Anti-Aging: The New Adult Acne Treatment

Softening the skin and relieving wrinkles with anti-aging moisturizers is becoming a welcome and effective method of treating acne. To date there is a large and growing number of people, especially adult women, who have benefited from new treatments based on alpha hydroxy acids that not only reduce acne but also improve aging skin.

There is connection between anti-aging and acne: One of the primary symptoms of acne is a build up of dead cellular debris on the skin’s surface, which creates micro-fissures, especially in the facial pores, that can harbor acne causing bacteria. Acne results when this dead skin tissue clogs pores and inhibits the normal passage of oils and moisture, causing whiteheads or blackheads and eventually, as a result of bacterial infection, pimples and cysts can develop.

As our skin ages, the outer layer of skin thickens, and becomes stiffer, creating these same micro-fissures. Wrinkles result when this less flexible layer creases the underlying growing tissue and it increasingly grows into deeper and more pronounced lines. In other words acne and wrinkling share the same symptomatic skin condition: excessive undetached dead skin tissue building up on the skin’s surface.

Alpha hydroxy acids exfoliant, or thin this outer layer, softening the skin and relieving the single condition that both promotes wrinkled skin and acne. Alpha hydroxy acids, arguably the most effective anti-aging cosmetic ingredient in modern skin care, was originally developed by a dermatologist, Dr Eugene Van Scott, looking for an alternative to benzoyl peroxide, which had just entered the market as an over-the-counter acne treatment.

In the early 1970’s Van Scott was investigating vitamin A as an alternative acne treatment to benzoyl peroxide (Van Scott, 1974, 2004). Benzoyl Peroxide, was developed to treat acne because it is effective in eliminating the bacteria that causes acne. It was however, somewhat irritating to the skin. Vitamin A, it turns out, did have some an intriguing anti-acne effects, but was not an effective anti-bacterial agent, and could be even more irritating to the skin. Dr. Van Scott began working with the Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHAs) because of their chemical similarity to Vitamin A, and because they were less irritating. Van Scott found not only were alpha hydroxy acids effective in relieving acne, but that they were well tolerated by the skin. However, what really caught the everyone’s attention was when it was noted that women in the alpha hydroxy acid acne clinical trails were experiencing a reduction in wrinkling. AHAs quickly became most widely used anti-aging skin care ingredient in cosmetics worldwide.

The problem with benzoyl peroxide, while it is effective in eliminating acne-causing bacteria, is that it dries out the skin, increasing the amount of dead skin tissue on the surface of the skin and within facial pores. However moisturizing is difficult as this in turn can clog pores, trapping sebum and promoting bacterial growth. For most women then using moisturizers just aggravates acne. Alpha Hydroxy acids, however, can reduce the micro-fissures and the layer of dead tissue that harbors acne-causing bacteria, without drying out the skin. The problem with alpha hydroxy acids is that they are only slightly moisturizing and the challenge has been to enhance the moisturizing effect while keeping the skin clean and exfoliated.

Several companies have worked to solve this problem and have developed alpha hydroxy acid moisturizers for acne prone skin. Murad and Olay have developed a number of anti-aging acne products with alpha hydroxy acids. At Niora, we have worked to solve this problem by creating moisturizing cleansers formulated with specially emulsified jojoba oil. Jojoba oil, while intensely moisturizing, is a fine oil with a far smaller molecular weight than sebum, or skin oil, and is excellent for sensitive skin (Scott, 1982). Jojoba, when properly formulated into these moisturizing soap-free cleansers penetrates these heavier skin oils, unclogging pores and dissolving nascent blackheads and whiteheads, which can then be rinsed free, leaving the skin soft and clean.

These lighter moisturizing cleansers when blended with alpha hydroxy acids, can also exfoliate the skin and work to prevent excessive tissues from building back up in the pores. Typically these types of exfoliating moisturizing cleansers must be used daily to be effective, but they replace normal moisturizers and cleansers and fit easily into most skin care regimes.

This new class of skin care products thus offer the best of both worlds: an effective method to clear adult acne that moisturizes the skin and that reduces wrinkling. Niora’s landmark adult acne product, Alpha Clear Adult Acne Treatment developed in 1995, has been used successfully by thousands of women suffering from acne who have been unable to benefit from effective anti-aging skin care. Alpha Clear and other new products demonstrate that the best adult acne treatment might well be anti-aging skin care.

references:

Van Scott EJ, Yu RJ; Control of keratinization with alpha-hydroxy acids and related compounds. I. Topical treatment of ichthyotic disorders; Arch Dermatol. 1974 Oct;110(4):586-90.

Scott MJ, Scott MJ jr; Jojoba Oil; J Am Acad Dermatol. 1982 Apr;6(4 Pt 1):545

Van Scott EJ, YU RJ: Alpha-hydroxyacids and Carboxylic acids. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 2004 (3)76-87