Sunday, March 1, 2009

How To Treat The Signs of Aging

By Dan da Silva

There is nothing wrong with wanting to look young as you get older, in fact it is perfectly natural,as is the use of anti-aging skin care products to help achieve this effect. This group of products generally work by enabling the synthesis of collagen, which is the main protein of connective tissue in animals and the most abundant protein in mammals. Collagen is related to other Substances called anti-oxidants which help reduce the anti-aging process.

Although the benefits of vitamin C (an anti-oxidant) are well documented, it is still debated as to what our daily amount should be. Vitamin C formulated skin care treatments suffer with a particular problem of oxidizing on contact with the air which causes a problem for users and manufacturers.

Manufacturers are trying alternative skin care treatments to vitamin C that do not have this oxidization problem or cost as much to produce. 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.

For some time now it has also been known that the vitamins B5, B6 and B12 also have anti-aging skin care properties. Although the area of anti-aging skin care products is huge, more is being learned about the whole aging process and about natural products that can reduce the effects it has on our bodies as well as our skin.

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. The amount of research going on in this field will undoubtedly bring results in time, hopefully bringing down the cost of these anti-aging skin care products in addition to increasing their reliability.

We must not forget however, that there are many more natural methods we can all use to reduce the signs of aging on a regular basis. Natural methods are known, but few actually follow them. - 16650

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