Key Anti Aging Products Ingredients

By: Raymond Lam

The regular use of anti-ageing skin care products is becoming normal these days; which is not surprising because we are all living longer and fuller lives so why shouldn't we want to look younger? This is achieved in beauty products by promoting the growth of connective tissue using the protein collagen which is the most abundant in the skin of all animals; collagen is so abundant, it makes up about a quarter of the total protein content of structural protein found in skin. This category of skin products is in fact related to another group of everyday products that help reduce the signs of aging; this group is called antioxidants which are natural chemicals found in many foods and our body.

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. Unfortunately all skin care treatments that use vitamin C have the problem of atmospheric oxidization to contend with once the product is exposed to the air.

Other skin care treatments which mimic the effects of vitamin C are being tried all the time which are hoped to be more stable in the atmosphere and also cheaper to produce. However, these anti-ageing skin care treatments are not as effective vitamin C based products, although vitamin E and lipoic acid are also anti-oxidants and have similar effects.

Found in human blood, vitamin E is not only an antioxidant but is designed to boost the immune system's resistance to illness; it has many functions including inhibiting the formation of cancer cells. Another of these is lipoic acid which is found in every cell of our body to help generate energy for us to live; it can help reverse much of the damage caused to the skin by ageing.

Other compounds called phytochemicals have proved to be beneficial in the formulation of anti-ageing skin care products; they are removed from various plants. Another benefit of phytochemicals, like those of alpha-lipoic acid, is their ability to reduce the prevalence of certain cancers; these include:

*Prostate Cancer

*Breast Cancer

*Cancer of the Colon

These types of cancer are also becoming some of the most prevalent worldwide.

Surprisingly, the group of vitamins; B5, B6, and B12 have also shown that they can be used to help reduce the effects of ageing. The use of anti-ageing skin care products is a huge scientific field to research and has far greater potential than just producing goods that reduce the visible signs of age. Gradually, new discoveries will be made to advance our understanding of the aging process; each year, more is learnt about this topic so reducing the effects of age on the body is just a matter of time.

Hopefully, these challenges will get resolved in due course and better and cheaper anti-ageing skin care products will be produced. At the moment though, science is still behind the field of natural anti-aging methods; man-made products may never replace those that are available naturally! 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?