Antioxidants

The skin is an organ, which must attempt to protect itself when exposed to free radicals as is also the case with the body’s other organs. When a free radical arises, antioxidants serve to render it harmless. However, it is essential that there is an antioxidant in the area in which the radical appears.

Dr. Denham Harman was in 1954 the first to suggest that there is a connection between free radicals and aging, and that the mechanism consists of free radicals giving rise to random biological damages. His ideas have sparked much experimental research and are currently viewed as the fundamental thesis in the area of research on aging. The theory implies that antioxidants, such as vitamins E and C, prevent free radicals from damaging sensitive biological molecules, and will therefore delay the aging process.

The main problem here was that there was no evidence to support the claim that vitamin E was absorbed by the skin. At present we know that vitamin E has absolutely no place in an anti aging skin cream.

In order for the vitamin to reach as far down as the deeper part of the dermis and cell membranes, it must “migrate” in a fat phase. Vitamin C, on the other hand, migrates in a water phase. As the skin consists of alternating water and fat phases, both vitamin E and C will meet barriers which they will have difficulties penetrating.