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Power of Antioxidants and Skin Aging

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Introduction

With the world population getting older by the day, came the popularity of anti-aging science. However, in this post, we are not going deep into the existing theories of aging, theories of programmed aging, damage or error theories, psycho-social aspects of it, or evolutionary theories. More than three hundred theories of aging have been proposed 1.

This is good material for a dissertation, but our purpose is just to disseminate information about the scientifically proven importance of the nutrients.

What we are going to discuss today is very specific: a scientifically-proved approach to skin aging.

Aging: Definition

How do we define aging?2

Slowing down, debilitating diseases… and worsened looks. How we look is so important to us! We would do anything, just anything, to look great! Just imagine a sculpted by the hours of fitness body, sun-kissed legs… and wrinkled, sagging skin with age spots. Not good by any stretch of imagination. Because you cannot diet or exercise the skin. Or, can we?

So, without further due – let’s discuss importance of our skin!

Importance of the Skin In Aging

Skin not only makes you beautiful. It is the largest organ of our body. It weighs over twenty pounds!  As young as age forty-five, we start to lose hydration in the outermost layer of our skin, and our skin’s barrier function starts to deteriorate 3. When the skin ages… well, it fails to protect us from environmental effects, it fails to thermoregulate the internal temperature, it stops feeling touch, fails to excrete metabolic waste, or synthesize vitamin D. It looks like skin aging may accelerate overall aging, and we not only do not want our looks to deteriorate, but also have no desire to experience snowballing detrimental effects for the whole body! And the opposite is also true. 

Proof? When aged mice were rubbed with petroleum jelly three times a day for ten days, to improve their skin moisture barrier and overall condition, the inflammatory markers went down not only in their skin but throughout their whole bodies! 4

Skin Composition

The bulk of our skin are collagen (about 75%), hyaluronic acid, and elastin. 

  • Collagen: defines skin strength and firmness, 
  • Hyaluronic acid: maintains moisture in the skin by trapping water
  • Stretchy elastic fibers containing elastin (~2 %):  help skin bounce back into shape

Skin aging means loss of all of those important features. And how to counteract this? Can we use powerful antioxidant foods and supplements? Picking at least one would be great… and how about all of them? 

Nutri-IQ blog is the perfect place to discuss the effects of essential nutrients on human health, skin included. Nutrient deficiencies and overload are just the basics of health and longevity… but these basics can make or break the deal. Especially with the skin.

Skin Nutrients: Antioxidant Powerhouse

It is thought now that the oxidative cellular damage essentially causes aging. Today, aging and disease are conceptualized as the oxidation of our body. Look at those brown age spots on the back of your hands when you turn 50… Oxidized fat and protein under the skin caused that. Oxidant stress is also why we get wrinkles 5.

So, can we use essential nutrients’ support healthy, beautiful skin, or even reverse the aging process without a plastic surgeon’s help or injections? And if we can, can we assemble them in a little pill of youth? 

This is absolutely possible. There is a growing body of evidence that oral supplementation works well in appropriate doses 6.

Beauty in the Pill

My favourite supplement provider, Seeking Health, just did it! Let’s see what Skin Nutrients from Seeking Health is all about.

This product combines the power of the essential nutrients’ antioxidative properties with herbs’ goodness. Since our blog is fully devoted to the essential nutrients, let’s focus on essential nutrients for your younger, glowing skin. All essential nutrients listed below exhibit antioxidant action!  All these essential nutrients are good by themselves, but even more, working together, they enhance each other’s effects synergistically. 

The following essential nutrients exhibit antioxidant power:

  1. Chromium 
  2. Vitamin A
  3. Vitamin C
  4. Vitamin E
  5. Vitamins of B-group:
    •     Thiamin (Vitamin B1)
    •      Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
    •      Niacin (Vitamin B3)
    •       Pantothenic acid (vitamin B5)
  6. Zink 
  7. Copper 
  8. Selenium
  9. Molybdenum

There is an evidence 7 that the use of antioxidants is an effective approach to prevent symptoms related to aging of the skin since intracellular and extracellular oxidative stress initiated by reactive oxygen species advances skin aging (characterized by wrinkles and atypical pigmentation). 

Among them, Vitamins C, B3 (niacin), and E are the most important antioxidants because of their ability to penetrate the skin through their small molecular weight 8. 

The restoration of collagen and elastin in human skin plays a crucial role in anti-aging and skin rejuvenation therapies. This study established that the combination of antioxidants showed the most significant increase in both elastin and collagen synthesis, surpassing the effects of individual antioxidants 9.

Conclusion

The combination of antioxidants presents a promising strategy for enhancing skin elasticity and firmness by promoting both elastin and collagen synthesis. The antioxidant combinations will be further developed for effective anti-aging skincare formulations, and – I hope – there is more to come from Seeking Health!

References

  1. Medvedev ZA. An attempt at a rational classification of theories of ageing. Biol Rev. 1990;65(3):375–98.
  2. How Not to Age. The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older. Michael Greger, M.D., FACLM. Flatiron Books 2023 ISBN 9781250796325
  3. Man MQ, Elias PM. Could inflammaging and its sequelae be prevented or mitigated? Clin Interv Aging. 2019;14:2301–4.
  4. Hu L, Mauro TM, Dang E, et al. Epidermal dysfunction leads to an age-associated increase in levels of serum inflammatory cytokines. J Invest Dermatol. 2017;137(6):1277–85. 
  5. Rinnerthaler M, Bischof J, Streubel MK, Trost A, Richter K. Oxidative stress in aging human skin. Biomolecules. 2015;5(2):545–89.
  6. Reeves, R. and Luks, E.L. (2024), Oral Supplements and Dermatology: A Review. Dermatological Reviews, 5: e239. https://doi.org/10.1002/der2.239 
  7. Hitoshi Masaki, Role of antioxidants in the skin: Anti-aging effects, Journal of Dermatological Science, Volume 58, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 85-90, ISSN 0923-1811,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdermsci.2010.03.003.
  8. Ganceviciene, R., Liakou, A. I., Theodoridis, A., Makrantonaki, E., & Zouboulis, C. C. (2012). Skin anti-aging strategies. Dermato-Endocrinology, 4(3), 308–319. https://doi.org/10.4161/derm.22804 
  9. Stutts J, Clatterbuck K, Duckworth C, et al. Synergistic impact of antioxidant combinations on collagen and elastin synthesis in human dermal fibroblasts. Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering. 2025;0(0). doi:10.1177/09592989251341159
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