Skin aging

Skin aging

Our skin consists of two main layers: the dermis and epidermis.

The dermis is the inner layer of skin that contains nerve fibers, fat cells, blood vessels, sweat and oil glands, and hair follicles.

The dermis also contains collagen and elastin, two proteins that are responsible for the structure and elasticity of the skin itself.

These proteins are subject to the process of aging. The sweat and oil glands in the dermis protect the outer layer of skin with a thin coating of oil and perspiration.
Scientists now believe that the free radical theory of disease also applies to the aging of the skin.

Free radicals are unstable small molecules generated by an oxygen environment which require stabilization by the body's antioxidant system. Free radicals occur throughout every cell in our body simply by virtue of the fact that oxygen is our principal metabolic fuel.

Strong sunlight readily generates free radicals in the skin. Our hands, face, neck, and arms are the areas usually chronically exposed to light. These parts of the body, particularly the face, are where aging of the skin shows up.

The skin protein collagen is particularly susceptible to free radical damage, and when this damage occurs, it causes the collagen protein molecules to break down and then link back up again in a different way; this is known as cross-linking. Collagen cross-linking causes the normally mobile collagen to become stiff and less mobile.

Science clearly substantiates the role that free radicals play in causing skin aging and the fact that topically applied antioxidants confer significant protection and can even partially reverse some aspects of skin aging. Indeed, various animal and human studies have proven that low molecular weight antioxidants, especially vitamins C and E, as well as alpha-lipoic acid exert protective effects against free radical damage (oxidative stress).

How vitamin C protects the skin

Research conducted at the University of Leicester in England, reported this year in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine, contributes to the understanding of the mechanisms involved in vitamin C's ability to help heal and protect the skin. The vitamin is an essential cofactor for the synthesis of collagen, the predominant protein in skin and other connective tissue.

Tiago Duarte, Marcus S. Cooke and G. Don Jones previously reported the discovery of the upregulation of DNA repair in vitamin C supplement users. The current research examined gene expression and DNA damage and repair in cultured human skin cells known as dermal fibroblasts (which play a major role in wound healing) that were exposed to derivative of vitamin C.

"The exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation increases in summer, often resulting in a higher incidence of skin lesions," noted Dr Duarte, who is presently affiliated with the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology in Portugal. "Ultraviolet radiation is also a genotoxic agent responsible for skin cancer, through the formation of free radicals and DNA damage."

In addition to vitamin C's well known ability to scavenge damaging free radicals, Dr Duarte's team uncovered additional mechanisms for the vitamin in repairing the skin and protecting it from further damage. "Our study analyzed the effect of sustained exposure to a vitamin C derivative, ascorbic acid 2-phosphate, in human dermal fibroblasts,” he explained. “We investigated which genes are activated by vitamin C in these cells, which are responsible for skin regeneration. The results demonstrated that vitamin C may improve wound healing by stimulating quiescent fibroblasts to divide and by promoting their migration into the wounded area. Vitamin C could also protect the skin by increasing the capacity of fibroblasts to repair potentially mutagenic DNA lesions."

"Even though vitamin C was discovered over 70 years ago as the agent that prevents scurvy, its properties are still under much debate in the scientific community," Dr Duarte added. "In fact, the annual meeting of the International Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine, which will be held this year in San Francisco, will feature a session dedicated to vitamin C, entitled 'New discoveries for an old vitamin'".

"The study indicates a mechanism by which vitamin C could contribute to the maintenance of a healthy skin by promoting wound healing and by protecting cellular DNA against damage caused by oxidation," concluded Dr Cooke, of the University of Leicester's Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine. "These findings of are particular importance to our photobiology interests, and we will certainly be looking into this further".

Preserving the Beauty of your Face

Preserving the Beauty of your Face

As we advance in years certain lines appear on the face and neck, which we associate with age. But these marks of physical deterioration are more often due to neglect than to years. Some women, for instance who are twenty-five, may appear ten years older.

The preservation of the celebrated beauty of the sixteenth century, Ninon de L'Enclos, is a well-known instance of this theory. This woman was remarkable for her wonderful physical preservations.

At the age of eighty, creditable authorities state she retained the great beauty of her girlhood. Her face having the freshness of youth, and being as free from the lines of age as it had been at twenty and her white-powdered hair, then fashionable, added to her youthful appearance.

Her smoothness of skin and freedom from wrinkles was due solely to persistent daily friction of the skin of her face, combined with an exercise for the muscles of the neck and throat.

Little was known of the laws of scientific physical culture at that time, but as Madam de L'Enclos retained her elasticity of body and graceful figure to the last, it is evident that some system of exercises was systematically and persistently practiced. In that way alone could her youthful condition have been preserved.

Usually the first marks left by time on the human features -- and they are common to us all -- are the wrinkles extending from the nostrils to the corners of the mouth and beyond. As the years advance these are joined by parallel wrinkles, somewhat shorter, about half an inch distant on the cheek. Still later, another, and even shorter, wrinkle appears at a further distance of less than half an inch. Others are also formed, beginning at the corners of the mouth, and extending downward with a slight inward curve.

Wrinkles on the forehead with a slight downward bend at the ends which parallel the line of the eyebrows, appear. These are generally from three to five in number, according to one's age. The wrinkles commonly called "crow's feet" spread, fanwise, from the outer corners, of the eyes over the temples, and are also usually from three to five in number.

The skin below the eyes becomes loose and creased. These creased lines start from the corners of the eyes, slightly curving and overlapping each other. By this time one or two lines usually appear at the sides of the neck, commencing at a point back of the ears, extending below the jaw, and slanting downward to the throat. Immediately behind the ears, too, the skin becomes slightly loose; two short wrinkles form, and a line appears extending down to, and under, the neck. At the next stage a great number of very short, tiny lines begin to appear all over the face and neck -- some parallel, others intersecting. These lines give the skin a withered appearance. The freshness of youth has departed. Now, the skin under the chin becomes loose, too. All of the long lines meet and overlay and interweave, and combine with the short ones, just appearing to form a tangled web of crisscrossing that deepen as the years advance. This is the skein of life. This is the spinning of time. And the pattern is never beautiful!

The only sure method of erasing these lines is by friction. And this is best accomplished with the palms of the hands. This treatment, if began when the disfiguring lines first appear, and if methodically and daily practiced along with the exercises for the muscles of the face and neck, will surely result in a very marked and satisfactory improvement in the personal appearance.