Latest Fact Sheet

Season 3, Ep 7 - Anti-Aging

· Just moisturising can visibly reduce wrinkles but the effect is only temporary.

· As we age our skin changes – it becomes dryer and less supple. One reason for this is a decrease in the amount of collagen and elastin proteins in the skin. Collagen is responsible for skin’s structural support, elastin gives it elasticity.

· Smoking and sun damage can result in us losing even more collagen – up to 30% more than natural ageing alone.

· Eating sugar is thought to be a cause of wrinkles – by reacting with proteins in the skin, sugar can damage collagen.

· Collagen that is used as an ingredient in cosmetic products cannot actually be absorbed by the skin to replace the collagen we’ve lost. It’s most likely that it just gets washed off.

· Retinoic acid is a type of Vitamin A that has been shown to be absorbed by the skin and go on to increase the amount of collagen that is formed. This results in lasting improvement of wrinkles – until you stop using it.

· Retinoic acid is only available on prescription – it’s not found in over the counter anti-ageing treatments. It has several side effects including skin dryness, itching, redness and an increase risk of sunburn.

· Some anti-ageing products contain retinol or retinyl palmitate - ingredients that are converted to retinoic acid inside the skin.

· Retinol is one step closer to retinoic acid than retinyl palmitate so theoretically should work slightly better. When we tried to test this the two were equally ineffective. For the most part these ingredients are riding the coat tails of retinoic acid’s better documented effects.

· Q10 is an antioxidant that is found in some foods and also occurs naturally in the human body.

· Idebenone also has antioxidant qualities – both it and Q10 are used in some anti-ageing creams to rid the skin of free radicals which are theorised to cause wrinkles. The free radical theory of aging is one of about 6 competing theories of aging and is not universally accepted by scientists and doctors.

· Scientific research suggests that it takes a lot of time for Q10 to get through the skin and needs to be present in large amounts to have any effect.

· Peptides are another type of ingredient used in anti-ageing products. These are small protein fragments which claim many effects. Some claim to be able to trigger collagen formation in the skin or other chemicals in the skin that can help improve elasticity.

· Unfortunately, scientific research also suggests that peptides probably can’t be absorbed by the skin so they’re unlikely to be able to make much difference to wrinkles.

· Other ingredients that have been touted as having an anti-ageing effect include snail slime, snake venom, stem cells from babies’ foreskins and even a synthetic version of human sperm.

· Claims on anti-ageing products need to be read carefully – some may make claims about the effectiveness of an ingredient that cannot be achieved by the product

· One term to look out for in anti-ageing ads is in vitro – this means that the active ingredients have been tested against isolated skin cells in a lab. There is no guarantee the ingredients will work the same way when they are incorporated into a cream with lots of other ingredients and applied to real skin.

· Other things to look out for in ads for anti-ageing products are the number of people who tested the product in ‘clinical’ trials and whether the product made a measurable difference or just a visible difference. As always, it’s a good idea to read the fine print.

· Most anti-aging creams claim surprisingly little. If you read the labels carefully many claim to do little more than moisturise, and they definitely do that.