Scientifically speaking

Take out the garbage, take care of wrinkles

 Aging of our skin, just like aging of every tissue of our body, is a complex, multifaceted process. Slowly, day by day, our cells accumulate damage, lose an ability to control their metabolic functions and repair damage, generate more and more errors in their genetic code. We may not notice that our internal organs are aging, but skin aging process is difficult to miss and often impossible to ignore, because of unsightly wrinkles, pigmented spots, loss of elasticity and fading of complexion.

Fortunately, today we know much more about the aging process than our ancestors did and can devise more and more sophisticated ways to take care of our skin and delay aging. In delving deeper and deeper into the complexities of aging mechanism, we often overlook something very simple – taking care of the garbage.

Yes, it is true, even the most exclusive beauty produces plenty of garbage. We are not talking here about plastic bags and wrappers. The garbage that threatens the beauty and youth of our skin is produced inside its cells. Let’s take a look at the most common type of cell garbage that your skin desperately needs to get rid of.

Oxidized proteins and other biological molecules – accumulate due to free radical damage. We all need oxygen to breathe and to derive energy from biological molecules, but in the process we produce plenty of strong oxidants, that can attack proteins of our cells. Since it is very difficult to repair damaged protein, they need to be destroyed, so the cell could replace them with new proteins. When the cell is able to effectively remove damaged proteins, it keeps its metabolic processes smooth and fast. However, when the cell is slow in getting rid of oxidized proteins, its metabolism slows down and its functions suffer.

Products of fatty acid peroxidation – unsaturated fatty acids (essential fatty acids) are very susceptible to oxidation. The products of their oxidation include such chemicals as alpha,beta-4-hydroxy-trans-2-nonenal and acrolein – extremely toxic and destructive to the cell.  

Age pigments is a group of brown pigments that accumulate in aging cells. They include brown products of reaction between sugars and proteins (advanced glycation endproducts or AGE) and lipofuscin – a pigment produced, when toxic products from fatty acid peroxidation react with proteins. Age pigments may accumulate in skin, resulting in age spots or liver spots.

Xenobiotics –toxins that are man-made. They are everywhere and many of them, unfortunately can be found in cosmetic products. Since xenobiotics started enetering our metabo,ism only recently, our body is poorly equipped to defend itself against them. There is a very few enzymes that are capable to destroy and neutralize xenobiotics.

The good news is that there is a natural compound that is able to help you get rid of unwanted and destructive toxins as well as prevent their accumulation. This is the tripeptide GHK (INCI: tripeptide-1), which is naturally produced in our body – first in abundance when we are young and then in lesser and lesser quantities. The GHK tripeptide is able to:

·                     Neutralize toxic products of fatty acid peroxidation,

·                     Protect the cells from oxidative damage,

·                     Remove lipofuscin and protect the cell from advanced glycation,

·                     Boost the level of important antioxidant enzymes.

In addition, it supplies copper for some enzymes that detoxify xenobiotics. Recent genetic studies showed its ability to restore cell’s ability to eliminate oxidized proteins by activating genes of ubiquitin-proteasome system – cell’s garbage processing station, which takes apart damaged proteins, so they could be used for rebuilding new molecules.  

Using cosmetic product with GHK and other copper-peptides, we can speed up garbage removal from our cells and assure long lasting beauty and youth of our skin.