The best ingredients for youthful-looking skin

The good news? Research continues to identify leading ingredients for skin health, and here are some of the top players when it comes to maintaining youthful-looking skin.

Collagen

Collagen is the most abundant protein found in the body. It's made up of amino acids like glycine and proline, and provides structural support for our connective tissue, skin, tendons, muscles, bones and cartilage. Collagen also plays a crucial role in cellular processes including cellular communication, and tissue repair.

• Top up your collagen stores: Like CoQ10, as you age–your normal production of collagen naturally declines. Because collagen is typically found abundantly in the important layers that make up our skin layers, a decline in collagen can compromise the integrity of our skin. Collagen loss can lead to dry skin, loss of skin elasticity and increased signs of aging–which is why it may be important to increase your intake and top-up your levels as you age.

• Increase collagen and elasticity at a cellular level: Increasing your intake of collagen peptides may stimulate tissues to produce more collagen, which in turn may support the foundational layers of your skin. A review including 11 studies found that when women who took 3-10 grams of collagen peptides each day experienced improvements in skin elasticity and hydration after an average period of around two and a half months.

• Encourages skin cell renewal: collagen encourages skin cell renewal by stimulating the proliferation of skin fibroblasts (cells that contribute to the formation of connective tissue) and keratinocytes (cells that play an integral role in skin repair).

MitoQ® Mitoquinol

Your body is made of 37 trillion cells. Your cells are the foundation of your health and life, and when your cells are healthy, you are healthy. But the problem is that our modern lifestyles mean our cells are constantly subjected to various stressors that can impact your overall health, including your skin health and overall appearance.

Floating inside your cells are their energy-producing powerhouses, the mitochondria. Mitochondria are vital for skin cells, fueling processes like hair growth, pigmentation, and the appearance of aging. But when your mitochondria produce energy, they also create damaging free radicals as a by-product. When you’re younger, mitochondria control excess free radicals in cells by producing natural antioxidants to neutralize them. With age, your antioxidant levels can naturally start to decline, and uncontrolled free radicals can overwhelm your mitochondria. This is made worse by external factors such as pollution, UV radiation, smoking, alcohol, poor diet, and poor sleep.

The healthy balance in cells can shift as antioxidants become outnumbered, leading to cell stress. In this stressed state, free radicals damage mitochondria and other elements of the cell. Over the years, the damage from cell stress adds up. This is thought to be the primary reason for declines associated with aging. MitoQ’s breakthrough technology, mitoquinol mesylate, is a world-first, targeted antioxidant molecule with the ability to be absorbed directly into the mitochondria to neutralize free radicals and combat cell stress.

One preclinical study revealed that MitoQ® mitoquinol rejuvenates skin at the cellular level. ⁠Senescent cells are old or damaged cells that have stopped growing and dividing but don't die off like they should. You can think of these cells as "retired" cells that aren't doing their job anymore but are still occupying space. ⁠As we age, senescent cells accumulate, leading to the appearance of wrinkles and other signs of aging. ⁠This study showed that when skin cells from women around the age of 40 were supplemented with MitoQ® mitoquinol, they showed improvements including reduced cellular senescence, increased telomeres (the DNA protectors ) and skin structure that mimics that of generally younger-looking women.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is an essential nutrient, meaning that the human body doesn’t produce it on its own, so we must obtain it from our diet. This potent antioxidant is found at high concentrations in both the surface layer (the epidermis) and the deeper layers (the dermis) of normal healthy skin. This supports important functions like collagen synthesis, UV defense and antioxidant protection. Vitamin C is a nutrient that is easily depleted by stress, so in order to meet our daily requirement we need to maintain adequate levels.

• Vitamin C supports collagen production: As an essential nutrient for collagen synthesis, Vitamin C plays a crucial role in the production and maintenance of healthy collagen. Because of its role in producing collagen, vitamin C has been shown to protect the skin from signs of aging and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

• It aids tissue regeneration: Vitamin C is directly involved in supporting tissue regeneration.

• Vitamin C helps provide protection from free radical damage: oxidative stress from free radical damage plays a major role in the aging process – particularly when it comes to our skin. A prolonged state of oxidative stress can contribute to a loss of collagen and elastin fibers and speed up the signs of aging. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that can help provide protection against free radical damage to help protect the skin.

Hyaluronic acid

You’ve probably heard of the hydration benefits of applying hyaluronic acid topically on your skin, but what about the benefits of taking hyaluronic acid orally as a supplement? Studies show that taking hyaluronic acid orally also provides some powerful skin health benefits. Clinical trials have demonstrated that the oral administration of hyaluronic acid can improve skin health, hydration and signs of aging.