How Antioxidants Protect Your Skin

Episode #49 / Jul 20, 2009

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All cells in your body are subject to oxidative stress. That is one very fancy term for the fact that all of these cells have these high energy particles and they have a special name called “Free Radicals”. These high energy particles unpredictably discharge all of their energy and throw it at the cells DNA, at the elastic tissue, at the collagen and cause damage. The purpose and rule of antioxidants especially topical antioxidants is to absorb that bad energy before it can hit the DNA and the collagen and so on, absorb it and protect the important parts of your skin and your body.

All cells in your body get different sources of these high energy free radicals, but the skin gets more than any other, because the skin gets ultraviolet light which no other organ in the body gets, and even if you use your sunscreen like the way I showed you and even if you choose the sunscreen that I told you, some how sunscreens are not 100% effective so some of this damaging ultraviolet light gets through, gets around the sunscreen and forms more of these high energy dangerous free radicals in the skin. So the real value of topical antioxidants is to help protect the skin, help protect your DNA so that you do not get cancer, to help protect the collagen and elastic tissue so that you do not get wrinkles and sagging skin from these high energy dangerous free radical particles and selflessly absorb that energy, get destroyed and protect your skin. That is why I tell you to use your topical antioxidants at night.

Want to know how antioxidants prevent skin damage? Get ready for some science. From free-radicals to oxidation, Dr. Schultz explains antioxidants.

COMMENTS (2)

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Dr. Schultz BeautyRx Protective Vitamin C Rescue Serum

$85.00

Avalon Organics Vitamin C Vitality Facial Serum

$23.99

La Roche-Posay Biomedic Potent-C 10.5 Concentrate

$72.50

Cellex-C High Potency Vitamin C Serum

$100.00

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Mercedes on August 17, 2009 at 5:43pm

Hi Dr. Schultz. Thanks so much for your excellent videos. I just was wondering if you could explain why you prefer vitamin c antioxidant products. Also is there something about a serum that makes it preferable for antioxidant absorption as opposed to a cream (i feel like there are SO many creams on the market that claim antioxidant benefits).

Neal Schultz, M.D. on August 27, 2009 at 9:56pm

@Mercedes: While Vitamin C is "brittle", it's the best topical antioxidant in terms of potential efficacy, stability, and bioavailability (i.e., ability to be absorbed into skin). By "brittle" I mean it is easily damaged (you can tell when it starts to turn brown) and not all forms of Vitamin C are adequately absorbed into the skin so you need to check the ingredients to see which form of Vitamin C your antioxidant product contains. The two forms of Vitamin C that I like the most are tetrahexadecyl ascorbate and methyl silanol ascorbate, both of which are fat or lipid soluble which increases their absorption into the skin.

While many Vitamin C preparations are in serums, there are many cream forms as well. In my opinion, there is nothing special about serums versus creams except for marketing (some consumers think "serums" sound more effective).

Great questions!