Happy International Women’s Day March 8th, 2022

In Celebration, we at Inspirational Technologies will begin a SKIN CARE SERIES for all Women And Men. After all, we need to help each other.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE USING NATURAL HEALTH SKINCARE PRODUCTS

The human skin is the first line of defense against toxins and pathogenic microorganisms. It serves important purposes in keeping our internal organs safe while making sure we are protected from the harsh nature of UV radiation and pollution. The continued exposure to these processes may end up reducing the concentration of chemicals like hyaluronic acid in the skin, thus giving way to dry skin, inflammations and other skin-related diseases.

When this happens, we turn over to skincare products for refuge.

Click to Celebrate International Women’s Day

It will interest you to note that women use an average of 168 chemicals on their body through skin care regimen daily.

The application of these chemicals is expected to keep the skin healthy as they face their daily activities.

Although some of these synthetic chemicals may prove effective in taking care of skin-related issues it is pertinent to note that they are toxic to the skin and may be carcinogenic hence the need to rely on natural ingredients for relief.

Some of the benefits of using natural health skincare products include but are not limited to the following:

a. Highly safe and reliable Most of the natural skin care products are formulated from naturally occurring chemicals with little to no side effects. Most of the raw materials or ingredients are found naturally in the skin; thus they only supplement their natural supply rather than introducing a strange chemical with potential carcinogenic properties.

b. It keeps your mind at rest With natural skin care products, no need to worry about the extra chemical or its effect on your body since it is naturally present in different concentration and applying the skin care product is only supplementing them.

c. Possess some health benefits The use of natural health skincare products offers your skin with a vast array of health benefits including hydration, wound healing, reduce inflammation, pain relief and reduced wrinkle formation. Applying these products to your skin keeps it as healthy as possible without any adverse side effect.

d. They are gentler on the skin Natural health skincare products are soft on the skin. They are not harsh, nor do they damage skin cells. Direct application of chemicals does not only damage your skin but may affect the immune system, nervous and reproductive system. Their harsh nature leaves the damages the skin while offering short term results.

e. Healthier environment Synthetic skin care products can serve as potential pollutants. These chemicals are not biodegradable and may find their ways into rivers where they increase the concentration of pollutants.

Hyaluronic acid and skin aging

The most dramatic histochemical change observed in senescent skin is the marked disappearance of epidermal HA, while HA is still present in the dermis.⁹² The reasons for this change in HA homeostasis with aging is unknown. As mentioned above, the synthesis of epidermal HA is influenced by the underlying dermis and is under separate controls from the synthesis of dermal HA.¹⁶^,⁹⁸ Progressive reduction of the size of the HA polymers in ski

n as a result of aging has also been reported.¹⁰⁹ Thus, the epidermis loses the principle molecule responsible for binding and retaining water molecules, resulting in loss of skin moisture. In the dermis, the major age-related change is the increasing avidity of HA with tissue structures with the concomitant loss of HA extractability. This parallels the progressive cross-linking of collagen and the steady loss of collagen extractability with age.¹⁶ All of the above age related phenomena contribute to the apparent dehydration, atrophy and loss of elasticity that characterizes aged skin.

Premature aging of skin is the result of repeated and extended exposure to UV radiation.¹¹⁰^,¹¹¹ Approximately 80% of facial skin aging is attributed to UV-exposure.¹¹² UV radiation damage causes initially a mild form of wound healing and is associated at first with an increase of dermal HA. As little as 5 min of UV exposure in nude mice caused enhanced deposition of HA, indicating that UV radiation induced skin damage is an extremely rapid event.¹⁶ The initial redness of the skin following exposure to UV radiation may be due to a mild edematous reaction induced by the enhanced HA deposition and histamine release. Repeated and extensive exposures to UV ultimately simulate a typical wound healing response with deposition of scarlike type I collagen, rather than the usual types I and III collagen mixture that gives skin resilience and pliability.¹⁶

In the skin, photoaging results in abnormal GAG content and distribution compared with that found in scars, or in the wound healing response, with diminished HA and increased levels of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans.¹¹¹ In dermal fibroblasts this reduction in HA synthesis was attributed to collagen fragments, which activate α_vβ₃-integrins and in turn inhibit Rho kinase signaling and nuclear translocation of phosphoERK, resulting in reduced HAS-2 expression.¹¹³ We have recently unraveled some of the biochemical changes that may distinguish photoaging and natural aging. Using photoexposed and photoprotected human skin tissue specimens, obtained from the same patient, we have shown a significant increase in the expression of HA of lower molecular mass in photoexposed skin, as compared with photoprotected skin. This increase of degraded HA was associated with a significant decrease in the expression of HAS-1 and an increased expression of HYAL-1, -2 and -3. Furthermore, the expression of HA receptors CD44 and RHAMM was significantly downregulated in photoexposed, as compared with photoprotected skin. These findings indicate that photoexposed skin, and therefore extrinsic skin aging, is characterized by distinct homeostasis of HA.²⁹ We have also assessed photoprotected skin tissue specimens from adults and juvenile patients and observed that intrinsic skin aging was associated with a significant reduction in the content of HA and downregulation of HAS-1, HAS -2, CD44 and RHAMM.²⁸ Similar results for photoprotected skin have also been reported for both genders for HA, HAS-2 and CD44.¹¹⁴

Conclusion

The available data suggest that HA homeostasis exhibits a distinct profile in intrinsic skin aging, which is totally different of that in extrinsic skin aging. Additional insight needs to be gained in understanding the metabolism of HA in skin layers and the interactions of HA with other skin components. Such information will facilitate the ability to modulate skin moisture in a rational manner and may contribute to the refinement of current drugs and the development of novel treatments for skin aging.