To answer these questions, we did a bit of research. Our team has delved into the facts to unearth more information on anti-aging creams.
First off, what’s in them?
To truly understand what works, we have to take a look at what these serums are made of! In doing so, we identified some of the main components that give anti-aging creams their umph. These include pentapeptides, collegan, sirtuins, and resveratol.
Now, a main component of many of the anti-aging treatment technologies focus on compounds known as pentapeptides. These are small groups of long-chain amino acids; they function as chemical messengers throughout the body. Peptides seem to be in a number of products, but experts still aren’t quite sure which formulation may be most effective. If anti-aging creams work, they do so by stimulating the replacement of collagen, estastin, and other components that are affected by aging. The concern here is that peptides are pretty large molecules, and for this reason, they might not be able to penetrate the skin to a deep enough degree to achieve their effect.
Some products you may have heard of that contain these compounds include the Regenersit line by Olay, Strivectin-SD by Klein Becker, Wrinkle Relax by DDF, and the Principle Secret Reclaim line.
Another key player in anti-aging serums is collagen, which plays a huge role in how our skin ages. Collagen is the support structure that gives our skin a nice, firm and young appearance. As long as collagen levels are high, our skin will continue to look refreshed. However, the second our levels decline, the support of our skin begins to diminish. This results in saggy skin and the development of those undesired wrinkles.
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Sirtuins seem to have a theoretical linkage with aging, though the science seems to be complex and further study is needed. With this said, sirtuins are proteins that are found in a wide variety of living organisms. These proteins play a critical role in the aging process, because these proteins prolong the life of fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are the cells that make collagen (the skin’s support structure). They do this by turning off unnecessary gene expression or simply put, they expend less energy on unnecessary tasks making them last longer. This being said, sirtuins should theoretically prolong the life of fibroblasts in your skin, which then enables your body to produce more collagen for more years than it would without sirtuins treatment.
At this point the extent to which sirtuins affect aging is still debatable. Dr. Matt Kaeberlin Ph.D. at the University of Washington points out in the publication of Cellular Metabolism that there are “many complexities and inconsistencies in our understanding of sirtuin biology and its association with aging, and for this reason it is hard to differentiate causation from association”.
The last compound that is often found in anti-aging treatments is resveratrol. This “almost” natural antibiotic serves to flush the body and helps the skin remain fresh and elastic, which in turn helps prevent wrinkles. Resveratrol naturally inhibits sirtuin inhibitors and effectively keeps the anti-aging properties of sirtuins at play and in motion.
Now that we are more in tune with what’s found in anti-aging treatments, stay tuned to learn more about their effectiveness in our upcoming post … get ready for The SKINfacts!
Check out our post about “Skin Care Without Toxic Chemicals“!
