What to look for in your skin care product

Prolonged exposure to the sun produces dark spots, wrinkles, deep creases and sagging skin. The glossy look and uniform tone are lost. By middle age the scaffolding of the skin tissue, provided by collagen and elastin, is experiencing chronic damage from aging, due to persistent free radical production. Protection against the sun's ultraviolet rays reduces wrinkles and muddy skin tone, giving a younger look.

Anti-oxidants, principally vitamins A, C, and E (tocopherol) are known to boost the benefits of sunscreen by neutralizing damage caused by U.V. light of the sun, through their electron capture property. Vitamin B(riboflavin) is a good sunscreen. It also shares redox property with vitamins A, C and E.

Vitamin A (retinoid) penetrates the skin readily and increases the production of collagen through its oxygen carrying/donating effect. It vitalizes the skin cell. The result is a smoother skin. In excess it could lead to irritation, the peeling or thickening of the skin.

Skin tends to get dry because of water evaporation and dead cells cling to the surface, giving a rougher texture. By exfoliating these dead cells, with say salicylic acid, water retaining cells come to the surface and anti-oxidants penetrate the skin better.

Glycerin and hyluronic acid draw water into the skin and petrolatum and lanolin prevent water from escaping , giving the skin a fresher look.

Resveratrol, a polyphenol anti-oxidant found in red wine, has anti-inflammatory properties. It, sure, will put some glow on your face!

Dr. Oliver Verbe Birnso

Comments

  1. IRepCamerApril 18, 2009 at 8:28 AM

    Thanks a lot for this...I love your blog..Very educative!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Natural Way to Lose Weight and Keep It Off

Most people express the frustration of straining to lose weight only to gain it back in a twinkle of an eye. This is because most weight loss programs are strenuous and not natural. Going to the gym is not always much fun and although you may enjoy playing tennis everyday this may not always be a practical way to lose weight, given that you may have to work on a daily basis to earn a living. If your job involves standing and talking then you may not only have the benefit of earning an income but also an opportunity to lose weight, for close to eight hours. You are more than twice able to spend calories standing than sitting. You are even luckier if your job involves body movement, since physical exercise is the best way to lose weight. If you are overweight, it is advisable to begin any exercise program slowly and build up with time. Although endurance exercise like jogging, may help you lose weight fastest, you will only keep it off if you refrain from lavishly rewarding yourself ...
Read more

How Much of Stress Do We Need?

The G1 phase of the cell cycle determines if a cell is to differentiate or not. During this phase, the cell develops protuberances(cilia) which sense the environment, effect movement and  in turn stimulate autophagy(nerve and muscle cells are much elongated from these protuberances). Levels of Nrf2, which lower levels of free radicals, fall in this pro-differentiation state. The longer the G1 the more likely the switch to differentiation from cell cycling. When there is transient fall in energy resources or growth factors, there will be less proliferation and more pro-differentiation, and when those resources later become available, more pronounced differentiation will take place. Transient spike in psychological, physical or nutritional stress will cause the engagement of the 5-phosphate pentose pathway that yields the anti-oxidant NADPH, and as well produces intermediates for protein synthesis. This promotes cellular prolif...
Read more

Fitness and Holistic Health

The body has a way of matching activity and immunity to metabolism. This is brought about through the circadian rythm. Driven by cortisol and entrained by sunlight and physical routine, this is a natural rhythm that is entrenched to all biological systems. It is governed by the major biological clock proteins  as well as organ-specific clock proteins and their negative feed-back inhibitions, which organ-specific clock proteins are different for different organs, and hence we have different times at which different organs' metabolic activities and functions peak. The clock proteins affect metabolism at the level of transcription in the nucleus. The body has to manage the limited energy resources carefully so that each organ's and system's needs are adequately catered to. To do this, different tissues have optimal functional activities at different times. However, the circadian rhythm is usually reprogramed when life-threatening and stressful contingencies avail, such as c...
Read more