Can You Supplement Your Skin's Collagen and Elastin?
Tired of those unsightly ripples on your thighs? This amazing cream will penetrate your skin and melt that cellulite away. In just three weeks, your thighs will appear softer and smoother.
Embarrassed by those large pores on your face? This astonishing gel will shrink them and return your skin to the smooth, silky appearance of youth.
Is your skin less firm than it used to be? Our cream contains collagen, a natural substance that makes skin supple and strong. Apply it twice daily to supplement your body's own collagen reserves.
Here's my question: Are you tired of products that promise everything but deliver much less?
Many patients ask me whether certain items will melt cellulite or minimize pores. They also wonder whether it's possible to supplement your body's reserves of collagen (or anything else). In fact, is it realistic for any topically applied product to penetrate your skin and improve it from the outside in?
To answer these questions and many more, we need to take a quick look at what skin is, what it does, and how it does it. As you will see, this covering we take for granted is really very complicated -- a miracle of design and engineering.
What Has It Done for You Lately?
A pop quiz: What's your largest organ? If you answered my skin, go to the head of the class the average person's skin covers about two square yards. Your skin isn't just large; it's also complex. Take a look at this cross section of a piece of it. One square inch of skin contains millions of cells and hundreds of nerve endings, plus lots of muscles, blood vessels, hair follicles, sweat glands, and oil glands.
Your skin is far more than a covering that holds you together. It's a dynamic organ that works constantly to keep your body temperature a healthy 98.6 degrees. It cushions your delicate insides and stays on perpetual alert to regulate the proportions of water and salt in your body.
Another benefit: Your skin is an early warning system that helps you respond quickly to pain. Sound like a mixed blessing? But just think what happens when your hand accidentally brushes against a hot stove. Nerve endings in your skin detect the heat and immediately fire emergency signals to your brain, which promptly screams: That thing you're touching is hot, stupid, so move your hand! Without your early warning network of skin sensors, you would be badly burned.
There's a lot going on in your skin.
Skin is a barrier that keeps our insides in, even as it keeps unwanted visitors like bacteria and viruses outside. As a final bonus, it even functions as a chemical factory by making vitamin D! Skin cells convert steroid molecules (relatives of cholesterol) in your body to vitamin D when the cells are exposed to sunlight.
Basically, your skin consists of multiple layers of cells. I won't bore you with the names and details of each micro-layer; their names come from Latin and Greek, and they're as long and confusing as you would expect medical terms to be.
Instead, I'll focus on the two main layers formed by all these thinner ones: the dermis (the inner layer) and epidermis (the outer covering). Each plays an important role in keeping your skin healthy and beautiful. Incidentally, even though I refer to them as the main layers, both are incredibly thin; the epidermis is one-to two-tenths of a millimeter thick (approximately 0.00394 inch), the dermis is several times thicker.
Scratching the Surface: The Epidermis
Imagine that you're digging a tiny tunnel down through your epidermis. At the bottom you find a skin factory, where specialized cells divide constantly to create new skin cells.
Each new cell starts moving up the tunnel, from the bottom of the epidermis outward. Each starts life as a soft, rounded cell, but morphs along the way into a thin, hardened disc. When viewed under a microscope, older skin cells resemble tiny scales.
By the time they reach the skin surface a journey of roughly 14 days the cells are dead. They're also dehydrated, which allows them to fit together tightly and create an interlocked covering called the horny layer. (Seriously!)
This is bad for the cells, but good for us. The horny layer makes an effective and durable barrier against the threats of the outside world. Since the cells are deceased, they are also expendable; if you happen to scrape a few off, you're not losing anything you can't replace. Their dry, hardened surface makes an uninviting home for microorganisms, which discourages bacteria and viruses from taking up residence on your skin.
As a final safety measure, the cells of the horny layer hang around for only a couple of weeks after reaching the skin surface. Then they slough off, to be replaced by new cells rising from below.
There are a few areas of the skin that do not produce a horny layer, such as the mucous membranes that line the inside of your mouth and eyelids. There's good reason for this; just imagine how annoying it would be to constantly blink away tiny scales from your eyes! Instead, mucous membrane cells get smaller as they approach the skin surface, and then peel away unobtrusively without hardening.
Digging Deeper: The Dermis
If you continue your tunnel below the nether regions of the epidermis, you find the dermis, which supports and nourishes the epidermis.
The dermis is a dense layer rich with blood vessels and nerve endings. It consists mostly of strong protein fibers called collagen and stretchy fibers called elastin. Collagen is a protein that gives skin its strength and fullness; it also helps repair injured skin by building scar tissue. Elastin consists of elastic fibers that give skin its flexibility, enabling it to stretch and contract repeatedly as you move.
Pinch your arm and note how your skin reacts. The firmness you feel comes from collagen. For the skin's ability to resume its original shape, thank your elastin.
Beneath It All: The Subcutaneous Layer
Below the epidermis and dermis lurks another layer of tissue, known by the impressive name of subcutaneous layer. While the subcutaneous layer isn't actually part of the skin, it plays a big role in stabilizing skin and protecting the delicate organs underneath. It's also an insulating blanket that slows down the rate at which you lose body heat.
The subcutaneous layer is an extensive network of connective tissue laced with lots of fat cells. When we were infants, it covered our entire body (beneath the skin, that is). Our baby fat cushioned us when we fell and provided an abundant energy reserve to fuel youthful high jinks.
As we mature, the subcutaneous layer thins out and redistributes itself in ways that may be all too familiar. Women tend to carry it in their breasts, buttocks, abdomen, hips, and thighs; men accumulate it in their neck, upper arms, abdomen, lower back, and over the buttocks.
The distribution of the subcutaneous layer can definitely have an impact on what your skin looks like. Some of us, for example, develop cellulite, a type of fatty tissue which contains constricting fibrous bands of connective tissue. These bands give the skin a characteristic dimpled, ripply appearance. Men rarely develop cellulite, and in women it usually doesn't appear until after age 30. While cellulite is more common in overweight people, even slender folks can have annoying deposits of it.
Showing Your True Colors: Melanin
Why do some of us have dark brown skin, while others have very light skin, and still others are somewhere in between? Glad you asked. Skin color comes from a pigment called melanin, produced by specialized cells called melanocytes in the epidermis and hair follicles. Melanin varies in color from yellowish-brown to brown to black.
All human beings possess roughly the same number of melanin-producing cells. If you are fair-skinned, it's because your melanocytes make less of the stuff than your dark-skinned friends, and what they do make is distributed differently. These differences are determined by genetics. If your ancestors were all pale-faced Swedes, you will inherit similar melanocytes and a similar complexion.
Melanin does more than just create interesting variations in skin color, though. It helps to protect skin against its biggest enemy: the sun. Sunlight contains ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and chronic exposure to UV rays damages cells in the skin. Melanin does its best to help by absorbing UV rays before they can reach the deeper layers of the epidermis and dermis.
Sweat Glands, Sebaceous Glands, and Other Skin Stuff
I can hear your reaction now: Sweat? Glands? Why are we reading about this in a book on skin care?!
Fact is, the specialized glands that produce sweat and other substances are all part of that complex organ, your skin. For that matter, so are your hair and nails. Fingernails, toenails, and hair contain keratin, the same tough protein in the horny layer on the surface of your skin.
Perspiration: A Positive View
You may think of perspiration as something that's more annoying than beneficial. But actually sweat glands perform a valuable service by pumping perspiration to the skin surface, where it evaporates, cools us off, and helps maintain a healthy internal body temperature. The flushing action of sweat also helps wash away harmful microbes.
Your skin houses around three million sweat glands. Some parts of the body have especially high concentrations, like your feet and palms; the skin of a typical adult palm harbors about three thousand glands per square inch.
Sweat glands respond to both external and internal factors. Hot weather can make you sweat, and so can strong emotions. If you doubt this, just see how sweaty your palms get next time you have to give a speech.
My daughter once asked: If perspiration is so great, why does it smell so bad? Actually, much of our perspiration isn't really odorous; it's more than 99 percent water. The major culprit behind body odor is a specialized type of perspiration, produced by sweat glands in certain areas of the body, especially the armpits and groin. This fluid is thicker than the other type of sweat, and bacteria on the skin surface break it down into a substance that can only be called, well, let's stick with the term odorous, shall we?
In many animals, these characteristic odors serve a useful function by signaling identity and sexual interest. (This is why your dog insists on sniffing other dogs' hindquarters when they meet.) Human beings prefer other methods of communication, and we do our best to eradicate these aromas or at least mask them with others we like better, such as perfume.
Sebaceous Glands: Oiling Your Skin
Another useful component of your skin is sebaceous glands. They produce sebum, a waxy, oily lubricant that moisturizes and protects your skin.
Sebum may sound unappetizing, but it comes in very handy. For one thing, as it travels to the surface, it carries away dead skin cells and debris from the lining of the pore. It also serves as a natural moisturizer for the skin and hair. If you have oily skin, the sheen you see is not actually oil but excess amounts of sebum. While the lubricant may make your face look a bit shiny, it also keeps your skin soft and smooth.
Well, unless you break out. Beneficial though it is, sebum can cause problems (i.e. acne) when it plugs pores rather than flowing smoothly through them.
More Skin Stuff
How do perspiration and sebum reach the outside world? They empty onto your skin surface through the tiny openings called pores. Sometimes this process gets short-circuited, and your pores fill with dead skin cells and sebum and become dilated and dark. These are called blackheads.
Many skin care products promise to shrink pores or otherwise minimize them. However, pores are simply openings; they don't have tiny muscles that dilate and contract on demand. There are no substances you can apply to open or close them. You can temporarily shrink the appearance of the opening with toners, however.
Other important components of your skin include small arteries (which supply nourishing blood and oxygen) and veins (which carry away carbon dioxide and other waste products of cellular metabolism). Nerve endings in the skin control blood flow and the activities of your sweat and sebaceous glands. As you saw earlier, they also transmit helpful signals to warn you of pain, pressure, temperature, and touch.
Let's Explode a Few Skin Care Myths!
Okay, now you have an idea of how your skin works. How about those hopeful claims from advertisers who want to convince you they can make it work better? It's time to explode a few myths. Take another look at the ads I cited at the beginning of this chapter. Let's see whether their claims hold up against what you now know about skin.
Thigh Creams: Can You Melt Cellulite from the Outside?
Many middle aged women complain bitterly about cellulite, those dimpled expanses of skin that afflict the upper leg.
Cosmetics companies are rushing to fill the demand by developing thigh creams, topically applied products that claim to trim thighs and smooth cellulite. Already a $90 million market, thigh creams are a hot item and sales continue to soar.
These creams aren't cheap; prices start at around $16.95 for 3 or 4 ounces. A 6-ounce container of some brands retails for $50 or more definitely a costly proposition!
Thigh creams (as well as many other skin care products) are based on a seductive premise: that rubbing something on the surface will allow your skin to absorb its helpful ingredients. As you've seen, though, skin consists of multiple layers. While a topically applied cream might penetrate the horny layer, the molecules of most compounds are too big to be absorbed much deeper.
This is actually a safety feature since the dermis contains a rich network of blood vessels. If skin readily absorbed anything rubbed on it, foreign molecules would constantly enter our bloodstream and hitch a free ride to other parts of the body. This could have dangerous consequences.
Be wary of any products that vow to penetrate your skin. No matter what the ads promise, the molecular structure of most skin care products stops them from reaching the skin's deeper layers. As a general rule, rubbing them on the skin surface will not affect or enhance its underlying structure.
Suppose that a thigh cream somehow beats all these odds and manages to reach your subcutaneous layer. What would it do when it got there? There's no evidence that you can banish fat tissue or fibrous bands by applying these chemicals to it.
Sure, there are effective ways to get rid of fatty tissue, but they involve plastic surgery. A jar of thigh cream, unfortunately, is not the answer. If all these products slimmed us down like they promise, there wouldn't be a single dimpled thigh in North America. All of us would look like supermodels (from the waist down, at least!).
Can You Shrink Pores?
Last week, one of my patients asked me a question. Barbara, a successful sales rep in her early 40s, felt self-conscious about the texture of her skin. My pores are so big! she complained. Isn't there anything I can do to make my skin look smoother?
As I explained earlier, pores are simply openings; they don't have tiny muscles that dilate and contract. While we're on the subject, there are no products that will get rid of them, either. You're born with a certain number of pores, and that number remains constant throughout life (barring injury to your skin). For that matter, you wouldn't want it to fluctuate. As you've seen, pores are necessary for normal, healthy skin. Without them, you'd be painfully dry and unable to perspire!
Some people do have prominent pores. Like skin color, it's a tendency you inherit. Do you think the pores in one part of your face are more noticeable? This is quite common. The center of your face contains more oil glands, so the skin there may look more oily and textured than the skin at the sides of your cheeks and forehead. Sun exposure may also play a role. Over time, sun-damaged skin looks more bumpy and takes on an orange peel texture.
If you're concerned about the appearance of your pores, it will help to keep your skin clean so they retain as little dirt and oil as possible. Some companies market products specifically for pores, and some of these items may be helpful. However, one of the most effective ways to clean your pores is that humble remedy, soap and water.
Collagen and elastin are essential components of the skin that help it stay firm and supple. They are also popular components of many moisturizers and skin care products. Some marketers would have us believe that rubbing them on the skin will supplement the body's own built-in supply. This is supposed to reinforce sagging skin and plump our wrinkles.
But, like most cosmetic ingredients, collagen and elastin molecules are too big to absorb into the skin. At the present time, there's no evidence that topical applications can increase the amount of collagen or elastin in the dermis. On the other hand, collagen's large molecules do make it an effective moisturizer. They create a thin film on the skin surface that helps stop moisture from evaporating.
As you can see, your skin is a complex, multi-layered organ, and there's a lot more to it than meets the eye. So, the next time you encounter ads for thigh creams, pore shrinkers, and other miracle aids be sure to read between the
lines.
The Least You Need to Know
Your skin is a complex organ and the largest one you have.
Skin comes in layers lots of them. Skin cells are born deep within these layers and slowly migrate up to the surface.
Within the lower layer (dermis) is a complex array of glands, blood vessels, and nerve endings. Sweat glands pump perspiration to the skin surface, where it evaporates, cools us off, and helps maintain internal body temperature; its flushing action also washes away harmful microbes. Sebaceous glands produce sebum, a waxy lubricant that moisturizes and protects skin.
Skin color comes from melanin, a pigment that absorbs ultraviolet radiation. When the amount of melanin increases after sun exposure, the resulting suntan is your skin's attempt to protect you from dangerous UV rays.
Most over-the-counter products can't be absorbed by skin's deeper layers. Be skeptical of anything that promises to penetrate your skin, and keep in mind how your skin works when evaluating product claims.
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