05.06.08

DMAE and centrophenoxine–anti-aging anti-oxidants

Posted in Skin Aging Facts at 7:02 pm by Administrator

The Vicious Cycle of Aging

The newsletter which can be found on http://www.antiaging-systems.com/index.htm frequently provides thought-provoking articles. I earmarked the “Vicious Circle” article for inclusion in one of my newsletters at some point, because it gets to the heart of why I am so adamant about using some of the ingredients I use in my products. (For more stories on this and other anti-aging topics please see the April newsletter, which will be posted on www.marieveronique.net soon. You can also sign up for the free newsletters on this site.)

This overview gives a little background on how aging happens at the cellular level, and bases its conclusions on the work of one of my favorite researchers in the field, Imre Nagy. Professor Nagy is internationally renowned as the originator of the Membrane Hypothesis of Aging, which is a variant of the free-radical theory.

First what I’d like to do is just highlight what happens at the cellular level. From there we can go on to what really charges our batteries, namely, what we can do to keep the aging effects at bay.

Here is the vicious circle of aging at the cellular level, in a nutshell.

1) OHRs damage cell membranes continuously. OHRs are hydroxyl radicals, which are the most reactive of all the reactive oxygen species. They can react with lipids in the various membranes of the cell, especially mitochondrial membranes.

2) Accumulating cell membrane damage gradually reduces potassium and water permeability, so water leaves and potassium accumulates, increasing intracellular viscosity.

3) Increasing intracellular viscosity reduces enzyme action, including RNA synthesis

4) Reduced RNA synthesis reduces new protein synthesis

5) Reduced protein synthesis reduces efficiency of cell membrane damage repair, which damage is caused by 1), and the vicious circle of increasing cell membrane damage and cell dysfunction/aging rolls on.

Since the vicious circle starts with OHR damage to the cell membrane it makes sense that one solution would be to intersperse a OHR-scavenger throughout the cell membrane. We know that the chief non-enzymatic OHR-scavenger is ascorbate, or Vitamin C. Vitamin C in sufficient quantities is incredibly important in maintaining skin health, but it won’t help us with membrane protection, because ascorbate is water-soluble. It occurs in the watery compartments like blood, extra cellular fluid, cytoplasm, and so on. Lipid-soluble tocopherol (vitamin E) is the chief membrane anti-oxidant, since membranes are composed of lipids, proteins and glycoproteins. Unfortunately, tocopherol does not quench OHR. This is quite a dilemma. We need something which will quench OHRs like Vitamin C and intersperse membrane lipids like Vitamin E. This is where centrophenoxine and DMAE come in.

Centrophenoxine and DMAE: site-specific antioxidants

The OHR-scavenging ability of DMAE is well-confirmed by many studies. When the active part of centrophenoxine (CPH), namely DMAE, enters various cells, it is phosphorylated into phosphoryl-DMAE, which is then converted to phosphatidyl-DMAE (PhDMAE). PhDMAE is then incorporated into the cell membrane. We need to ask ourselves, does this PhDMAE actually work in membranes as an effective site-specific antioxidant?

The studies, and they are quite numerous, indicate that it does. If you’d like to research these studies in more detail please go to the website indicated above. I’d just like to make the leap here into what a superior anti-aging system looks like. It should include:

L-ascorbate acid or Vitamin C

Vitamin E

Centrophenoxine and/or DMAE

This is just for starters. We’ll go into other ingredients and the role they play in protecting and repairing the skin in future newsletters. If you have an ingredient in mind you would like me to elaborate on please let me know. Just email me at marieveronique@m-vskintherapy.com

Who should not use DMAE or centrophenoxine

Please note, because of its strong cholinergic effects DMAE and centrophenoxine should not be used by pregnant women or nursing mothers.

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