Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Basics of How Argireline Works in Anti Aging Creams

By Julie Samtsonn

Wrinkles in the skin have many causes. They are part of the aging process, skin cells loose fat content (elastin and collagen) because of several causes. Over exposure to the sun, natural aging even repetitive facial gestures like squinting or pursing the lips. As well as this, the skin cells loose their capacity to seal in moisture, as the fat content slowly deplete the cells that were once plump. This is why the smile lines, frown lines, eyebrow and forehead lines as well as crow's feet lines start to appear.

In anti aging creams, the objective is to keep the lines and wrinkles from forming in the first place, and in the case of anti wrinkle creams, the purpose is to try to retrain the skin cells, to retain moisture and skin muscles to relax the positions they have formed over the years to cause certain skin wrinkles, as in the smiles lines and crow's feet. There are methods of "rebuilding the skin structure" or "remodeling skin cells", as it has been referred to. It usually involves the use of peptides, which is a wound healing process, much like in the case of burn victims, where the skin is remodeled to encourage new skin growth.

In the case of facial and skin muscle regrowth or retraining, peptides have been used, as a sort of muscle relaxer, as peptides tend work on a deeper level than some topical cream treatments. Argireline is a trade name for Acetyl Hexapeptide-3, which as the name implies is a peptide, a synthetic anti aging chemical derived from natural proteins, making a chain of amino acids, which can be used to stimulate muscle relaxation and reflex reactions, that can be the underlying cause of a wrinkle appearing in a certain position over time.

Argireline has been found successful to reduce the muscle reactions over a period of time, with slight improvement over a 4 week period, and twice the results in a 27 week usage. As with any anti aging cream or anti wrinkle cream treatment, once it is stopped, it is usual that the wrinkles will reappear to an extent and the natural muscle reactions will cause the newer skin cells to become retrained to appear to wrinkle with the fold of the underlying skin muscles.

Argireline, by the nature of it's treatment of the underlying muscles versus treatment of the surface skin cells, make it much like a topical form of what Botox, by injection to the muscles does. The relaxation of the facial muscle contractions is a temporary solution, even with Botox. Manufacturers of Argireline use less than a 10% ingredient composure, as a higher concentration could have adverse effects, by relaxing the facial muscles too much and resulting in sagging. While Argireline has not been on the market long enough to measure long-term effects, it appears safe and effective as an ingredient in topical anti aging creams and anti wrinkle creams, and is available in many formulations on the market. - 15438

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