What is an Anti-Oxidant and how can they benefit the health of my skin?
Definition - An anti-oxidant is a substance that slows down the rate at which something decays because of oxidization. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that can produce free radicals, leading to chain reactions that may damage cells. Anti-oxidants stop this.
So who wants to decay?! Internally or externally most of us wish to preserve our health and youthful vitality!
The scientific and medical community now know that skin cancer and photo-aging changes are caused from ultraviolet (UV)-induced oxidative stress. They also knew that new methods to protect skin from sun damage were necessary. Sunscreens are useful and still the current gold standard in UV protection, but their protection is not ideal because of inadequate use and incomplete protection. The scientists behind Skinceuticals (the cosmeceutical leader in topical anti-oxidants) have proven in a pivotal study that sunscreens alone only protect skin from up to 55% of damaging free radicals from sun exposure.
The gold standard for protecting your skin from UV damage is shifting!
How to truly protect your skin from skin cancer and environmental aging now lies in understanding and USING anti-oxidants.
Our bodies naturally protect themselves both internally and externally with anti-oxidants. This is good news. The challenge is that pollution, sun damage, smoking, poor nutrition, alcohol, drugs and stress can quickly leave our body and skin depleted in the amount of anti-oxidants needed to fight the attack that damage our cells. It has also now been scientifically proven that pollution creates an equal amount of free radical damage to skin cells as UV damage! This is where anti-oxidants play a significant role!
Unless you live a stress free life where there is no pollution, alcohol, smoking and only great nutrition, an anti-oxidant will be needed to maintain your skin health and appearance. Supportive anti-oxidant protection can be from both external and internal sources.
Getting the Anti-Oxidant Formula Right
In the beginning, the challenge with anti-oxidants for topical success was in creating stable solutions that penetrated the skin effectively. SkinCeuticals was the first to discover the exact formulation specifications a topical antioxidant must meet in order to be effective on skin. These parameters have become the gold standard for antioxidant formulation. Skinceuticals is one of only a handful of companies that meet the standards needed for proper absorption and effectiveness of topical anti-oxidants and the reason we carry Skinceuticals and GM Collin at The Summit Spa!
Most topical anti-oxidants solutions are simple and take seconds to use. They are watery solutions that are used once a day in the morning. They are applied on a clean, dry skin before moisturizers and sunscreens.
Here are 4 that we love:
Bonus Benefits
Treatments and practices for prevention are great but most of us want to see results today for all of our good habits! This is rarely always possible. The beauty of great anti-oxidant formulations is that they are great sources of repair for previous sun damage! They will effectively lighten, brighten, smooth, soothe and heal previous sun damaged skin!
Here are a few quick videos for a better understanding of anti-oxidants:
If you haven’t already started using anti-oxidants consider making these valuable changes. This summer enjoy the sun without side effects!