Let Your Skin Drink Tea

Posted Thursday, September 13, 2007 to MARKETSPACE > Skin Care

Posted by The Original Anti-Aging & Cosmetic Surgery Magazine

Green Tea has anti-irritant and antioxidant properties for reducing redness, swelling and sun damage.

We've all heard of free radicals and the damage they can do to the skin. But what are they? Simply put they are unstable oxygen molecules that react with compounds in the skin and create damage. Clinical professor of dermatology at Yale university Israel Dvoretsky MD gives a succinct explanation of the damage they can do: "When you have sun damage of the skin from ultraviolet light (the sun) or any other environmental damage this causes the release of free radicals and this is a cause of aging of the skin and skin cancer. And it is not only on the skin but internally causing other degenerative conditions like heart conditions, arthritis and cancer."

Antioxidants are nature's way of neutralizing these free radicals. While the body has its own supplies of antioxidants, it is often not efficient enough to counter the damage. Outsourcing antioxidants such as Vitamin C and Vitamin E and now Green Tea (Camellia oleifera) is becoming a popular adjunct to the body's own supply. Mr John Kulesza, Director of Research and Development at Young Pharmaceuticals explains: "There are a variety of chemicals (free radicals) which cause damage to the skin and different antioxidants specialize in neutralizing certain ones of these. Green Tea is part of the armamentarium that the physician has along with Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Melatonin, Alpha lipoic Acid among others. All of these work a little bit differently to neutralize different free radicals that exist within living tissue."

While Asian populations have spoken of the benefits of Green Tea consumption for thousands of years and have used it medicinally for more than 4,000 years, the research into its beneficial qualities started after epidemialogical data from Asia suggested a lower incidence of certain types of cancers. It was speculated that a relationship existed between this low incidence and the consumption of green tea. This speculation led to experimenting with topical Green Tea. Green Tea extract was applied to the back of mice who were predisposed to getting cancer when exposed to sunlight. The Green Tea treated mice formed less cancers.

Green Tea has since been found to have two beneficial properties. Polyphenols which act as antioxidants and xanthines which act as anti-irritants. "Phenolic compounds sequester oxygen atoms, they are able to react with the oxygen in order to prevent oxygen from engaging in other (harmful) reactions," says Mr Kulesza. "Xanthine compounds help to reduce redness and irritation."

Due to this twofold action of Green Tea, it is being used in a variety of skin care products and combinations. In antioxidant formulas it provides ongoing protection against environmental damage to the skin. In other combinations such as with Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHAs) and Beta Hydroxy Acids (BHAs) which help improve sun damage, it works to sooth the effects of the acids. "AHAs and BHAs improve cell turnover, they help slough off the top layer of dead skin cells for a superficial treatment for the signs of sun damage, but they can cause irritation, the xanthines in Green Tea help sooth the redness," explains Mr Kulesza. "Also the peeling away of the dead cells may enhance the penetration of the Green Tea, so you have better penetration of antioxidants into the skin."

While the numerous benefits of green tea have been shown, does every product containing it have the same effect? Of course not. It is listed as a cosmetic so it's not necessary for manufacturers to specify the concentration. The industry recommended usage levels are 3-5%. However, without this being stated on the product, the next best thing is to look on the ingredients list and the higher on the list the better (ingredients are listed in order of prominence). Mr Kulesza gives another hint on how to choose your product: "In general products that are available through the medical community often contain higher levels of active ingredients than products found at department store level. We too often see marketers using tiny levels of these ingredients just so they appear in the label."

However, as with everything, "the key is prevention more than reversing the effects. Everything should be done with' protection against the sun with sunscreen and caution not to be in the sun in the peak time of the day. All these antioxidants are worth nothing if you don't take the extra precautions," concludes Dr Dvoretzky.

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