturally gravitates toward a state of health and your bodily organs have built-in repair mechanisms. Before there were people we call doctors, children got sick. The children who couldn’t repair themselves did not live to reproduce. If you follow this logic, you can see that we descend from people with cellular repair ability.

But there is a caveat. You can’t erase every bit of damage. Ultra violet (UV) rays have affected not just your skin’s layers, but your skin’s DNA, an injury that is irreversible. If you are exposed to the sun without protection, you will notice brown spots appearing on your face the next day. UV exposure brings out hidden spots.

Plastic surgeons and dermatologists agree that religious use of sunscreen and products like Retin-A delay the damage from erupting on your skin’s surface. To accelerate your skin care repertoire, you can add laser treatments, chemical peels and renewed respect for mother’s advice.