The 5 Best Anti-Ageing Secrets: According to Science
Everyone is after the best anti-ageing secrets of all time. We consult celebrities and experts. What are their secrets? Natural anti-aging cure-alls, home remedies and tips like anti-aging foods and creams. But what does the science say about aging? Do most generic natural anti-aging tips at homework for everyone in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond?
If all the anti-aging secrets you see online and in magazines actually worked, you wouldn’t be reading this. So something’s up. There’s an even bigger anti-aging secret that we might be missing. Maybe there isn’t one mystical, undiscovered cure-all potion. No anti-aging food or home remedy we’ve all unwittingly had in the back of our cupboards all these years. Maybe the world just doesn’t work that way (and neither do our bodies).
And maybe finding anti-aging knowledge we can all really use means going back to what we know for sure. What proven scientific facts do we have about aging and how it actually works?
WHAT IS AGEING, ACCORDING TO SCIENCE?
The scientific journal Nature describes aging as “the process during which structural and functional changes accumulate in an organism” over time. And these “changes manifest as a decline from the organism's peak fertility and physiological functions”.
It’s a mouthful. But what it means is that aging is accumulated changes in how your cells function over time. At your peak, in youth, your cells usually work optimally – they all do what they should. And then age, sun damage, environmental damage, and illness changes things. Tiny changes in your cells and their function add up over time, leading to slow degeneration.
Maybe your DNA gets damaged in a certain area after sunburn or due to free radical damage. And those cells pass the “bad” DNA onto new cells, so it spreads. Or maybe your skin gets so dry and damaged at one point that your skin barrier struggles to recover. Or maybe free radicals trigger an increase in collagen-degrading enzymes and your body slowly starts producing less and less collagen.
The point is that, through scientific study, we know what causes aging in general. So we can hone in on your individual skin to discover real anti-aging secrets that will work for each person.
WHY UNIVERSAL CURE-ALL TIPS AND HOME REMEDIES (OFTEN) DON’T WORK
The problem with most generalized anti-aging secrets is that they lack a comprehensive scientific study. Watermelon or fish oil, sesame oil or coconut oil might have worked for some celebrity or so-and-so’s granny. But we don’t really know why. And that’s why there’s no guarantee it’ll work for you – or anyone else for that matter.
Yes, there’s often some scientific merit to certain ingredients. Of course, fruit is good for you. And fish oil does contain antioxidants. Likewise, sesame oil does hydrate your skin. But, you can’t just blindly trust anyone anti-aging tip, because it doesn’t take you as an individual into account. Maybe hydration isn’t your skin’s root problem. Maybe your skin doesn’t need more antioxidants as much as it needs a larger supply of growth factors.
The only way to really know what your skin needs is to have it assessed by your skincare therapist or dermatologist. Even Lamelle’s flagship Dermaheal anti-ageing range comes in three different variants, with different auxiliary products and a range of other specialised skin products that a skin professional will use to complement or enhance certain functions in products. And then, to further complement all of those, there are plenty of advanced professional skin treatments.
There’s no single cure-all, but science can help us understand what aging really is, and that leads to real anti-aging secrets that work on the root causes of aging.
WHAT SCIENCE SAYS: ANTI-AGEING SECRETS
Despite the fact that the causes of skin aging are individual and unique to you, scientific studies have found that there are some big overarching factors and effects of aging. They affect the aging in all of us to greater or lesser extents. Let’s call them the root causes of aging. Here, then, are the anti-aging secrets according to science.
THE 5 ELEMENTS OF HEALTHY SKIN
Always a good place to start when considering aging in the skin. Know the five key elements of optimal skin health: hydration, collagen, elastin, fibroblasts, and the vital enzymes produced by your cells.
Hydration is very important. Your skin is about 64% water, and it needs to be optimally hydrated, inside and out, all the time. Collagen is the proteins your skin is made of, the structures of the skin. Elastin is the stuff that makes your skin stretchy and supple. (Wrinkles and lines are signs of collagen and elastin breakdown.) And both collagen and elastin and produced by fibroblasts, so you need these cells to function optimally, too.
The vital enzymes produced by cells are important cell signallers, such as growth factors and cytokines. These are messenger molecules that stimulate vital processes in cells, and they are the keys to healthy skin. (As you get older, skin cells may produce less and less of these vital enzymes.)
When looking at aging skin, we can assess it based on which of these five elements are missing/depleted, and work from there.
2. A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
A special note on the importance of living well here, before we move on to more in-depth anti-aging secrets. You can never overlook the value of getting enough sleep and regular exercise, eating healthily, managing stress and leading an active, balanced life.
Your body is a functional whole. Remember that your skin is an organ (the largest one, in fact), and how you live and care for your entire body reflects most visibly on your skin.
3. IT’S ABOUT REACTIVATING STAGNANT CELLS
As we age, the cells in our bodies gradually become more sluggish. With accumulated damage, cells produce fewer enzymes they’re supposed to, they stop communicating with each other (which is a vital way your body keeps itself in check) and their normal activity – growth, differentiation – slows down.
Importantly, your body uses special messenger proteins called growth factors to control all of these things in younger skin. So, one of the most important anti-aging secrets is to reintroduce growth factors to your skin. Growth factors reactivate dormant and stagnant cells, so they start growing, dividing and restoring balance in your skin again.
Discover the amazing ways ageing skin benefits from growth factors. Recombinant Human Growth Factors is a Nobel Prize-winning technology and the main ingredient in Lamelle’s Demaheal range.
4. COMBAT CHRONIC INFLAMMATION, PREVENT AGEING
We’ve only recently discovered that a specific type of inflammation is one of the main drivers of aging in the skin. It’s called chronic inflammation and, unlike normal wound-healing inflammation that happens and disappears when a wound is healed, it doesn’t just go away. Chronic inflammation builds up inside and around cells, and it stays there – invisible, silent and deadly – for years and years.
Chronic inflammation happens when cells aren’t able to clear away cellular waste that accumulates inside the cell (which is linked to hydration and a slowdown in normal cellular activity). And it speeds up the degeneration of cells. So much so that scientists now think it’s one of the leading causes of aging. They even have a special name for it: inflammaging.
Fortunately, we know what controls inflammation in the body: molecules called cytokines. Different types of cytokines will either activate or deactivate inflammation. Thus, to combat inflammaging, you need cytokines that will “switch off” chronic inflammation.
And – here’s where it gets really interesting – it just so happens that the growth factors we mentioned earlier are all types of cytokines. So, to combat chronic inflammation, Dermaheal uses a special blend of growth factors (specially selected for their ability to deactivate inflammation) that simultaneously deactivates chronic inflammation in the skin. Read how Dermaheal stops inflammaging for good.
5. CONTROL DAMAGING ENZYMES
Just as you have specific enzymes that do good things in your body, you have ones that will do the opposite. One of the potentially most damaging enzymes your body produces naturally as you age is Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs).
MMPs are not inherently bad. They are the enzymes your body uses to break down old and damaged collagen and structures, to make way for healthy new skin. (Which is an important way to keep skin healthy and youthful.)
The problem is that UV light triggers your body to produce MMPs. So, the sunlight you’re exposed to throughout your life stimulates your body to overproduce MMPs. And when there are too many in your body, and no more “bad” collagen to break down, MMPs start attacking your healthy collagen. This leads to the breakdown and thinning of your skin in the long run.
Lamelle’s Dermaheal includes specially selected antioxidants that hone in on MMPs. They directly inhibit them, stopping your body from creating too many new MMPs. This helps restore your body and skin to normal function again. And it’s one of the ultimate age-preventing technologies we know about.
THE MOST ADVANCED ANTI-AGEING SKINCARE RANGE: LAMELLE DERMAHEAL
Made with a more advanced blend of growth factors, inflammation-controlling cytokines, and MMP-reducing antioxidants, Lamelle Dermaheal safely and effectively treats the three main causes of aging in the skin:
Reactivates damaged, dormant cells, restoring their normal youthful cell function.
Disables chronic inflammation, effectively flipping the switch on inflammation aging.
Stimulates collagen production and protects existing collagen by boosting fibroblast activity and keeping collagen-damaging MMPs under control.
Speak to your doctor or therapist today to unlock the advanced anti-aging secrets inside the Lamelle Dermaheal range.