Keep Your Skin Healthy with Chiral Skin Care Products

And if you want the world to see how healthy you are, there are of course many ways that you can show your health to the world.

The most obvious way is of course your skin.

So, how do we keep our skin healthy?

One popular, new method is the use of cosmeceuticals. That may sound like a strange word. According to Robert A Schwartz, MD, Professor and Head of Dermatology at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, "Cosmeceuticals represent a marriage between cosmetics and pharmaceuticals." He notes that, "Like cosmetics, (they) are topically applied, but they contain ingredients that influence the biological function of the skin." They don't just work on making your skin look pretty, blemish free and all that. Rather they improve skin appearance by putting healthy nutrients in the skin. Or, in other words, cosmeceuticals make the skin look healthy because it IS healthy.

If cosmeceuticals is a new word for you - and perhaps a new concept - then let me add another important term, in this discussion about skin care.

That's Chiral Technology.

When you use natural ingredients for skin care, you still need to make sure that your skin can use what it's being 'fed'.

Chiral technology is simply a process of purification. It extracts the purest form of positive molecules and eliminates the negative molecules (that can cause damage and irritation) out of the natural ingredients you use. It thus provides the proper fit onto the skin's receptors for repairing and maintaining healthy skin with less irritation.

It seems to be one of the newest concepts and practices for healthy skin and healthy skin care.

So, how does Chirality (as it's called) work?

Chiral molecules are exactly the same in every way. Like your hands, they are perfect mirror images of each other. So, in a way, they are exact opposites! An example is amino acids. Our body uses just left-handed amino acids (you will notice on your protein formulations words like L-proline). The right handed ones are out there in the world, but the body cannot use them.

So, what does this have to do with skin care?

The body's receptors are all chiral. They are like gloves made to fit only over the correct hand. Thus a good skin care product should be formulated in a chirally correct way. Or in other words, the product would be a proper fit on to the skin's receptors. If the product is chirally correct, then any skin treatments, whether from professionals or at home, would provide the most effective therapy for repairing the skin.

Chiral technology makes it possible to produce a product that is better than "natural" because it separates the molecules, allowing us to remove the undesirable side of the molecule and use only the desirable one.

As I noted, chirality refers to molecules that fit 'like a glove' with the skin's receptors. But what happens if the wrong-handed molecule is used?

A good example of this is Thalidomide--- the morning sickness drug given to pregnant women in the late 50s and early 60s. The drug company knew of this drugs chirality, but did not investigate the real consequences. On one hand the morning sickness was eliminated and on the other hand it caused terrible side effects and severe birth defects. If chiral technology had been applied this would have been eliminated.

But, though chiral technology is certainly one of the newest concepts in skin care, the technology itself has been around for awhile.

In fact, Louis Pasteur discovered it in 1848 while studying tartaric acid from wine making. He found two tartaric acids on the exact mirror image of the other like our hands.

A solution of this compound derived from living things (specifically, wine lees) gave the chiral effect. The mystery was that tartaric acid derived by chemical synthesis had no such effect, even though its elemental composition was the same. It only worked with living, organic compounds.

For a young scientist (he was only about 26 at that time) this first demonstration of chiral molecules was quite an achievement, but of course Pasteur then went on to his more famous work in the field of biology/medicine.

So, if it's really not so new, why haven't we heard of this before? Well, nowadays chirality is the fastest growing investment by drug companies. So we're sure to hear much more of it. The Dark Ages of medical science are coming to a close. You will now hear more about chiral technology processing.

So, getting back to skin care, if we understand some basic principles it will help us target our skin health needs.

The bottom line is that there are two basic layers of skin, the Epidermis and the Dermis. These two layers, though separate, work as one system. The Epidermis serves as a barrier to the outside and must keep out sunlight, insects, germs, heat, cold, dirt and gases. At the same time it must withhold water, blood, minerals, vitamins, hormones and proteins. The Dermis must provide for body regulation of heat by the controlling of sweat evaporation and dermal blood flow. The skin must provide a system to allow the replacement of the outer cells lost to the environment and the Dermis must also serve as a vast waste disposal system of many toxic body substances.

Chiral technology allows for a product that is better than "natural" because it separates the molecules, allowing us to remove the undesirable side of the molecule and use only the desirable one.

Chirally correct ingredients thus have the ability to deliver outstanding results. Scientists have established that chirally correct molecules determine how, or even if, a particular ingredient will be effective. Therefore, in order for a product to be most effective, its ingredients must be chirally correct. Only chirally correct ingredients can restore chiral purity and alignment on a molecular level, and therefore, on a cellular level. Chirally correct fresh ingredients deliver nutrients deep into the cell's structure, nutrients that your skin can not only recognize, but use.

Chiral technology used in the development of skin care products ensures the delivery of ingredients to skin receptors. This means that the absorption of nutrients is not inhibited by the incorrect orientation of the active ingredients. Such mal-orientation, found in most skin care products, not only renders the product ineffective, it is often the cause of irritation and other negative side effects. Since increased absorption of the proper ingredients is especially important when dealing with aged, sun damaged, acne, and sensitive skin, it is paramount to offer ingredients in a form that is easily absorbed, recognized, and utilized by the skin to restore the skin's integrity and immune function.