Is Inflammation Really the Foe?

Monday I quoted a gentleman who says he is an Associate Professor of Dermatology, Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Biomedical Engineering. He has been contributing to a thread on the Essential Day Spa forum. One statement he made raises his credibility in my mind.



“All anti-aging skincare is designed around anti-inflammation, as inflammation is considered to be the prime suspect in aging.” This is indeed a prominent theory of skin aging. Dr. Nicholas Perricone put it into layman’s terms in his best-selling books, The Wrinkle Cure and The Perricone Prescription. Dr. Perricone calls it the Inflammation-Disease-Aging Connection.



In our younger years, the inflammatory response is a good thing. It is the body’s way of walling off an injured area and preventing spread of infection. When its work is done, hormones shut off the inflammation.



However, as hormone levels decline with age, inflammation runs rampant. Older, hormone-depleted skin takes longer to heal and eventually doesn’t completely heal at all.



I find it very interesting that once you understand how skin care anti-aging ingredients function, you begin to realize that we are not just talking cosmetics and vanity, but that many such treatments can actually result in a better quality of life.



The list of skin anti-aging peptides is growing so rapidly that it is hard to keep track of them. To me, the most exciting yet are the tripeptides, of which Synake is just one example. Whether Synake is “just” a topical anti-inflammatory or an ingredient that mimics the action of Botox, I am quite impressed by Pentapharm’s clinical study (see 6/14 blog entry).



Tags: skin anti-aging, SYN®-AKE, Perricone