Most skin lighteners work by a similar mechanism. They reduce the activity of an enzyme that is involved in the formation of melanin. For most lighteners this enzyme is tyrosinase. A common form of albinism is a mutation in tyrosinase.

Examples of skin lighteners that work by inhibiting tyrosinase are hydroquinone and arbutin. Both are effective at lightening pigmented areas. Creams containing hydroquinone are the most commonly prescription for pigmentation problems such as melasma and acne scars. However, they are not effective for everybody, can be irritating and in a few people can cause darkening of the skin due to inflammation.

Recently a number of peptides have been developed that also inhibit tyrosinase.

A peptide is a short string of amino acids, sometimes called an oligopeptide. A longer string of amino acids is a protein. Strings of amino acids, of any length, are also called polypeptides. (Don’t ask me why it is so complicated.)

Peptide length can be shown by using the greek numbers so a decapeptide has ten amino acids. An example of a decapeptide is Lumixyl which is a tyrosinase inhibitor.

It has been reported that Lumixyl is as effective as hydroquinone in reducing pigmentation but is not as irritating. It is also suggested that Lumixyl is less likely to increase pigmentation in darker skin than more irritating skin lighteners. Plus it can be used with other treatments including other skin lighteners, chemical peels and lasers. Currently Lumixyl is only available at spas and dermatologists offices.

Two other new peptides, currently called P3 and P4, have been shown to be effective in inhibiting tyrosinase. These peptides are an octopeptide (RADSRADC) and a decapeptide (YRSRKYSSWY).

These two peptides were shown to be strong inhibitors of tyrosinases without the toxic effects that hydroquinone can have. These peptides seem to act on tyrosinases in different ways, so combined they may be very effective.

If the results with Lumixyl, P3 and P4 continue to show that they are effective at reducing hyperpigmentation and are less irritating than hydroquinone and some of the other skin lighteners, it is likely that they will replace hydroquinone as the major skin lighteners.

When the these new lighteners become generally available this will give more choice, and increase the chance that everybody can find a lightener that works for them. Plus there are the added benefits of less irritation, and the risk of the treatment actually increasing hyperpigmentation.

photo credit: Amanda_Joelle

Technorati Tags: peptide, polypeptide, Lumixyl, tyrosinase, melasma, hyperpigmentation, hydroquinone, skin lighteners, peptide skin lightener

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Though it is still somewhat controversial, there seems to be some good evidence that some LED systems have anti-aging effects on the skin. There is data that the Gentle Waves LED Photomodulation System can reduce fine lines and wrinkles, probably through increased collagen production, and that it may fade hyperpigmentation and redness.

LED systems have also been found to be good for scar prevention and treating acne, and very effective for wound healing, being used for healing by the military and NASA.

So what is LED Photomodulation?

LED stands for light-emitting diode. LED’s can emit light across a broad spectrum through infra red, visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. They can emit light with high intensity.

LEDs illuminate a wider area than a laser does, permitting easier treatment of larger areas of skin. They are not as strong as lasers and do not have the high risk of damage, particularly to the eyes that lasers do. This means that LEDs can be safely and easily used round the eyes (periorbital area).

In photomodulation systems the light is not at a continual intensity but pulses in a preset pattern; giving short blasts of light to the face.

Part of the problem with investigating the effectiveness of LED phototherapy is that the effectiveness overall, and for particular conditions varies with light wavelength. The Gentle Waves LED Photomodulation System uses amber LEDs. Take a look at the before and after pictures on the website of the company that developed the system. These are probably the best.

The treatment regime is generally once or twice per week for about six weeks.

Would I buy one? If it was cheap enough, probably.

photo credit: Matt From London

Technorati Tags: LED, photomodulation, phototherapy fine lines, wrinkles, periorbital, skin, anti-aging

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Like Botox it is neurotoxin, both of which are derived from the food poisoning organism Clostridium botulinum type A.

Dysport has been approved in the UK for a number of years, and is slightly more expensive than Botox there. It was approved for use before Botox in New Zealand.

Like Botox, the first use of Dysport was for a number of nerve and eye conditions such as spasticity (certain muscles constantly receive the signal to tighten) and strabismus (improper alignment of the eyes).

Both of these neurotoxins work by acting on nerve terminals. This stops the nerve being able to signal its muscle to contract. The muscles relax. They become paralyzed. The relaxation of muscles in the forehead results in frown lines being much less obvious.

A study suggested that Dysport may spread further from the injection site than Botox, though this has not been confirmed. Greater spreading would mean less injections, but may increase the possibility of other muscles being temporarily paralyzed.

A more recent study reported that Dysport is longer lasting in African American women than white women. It was also more effective in women with less facial muscle volume. This suggests that the dose should be individually adjusted for facial muscle mass.

The effectiveness seems to be similar to Botox.

Since Botox is so established in the US, I wonder whether Dysport, since it does not seem to offer any major advantage will take off in the US.

Would you/do you use Botox?

photo credit: upturnedface

Technorati Tags: Dysport, Botox, muscle, neurotoxin

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I have written before about Protect & Perfect (An Anti-Aging Cream That Really Works).

If you read this previous post you will see that it has been scientifically tested and shown to reduce lines.

There was a test by The University of Manchester that showed significant reduction of wrinkles and lines in those study participants who used the cream, but not in those who got a placebo. Check out the article and pictures. They are pretty convincing.

There are two choices for the face Boots No7 Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum and Boots No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum. Both have been shown to reduce wrinkles. The Manchester study was on the Intense Beauty Serum.

Interestingly the price is cheaper in the US than it is in the UK. Boots is the name of the drugstore (called a chemist in the UK). It was started by John Boot in 1849. Their No7 of skin and makeup products is the number one selling brand in the UK. Boots was the company that developed ibuprofen in 1960.

The Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum is $22.99 and there is a buy 2 get 30% off the third offer. The original Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum is $19.99.

There is also a Protect & Perfect Moisturising Body Serum for $19.99.

For something that actually works, I think the prices are really low. How many $70+ creams, lotions and potions have we all bought, that were totally useless?

It works and it feels great on your skin. My mother has been sending me supplies from the UK; which with the postage makes it much more expensive.

I am so excited I have already placed my order. I got some Intense Serum and some Body Serum.

Technorati Tags: Boots No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Body Serum, Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum, Protect & Perfect Body Serum, wrinkles, reduce wrinkles, lines

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Never thought about this before. My guess was that the ridges make us more sensitive to touch.

I heard an interview on the radio with a researcher who works on hands, claws etc. He has just published a paper that says that fingerprints do not improve our grip. The reverse is true, there is less friction so there is less grip.

In the experiments a graduate student had his fingers and thumbs attached to a machine that pressed his hand and dragged it against a Perspex sheet, and the amount of friction was measured. As the poor graduate student’s hand was pressed harder the level of friction on the skin did not increase as fast as expected.

Thinking about it, this makes sense. Having ridges on our fingers means that the whole surface is not in contact with something, but just the smaller area of the ridges.

The researcher suggested that the ridges protect our fingers from damage by not gripping so well. As he mentioned, areas that have a strong ridge pattern are more resistant to blisters than the flatter areas. For instance when doing things that involve friction and the skin on our hands,we are less likely to get blisters on our finger tips than smoother areas of the hand.

Other theories of why we have fingerprints are the sensitivity to touch, and something to do with channeling water away, so when are hands are wet we don’t lose so much grip.

Sometimes I find it amazing what we don’t know. Since skin is obvious and easily accessible for study, you would think we would know pretty much everything about it.

photo credit: Steve & Jemma Copley

Technorati Tags: fingerprint, grip, friction, skin

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In the US, those that live in the south have a lower overall risk of cancer, with certain types of cancer including prostate and bone cancers, having a significantly lower incidence.

More recently, research has suggested that vitamin D has an anti-cancer role. As more evidence has accumulated, most researchers feel that low levels of vitamin D increase the overall risk of getting cancer.

As an example, a review of a number of studies on cancer, determined that having adequate vitamin D levels will decrease the risk of colon cancer by 50%.

Additionally, there is evidence that those having cancer surgery and treatments in the summer have an increased chance of surviving over those who have surgery or treatments in the winter. It has been suggested that this is due the fact that most people have higher levels of vitamin D in summer.

Vitamin D, often called the sunshine vitamin, is made in our skin in response to strong sunlight, or can be obtained from a few foods, or in supplements. Vitamin D is found in cod liver oil (which is also high in vitamin A and so the correct dose should not be exceeded), fish, and fortified foods, including dairy products.

A new model (Garland, C Annals of Epidemiology, 2009, in press) suggests a potential mechanism for the role of vitamin D. Cancer arises when cells change and stop behaving normally. One thing that happens is that cells stop communicating normally with the cells around them. This disrupted communication which is know as disjunction, may enable cancer cells, which are more aggressive than normal cells, to take over an area. The model suggests that in a low vitamin D environment that cells are less sticky and so a cancer can develop more easily.

Whether this model is correct or not, it is clear that everybody should get enough vitamin D, either from the sun or from supplements.

photo credit: Jon Haynes Photography

Technorati Tags: vitamin D, cancer, anti-cancer, sunbelt, skin

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For instance, over the weekend I was looking at the ingredient lists for a number of cosmetic products, including daily chemical peel products and after peel moisturizers. Many of the products had tea extracts in them, usually called extract of Camellia sinensis. Additionally, tea extracts have been suggested to be helpful for treating skin damaged in cancer patients after radiation.

White tea has been suggested to help with obesity. An extract of white tea has been shown to stop the formation of new fat cells, and to make the existing fat cells start to break down the fat that they contain.

So what is white tea? I had no idea. It made from the same plant as regular tea, but only young still downy white buds and young leaves are used, and not fermented like regular tea. If you are going to make it and drink it, apparently you should not use boiling water. The water used for brewing should be quite a bit cooler than boiling water. This is supposed to be the best for its delicate taste. White tea is lower in caffeine but higher in antioxidants than regular tea.

Another news item suggests that an African tea that is used in traditional Nigeria medicine may help with diabetes. It is made from leaves of the lovely sounding Rauvolfia vomitoria and the fruit of Citrus aurantium. The tea helped mobilize fat, and in a small human trial after 4 months there was better glucose control. The genus Rauvolfia, a tropical evergreen shrub, is widely used in folk medicine and has been shown to lower blood pressure, have psychological effects, be a hypnotic and can irritate those with digestive diseases.

In Asia though the population tends to smoke heavily there is less cardiovascular disease and cancer than in the west. This is known as the Asian paradox. It has been suggested that part of the reason, for the lower levels of these diseases, is the high consumption of tea, particularly green tea.

Green Tea has also been suggested to have antibacterial activity too.

Low calorie and healthy. So, have a cuppa (used in the UK, for a cup of tea).

photo credit: A.Sevik

Technorati Tags: teas, white tea, green tea, Rauvolfia, obesity, fat cells, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, skin, chemical peel, antibacterial

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Phosphatidylserine, often abbreviated to PS, is a fat that is found in the membranes of all the cells of the body.

The main use of purified phosphatidylserine is as a dietary supplement. It has been suggested to slow the loss of memory and perhaps be useful in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. The FDA allow the following two statements “Consumption of phosphatidylserine may reduce the risk of cognitive dysfunction in the elderly” and “Consumption of phosphatidylserine may reduce the risk of dementia in the elderly”.

One of the highest concentrations of phosphatidylserine is found in the brain. Phosphatidylserine supplements used contain the fat extracted from bovine brain. However, this was stopped after the outbreaks of mad cow disease. Now supplements are made from soybean, which has lower concentrations.

Recent research looked at the effect of skin that had been damaged by UV. Both young and old test subjects had phosphatidylserine applied to a small patch of skin on their buttocks. In the young, an area that included the treated patch, was given a dose of UV irradiation, to mimic sun damage.

The area in the younger test subjects that had been treated with the phosphatidylserine reduced some of the changes that occur with sun damage. In the older subjects there was increased procollagen and MMP1 detected. Increased level of both these proteins are related to slowing aging.

So look for phosphatidylserine anti-aging creams. Perhaps we should start breaking open phosphatidylserine capsules and smearing them on our skin to slow aging.

photo credit: - chanelle

Technorati Tags: phosphatidylserine, sun damage, slow aging, procollagen, MMP1, UV damage

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The cream that does work is No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum.

The down side of this anti-aging cream is that it is currently only available in the UK. It is made and sold by Boots, a drug manufacturer and chemist (pharmacy) chain.

The last time I was in England the cream was £17.99 which is about $27, and is often on a 3 for the price of 2 offer.

In trials being published in British Journal of Dematology, the cream was shown to increase the expression of fibrillin-1. A role of fibrillin-1 is to make tissues, including skin, more elastic. The loss of skin elasticity is a major contributor to the formation of wrinkles.

Having shown that fibrillin-1 expression was increased, the effect on wrinkles was tested. Sixty volunteers, 11 male and 49 female between the ages of 45 and 80, used either No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum or a placebo cream for a year. It was blinded study, which means until the last measurement had been taken; neither the researchers, or the study participants knew who had which cream.

After a year, 70% of those using No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum had a significant reduction in wrinkles, compared to those using the placebo.

Check out the before and after pictures in this news item from the University of Manchester.

Unlike the retinoids, No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum is not irritating. In fact it leaves your skin with a nice silky feeling.

No, you can’t have any of my tubes of No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum. My Mum sent me three tubes for my birthday a couple of months ago.

photo credit: fidophoto

Technorati Tags: No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum, fibrillin-1, skin elasticity, reduction in wrinkles

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There is a woman at work who has had some “work” done on her face. She now has tighter skin with some wrinkles that were starting to get quite obvious, now, not very noticeable. Does she look younger?

Knowing what she looked like before and seeing the smoother skin, the perception might be of looking younger. When I thought about what I think what age she appears, I realized that I still think she looked the same age as before the surgery, just different. What is making me think that though she has smoothed out wrinkles she does not look any younger? I have no idea. A few people I quizzed at work, also thought she looked different but not any younger.

A new study suggests that both when judging both age and fatigue that the eye area is important. In the study, participants were asked to the rate the age of pictures of a number of different faces, while their left eye was tracked with eye tracking software to see where they looked.

The eye area was viewed 46% of the time that the face was viewed. The lower eye area and the brow where the two areas that were viewed the most. After the eyes, the forehead and then the nose were looked at the most. In those perceived to be the oldest by those viewing the photographs they also focused on the glabella (this is apparently the area above the nose between the eyebrows).

Guess the take home message is that I need to focus on under the eyes and glabella. I would like to see how images altered to increase or decrease creases in these areas affected perception of age.

photo credit: Phillie Casablanca

Technorati Tags: perception of age, eye area, under the eyes, glabella

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