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Playing with (scientific sounding) words

I can’t guess the structure of a chemical (or mix of chemicals) from a name like saccharide isomerate. This name means (sort of) sugars that have been modified in such a way that they become different sugars. Uh?

However, saccharide isomerate is sold in the skin care industry as a glycerin alternative and is used in many skin care products. Why not use glycerin? Maybe saccharide isomerate is cheaper,or easier to use,  I don’t know, but I like my ingredients to have a chemical structure I can recognize.

In any case, you should not use sugars “just because”. Why?  Protein glycosylation is why the skin of people with diabetes ages faster than that of people with normal glucose concentration in their blood.  Glycosylation is the addition of sugars to proteins: sugars get attached to the amino acids in the protein, and this (unwanted) chemical modification changes the structure and function of the protein.

You have probably heard about “AGE”, Advanced Glycation End products,  modified molecules that are generated in a non-enzymatic reaction by the binding of sugars with amino groups of DNA, lipids and proteins. AGE are bad news, wherever they appear, because the modified molecules (collagen, DNA, enzymes, whatever) will not be able to do their job.

At Skin Actives, our products work hard to prevent protein glycosylation, because it is bad for your skin and it accelerates aging. For example, we use carnosine in anti-aging products. Carnosine decreases the formation of protein carbonyls and the cross-links induced by reduced sugars; it helps prevent proteins like collagen from being glycosylated, decreasing elasticity of protein and skin.  This is why you don’t use sugar as an exfoliator. And don’t use chemical tanners, which use dihydroxyacetone (DHA) to modify your skin proteins and change their color to a fake tan via a Maillard reaction. During the Maillard reaction, sugars in DHA react with skin proteins causing oxidation of the sugar derivatives. This oxidation caused chain reactions,which led to free radical injury to the skin. This is the process used to create the tanned appearance in skin. DNA glycation is a process of reducing sugars that can damage nucleic acids. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs)are also known as glycotoxins.  AGEs of DNA are spontaneously formed by the reaction of carbonyl compounds such as DHA.

It is always a bad idea to put on your skin stuff that does not have a proper chemical name. The industry does this when they want to sell you something they shouldn’t. It started with the Torricellumn of Elizabeth Grant, continued with alguronic acid, and this mystery ingredient, saccharide isomerate.   At least, Torricellumn sounds poetic, while the other two are simply misleading.

Stay away from ingredients that tell you they are great for you but use the equivalent of dark magic (undefined chemistry) to make novel chemicals your skin does not need. What you don’t know can hurt you. And work hard at preventing and controlling diabetes.