When discussing Skin care, Toronto patients often ask " why a day cream and a night cream?". The answer is that day creams primarily protect, while night creams stimulate.
First of all, protection from oxidative stress is important. Oxidation is defined as a chemical reaction between oxygen and other molecules. This always involves the loss of an electron. Loss of an electron can be useful for example when anodized aluminum is being created. But oxidation also causes cut fruit to go brown or metal to rust,- not very pretty!
Oxidation in our dermis results in damage to proteins, fats and DNA, resulting in loss of young fresh looking skin.
Free radicals are molecules that cause oxidation to occur because they contain "free" – electrons. These interact, causing elements within our tissues to give up an electron, ie oxidize. Many so called " stressors" promote free radicals production, including sunlight, tobacco, alcohol, poor diet, lack of sleep, and skin irritants such as Talc, Parabens, and Petroleum. Our body produces fewer protective molecules that help fight oxidation as we age, therefore we need additional protection from topical as well as ingested antioxidants.
a well known antioxidant is vitamin C. It's important to have vitamin C orally, and science supports the benefits of topical vitamin C too. Good amounts of easily absorbed vitamin C can be found in Obagi® Professional-C Serums™ line, and and vitamin C along with many other antioxidants can be found in other high quality skin care lines such As ZO, developed by famed dermatologist Zein Obagi, and also in many of the SkinMedica products.
The Dermaceutic line offers high concentrations of Vitamin E in it's Hayal Ceutic and K Ceutic creams .
