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Posted in: Home and Living
How to prevent anti-aging?
By Tadu Kama
Mar 31, 2008 - 5:14:39 AM

Vanity plays a large part in the use of popular anti-ageing skin care products and treatments; as our lifespan increases so does our desire to remain active as well as look young and healthy. Skin is important so a great deal of effort goes into the preparation of beauty products especially those that increase the production of collagen, which is the primary protein in skin; almost 25 percent of the protein in skin is actually collagen. This area of anti-ageing treatments is connected to another group of products that help people to look young; this group is called antioxidants which are natural chemicals found in many foods and our body.

You probably know many anti-oxidants by name, including vitamin C, the use of which is still, even now, hotly debated in the science and nutrition community. 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.

To get around this some skin care treatments are based on derivatives of vitamin C, which are more stable and less expensive. 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.

Found in human blood, vitamin E is not only an antioxidant but is designed to increase the immune system's resistance to disease and can also help ward off cancer. Lipoic acid which is found inside every cell of the body helps generate the energy that keeps us alive and functioning. It is known to combat the signs of ageing very effectively by reversing skin damage caused by the ageing 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. Another benefit, like that of alpha-lipoic acid, is their ability to reduce the prevalence of certain cancers like prostate, colon and breast cancer.

Surprisingly, the group of vitamins; B5, B6, and B12 have also shown that they can be used to help reduce the effects of ageing. This just goes to highlight just how complex and far reaching the whole field of anti-ageing skin care products is and why so much more research is required.

A great deal about the ageing process has already been learned and the products available today are already far more advanced than ten years ago but there is still a long way to go. With the research that is now taking place, many people are confident that in time, more effective, cheaper anti-ageing skin care products will be discovered.

At the moment though, science is still behind the field of natural anti-ageing methods and it might take some time to replace them. Natural methods are known, but few people actually follow them; what proportion of the population actually eats healthily, takes plenty of exercise, drink sufficient water and obtain restful and regular sleep?

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