Beginners skin science
September 23rd, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Where are those dark spots (sunpots, liver spots, sunspots) coming from? From our skin “protesting” UV radiation, which contains more energy than the skin can cope with. The excess energy damages the sensitive mechanisms that control skin pigmentation, specifically, synthesis of melanin and its delivery to the keratinocytes. What is interesting (and annoying) is that the damage extends to fibroblasts deep in the dermis, so that superficial exfoliation can’t eliminate the sunspot. Figure. The epidermis. The bottom row of cells is the basal layer and the cell with dendrites is the melanocyte. See how the dendrites reach into the keratinocytes in the next layer of cells, the spinous layer. The…
September 17th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Soy contains phytoestrogens, and we like them. When are phytoestrogens good for your skin and hair? Around menopause, and after, when your body hormone levels are declining and your skin and scalp hormone receptors will be “hungry” for them, and phytoestrogens, which can fit into those receptors, however imperfectly, will help. This is when your skin and hair start aging fast, and when your skincare products should be working to stop (or even turn back) the clock. Read here how menopause affects your body. It’s also true that sometimes, soy can be a bad idea. For whom? When? 1. If you are allergic to soy you must avoid it. But,…
September 11th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Get a mirror! It’s you. The day after writing a blog post on glycolic acid I am writing another on sensitive skin. Your skin is a perfect machine that makes a barrier to separate your body from the environment. It is also a means of communication with the environment. We have nerves that are almost out there telling you is something touches you, whether it is hot or cold, soft or hard. That takes a lot of nerves to communicate to your brain what is going on. The skin barrier prevents water loss to the environment. Your skin cells die all the time in order to make up that perfect…
September 10th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The Ordinary Peeling Solution: Glycolic Acid, Water, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Daucus Carota Sativa Extract, Propanediol, Cocamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Salicylic Acid, Potassium Citrate, Lactic Acid, Tartaric Acid, Citric Acid, Panthenol, Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, Tasmannia Lanceolata Fruit/Leaf Extract, Glycerin, Pentylene Glycol, Xanthan gum, Polysorbate 20, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Ethylhexylglycerin, 1,2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol. Very ordinary. Why? more of the same: an inflated number for concentration of acid when in reality most of it is a salt. More ordinary: a list of acids that are here just for “label value”. Also, present as salts. Useless! The red color is also a “value” thing. The acids are not colored.…
September 1st, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Looking at a generic recipe of cold cream, it’s easy to understand what’s in it: water, mineral oil, wax, and fragrance. Things get complicated when we look at a commercial skincare product. Following FDA regulations, the ingredient list of a skincare product is an enumeration of the chemicals and plant extracts that make up the product, in order of concentration from the highest, usually water, to the lowest, often preservatives or fragrances and colorings. Let’s take a look at the ingredient list for a product that is currently on the market (marketed as “Award-winning, patented technology powers this comprehensive anti-aging treatment, delivering dramatic, personal results for visibly smoother, firmer, radiant-looking skin.”) for over $150 an…
August 31st, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
The color of blood comes from hemoglobin, the protein in charge of delivering oxygen to our body. Bruises consist of blood escaping from ruptured capillaries and small veins spreading into the surrounding tissue. The capillaries of the subcutaneous tissues make the largest contribution to bruising. Extravasated blood will spread along any line of cleavage in the tissue producing a discolored area. Further color changes take place as hemoglobin breaks down. Bilirubin, the yellow degradation product of hemoglobin that you see in the bruises, is another minor contributing pigment. The complete degradation sequence of hemoglobin includes the pigments biliverdin, bilirubin, and hemosiderin. How visible will the bruise be? How long it…
August 29th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Our skin is a protector against water loss to the environment and physical, chemical, and biological attack. To be able to do its job, the skin must be resistant to diverse agents. Live cells are too fragile to do that job, so the cells have to die, and they do that in a programmed sequence that involves massive biochemical and structural transformations. Figure: The epidermis: skin cells change shape and structure to form the different layers of the skin. Cornified cells (corneocytes) are dead cells, but they make up a layer (horny layer, stratum corneum in Latin) that prevents water loss and the entry of microbes. Let’s start with the…
August 5th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Posing a theory is cheap. It takes only seconds. “Wearing a mask activates the virus”. “The sun comes out in the morning because there is an invisible giant pushing it from behind”. And then, here are some theories that explain the need for “skin fasting”. One theory of skin fasting is that skin has a tolerance level, and when it gets overwhelmed by too many layers or too many actives, we should minimize skincare for a period to help skin settle down and ‘reset’. Another school of thought is that skin gets ‘used to’ the same products and can do with a time out. Yet another involves leaving the skin…
August 4th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
For normal skin care, any copper concentration is too much copper. Why? Because we need copper in minute concentrations, and we are already getting enough from the environment. No reason to add it more, unless perhaps, for healing skin. Don’t use copper when you are using vitamin C (it will oxidize it). Let’s make things easy: just don’t use copper. I am sure there is copper somewhere in your house, that will supply enough to fulfill the amounts of this metal require at microelement amounts. From all the bad skincare products that came to the market in the last few decades, those containing copper are an example of what is…
July 31st, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
I don’t need to tell you that life has changed. We don’t know for how long but let’s say that it is unlikely that the school year starting this fall will be “normal”. Fortunately, we, humans are very adaptable, so let’s get ready and with a smile on our faces. Smiling helps, even if the others can’t see you smile because of the mask (your eyes still show). You will know that you are smiling and it will make you feel better. Covid19 has changed the world and it will be a while until things go back to normal. But acne is still here. Let’s see how to deal with…
July 26th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Knowledge is power. If you can’t “read” an ingredient list you are at the mercy of the people who are selling you that magic jar (for $200!). And, as I have discovered the hard way, you can’t just trust everybody. Some people lie and others are ignorant (but they still think they can formulate a skincare product). Will you know everything after you read an ingredient list? No, because the manufacturers don’t give you the concentrations of each ingredient. Even worse, some ingredient lists cannot be trusted. However, you can learn enough to be able to detect bad ingredient lists and fake ingredient lists. But here is how you can…
July 26th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What are mitochondria? Let’s go back in time to high school and try to remember the good stuff (and forget the bad stuff). We are made of cells. Our cells need the energy to keep going. We are not plants so we depend on food to get energy. Our mitochondria convert that food into energy we can use to live. That’s all! Of course, there is a lot more exciting stuff you can learn about mitochondria but I already told you why you need the mitochondria in your skin happy so that it can do its job. Unfortunately (you knew that this was coming, right?) older skin has older mitochondria.…
July 26th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What is an electrolyte? I know it has been too many decades since high school, for you and for me. This is a crucial factor in advertising: they know we remember that some words are important but they also know that we forgot what they mean, and they use those words to make money. So here it is (and this is where Wikipedia is most useful). An electrolyte is a substance that produces an electrically conducting solution when dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. The dissolved electrolyte separates into cations and anions, which disperse uniformly through the solvent. Electrically, such a solution is neutral. If an electric potential…
July 9th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
There are so many reasons to take care of our sun-damaged skin. Our skin is your protection from the environment, it prevents the loss of water, damage by solar energy, penetration of noxious chemicals and infection by microorganisms, and virus. How do you recognize skin damaged skin? No need to do any hard work: any skin surface that is ever exposed to the sun is sun-damaged. Exceptions? None. It is true that dark-skinned people have some more protection given to them by some extra melanin, but that’s it: some extra protection. Not total indemnity! To understand more about the damage that UV inflicts on the skin, compare the skin of…
June 17th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
hýdōr water (Greek) Aqua water (Latin) Wasser water (German) What is water? No water – no life. Indeed, Biochemistry courses start with a chapter on water, because it is so relevant to every chemical reaction that follows. Because our ELS serum contains no water we can omit the preservatives: no water, no bacteria, or mold. When it comes to your skin, the water that allows for the synthesis of hyaluronic acid in your dermis or transfer of melanin from melanocytes or epidermal growth factor to do its magic, all that water is contributed by your body. Lots of water will be lost through the large area of skin exposed to…
June 13th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Here are the actual meanings of the words according to the dictionary: Moisture: water or other liquid diffused in a small quantity as vapor, within a solid, or condensed on a surface. Hydration: the process of causing something to absorb water. In short: water! In my opinion, these two words are used as synonyms in the industry, and they mean “give back to the skin water that has been lost to the air because the air is dryer than the skin”. The outermost layer of the skin, the stratum corneum, limits water loss from the body to the environment and allows us humans, organisms that depend totally on water, to…
March 29th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Quarantine was a name for a 40 day isolation time when an infectious illness lasted 40 days, but the necessary isolation time varies. With cooronavirus it starts with two weeks but depending on the development of this pandemic it could take much longer. Humans have been through pandemics before, many times, and people survived. Things are better this time because we have science and evidence based medicine (no bleeding, cupping or leeching in modern America). Let’s keep it together and don’t listen to the agents of chaos. In the meantime, the virus has been sequenced, a protease crucial for its assembly has been crystallized and thousands of scientists are working…
March 10th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Question: What’s worse than not having hand sanitizer during a viral epidemic/pandemic? Answer: A “fake” hand sanitizer, one that does not kill viruses but gives you a (false) sense of security. True, some essential oils have activity against certain viruses in certain circumstances (plants have to defend themselves against viruses), but this does not mean that the essential oil in question provides protection against infection by any virus. I know how hard it is to get hold of hand sanitizer. It is also hard to get hold of rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol. Incidentally, vodka is about 40% ethanol, it will not do the trick. Gin is even lower than that. If…
March 6th, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
After reproductive age is over, we are no longer useful in terms of preserving the human species. Except that, of course, as mothers, grandmothers, aunts, etc. we are probably vital to the survival of the human species. We are also the greatest reservoir of wisdom. Right? With menopause, our bodies will shut off functions associated with reproduction because they are no longer necessary. Other functions will be affected as well. That’s annoying, to say the least. Menopause and hormones Women who have decided not to go for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after menopause may expect slow changes in their bodies, including, for example, loss of bone density. Many women are…
March 2nd, 2020 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
“It’s our wits versus their genes.” Joshua Lederberg (Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, 1958 When it comes to viruses, camphor will not help, as many people found out in the flu epidemic of 1918. Forsythia will not help either (unless you are trying to decrease glucose in blood). A flu vaccine is made every year, I am always first in the line. I will be the first in the line when the vaccine for CO-VID19 is made available to the general public. Fortunately, there are some antiviral medicines that may help and I hope our government makes sure there are adequate stocks of them. In the meantime:…