As summer fast approaches our minds focus on the bright sunshine and warm temperatures, presenting a perfect opportunity to create the ultimate tan that exudes health and beauty. Or does it?
As the years pass and the sun glow routine continues, the evidence of accelerated aging becomes more apparent. The sagging skin, deeper wrinkles and pigmentation problems beginning staring back at you in the mirror. Sun damage is cumulative and often remains hidden to the naked eye for decades. What’s more is that skin being the largest organ of the body requires daily care and protection not just seasonal.
Ah yes, overindulgence and neglect does have a price and it’s not just skin deep as previously thought.
As well-educated consumers become more intent on maintaining their youthful appearance they realize that there is more required than skin protection during the summer months. The ravages of daily excess uv rays, air pollutants and the effects of temperature extremes promote aging. But the condition of the skin is also greatly affected by a variety of intrinsic factors as well. People are beginning to understand that what they eat and how they live influences their looks, which has lead to the explosion of interest in the category of cosmeceuticals.
Beauty Inside and Out
Cosmeceuticals are products or formulations that contain beneficial natural health ingredients either ingestible or topical in nature. All have been developed to support aging, external beauty and overall health. Familiar substances include vitamins, minerals, botanicals, herbs and various nutrients. A large percentage of these are considered potent antioxidants.
Cellular damage is caused by excess free radicals within the body. These reactive oxygen species negatively impact the skin wearing down the collagen and elastin fibres producing visual signs of aging. Collagen and elastin are both important components of the skin’s tissue. These proteins are found in the dermal layers of the skin helping to hold the skin together, maintaining its youthful appearance, elasticity and tone.
Knowing that free radicals are a major contributor of the detrimental effects and accelerated signs of aging, it stands to reason why antioxidants are some of the most extensively used cosmeceutical ingredients in a vast amount of anti-aging and other beauty preparations. Antioxidants help offset the free radical damage before the cells are heavily attacked thereby preventing excess damage and impairment at the cellular level. They can also help protect against sun damage while reducing inflammation that causes depletion of collagen.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, which is the most effective cosmeceutical of all?
Some potent antioxidants include green tea, CoQ10, alpha lipoic acid, resveratrol, vitamin A, C, E and selenium and carotenoids like lycopene, beta-carotene and lutein. And although there is no one single nutrient that does it all, a combination of ingredients and products when paired together provide benefits to keep you healthy both inside and out.
Applying ingredients topically can deliver benefits directly to the skin ensuring higher concentrations whilst internal supplements offer protection to the structures of the skin and the body as a whole. Many aging and other beauty concerns affect the deeper layers of skin that topical creams are unable to reach. Ingestible supplements work inside out, providing substances to help increase cell renewal and increase circulation enabling the body to build collagen and elastin. And that’s not all. There are other powerful health benefits. For instance, when green tea rich in polyphenols is used in an ingestible form, it helps protect against cancer, reduce cardiovascular disease, stroke and appears to aid in the prevention of osteoporosis.
Conversely, creams and other topicals help deal with the outside in. Research has shown that green tea polyphenols when used topically can help stimulate the proliferation of skin cells. It can help reverse the outward signs of aging and help various skin disorders including rosacea and psoriasis. Furthermore it helps protect against sun damage and sunburn as it reduces inflammation caused by uv radiation and restores glutathione (GSH) levels which is the body’s main endogenous antioxidant. .
The vast amount of current literature and science supports the use of antioxidants and various nutrients in both wellness and beauty. Together a selection of warranted cosmeceuticals can help prevent premature aging of the skin, reduce fine lines and wrinkles and offer a valid solution for maintaining our youth both visually and physically.
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