White Tea and Wrinkles – How White Tea Boosts Skin Collagen Levels
White Tea's Nutrients Protect Against Wrinkles By Enhancing Collagen
Next time you think to run for a mug of your favorite caffeinated beverage, you may want to grab a pot of white tea instead. A new study from Kingston University in Britain shows white tea helps reduce age-related wrinkles. The scientists assayed the beneficial properties of twenty-one various plant and herbal extracts and found that white tea, far more than the rest, had the most potent anti-oxidant properties. White tea is derived from the same plant as many other teas such as green tea, Camilli sinensis, but it is treated differently and undergoes less oxidation. For this reason, white tea contains a higher content of polyphenols, which are anti-oxidants.
A host of tests were completed, running white tea through the gamut and testing the capacity of the herb extracts to prevent the break down of the structural strength of the epidermis, specifically elastin and collagen activity. Both elastin and collagen are abundant parts of connective tissues that are responsible for the strength and elasticity of skin, and thus it's propensity to develop those scary things called wrinkles. Aside from the skin, elastin is also an important structural part of the ligaments, arteries, and lungs. The reduced number of these proteins leads in to wrinkles notoriously associated with age. These proteins that degrade collagen and elastin are called elastases and collagenases, respectively. Elastases and collagenases are widely known to be associated with diseases which cause inflammation, such as arthritis.
The results were astonishing. This antioxidant-rich tea greatly reduced the activity of elastase by 87%, and collagenase by 89%. This wonderful tea also had high anti-oxidant activity and was able to reduce the formation of free radicals by 88%. The super anti-collagenase and anti-elastase activity is attributed to the high-concentration of EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) in white tea. EGCG is a strong anti-oxidant and has many therapeutic properties, as well as anti-cancer properties.
White Tea's Antioxidants Shields Skin From DNA Damage Caused By Ultraviolet Radiation
In a related scientific publication, scientists from Case Medical Center in Ohio found that white tea shields from the Ultra Violet damaging effects of the sun as well. White tea was found to guard Langerhans cells from cell death (apoptosis). Langerhans cells are immune cells that are located in the outer layer of the skin and are the very first to respond to harmful substances, such as, cancerous polypeptides and bacteria. However, because of their proximity to the surface they are extremely sensitive to the destructive effects of Ultra Violet radiation.
Tea extract was topically distributed to an area on the patient's epidermis and thereafter placed under the equivalent of artificial sunlight. The tea was able to preserve the Langerhans cells, which surprisingly still even retained their immune function. It also protected from the Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage that always occurs with ultraviolet radiation. Again, the high antioxidant activity in this tea is thought to be a factor in this protection against UV associated damage.
It is important to understand that the same underlying process of oxidative stress in skin cells by ultraviolet radiation also exacerbates skin cancer and wrinkles related to aging. Younger skin is able to resist oxidative stress better than an older person's epidermis and the two of these studies provide demonstrable evidence that antioxidant-rich tea is able to build the skin's resistance against factors that encourage the skin to become aged.
In addition to reducing the amount of wrinkles on your skin, it can also increase weight loss. Studies have shown that it inhibits adipocytes (fat cells) from taking up fat. It also increases lipolysis, or the burning of fat in adipocytes. This means that it can prevent the uptake of new fat into your cells and it can speed up fat metabolism so that is is burned faster.
Concord Grape Juice Improves Memory
Polyphenols are plant-based dietary compounds with known antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. These biological properties of polyphenols reduce the ongoing damage to the DNA in our cells that results from the toxic byproducts of metabolism, including free radicals. Polyphenols have, therefore, been the subject of intense research as potential prevention agents for a variety of human ailments, including cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancer. (The evidence-based role of dietary polyphenols in cancer prevention is discussed in great detail in my soon-to-be-published book, "A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race.")
Foods that are naturally rich in polyphenols include most blue and red berries, grapes (including red wine), pomegranates, walnuts, peanuts, olive oil, green tea, dark chocolate and cocoa, coffee, and beer (as well as other fruits and vegetables).
Recent animal research has suggested that polyphenols derived from grape seeds can reduce the development of plaques in the brain (at least in mice) that are associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease. Now, a newly published prospective, randomized, double-blind clinical research study suggests that Concord grape juice, which is rich in polyphenols, may be able to improve early memory decline in older adults.
In this small study, which has been published in the British Journal of Nutrition, 12 elderly adults with declining memory were divided into two groups. The "experimental group" received daily Concord grape juice supplements for a period of 12 weeks. The second group, the "control group," received placebo supplements that were identical in appearance to Concord grape juice, but which contained no juice. Neither the 12 patient volunteers nor the research assistants were aware of which patients received grape juice and which patients received the placebo while the study was being conducted.
Standardized, validated tests of memory, and other aspects of cognitive function, were administered to all 12 patient volunteers participating in this study. These cognitive function tests revealed statistically significant improvements in verbal learning skills among the patients who received 12 weeks of Concord grape juice (when compared to the placebo group). Although not statistically significant, improvements were also noted in both verbal and spatial recall among the patient volunteers who received the grape juice supplements in this small clinical study with a brief duration of patient follow-up.
While larger studies, with a longer duration of follow-up, will be required to confirm the findings of this small pilot study, the prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind nature of this small study does give it considerably more predictive power than the much larger dietary survey-based epidemiological studies that are more commonly used in disease prevention research.
Malic acid and polyphenols? Are the strangest beauty secrets of Hollywood stars
How many times have we stood / is think that the glossy Hollywood star of them were wonderful (at least apparently) look to expensive beauty treatments and / or surgery? Well none of this, at least according to the statements of some of these remedies that rely on more or less affordable for everyone, however bizarre, to preserve its beauty.
The beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones relies on strawberries to keep your smile bright. This fact, together with pineapple, has the power to keep white enamel of teeth due to their content of malic acid. While Cindy Crawford sprays her face a mixture of milk and water to make the skin softer due to the contents of protein, vitamins and minerals. Even more bizarre is the remedy adopted by Sandra Bullock to combat wrinkles around the eyes and the ugly "grant", the actress in fact apply to this area of the face cream for hemorrhoids, which has the effect of temporarily relax the facial on which it is applied. Well-known and most popular teen ager at the Italian secret instead of Jennifer Love Hewitt applying the toothpaste on pimples to dry them. The toothpaste would act through its zinc content of hydrochloric acid, baking soda and enzymes. However, is the most sought-after face cream made of serum viper used by Debra Messing.
Body care for the stars of Hollywood rely on many different substances: the cat woman Halle Berry applied to the body a mixture composed primarily of ground coffee to combat cellulite. Caffeine has diuretic properties and in fact applied to the skin eliminates toxins that favor the formation of cellulite. While Julia Roberts uses olive oil for the care of hands. Olive oil, moisturizer and emollient, softens skin and cuticles and makes nails look shiny. It is also excellent for hair care and skin in general. Finally, the desperate housewife Tery Hatcher adds even wine (preferably red) to the bath to make skin softer due to the content of polyphenols and antioxidants.
The beauty secrets of the stars are therefore very easy to find products made, except for cream-based serum Viper Messing, and consumer electronics that anyone can use at home with an eye to possible allergies or skin too sensitive. Our ideal of beauty is way more accessible?