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Skin in Health and Disease |
WrinklesThe epidermis slowly thins with age. Skin exposed to the sun ages most quickly. Wrinkles are folds of skin that are more frequent on the face and hands and become more numerous with age. Wrinkles are associated with loss of skin elasticity and sagging of skin that increases the aging effect with the development of deep fissures and folds. Young skin is relatively tight, smooth and follows the contours of the underlying tissue. Subcutaneous fat is the sculpting medium for body contours. Skin that hugs the surface of the underlying fat looks young and healthy. With aging, the skin and subcutaneous fat dissociate, sag and no longer look attractive. Plastic surgery procedures remove redundant skin and fat, stretching the remaining skin over the underlying structures to restore something of the younger look. I seldom find the look of “face lifts’ appealing and the inevitable loss of normal face movement can be quite distressing to an observer of the altered face. The development of wrinkles involves the deepest layers of skin and changes in subcutaneous tissue. Surface treatment of wrinkles with lotions and creams has minimal and transient effects. Contet-Audonneau described changes in aging skin: “Fibres like candelabra extend perpendicularly from the lamina densa of the dermoepidermal junction into the papillary dermis where they merge with a horizontal network of elastin-containing fibres to form a continuous dermal elastic fiber network… mainly composed of elastin and two glycoproteins, fibrillin and microfibril-associated glycoprotein. In photoaged skin, the elastic tissue overgrows… there is a decrease or disappearance of oxytalan fibres. Severe depletion and reorganization of fibrillin at the dermoepidermal junction of both mild and severely photoaged skin indicates that the fibrillin microfibrillar network of the papillary dermis is particularly susceptible to degradation by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation.” Their study revealed that at the bottom of a wrinkle, collagens IV and VII are decreased. In the dermis, they also found collagen atrophy and changes of the elastic tissue, strongly modified in skin exposed to solar radiation. They reported “voluminous masses of elastotic tissue” that forms pads on each side of the wrinkle. Oxytalan fibres were decreased and were at the bottom of the wrinkle, tending to disappear with age. Glycosaminoglycans and chondroitin sulphates were decreased under the bottom of the wrinkle. They also noted atrophy of the hypodermis with fibrous trabeculae thickening, more pronounced under the wrinkle. Collagen is critical to the mechanical framework of the skin and several cellular processes. Collagen is a long-lived protein. Once damaged, it cannot be repaired. Intermolecular cross-linking modifies collagen's biomechanical properties, resulting in increased stiffness and vulnerability to mechanical stimuli. The formation of glycation products on collagen side chains alters the protein's charge and interferes with its active sites, thereby distorting the protein's ability to interact properly with surrounding cells and matrix proteins. The ability to convert L-arginine to nitric oxide, a critical cofactor in the crosslinking of collagen fibers, is impaired. Glycated collagen is highly resistant to degradation by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). This further retards the process of collagen turnover and replacement with functional proteins. Other cutaneous extracellular matrix proteins are affected by glycation, including elastin and fibronectin. Skin in Health and Diseaseis a book about skin health and skin care that offers solutions to specific skin disorders. The good news for many suffers some chronic skin disorders is that complete diet revision will often improve and sometimes resolve skin symptoms. This book focuses on the most common skin disorders that can be controlled by changes in skin care, diet and the environment. Eczema, for example, is sometimes an expression of food allergy, or allergy to contact materials. Dermatologist may deny the food allergy causes, so that their patients often have to make independent decisions. In all aspects of medicine, we advocate responsible self-management and offer this book as primer and reference for self-managers with skin problems.
The book, Skin in Heath and Disease is intended to be used with the Alpha Nutrition Program. This text provides background knowledge, helpful in understanding skin disorders and the relevance of diet revision. Often a food holiday on Alpha ENF is the best way to begin recovery and the Alpha Nutrition program is an ideal way to design a safer, healthier long-term diet. If diet revision is appropriate to solve your Skin Disorders, you can order the the Starter Pack Option. We recommend diet revision to people with
Starter Packs bundle the Alpha Nutrition Program, with other books and formulas to help you get started solving your health problems. The starter packs are sold at discounts to make it easier and affordable for you to learn more and try our nutrient formulas.
All Alpha Nutrition Books, Formulas and Starter Packs are ordered at Alpha Online. Physical shipments by the Post Office to all destinations in Canada and the USA. eBooks are downloaded and can be delivered to any destination on the planet. Click the Download button to order and download PDF files from Alpha Online. Alpha Online is a hub for twenty five Medical Information Centers. Each center acts as its own web site with a home page and a list of links to relevant topics. Take advantage of 800 pages of text which describe common medical problems and introduce you to innovative solutions such as Alpha ENF and the Alpha Nutrition Program. Alpha Nutrition is a trademark and a division of Environmed Research
Inc., founded in 1984 at Vancouver, BC, Canada. Online Since 1995. |
