Age no bar

Antioxidants, vitamins and your dependable sunscreen are the skin's best defence against wrinkles.

It hits you before you realise it. One day your laugh lines take longer to fade. And your eyes don't crinkle when you laugh anymore; instead you have a fine network of crow's feet. And the furrows in your forehead aren't there only when you're concentrating on something.

Seeing your skin wrinkle is the first sign of your mortality and in this youth worshipping era, it's something that is not so desirable. Skin wrinkles due to many causes, both intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic ageing is an inevitable process. Among the extrinsic causes, the primary one is photo ageing due to exposure to the sun. Other causes can include smoking, facial expressions, bad nutritional habits and extreme dieting.

Some good anti-wrinkle creams Neutrogena Healthy Skin Anti-wrinkle Cream SPF 15. With retinol as the active ingredient, Allure calls this the Clarice Starling of Anti-ageing treatments. We quote, "It does its work methodically, never irritating or offending." Avon Anew All in One Perfecting Complex with SPF 15. Not only does this erase wrinkles, it also uplifts sagging skin. Worth the price. Elizabeth Arden Anti Ageing Ceramide Range. A herbal infusion with gingko and echinacea helps strengthen skin's defenses against environmental damage. Lancome's Vitabolic Range with Vitamin C and Gingko. Avon's Anew Formula C Treatment Capsules. La Prairie's Cellular Defense Shield with SPF 15 Renova (Available only on prescription internationally) or Retinol A (available on prescription in India). Synergie Wrinkle Control. They're Sunflower ceramides, with vitamin E and a UV filter. Synergie Wrinkle Lift A (for deeper wrinkles), which combines vitamin A and hydroxy ceramides and claims to show visible results in 14 days. L'oreal Plenitude Turning point Instant Facial with a beta hydroxy complex. Clarins Double Serum 38 Skin Firming Complex. This combines natural plant extracts. Clarins Extra Firming Day Treatments. They contain a light activated vitamin precursor to restore cellular activity. Shiseido Bio Performance Advanced Super Revitaliser

To understand how the skin wrinkles, we need to understand the skin's composition. Simply put, the skin is composed of layers of cells. New cells are formed in the basal layer of the skin and they slowly rise to the surface of the skin by which time they die and are shed off. When we are young, this process is pretty quick, but as we age it slows down considerably. Apart from this, as we age, the skin loses some of its supporting layers that keep it plumped up and the fat layer also becomes thinner. Blood vessels too slow down supplying blood to the skin, leaving it less nourished.

Any anti-wrinkle cream, therefore must address these areas to be effective. Over the past decades, anti-wrinkle creams have gained in popularity, with a recent news report in the New York Times stating that the profile of women buying anti-wrinkle creams has gone younger with women as young as 25 becoming part of the anti-wrinkle customers.

Miracle ingredients like hydroxy acids, both alpha and beta, Retinol A and vitamin C all claim to do wonderful things to reduce and eliminate wrinkling.
Here's a brief look at their premises:

Hydroxy acids: Cleopatra was probably the first famous person to take up the cause of hydroxy acids. If you've ever used yoghurt, tomato pulp, lime or grape on your face, you know what I'm talking about.

Hydroxy acids, derived from fruits and milk, are mild acids that dissolve the dull outer layers of skin and reveal the fresh young skin beneath it. Dissolving the outer layers also evens out the appearance of wrinkles. Think of hydroxy acids as mild exfoliants. They literally burn away the bonds between the outer cellular layer of the skin.

The following are the alpha hydroxy acids used in modern cosmetics.
Glycolic acid: Derived from sugar cane juice, sugar beets and unripe grapes.
Lactic acid: Derived from tomato juice and sour milk.
Malic acid: Derived from apples.
Tartaric acid: Derived from grapes and wine.
Citrus acid: Derived from citrus fruits and pineapples.

Beta hydroxy acids are said to be milder than alpha hydroxy acids. Long used in the treatment of corns and calluses like salicylic acid, beta hydroxy acids are derived from natural sources like willow bark or then prepared in the laboratory.

Retinol A: It is called the fountain of youth and with much reason. Tretinoin or Retino A, a derivative of vitamin A, started out as a treatment for acne and soon became a validated treatment for photoageing. How does it work? Much on the same lines as hydroxy acids. Tretinoin thins the outer most layer of the skin, evens out the distribution of melanin and thickens the epidermal layer. Apart from this it is even supposed to stimulate the production of collagen. But it works best on wrinkles that are not too deep or on sagging skin. And because it stimulates the blood vessels that nourish the skin, it promotes a healthy skin tone.

But using tretinoin can make your skin more sun sensitive, so ensure you use a sunscreen during the day. Applied to the skin surface, tretinoin increases blood flow and stimulates skin cells called fibroblasts to produce new collagen (a protein that keeps skin smooth). This is available by prescription only and a regular vitamin A has no effect on wrinkles, whether taken orally or applied directly to the skin.

Antioxidants: These work on the simple premise that metabolism, pollution, stress and bad nutrition create oxidants that cause free radicals. Think of free radicals as harmful little imps running around your body making you age faster than you should.

Antioxidants help neutralise free radicals, and slow down the degenerative ageing they cause. While the jury is still out on whether topical antioxidants can help retard wrinkling and eliminate existing wrinkles, cosmetic giants have all hopped onto the antioxidant bandwagon, adding antioxidants to every product they produce.

Antioxidants include selenium and vitamins A, C and E. Topically applied antioxidants won't get rid of wrinkles or replace a sunscreen. Despite the hype about reversing ageing, building collagen, feeding the skin, and healing sun damage, there are no conclusive studies indicating the effectiveness of any antioxidant product or ingredient on wrinkles. A better bet would be to take a multivitamin pill every day.

Vitamin C: This vitamin has caused the greatest furore in modern times. It started with Dr Sheldon Pinnell from Duke University, who looked at the effect of sun exposure in relation to applying L-ascorbic acid (a specific form of vitamin C). His research made him conclude that L-ascorbic acid was an exceptional antioxidant that could suppress sunburn. He launched Cellex-C, which claimed to have solved the problem of vitamin C being an extremely unstable ingredient. Soon other cosmetic giants launched their versions. Dermatologists agree that some forms of vitamin C can penetrate skin levels, inhibit free radicals and block UV radiation. What more does the skin want to minimise wrinkling?

Finally, dermatologists all agree that your best anti-wrinkle cream is a good sunscreen and a healthy diet and lifestyle. And of course, being happy. Laugh lines make any face look younger, while a frown line between the brow piles the years on.