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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Since identical twins have are very similar genetically, then differences in how their faces age, will be mainly due to environmental and lifestyle differences.

Therefore, in an effort to tease out what makes a face look older, nearly 200 sets of identical twins were compared. The twins were dressed alike and hair pulled off their faces, so that the comparison focused on the faces. Still pictures were taken, and then an independent panel was asked to assess whether one twin looked older than the other.

The factors that were found by the study to accelerate aging were smoking, sun exposure (particularly outdoor sports, such as golf, where long periods of time are spent outside), stress and anti-depressant use.

Those that were divorced rather than married or widowed were generally judged to be older. It was not clear whether depression is aging, or anti-depressant use is aging, or antidepressants cause more relaxation in the face making it look older.

Those that had been overweight before age 40 and then lost the weight after 40 were judged older, whereas those that had put on weight after 40 were judged younger looking. The loss of weight makes sense since as we age we lose deep fat from our face (see the post, Facial aging is mainly due to changes in fat pockets).

Take a look at a slideshow of some of the twins and which ones were considered older. It is interesting to look at the pairs. I agreed with most of the assessments, but there was one in particular (number 4), I thought was the other way round. The woman on the left has stronger creases between her eyes, but looking at the lower face I thought she looked younger. (The slide show is on the NYT website. You have to sign up to look at the site, but there are no fees or strings attached in doing so.)

See what you think.

photo credit: tmd

[tags]identical twins, older, aging, environmental factors{/tags]

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Usually when rejuvenation of skin is discussed, making new collagen is the suggested as the way to make skin look younger. Another structural protein that is found in the skin is elastin. As its name suggests elastin helps make tissues elastic. As we age elastin breaks down and the elastin that we have becomes less elastic.

New research suggests that high intensity red light can affect the elastic and strip the surrounding water molecules away and this makes elastin more elastic. In the skin this can restore some of the skins elasticity. This all I can say about how it works since most of the science publication was incomprehensible to me.

I did gather that the researchers tried both LEDs (light emitting diodes, for example the display on a digital clock) and the stronger WARP 10( device) laser) to generate the red light. The WARP 10 is a small device that puts out very high intensity light with a peak at 670 nm. The WARP 10 was developed for pain relief in the battlefield.

Take a look at before and after pictures, it certain helps but is not a miracle. See the press release.

photo credit: JasonJT

Technorati Tags: red light, wrinkles, elastin, LED

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So which treatments increase the production of collagen?

The answer is retinoids, carbon dioxide laser resurfacing and injection of injections of cross-linked hyaluronic acid.

Collagen is a structural protein that is found throughout the body. Collagen subunits assemble to form long fibers. Collagen fibers are tough and are responsible for maintaining the structure of many cells and tissues.

In skin, it is the loss of the collagen fibers that is partly responsible for aging. As aging occurs collagen that surrounds cells in the skin becomes more and more fragmented and so the structural surrounding of cells is starting to get broken down. The result is skin that is looser, has less elasticity and gets damaged more easily.

The treatments that increase collagen production result in more intact collagen surrounding the cells of the skin. This increases the structural integrity of the skin and makes it look better.

Retinoic acid (tretinoin, retin-A, renova), retinol and retinyl palmitate are the most common retinoids in over the counter skin products. These compounds have been shown in numerous studies to both decrease the appearance of wrinkles and to lighten pigmentation cause by the sun.

Carbon dioxide laser resurfacing is pretty self explanatory, being the removal of the surface of the skin with a laser. When the skin heals there is increased synthesis of collagen. This treatment is very effective, but requires either local or general anesthesia and takes weeks to heal.

Cross-linked hyaluronic acid is a dermal filler. One thing that stimulates the fibroblasts of the skin to make more collagen is to be stretched. When filler is placed under the skin there is some stretching, which stimulates the fibroblasts to make more collagen.

So if you want younger looking skin you can try one or more of these options. There may be some other products that also increase collagen production, but without unbiased testing it is hard to evaluate the claims of companies.

The next post will be more about the retinoids and what you should look for in a product.

photo credit: Vik Nanda

Technorati Tags: collagen, skin rejuvenation, retinoids, carbon dioxide laser resurfacing, cross-linked hyaluronic acid

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The new study compared the effects of estradiol cream on skin of the face, the arm and the hip. The face and arms were considered to be sun damaged whereas the hip was not.

In both men and women there was improved collagen synthesis in the hip area but not on the face or forearms. The authors conclude that topical estradiol is not an effective treatment fof sun damaged skin.

However, before we throw the baby out with the bath water, there are a couple of things to consider.

First the study was only 2 weeks long. It is possible that long term application could start to increase the amount of collagen.

The study used estradiol which is the most common estrogen in the premenopausal woman but is not the only one. Perhaps one of the other forms would be effective.

Perhaps the estrogen cream did not penetrate into the sun damaged skin which tends to be coarser. Possibly a different formulation of cream would have been effective. It is generally accepted that estrogen taken by mouth does seem to increase collagen production. Interestingly the authors discuss a study that combined both topical application of estrogen with estrogen pills, that found increased collagen production.

The study does show that there are more differences between none damaged and sun damaged skin than had previously been thought. Perhaps the differences in the effectiveness of estrogen may provide more information for improving sun damaged skin.

photo credit: Michael_L

Technorati Tags: estrogen cream, estradiol, sum damaged skin, collagen

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Both products contain kinerase or N6-furfuryladenine. The lotion, but not the cream, also contains retinyl palmitate, which is a retinoid that is converted in the skin to retinoic acid (retin-A). The lotion therefore packs more power but for some people may be more irritating unlike the cream.

N6-furfuryladenine is found in most cells of the body. Originally it was isolated from plants but has been found in nuclei of cells including human. Another common name is kinetin. In the scientific literature, kinetin is the name that is used.

Studies of keratinocytes (skin cells) and fibroblasts (also found in skin) have shown that kinerase treatment delays aging, particularly in the presence of high levels of calcium. In human studies there is some evidence of improved skin tone and more even pigmentation, and reduction in minor wrinkles. Recently kinerase has been found to be helpful for rosacea.

As well as being a signaling molecule that plays a role in regulation of maintenance and repair of cells, kinerase has been shown to have antioxidant effects. Additionally there is evidence that N6-furfuryladenine may improve the skin barrier and so reduce the loss of moisture from the skin.

As people get older they are more likely to become calcium deficient. Since, as stated above, high calcium levels added to the effect of kinerase, it may be that as well as reducing the rate of osteoporosis, calcium may help slow aging of skin too.

Kinerase Cream and Kinerase Lotion can be found at my favorite online skin store Dermadoctor.
Currently they have free shipping on domestic orders over $49.

Technorati Tags: kinerase, kinetin, N6-furfuryladenine, skin, pigmentation

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In a number of trials studying memory in the elderly (humans and dogs), have suggested that there may be improvements in memory for those taking PS supplements. There are studies that have not shown an improvement, such as those testing patients who already have diagnosed Alzheimer’s. Probably it depends on who was tested and what types of tests were used. The data is sufficient for the FDA to allow labeling that PS may reduce the risk of cognitive dysfunction in the elderly.

Since PS is required for the normal function of membranes it may be that some people have insufficient levels in the cells of the brain.

PS is found in a range of foods including fish, poultry, leafy greens and beans. Supplements used to be made from cow brain which has high levels. However, since the outbreak of mad cow disease, brain is no longer used. Most lipids (fats) are not very stable when isolated, so if you buy supplements containing lipids, buy from a good source, get fresh batches and store carefully.

Recent research (PubMed) has shown that application of the skin may reduce the effects of UV damage to the skin. As we all know sunlight can damage skin. For example there is a decrease in procollagen (the precursor to collagen) expression. PS treated or untreated young skin was exposed to damaging amounts of UV. The PS treated skin showed less effects of the UV such as having a smaller decrease in procollagen expression than the untreated.

Aged skin (on the buttocks) was treated several weeks, three times per week and saw improvement in procollagen sysnthesis. So PS may soon be found in skin creams.

PS may be good for the inside and the outside!

photo credit: eschipul

Technorati Tags: phosphatidylserine, PS, memory, cognitive function, skin, aging, procollagen

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It turns out that we have fat compartments in our face. These compartments are separate from each other and are contained within fibrous connective tissue.

In young people there is a smooth transition between these compartments. However, as we age the different compartments change in different ways. These fat pockets can change shape, and shrink or grow. The result is that there is no longer a smooth transition between the compartments and where they have shrunk the skin gets looser and the face more hollow. These changes are part of our faces looking older.

The shrinking of some of the fat compartments probably plays a much bigger role in having loose skin and a saggy look, than the skin thinning and reduction in the synthesis of collagen.

One of the major fat pockets for affecting how we look is a deep fat pocket in the cheek. When this fat compartment shrinks, the nasolabial folds (the folds that rum down beside and nose and mouth) become more obvious, the under eye area and our upper lip all start to look older. Replacement of this fat will reduce the prominence of the nasolabial fold, fill out the area below the eye and make the upper lip look fuller.

These new findings are sure to have an impact on the methods that are used for skin rejuvenation. As more is learned about these fat compartments, targeted techniques will be developed using fillers for fat pockets including the deep fat pocket in the face.

It is probable that the use of targeted fillers will often replace face lifts. The returning of the face to a youthful shape which will make the skin less loose, rather than tightening the skin over an “old shaped” face will look more natural and not involve surgical incisions.

The research is published in Plast. Reconstr. Surgery (2008) 121: pages 1804-9 (PubMed), and the same journal volume, pages 2107-2112 (PubMed not yet available).

photo credit: Linds K

Technorati Tags: skin, facial aging, fat pockets, filler, cheek

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