Sunday, March 1, 2009

How To Treat The Signs of Aging

By Dan da Silva

Anti-aging skin care products can help this happen. Collagen makes up approximately 25 percent of the total protein in the skin. This area of anti-aging treatment is connected to another area involved in looking young; that of anti-oxidants.

One of the best known anti-oxidants is vitamin C and despite continual research, no-one body involved can decide just exactly how much our body should consume on a daily basis. The problem with vitamin C derived skin care treatments, is they can become oxidized when exposed to the atmosphere, often even before they are used.

More stable skin care treatments are now available that are almost as efficient and actually cost less to manufacture. Unfortunately the anti-oxidant products used to replace vitamin C are not as effective but as vitamin E and lipoic acid can both have the same effect; this is not too much of a problem.

It is found in the blood it is an anti-oxidant that is also used to increase the body's defenses against other diseases. On the other hand, lipoic acid or alpha-lipoic acid is necessary for energy production which keeps us alive; it is in every human cell and another function is to repair skin damage caused by the normal aging process.

Another group of products used to reduce the visible signs of ageing are phytochemicals which are compounds extracted from various plants and used in many anti-ageing skin care products. Phytochemicals prevent occurrence of certain types of cancer.

Some B-vitamins like B5, B6 and B12 are also in use for anti-aging skin care products. This just goes to highlight just how complex and far reaching the whole field of anti-aging skin care products is and why so much more research is required.

There is no doubt that what has been learned so far is only a small part of the jigsaw puzzle but research is moving forward rapidly and it is only a matter of time before a new generation of products becomes available. There may be many challenges still to overcome but in time scientists believe they will succeed in producing more effective anti-aging skin care products that are less expensive and available to more people.

However, man-made skin care regimes should be used only as a supplement. What proportion of the population actually eat healthily, take plenty of exercise, drink sufficient water and obtain restful and regular sleep? - 15275

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