The Truth About Looking Young Horizon


The Truth About Looking Young

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My name is Dr Rozina Ali and I'm a consultant plastic surgeon in the

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And I have it damps what, please? But what fascinates me is how it

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This is a natural! -- this is not natural! So I left the operating

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theatre behind for the frontiers of skin science. This is not what I

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Along the way I discovered a diet that could potentially help us all

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look younger. What do you think That we're on the verge of changing

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summers forever with the contents And that something we all love to

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eat is revolutionising the science Skin, believe it or not, is an

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organ. Just like the heart, lungs But what makes it special is that

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unlike any other organ, you can see It's the largest organ in the body.

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In fact, laid out flat, it's as big as this. And that's somewhere

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around 20 square feet. But it's not just big, it's the very first organ

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we developed. In fact, skin is the difference between a collection of

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It's the first thing I look at when But why do some people look older

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What's the scientific truth about Time for me to declare my personal

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interest. I'm 44 years old and I've not had any plastic surgery. I'm

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probably a bit like you. I'm young enough to care, old enough to know

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better. So for me, it all comes down to the science. If it stacks

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up, if it's scientifically credible, Every day of our lives, our skin is

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engaged in a relentless war with The first battle is against the

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Working out how the sun helps to make you look older means

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investigating the effect it has on This is what gives young skin its

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distinctive plumpness. If it deflates, the skin wrinkles and

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Surprisingly, scientists trying to understand how you can look younger

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for longer have been studying lorry Meet Rob and Alan. Between them,

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they've been driving around Britain Would you like to get in? Thank you.

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Just as well I'm sensibly dressed! And there's something about their

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faces that provide clues about the hidden power of the sun. A good-

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looking guy like you, tell me about your skincare regime, what do you

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use? Apart from washing my face with soap and water, I don't use

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any. Moisturiser? No. My wife would start getting a bit suspicious if I

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started using moisturiser! Does she have reason to be suspicious?

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Absolutely not and she knows that. Have you had any problems with your

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skin? Ever get sunburnt? Have not in a cab. I use protection when I'm

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not -- when I'm on holiday. For work, never. Why don't you bother

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with protection or any skin care when you are driving? You are

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always in the truck. You get out every now and then, but you will

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only be going from the cab to an office or into the back of a

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trailer to help unload at something. You are never in the sum for very

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long. For -- in the sun. doesn't get burned in his cab.

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That's because the glass he sits behind for most of the day filters

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out the rays that cause sunburn. This bit of the sun's spectrum is

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This bit of the sun's spectrum is called UVB. These rays have a very

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short wavelength and so only burn the top layer of our skin. They

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can't penetrate any deeper. And they can't get through window glass

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Now, I don't want to seem unkind, but Rob's skin doesn't look

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So what's going on? To answer that question, I've arranged for Rob and

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Alan to have a skin check-up. And that's taking place here at

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Manchester University's world Conducting the test is Britain's

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leading skin scientist - Professor Chris Griffiths. He's taking Rob

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and Alan's picture with this very special camera. And he's been using

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it to uncover some of the secrets of how the sun ages our skin. Who

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wants to go first? Let's get the ugly out of the way! Swing around

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and close your eyes. Bath exactly the same again, look in the mirror.

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It is just getting used your face. What does that mean? What's wrong

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with it? Well done. What will the photographs reveal about Rob and

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A you can see on Allen's face that there are deeper wrinkles on the

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right side, they are longer off compared with the left side.

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There's a deeper wrinkle here if compared with the left side. I tell

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you what is really obvious to me. On the right, the eyebrow is lower

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than his brow bone. This is significantly longer and then it

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goes down passed his lips into the Marion neckline and on the other

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side, or you see is that slight line. It is much, much less for

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elastic tissue. Exactly. I think that is gruesome! It is gruesome!

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Right, can we see Rob? This time, it has been colour-coded so the

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green lines are marking the wrinkles. That is not as bad!

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interestingly, considering you are younger, don't be depressed, a lot

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more wrinkles. Her thank you! lots more of them. There are more

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on the right than the left. G fact that one side of their face is

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more wrinkled than the other is no surprise to Professor Griffiths.

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He's conducted numerous studies into the condition of lorry

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drivers' skin. That confirms our previous work. People who are

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professional long-distance lorry drivers get a lot of sun exposure

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You might think, behind the safety of the windscreen, the drivers are

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There's another form of sunlight that does penetrate glass. It's

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called UVA. It has a much longer wavelength, allowing it go get much

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Job done. And what about you? don't think so. I don't think

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that's very fair! I we need a comparison. This is a natural. --

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this is not natural. Reluctantly, in the interests of science, I gave

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in. And I soon wished I hadn't. That's interesting. If you have

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more wrinkles on the right side of your face than the left. That is

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amazing. On the left, that is quite a nice picture. I'm not unhappy

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with that. My gosh! On the right... You have four more -- far more.

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That is probably from everyday driving. It is not just for truck

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drivers? Not at all. I have to say I'm truly shocked. I think that

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gets the message home. Now you know There's no question that from now

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on I'll be slapping on sunscreen when I'm driving. But what kind of

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UVA ages UVB burns. Look for five- star UVA rating. I'll be wearing it

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Most of us are smart enough to make sure we slap on sunscreen in the

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But no matter how diligent you are, slapping on sunscreen isn't

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The problem with sunscreen is that it keeps rubbing off. It provides a

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protective coating to the skin, but it doesn't penetrate it. Lie down,

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touch anyone, or even go in the water, and its protective qualities

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But there's a possible solution to this problem that's at the cutting

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I've come here to Sharm-el-Sheik on Egypt's Red Sea, because it's one

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of the best places in the world to One of the most intriguing and

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promising new developments is being unearthed not here, but out there

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under the waves. And it has the potential to change summers for

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Damaging UVA rays can penetrate So why doesn't everything in the

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According to Dr Paul Long, who's one of the world's leading experts

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in biochemical adaptation, the answer lies on this stunning coral

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It's hard to get your head round, but it's a strange mix of animal

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The plant half of the creature gets its energy from the sun, through

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And that creates a problem for the Photosynthesis need sunlight, so,

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can only live in the first couple of metres of water because

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otherwise it will not penetrate through the water column but it is

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a double-edged sword. They want to live through photosynthesis but

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But the coral isn't in fact actually damaged by the sun. And

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that's because the plant half, the algae, makes a sun protection

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compound that's passed onto the What we found it is a partnership

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between the two of them, so the plant will make a certain compound,

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pass it to the animal which will train -- change it to the Sun

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screening compound for the benefit of most partners. So both are

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Remarkably, coral is the source of sun protection for huge numbers of

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Smaller fish get the sun protection compounds from grazing the reef.

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Bigger fish from eating the smaller fish. What I want to know is, how

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To solve the puzzle, Dr Long invited me out for a special

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evening, which involved a close And there's one particular part of

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this ocean predator's anatomy he wanted me to look at. We are going

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to take out the RA and take out its lines. -- take out the Ivy and take

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out its lens. No girl travels without scissors. I will start just

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on the outside. That is the cornea coming off. This could get quite

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messy. The eyeball is pressurised. I know you are a great surgeon, but

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be careful way you make the cut. can feel it now. Just cut the iris.

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Oh! Gently. There we go! I told you it was pressurised. Quickly, we

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still have got the lens. Unbelievable. Verities. That he's

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the lens. -- then it is. So what is in that? What does that do in the

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eye of any animal? Lech * like three selling its the retina. --

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lets the light through. So it can see through the retina. It will

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Lettin UV light. So they need sunglasses. The compounds that are

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concentrated in the lens, they filter out the damaging UV Ray

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before it hits the retina. This is a super concentrated form of all

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the goodness in the Coral? Can I tell you one thing? I do not

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normally squeal. That is important But to find out just how much sun

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protection there is in the squid's eye, I need to travel back to

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London and Dr Long's lab. The lens from the eye of the squid has been

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broken down into an extract for analysis. It's then placed in this

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It measures how much UV protection the MAAs provide. The results are

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displayed on this simple graph. And what it shows is that the compounds

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give the squid massive amounts of So ET is absorbing the U V A, so no

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more ageing. It is absorbing some of the UVB. Could I get a tan?

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But it is protecting me from damaging rays. Sounds like good

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stuff to me. What's even more remarkable is that in tests in the

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lab, they've found that these compounds appear to be actually

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absorbed by skin cells. And that means they can't rub off. Our work

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is to see how well using human skins with these compounds, do they

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get absorbed in? Rather than slapping it all over like normal

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sun cream we have an indelible stain. You've applied only just

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once and it would be absorbed into the scheme. Dr Long is confident he

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can makes these MAAs into a synthetic sunscreen. Slap it on

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once, and you'd be protected all day. But because this sun

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protection passes up the food chain, he believes we can get it without a

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cream. Not by eating squid's eyes, but by taking a sun protection pill.

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Potentially we could manufacture these compounds in to a tablet or

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capsule and we should be able to swallow it. I now know that I would

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have it every day, not just on holiday, because I want to protect

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myself against the raised and I need all the help I can get. -- the

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If all goes to plan, Dr Long hopes to have the pill on the market in

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And that would be a major leap forward in helping all of us keep

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But it's not just in the science of sun protection that radical new

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There's another area of research that's uncovering more of the

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secrets of how and why our skin wrinkles. And this understanding

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holds out the promise that we can The problem is that this important

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factor in skin ageing is something we can't live without - oxygen. We

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breathe it in every day, but it can Professor John Casey has been

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grappling with the problematic connection between oxygen and

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ageing for nearly 20 years. Every time we breathe, at 98% of that

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oxygen goes to burn the food we are eating and liberate the small

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molecules we need for regeneration and it releases lots of energy is

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to allow muscles to work. A good thing. But there is maybe one or 2%

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of the oxygen that goes down a This small amount of oxygen,

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commonly known as free radicals, Over time, the damage starts to

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accumulate. And the classic signs Our bodies have a defence mechanism

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- it's just not quite efficient So you have a system which is

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continually being slightly damaged due to the reaction to oxygen and

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another system, sell defence, which is about correcting the damage.

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Putting things back to where they should be. So you have a balance.

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What happens with ageing? Is the cell systems overwhelmed?

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Eventually the accumulation of damaged molecules, dysfunctional

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molecules, is always that be greater than the rate at which you

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can clear it up. So inexorably, the animal cages. -- ages. Professor

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Casey works at Unilever's science park in Bedfordshire. And what he's

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investigating is how the signs of ageing that appear on the surface

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of our skin are caused by processes This will blow your socks off. A

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fantastic set of images. This might look like a computer graphic, but

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it is in fact what your skin really looks like. The two layers are easy

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to see. The epidermis at the top is shaded dark. The dermis at the

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bottom is slightly lighter. This is where collagen, the protein that

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helps to keep us looking younger, is made. And at the heart of the

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dermis are the cells that produce it. They're called fibroblasts and

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they're highlighted in red in this image. They're collagen making

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machines. And if you really want to understand how important

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fibroblasts are, you have to look at this. Filmed over 24 hours, it

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shows a collagen filled with a young person's fibroblasts on the

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left, compared with an older They are hardly moving at all, they

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are doing their best, but nowhere near as good as the cells from a

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young person's skin, as we see here. You can really only see how the

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collagen factory works at extreme The object in the centre of the

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screen is a fibroblast. The spider's web around it is collagen.

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Oh, my goodness. Let's have a look in more detail. It's the fibroblast

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that makes the collagen. Crucially, in young, tight skin, the

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fibroblast also pulls powerfully It creates a three-dimensional,

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tense network of collagen which gives young skin its characteristic

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strength and smoothness. With old skin, the connection between the

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fibroblasts and collagen breaks As the skin ages, it almost rejects

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the collagen, so they start to round up the projections and often

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cells start to disappear. The collagen, instead of looking like a

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well-sprung network, looks like a Scientists are still trying to work

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out exactly how oxygen helps the clock to keep ticking on our ageing

:32:37.:32:47.
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But is it possible to turn back the Can we repair and rejuvenate our

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Part of the answer appears to lie Dr Gail Jenkins has been working on

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what scientists call oxidative stress for a decade. And she's

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convinced what we consume is key to protecting and recharging our

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And she has four rules to make life The first rule is always look for

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bright colours. And one of the most important of the brightly coloured

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fruit and veg is the humble tomato. It's chock full of a very special

:33:58.:34:08.
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ingredient. Tomatoes by an excellent source of lycopene. That

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gives it the bright red collar. Excellent at absorbing oxygen and

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presenting -- preventing oxidative stress. Rule number two is look for

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bitter tasting fruit and veg. Broccoli and radishes are an

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excellent source of Clicquot assimilates. By eating these

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ingredients and getting them deposited in the skin, you allow

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the skin cells to defend itself. An excellent natural source of helping

:34:45.:34:55.
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yourself protect yourself from Time for rule number three - eat

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lots of oily fish. Fish is an excellent thing for for skin, it

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contains omega 3. You have to choose a certain type of fish. You

:35:09.:35:14.

are looking for oily fish. Things like mackerel. Why is the mackerel

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good for our skin? The omega 3 in the mackerel have been shown that

:35:19.:35:23.

have anti-inflammatory benefits. They dampen down inflammation in

:35:23.:35:27.

the skin cells. Anything that dampens down in for mentioned is

:35:27.:35:33.

good to prevent ageing. -- inflammation. Final rule? Try and

:35:33.:35:43.
:35:43.:35:44.

avoid startchy food like rice, But what kind of meal can you make

:35:44.:35:54.
:35:54.:35:58.

with these natural anti-ageing, We took the food we bought in the

:35:58.:36:08.
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If I say so myself, very well cooked! But winning the fight

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against oxidative stress would severely test the appetites of most

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of us. The one big issue is the amount of ingredients. For example,

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the broccoli. In terms of the amount of properly you need to get

:36:31.:36:37.

any benefit, it is about half a kilo a day. A huge amount.

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about the fish? The fish levels are not too bad. But in those two

:36:42.:36:46.

together, you would deliver a significant amount of the omega 3

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fatty acids, but it would be two together for one person. If we 85 a

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day or fruit, would that cover skin benefits? It would depend on the

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portions, but I suspect not. To get the benefit you need from these

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particular ingredients, you would need to eat much more. And But

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scientists at Unilever believe they've come up with a pill that

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could have all the benefits of the diet in a capsule. This is it.

:37:13.:37:15.

Apparently, everything that's in the anti-oxidant diet is in this

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:37:25.:37:34.

This is the Culture Lab. Just about every skin cell type is growing in

:37:34.:37:38.

here. Professor Casey and his team have been testing the contents of

:37:38.:37:47.

the anti-wrinkle pill on older skin They've found fibroblasts that were

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dormant begin to reproduce collagen. They then ran a study of the

:37:53.:38:03.
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effects of the pill on 480 middle You can't tell everything from

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pictures, but it has a good place pictures, but it has a good place

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to start. This is a picture of a woman's eye before taking the pill.

:38:14.:38:17.

And this is 14 weeks later. What you can see straight away, the

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quality of the skin significantly improved. The wrinkles are less

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long, and the wrinkles that she does still have are much more

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shallow. It might not be much compared to surgery, but it's

:38:26.:38:36.
:38:36.:38:40.

We've been working on this for quite a few years. It is only now

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that we know this really works in people. We've tested it on hundreds

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:38:55.:38:57.

of women and we are now confident Unilever are planning to publish

:38:57.:39:05.

their results in a leading peer And that's important. Because other

:39:05.:39:08.

scientists can test their claims and see if the results are

:39:08.:39:18.
:39:18.:39:19.

But what you eat isn't the only new approach to solving the problem of

:39:19.:39:29.
:39:29.:39:30.

There's a powerful and radical new science emerging that has the

:39:30.:39:40.
:39:40.:39:50.

potential to completely transform It's hard to believe, but one of

:39:50.:39:53.

the things most of us love to eat is a factor in determining what our

:39:53.:40:03.
:40:03.:40:05.

Sugar doesn't just have the potential to make you put on weight,

:40:05.:40:15.
:40:15.:40:16.

it can also help to make you look It's incredible to think that it

:40:16.:40:26.
:40:26.:40:36.

The effect of sugar on skin ageing has fascinated biologist Dr David

:40:36.:40:46.
:40:46.:40:47.

Working with the University of Leiden in Holland, he asked a

:40:47.:40:57.
:40:57.:41:05.

random group of people to guess the If you go to a school reunion, why

:41:05.:41:15.
:41:15.:41:18.

do some people look younger than they are and others older? We were

:41:18.:41:22.

very interested in the reasons behind this variation in how old

:41:22.:41:27.

people look and maybe what the secret work behind how some people

:41:27.:41:34.

maintain the youthful appearance as they got older. In the study of 600

:41:34.:41:37.

people, Dr Gunn also measured everyone's blood sugar levels. And

:41:37.:41:47.
:41:47.:41:52.

the link between blood and looks We put people into groups based on

:41:52.:41:57.

their glucose levels. Then we looked at between these groups are

:41:57.:42:01.

at their perceived age. What was interesting was that the guys in

:42:02.:42:04.

the High group looked older than those with the average levels and

:42:04.:42:09.

the average levels looked older again than the guys with the lowest

:42:09.:42:13.

levels of glucose sugar in their blood. What was fascinating on top

:42:13.:42:16.

of that is when we bring in the diabetics and looked at their

:42:16.:42:21.

perceived age, they were older yet again. The diabetics have had the

:42:21.:42:29.

longest exposure to high levels of glucose. On average, people with

:42:29.:42:36.

high blood sugar looked around two So does my skin look older than it

:42:36.:42:46.
:42:46.:42:47.

Dr Gunn offered to run the test on To do that, he first needs to take

:42:47.:42:57.
:42:57.:42:58.

a series of pictures. But there was one small hitch. This is the

:42:58.:43:02.

photography room. This is where we will take two photographs of

:43:02.:43:07.

yourself. One thing I notice straightaway is we will have to ask

:43:07.:43:13.

you to remove your make-up. Are you sure that is necessary? A very

:43:13.:43:18.

necessary -- necessary, I'm afraid. It can hide how your skin looks.

:43:18.:43:28.
:43:28.:43:31.

This is not what I had envisaged. Does it look radically different?

:43:31.:43:41.
:43:41.:43:43.

Perfect. Finally, the pictures were taken and adjusted so only my skin

:43:43.:43:52.

He then mixed up the images with people of a similar skin type and

:43:52.:44:02.
:44:02.:44:10.

age to me. And he finished up by So what were the results? What age

:44:10.:44:15.

do you think people would give you? I daren't give you a figure. In

:44:15.:44:24.

case I'm wildly out. OK. I can tell you... Are whereas the box of

:44:24.:44:29.

tissues? We have a box of tissues here. You came out as 34 years of

:44:29.:44:39.
:44:39.:44:46.

I was shocked to discover that the panel thought I looked ten years

:44:46.:44:51.

younger. Up now I want to know your glucose levels. I want to see

:44:51.:44:55.

whether you have low glucose. If you could show me that, I would be

:44:55.:45:03.

very interested. I have that here. I want to keep this! This is the

:45:03.:45:11.

figure. 4.5. OK. You would be counted in the low Group. Indeed,

:45:11.:45:15.

this supports the data we showed, that people with low glucose 10 to

:45:15.:45:25.
:45:25.:45:28.

By So why do high blood sugar levels, amongst other things, help

:45:28.:45:35.

The answer lies in how the sugar gets attached to the collagen in

:45:35.:45:45.
:45:45.:45:53.

Once it gets attached to collagen and makes it more brittle, it makes

:45:53.:45:57.

it more difficult for the skin to repair itself. Once that occurs,

:45:57.:46:02.

you are on your way to advance staging of the skin. -- advanced

:46:03.:46:12.
:46:13.:46:17.

ageing. Obviously, cutting back on the sugars in our diet is one

:46:17.:46:20.

factor in looking younger. That might help to hold back the ageing

:46:20.:46:25.

process, but is there anything we can do to reverse it? And make our

:46:25.:46:35.
:46:35.:46:40.

ageing sugar damaged skin look Our understanding of the power of

:46:40.:46:42.

sugar is totally transforming our view on skin ageing. It's also

:46:42.:46:46.

creating a whole new branch of science. And I think this science,

:46:46.:46:49.

probably more than anything, holds out the tantalising possibility of

:46:49.:46:59.
:46:59.:47:16.

giving us the tools to help us look Babb the centre of this new science

:47:16.:47:26.
:47:26.:47:33.

It's called Light Co biology, the study of complex issues which

:47:33.:47:39.

scientists called liking. Our understanding of the power of sugar

:47:40.:47:42.

is totally transforming our view on skin ageing. It's also creating a

:47:43.:47:52.
:47:53.:47:54.

whole new branch of science. The incredible power of this biology is

:47:54.:47:57.

being on the brink of being realised and it starts with this,

:47:57.:48:01.

the mosquito. And of the disease which is the scourge of the

:48:01.:48:11.
:48:11.:48:13.

It might seem improbable, but using glycobiology to find a vaccine for

:48:13.:48:16.

malaria holds vital clues for solving the puzzle of how to make

:48:16.:48:26.
:48:26.:48:36.

The most ground-breaking work on glycobiology is being done here at

:48:36.:48:39.

the world famous Max Planck Institute. I'm slightly humbled to

:48:40.:48:49.
:48:50.:48:50.

I'm here to meet Professor Peter Seeburger. He's in charge of the

:48:51.:48:53.

cutting edge research programme and believes that the science of

:48:53.:49:03.
:49:03.:49:10.

glycans has enormous untapped It has only been in the last couple

:49:10.:49:15.

of years the people really understood the importance of the

:49:15.:49:23.

Kuli cans and we are seeing a huge Glycans are found all over the

:49:23.:49:33.
:49:33.:49:39.

And without them, our cells couldn't talk to one another. To me,

:49:39.:49:43.

they're like a kind of essential social network. Messages for

:49:43.:49:46.

everything from making organs to growing hair can only be sent when

:49:46.:49:51.

the glycans are attached. Block that connection, and the dialogue

:49:51.:50:01.
:50:01.:50:05.

Inspired, Professor Seeburger used this insight to make a vaccine for

:50:05.:50:15.
:50:15.:50:17.

malaria. He invented a revolutionary technique that

:50:17.:50:20.

enabled him to switch off the glycan that allowed the malaria

:50:20.:50:29.

parasite into our cells. parasite cannot survive without it.

:50:29.:50:33.

But it is really important in the life cycle and there is another

:50:33.:50:38.

aspect of the work. We do not try to kill the parasite. We only block

:50:38.:50:44.

the toxin. So the parasite is still there, but it no longer causes any

:50:44.:50:49.

symptoms or bad effects on the host? That's right. I'm really

:50:49.:50:52.

astonished to discover that in tests, the vaccine has proved 100%

:50:52.:50:57.

effective. So, the painstaking work carried out in these labs could end

:50:57.:51:07.
:51:07.:51:12.

up saving millions of lives all And cracking the code of how our

:51:12.:51:14.

cells talk to each other is radically altering our

:51:14.:51:19.

understanding of how and why our skin ages. In a young person's skin,

:51:19.:51:25.

it is different to an old person. So the question is what happens

:51:25.:51:28.

with the communication between cells. The interesting part is that

:51:28.:51:34.

we found that if they Gallwey, the interaction can't happen any more,

:51:34.:51:44.
:51:44.:51:49.

and that leads to all sorts of So, a breakdown in this

:51:49.:51:59.
:51:59.:52:01.

communication appears to be a key I suppose it was only a matter of

:52:01.:52:05.

time before the huge potential of this new language of life was used

:52:05.:52:15.
:52:15.:52:17.

to see how it could help us all The focus of this research isn't

:52:17.:52:27.
:52:27.:52:44.

here in Berlin, but in the fashion I'd secretly hoped that this

:52:44.:52:46.

investigation between glycans and looking younger would be being

:52:46.:52:49.

conducted near the Boulevard St Germain, the Champs Elysee or any

:52:49.:52:52.

of the other celebrated fashion districts of the capital, but my

:52:52.:53:02.
:53:02.:53:10.

I had to leave it behind and make Out here, amongst the warehouses

:53:10.:53:19.

and small industrial units are the They've been working with

:53:19.:53:23.

glycobiology to see if it can be used to make skin look younger. Of

:53:23.:53:33.
:53:33.:53:35.

all of the cosmetics companies, The man leading the project is Dr

:53:35.:53:45.
:53:45.:53:52.

For him, glycans are on the verge Like towns are involved in all

:53:52.:53:58.

Major biological processes, and in all human tissues. That includes

:53:58.:54:04.

skiing, of course. Without them, we cannot live. -- that includes

:54:04.:54:13.

L'Oreal lead the world in manufacturing synthetic skin.

:54:14.:54:16.

They've even managed to create the two separate layers of the skin,

:54:17.:54:19.

the dermis and the epidermis, in the lab. And what they're

:54:19.:54:25.

investigating is how these two layers are connected. How they talk

:54:25.:54:31.

to each other. That communication takes place in the epidermal

:54:31.:54:41.
:54:41.:54:49.

But as we get older, our glycans The messages to keep making the

:54:49.:54:59.
:54:59.:55:13.

vital collagen don't get sent and What L'Oreal claim is that, in the

:55:13.:55:15.

lab, they've been able to switch ageing glycans back on, restoring

:55:15.:55:25.
:55:25.:55:29.

the dialogue between the dermis and We have shown that when you treat

:55:29.:55:35.

the skin, you are able to restore the quality of the dermatological

:55:35.:55:40.

junction. In other words, you restore the quality of the dialogue

:55:40.:55:50.
:55:50.:55:52.

between epidermis, and Gomis. This is the key. -- and dermis. L'Oreal

:55:53.:55:56.

have used that science to make a cream. Which they claim increases

:55:56.:56:06.
:56:06.:56:06.

the number of glycans in the That should restore deflated

:56:06.:56:16.
:56:16.:56:21.

collagen, eliminate sagging and The woman in me is obviously very

:56:21.:56:27.

excited, but the surgeon in me is sceptical. And that's because most

:56:27.:56:30.

cosmetic creams just don't penetrate deep enough, or contain

:56:30.:56:35.

enough active ingredients. But maybe gylcans can reach the parts

:56:35.:56:42.

other cosmetic creams can't. L'Oreal have conducted a series of

:56:42.:56:52.
:56:52.:56:52.

tests on real skin and I'm going to Looking at this dermatology trial

:56:52.:56:55.

of patients before and one month after using the product, what you

:56:55.:56:59.

can see in this classic crow's feet view is that the lines are

:56:59.:57:07.

And the skin quality certainly seems to have improved around this.

:57:07.:57:10.

This is the very difficult under eye area where the skin is really

:57:10.:57:14.

thin. And I've not seen results this good even with

:57:14.:57:24.
:57:24.:57:30.

microdermabrasion or with laser Before you think of buying this

:57:30.:57:40.
:57:40.:57:41.

cream, this study only featured 60 women. And it hasn't been published

:57:41.:57:47.

in a peer reviewed journal. It's promising, but I'd like to see more

:57:47.:57:50.

data to convince me. What I'm really interested in is the power

:57:50.:57:55.

of the fundamental science that lies behind it. Science that

:57:55.:57:58.

Professor Peter Seeburger, who's a consultant for L'Oreal, has helped

:57:58.:58:07.

to pioneer. Being cynical, in the beginning I was worried about the

:58:07.:58:13.

level of any signs done at a cosmetic company, but I learnt that

:58:13.:58:17.

it is good basic science and they have people there who have been

:58:17.:58:21.

doing this biology for 25 years in some cases. They are employing the

:58:21.:58:31.
:58:31.:58:47.

same techniques as you would find If we're being honest, I think a

:58:47.:58:51.

lot of us would like to look younger if we could. But time only

:58:51.:59:01.
:59:01.:59:23.

flows in one direction. And its As a surgeon, I used to think that

:59:23.:59:27.

the only way to staunch the flow was with a scalpel. But I know it

:59:28.:59:34.

is not the only answer. I didn't know what to expect when I started

:59:34.:59:38.

out on this journey. The influence of diet on skin ageing was a real

:59:38.:59:43.

eye opener. But it's made me much more thoughtful about what I eat. I

:59:43.:59:46.

was also pretty disappointed at just how strong and direct an

:59:46.:59:51.

effect sun exposure has on wrinkles. But I'm really hopeful that the new

:59:51.:59:53.

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