Dry Skin Relief with a Biological Solution

For millennia oils have been used by people from all walks of life looking to improve the health of their skin. This tradition of oil care of the skin was turned on its head in the 1920′s when the cosmetic industry targeted it, plastering ad upon ad criticizing the practice as unhealthy. Natural oils were cast to the side in favor of a concoction of oil in water mixed with detergents – labelled moisturizers. This type of campaign was not uncommon – breast feeding mothers were targeted with promotions that suggested the replacement of mother’s milk with synthetic infant formulas, claims that only garnished their handsome profit. To this day Asian countries prefer the use of natural oils to promote healthy skin.

Cosmetic cream or serum moisturizers are formulated from a variety of low-cost oils and water-soluble chemicals that wet and loosen the skin’s layer of outer protective proteins and also cover the skin with fats that occlude the skin for a while and thus impede water loss. They provide moisturizing of your skin for a short period of time but degrade the skin’s defensive properties against bacteria and viruses.

Such moisturizing creams are a mixture of oil and water plus emulsifiers, stabilizers, preservatives and other chemicals.

Most of them delay the healing of irritated and damaged skin and make the situation worse by inhibiting natural skin repair and increasing skin inflammation and thus damage in ways similar to skin irritants.

What really works is to protect the skin surface and to heal the skin from within, by providing the skin the nutrients an environment in which normal skin repair can occur.

Virtually all moisturizers and emollients sold by the large skin care companies marketing them contain high concentrations of detergents and detergent-like chemicals, despite 40 years of scientific evidence that these detergents damage the skin and degrade the skin’s natural defensive and protective functions. Also are very damaging to the skin many of the dyes and optical diffusers that are used in cosmetics to give the appearance of healthy skin.

Another mistake is to add to skin creams certain lipids that occur naturally in the skin such as ceramides (special amine fatty acid structures), free fatty acids (fatty acids not in triglyceride or phospholipid form), and cholesterol, hoping that this replenishes skin lipids and improves skin health. However, recent research has found that adding natural skin fats and lipids to skin creams causes a reduction in the skin’s natural biosynthesis of skin fats and lipids so that, in a few weeks, the skin is in worse condition than before.

Dry skin is caused by two problems:

1. damage to the skin’s protective barrier which produces excessive water loss through the skin, and
2. reduction in the concentrations of the skin’s water-holding sugars and proteins: the proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs).

Proteoglycans (PGs) are proteins linked to glucose chains called glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and are vital components of connective tissues. They play an important role in modulating the structure and regulating the functions of the skin.

The timely turnover of proteoglycans influences the development and differentiation of cells. Wound healing also depends on the level of PGs which if not adequate leads to abnormal scars, and thus play an important role in preventing keloid and hypertrophic scars.

When the skin losses glycosaminoglycans the supportive inter-cellular matrix weakens and results in loose, flaccid skin, both on the face and body. GAGs have a large water holding capacity, occupy a large space in the extra-cellular matrix and fill most of the intercellular space between collagen & elastin proteins. They perform a critical role as shock absorbents and provide binding, hydrating and swelling pressure to cell tissues. In doing so, they enable skin to withstand compression forces and thus prevent tearing and scarring of the deep layers during pregnancy, puberty growth spurts, overstretching when practicing body building (in association with steroids) or by more than average weight gain.

BIOSKINCARE™ acts by helping to repair the skin barrier and promotes the synthesis of proteoglycans and GAGs, while waxes and oils seal the skin’s surface and prevent excessive water loss. Cosmetic moisturizers loosen the skin’s protective barrier and hydrate (wet) the skin proteins but have the long-term effect of damaging your skin.

BIOSKINCARE™ CREAM

• Mimics natural skin repair
• Repairs skin barrier and increases the skin’s proteoglycans and GAGs.
• Results: within 2-3 weeks of continued use.

Waxes and Greases

• Heavy oils such as petrolatum seal skin surface to water loss
• Results: Immediate
• Problems: Greasy

Light Oils

• Squalane covers skin surface to reduce water loss.
• Results: Immediate
• Problems: Not as durable as waxes and greases, but still provides strong skin protection – not greasy.

Biological Oils

• Rose Hip Oil – Similar to human skin oil
• Results: Immediate
• Problems: Not as durable as waxes and greases, but stimulate skin repair

Cosmetic Moisturizers

• Designed to rapidly swell the skin at the cosmetic counter.
• Mixtures of oils, water, and surface active chemicals used to open skin barrier and hydrate skin proteins.
• Results: in Minutes
• Problems: Irritates skin. Loosens protective skin barrier. Skin more susceptible to infection. NOT RECOMMENDED.

ROSE HIP OIL as Lipid Replenishment Moisturizer

Lipids and fats in the skin provide the epidermal barrier to transcutaneous water loss. These lipids in the upper skin area called the stratum corneum and are arranged in layers called lamellae. The lower skin layers contain more typical fats such as triglycerides and phospholipids while the upper layers have more ceramides, cholesterol and free fatty acids.

What is Lipid Replenishment?

Dry skin and eczema and conditions such as burns and psoriasis can repair faster when certain types of lipids are applied directly to the skin’s surface. However, defining the best lipids has proven very difficult because some lipid mixtures that help short-term skin repair eventually decrease the skin’s natural synthesis of lipids (by a biochemical process called ‘feedback inhibition’) and ultimately yield a damaged skin very low in natural fats and oils.

While lipid replenishment methods are still being developed by dermatological scientists, ROSE HIP OIL is already excellent for lipid replenishment. ROSE HIP OIL comes from the seeds inside the rosehips of a wild rose bush that grows in the lush valleys of the Southern Andes Mountains.

The fatty acid composition of human skin oil and Rose Hip Oil are very similar. In both mono-unsaturated oleic and the essential fatty acid linoleic acid are prevalent.

ROSE HIP OIL has a high content of monounsaturated oleic (15-20%) fatty acid and the essential linoleic (44-50%) omega-3 and linolenic (30-35%) polyunsaturated fatty acids. They are called ‘essential’ because our body needs them but is not able to synthesize them and must get them through the diet or topically. These oils help to nourish and maintain a healthy skin.

A linolenic acid deficiency will result in hair loss, poor wound healing, and scaly dermatitis. A particularly rich food source is flaxseeds and fish or fish oil supplements.

Administration of ingredients through the skin is called “Transdermal Administration” and is more efficient than intake simply because the skin is the bodies’ largest organ. When you swallow pills or shakes your stomach must first digest those ingredients which are then diminished and can take hours to reach other organs of your body or skin cells, and when they do they are no longer at full strength. Ingredients administered through the skin go into the body immediately, and consistently.

If you wish to use a BIOLOGICAL OIL to complement BIOSKINCARE™, for lipid replenishment and to quickly alleviate dry skin, first apply BIOSKINCARE™, then after about 10-15 minutes apply ROSE HIP OIL. Or use the cream in the morning and the oil in the evening.

Do not apply ROSE HIP OIL on acne-prone skin. If you are at risk of developing acne breakouts because of your high sebum production and hormonal imbalances then rose hip oil may further clog your skin pores.

ROSE HIP OIL is also a source of topical Retinoic Acid (Vitamin A) in a natural bio-available form

Retinoic acid works by binding to specific cell receptors of skin after a topical application. After the cell receptors have been activated, there is a modification in gene expression, subsequent protein synthesis, and cell growth and differentiation. Thus, the epidermal cell is modified increasing the regeneration of damaged skin and the capacity to produce new tissue as a consequence of an acceleration of the differentiation of the keratin.

Topical trans-retinoic acid is also synthesized as a drug and is trade marked as Tretinoin, Retin-A, Renova, and many other commercial names, and has attracted attention because it improves the appearance of photo-aged skin and is prescribed for the treatment of acne.

The FDA approved topical tretinoin in December 1995 for improving the appearance of photo-aged skin. Tretinoin reduces fine facial wrinkles, hyper-pigmentation (age spots), and surface roughness associated with chronic sun exposure. The drug sloughs off dead skin, regenerates collagen, and allows cells in the top layer of the skin, which are always being replaced, to mature more normally than untreated sun-damaged cells.

There is evidence that trans-retinoic-acid actually prevents sun damage. Researchers have found that even brief exposure to sunlight increases the activity of enzymes that break down the proteins collagen and elastin that provide structural support for the skin. Products containing trans-retinoic-acid reduce the activation of these enzymes.

Side effects of the drug tretinoin for topical application include temporary peeling, redness, and blistering, and a permanent increase in sun sensitivity.

ROSE HIP OIL content of trans-retinoic acid in a natural form makes it far more skin friendly and absorbable by the human body due to bio-availability or compatibility with our live skin cell structures. The only side effect is an increase in sun sensitivity of the newly formed skin cells that arise due to its action. And that can be wisely addressed with a sun-screen.

Confusion over Retinol and Retinoic acid. The cosmetic industry tries to create confusion over the actions of retinol (retinyl palmitate, vitamin A) and those of retinoic acid (used in Retin-A and Renova). Even though the molecules are very similar and can be easily converted to the other molecule, their biochemical actions are often opposite. A biochemical analogy is that one key (or molecule) opens a lock while a very similar molecule, like a defective key, jams the lock. Retinoic acid reduces skin oil and has well-proven wrinkle reduction actions. Retinol tends to increase skin oil and has only very modest anti-wrinkle actions. Retinol has been in skin products for the last 60 years – obviously with little effect on wrinkle formation. Some cosmetic facial products that are advertised to contain retinol have only 0.001% retinol – a biologically insignificant amount that does nothing.

Using ROSE HIP OIL

Apply a light coating of Rose Hip Oil to your skin or scalp. If your skin feels too oily, lightly wipe off excess oil with a tissue, enough will stick to your skin to be effective.