Health Care

By Kelvin Ho Wee Min

It would be nice if the television and magazine commercials stopped using 30 year old women to display the results of the anti aging skin care products. The fact that the models used in these advertisements makes it almost impossible to discern whether theses products are actually beneficial, or simply work on people who do not look a day over 30 to begin with. The chronic search for the right skin care product is costly, time consuming, frustrating, and can result in a cabinet full of product and an unhappy face staring back at us in the mirror.

Choosing the right skin care product based on the ingredients rather than the woman in the commercial is more likely to yield better results. SPF protection is vital in today increasing sun strength. While SPF products will not reverse the damage which has already been done, it will help to prevent future sun damage. SPF is a number which indicates how long you can stay in sunlight before skin damage starts to occur. Thus, an SPF 30 means that your skin can tolerate 30 times the normal time in the sun before enough UVA and UVB rays penetrate the lotion and begin to cause damage. The length of time is determined by the strength of the sun. Your anti aging skin care products should contain no less than SPF 20 for everyday living.

Emollients and natural moisturizing factors are vital in these products. These are basically the ingredients found in naturally healthy skin that can be derived from other natural sources. Applying these to the skin allows the skin to absorb the ingredients and then heal the damage that has been caused over time. Ingredients such as lanolin, mineral oils, plant oils, cholesterol, collagen, elastin, amino acids, lipids, and glycerin all help to heal the damage on a cellular level. While there are numerous other ingredients that can be beneficial, the basic idea is to stay away from chemically enhanced products and gravitate toward natural products. Natural products are going to cost more.

Skin care products that control free radical damage actually helps to decrease the risk of skin cancer as well as reduce the appearance of the signs of aging. These types of ingredients are going to look like the list of RDA nutrients on a cereal box, as most are vitamins or vitamin based. Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and green tea extract are the 4 top nutrients that help eliminate or reduce free radical damage.

One of the biggest and most ambitious goals of such products is reducing or eliminating wrinkles. Tightening and firming sagging skin is a serious effort. Ingredients such as palmitoyl tetra, copper, and palmitoyl pentapeptide are the three major ingredients for reducing or eliminating wrinkles as well as scars.

While there are other ingredients that can help eliminate the signs of aging, these ingredients should definitely be in every similar product before ever being advertised, sold, and presented as a skin care cream. Proper use of the proper ingredients has been proven to yield the desired results, however, just like the damage did not occur overnight, the damage will not be healed overnight. Patience is a must when attempting to shrink a few years from your face.