Science Snippets
August 10th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
I have discussed before in this blog the importance of the skin as a barrier and what happens when it gets disrupted. The skin barrier and how it works. This is about sensitive skin. A quick search of the blog will take you to dozens of posts related to the skin barrier. The “acid mantle” is part of the skin barrier, and probably one you don’t have to worry about unless you keep washing your hands with an antiquated alkaline bar of soap. Most soaps now are milder, more acidic and contain detergents rather than alkaline soap (or a mix). Even when washed with the wrong kind of soap, the…
July 31st, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
One should think that, as more people use sunscreen, skin cancer incidence would decrease. Actually, the incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer is increasing worldwide despite the increased use of sunscreens. In 2014, the USA Surgeon General estimated that 2.2-5.0 million people were treated annually for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Why is there more skin cancer despite the use of sunscreen? I am not epidemiologist (and I have not seen explanations in the literature) but I can think of some reasons. The feeling of invincibility that sunscreen, makes people spend more time in the sun. The average age of the population is increasing. All things being equal, all…
July 22nd, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
A burn by any other name is a burn. Plasma sounds so scientific, it has been used before to baptize old skin care products. But those products did not burn your skin! Show me the research! It does not exist. But “plasma pens” are available to hurt your skin and some people are ready to pay for this experimental “treatment”. Once again, women will pay for damage done to their skin and hair, just as they have done for decades (centuries)? Would you pay a stranger for burning your skin? Women do. “Health Canada is advising consumers that plasma pens (also known as “fibroblast” devices), promoted for cosmetic skin treatments…
July 12th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Yes, they can both be true. If there was ever an example of why you should not have “absolute”preferences (be dogmatic about a subject), this is it. I have posted a lot about natural vs. synthetic chemicals in skin care that you may wonder if I have anything new to say. I think I do. It is unlikely that a natural chemical will be bad for you, unless they are trying to sell you a poisonous plant extract like Nerium oleander as skin care (!). This does not happen very often simply because there are not that many silly people willing to spend money on a poison. Case 1) Natural…
July 11th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
How come Jonatan Funtowicz is so interested in ROS*? Maybe by osmosis? He does not remember it but he was a quasi godson of a pioneer of the ROS* toxicity field, Dr Rebeca Gerschman, Dr Gerschman (1903-1986) was an Argentinian scientist who, together with Daniel Gilbert, discovered oxygen toxicity, a problem that later developed on a whole new field of research, that of reactive oxygen species and aging. She helped me when I was a budding scientist doing research with Rodolfo Sanchez on the effect of oxygen on seed germination . At the time (after Second World War II), oxygen was believed to be benign and only benign, but Dr.…
June 18th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Lazy is not bad unless you are repeating old formulas that everybody knows don’t work. To those who think that foreign companies make better skin care products, here comes a warning: Babor, is a German company that uses very American run-of-the-mill ingredients to sell products with huge mark-ups. Here, again, the brand value is in the ridiculously high price; it is certainly not in the quality of the ingredients. Another irritating fact: they baptize old, inexpensive ingredients with novelty names and then they leave you to try to guess which ingredient is which. Maybe it doesn’t matter? Here are some examples: “Telovitin, extends the life cycle of skin cells. Agicyl,…
June 14th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Argan oil is extracted from the seeds of the fruit of the argan tree (Argania spinosa). The fruit takes a long time to mature and is not really edible, it is used as animal feed. Everything in the fruit is used: the peel and pulp of the fruit for animal feed, and the same for the paste that remains of the kernel after the oil is extracted by pressing. The nut inside the fruit contains one (occasionally two or three) small, oil-rich seeds; the oil is pressed from these seeds. The method used to extract the oil depends on what is available. Using stones is the most basic method. The…
June 14th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
How much is too much? The answer to this apparently simple question is very complicated: as complicated as the number of ingredients used in skin care. Also, for a good answer, you may have to go to numbers that are much smaller than a percent (1%) and go to parts per million. In the best of cases more is likely to be a waste of money. You are throwing away the money you spent on the active by trying to add more. For example, if you add more ascorbic acid to a serum than will possibly dissolve (as determined by the laws of nature and how water interacts with ascorbic…
June 13th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Copper is present in our water and air. Depending on how old is your house, there may be too much copper in your water. Depending on where you live, there may be too much copper in your air. But we need copper for good health. How much? We have very important enzymes that depend on copper for activity: cytochrome oxidase, copper/zinc superoxide dismutase, tyrosinase and more. Why is copper so important in these enzymes? Because of its capacity to take and donate electrons. Tyrosinase, for example, is an oxidase that we need to make melanin, the skin and hair pigment. For people who are trying to lighten their skin, or…
June 4th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Let’s first make clear that products sold in the USA must be safe for the user. Products manufactured in the USA usually are, because big companies are very careful to follow the law. Small companies like Skin Actives are particularly careful but there are many products, especially imported from countries with lax law enforcement that I would not risk. However (there is always a “however”) what you buy somewhere may not necessarily follow FDA guidelines and the handful of inspectors still working at the FDA can’t cope with the millions of products manufactured here or imported every year. So don’t assume anything. Read the ingredient list, always and if you…
May 31st, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Not directly but via infection that you could have avoided with a vaccine, and now with melanoma or other skin cancers that you could prevent using sunscreen. Some people make money , blood money, by spreading misinformation, especially in the USA. This is because in the USA almost anybody can start a not-for-profit foundation and allocate themselves ridiculously high salaries. They can also create companies that will benefit from false advertising spread by their foundations. We know who are the winners. But who are the losers? The innocent victims are the children that may end up with broken bodies (or dead) because of a bacteria for which we already have…
May 31st, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Many thanks to Skin Actives client Marla for a link to this video, that will give you a taste of how not good for you natural stuff can be. From my book: “Nature is made of chemicals. Many people have forgotten what they learned about nature and chemistry in high school and they get confused when they read on the internet about the dangers of synthetic chemicals. For some, the past may be a golden age, because they don’t remember (most were not alive) the time before antibiotics were discovered and vaccines were invented. People who don’t spend much time in a natural environment may see nature as a benefactor,…
May 28th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Profiles in Science Frances Arnold Turns Microbes Into Living Factories Instead of synthesizing new biochemicals from scratch, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist puts nature to the task — with astonishing results. By Natalie Angier May 28, 2019 PASADENA, Calif. — The engineer’s mantra, said Frances Arnold, a professor of chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, is: “Keep it simple, stupid.” But Dr. Arnold, who last year became just the fifth woman in history to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, is the opposite of stupid, and her stories sometimes turn rococo. Take the happy images on her office Wall of Triumph. Here’s a picture of a beaming President Obama,…
May 27th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
We all know (!) that age makes women wiser and men more handsome. I don’t think this has to do with differences in skin anatomy but rather with cultural expectations. The skin of men ages just as much of that of women. If anything, as men tend to wear their hair short, they even lack the protection than longer hair gives to the back of women’ necks have. At the back of the neck, solar elastosis (thickened, dry, wrinkled, reddish skin) is usually limited to men. Do men need skin care at all? YES. We accept men’s aging skin not because it looks or works better than that of a…
May 26th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Our Zit Ender should become a “disruptor” in the skin care world. In business, a disruptor is a “theory, a disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products, and alliances.” Our Zit Ender should end the reign of benzoyl peroxide, a Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS*) producer, as a go-to ingredient for acne. “Should” does not mean that it will happen but here I present you the reasons why it should happen. Benzoyl peroxide. How does it work? Benzoyl peroxide is a bully of an ingredient that ages your skin as it…
May 22nd, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
You’d better rethink that. Sulfate is just one of the ways that life forms, including us, take sulfur from the environment. You may have a bad feeling about sulfur if you live near a volcano which emits sulfur smelling gases. If you also believe in the existence of the devil and the underworld, you may associate the smell of sulfur to bad stuff or the Holemouth of Buffy . On the other hand, if you work in a laboratory that has drain problems (old Michigan State Biochem lab!) then the smell of hydrogen sulfide may warn you that you have to pay attention to the drains (hint: keep sinks wet).…
May 22nd, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
By Brett P. Giroir, Robert R. Redfield and Jerome M. Adams, March 6, 2019 Vaccinations save lives, protect our children and are one of our greatest public health achievements. As public health officials, our role is to advance the health of the American people. This must include championing vaccinations. Diseases like polio, measles, diphtheria and rubella were once common in the United States, afflicting hundreds of thousands of infants, children and adults, and killing thousands each year. Some older Americans may remember the fear associated with polio outbreaks and the era of iron lungs and leg braces — a time when swimming pools and movie theaters closed over concerns about…
May 21st, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What is a glucan? These are polysaccharides (chains made of sugars like glucose) that are linked to each other by beta 1,3 glycosidic bonds. Unless you are a chemistry student it is unlikely that you will know what this means but I can give you an example. The way that sugars are linked to each other makes a big difference in the way that a polysaccharide behaves. Just thing of two polysaccharides made of the same sugar, glucose. There are two polysaccharides that you are very familiar with: starch and cellulose. Starch is in your bread, cellulose is in your newspaper (assuming you still read one). You can get nutrition…
May 15th, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
Did I say 405ppm? No, it is already 415ppm. From The Washington Post Plus 84 degrees Farenheit near the Arctic Ocean. No, it’s not fake news.
May 3rd, 2019 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
For many reasons but I will try to keep it short. EGF is a most important ingredient when it comes to skin health. It signals for healing, cellular division and increased protein synthesis (among other benefits). We need it. EGF goes down as we age, like many other cell functions, but when you apply it to the skin it signals for generalized increased skin activity, rather than stimulation to make more of a single protein. Everybody knew how valuable this growth factor was since the 1960s when growth factors were discovered. See this to find out more about Stanley Cohen. But, EGF was not available just a few years ago.…