The use of anti-ageing skin care products these days is on the increase and all things considered it is perfectly natural; as our lifespan increases so does our desire to remain active as well as look young and healthy. This is done using skin care products that encourage the growth of the protein collagen which happens to be the main source of the protein used in the connective tissue of skin; almost 25 percent of the protein in skin is actually collagen. This area of anti-ageing treatments is connected to another group of products that help people to look young; this group is called antioxidants and apart from their cell repairing ability, they may be able to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.



Probably the best known of these anti-oxidants is vitamin C although no-one really knows just how much we should have each day. The problem with vitamin C derived skin care treatments is they can become oxidized when exposed to the atmosphere, often even before they are used.

To get around this some skin care treatments are based on derivatives of vitamin C, which are more stable and less expensive. These new anti-oxidant products are not quite as good as vitamin C although other naturally occurring compounds, vitamin E and lipoic acid can achieve the same effect.

Found in human blood, vitamin E is not only an antioxidant but is designed to boost the immune system's resistance to illness; it has many functions including inhibiting the formation of cancer cells. Another of these is lipoic acid which is found in every cell of our body to help generate energy for us to live; it can help reverse much of the damage caused to the skin by ageing.

Phytochemicals aren't produced by the body but are extracted from a number of plants and used in many anti-ageing skin care products to combat the signs of ageing. Phytochemicals prevent occurrence of certain types of cancer; for instance:

*Cancer that attacks the Prostate

*Cancer of the Breast

*Cancer of the Bowel

These three types of cancer are also becoming a global problem.

Some B-vitamins like B5, B6 and B12 are also in use for anti-ageing skin care products. The use of anti-ageing skin care products is a huge scientific field to research and has far greater potential than just producing goods that reduce the visible signs of age. Although current regimes are quite effective, there are many ways to combat the effects of time; there is still a long way to go however, before methods that successfully reduce the effects of age are commonplace.

Hopefully, these challenges will get resolved in due course and better and cheaper anti-ageing skin care products will be produced. At the moment though, science is still behind the field of natural anti-aging methods; man-made products may never replace those that are available naturally! Natural methods are known, but few people actually follow them; what proportion of the population actually eats healthily, takes plenty of exercise, drink sufficient water and obtain restful and regular sleep?