SEPTEMBER 2013 • Vol. 19 No. 7
New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists
www.nyscc.org
Up In Smoke
A
few years ago when I was walking through a smoky casino on my way to a session at our mid-year meeting in Las Vegas, I noticed my skin seemed to be a little tighter after emerging on the other side of the gaming area. By the end of the next day, I needed twice as much moisturizer as I needed the night before. Was I being overly harsh in my belief that smoking is bad for not only smokers but also those around them, or was there actually something “there”? Turns out I wasn’t imagining things. Smoke, regardless from which end of the cigarette it arises, is toxic to skin in a variety of ways. In fact, smoke from the end of the stick that points away from the smoker is higher in toxins and free radicals than from smoke that’s pulled through the filtered end. Makes sense, but who thinks about these things? Researchers at Estée Lauder Research Laboratories in Melville, New York, do. Over a decade ago they discovered that skin exposed for 15 minutes to cigarette smoke showed an increase in lipid peroxides over a 24-hour period.1 Lipid peroxides, which are Reactive Oxygen Species, lead to glycation of dermal tissue and oxidize lipids in cell membranes and intercellular lipids that, along with cells in the stratum corneum, form the skin’s barrier. When the barrier is intact, moisture levels within skin are normal, so it feels moist and comfortable, and surface lines are reduced or do not appear at all. But when these lipids are oxidized, as they are in the presence of tobacco smoke, skin can feel noticeably tight and dry. Lipid peroxides can also oxidize sebum, cells, and melanosomes in pores to cause blackheads and trigger inflammatory enyzmes, including matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). MMPs destroy dermal tissue including collagens, the family of proteins that give shape, thickness, and flexibility to the dermis. They have also been linked to the reduction of collagen production in the skin. In a study by researchers in the Department of Dermatology at Japan’s Nagoya City University Medical School, new collagen formation decreased over 40% when MMP production increased after exposure to tobacco smoke for just a short time.2 Dry skin, which can be exacerbated by the diuretic effect of
…Rebecca James Gadberry
nicotine, clogged pores, wrinkles, and sagging skin are problems common to many smokers as well as non-smokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke on a regular basis, such as people who live with a smoker or work in businesses where smoking is permitted indoors. In fact, smokers are five times more likely to have wrinkles than non-smokers who are rarely around tobacco smoke. The Lauder study shows lipid peroxide levels in the skin’s
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5th ANNUAL CULINARY EVENT • SEPTEMBER 19th …featuring Mediterranean Cuisine • See page 12 for more information