Anti-ageing cream may be an odd topic for me to discuss as I'm only 23. But there's something about it that has been bugging me for a couple of years. Some anti-ageing creams are advertised to speed up cell renewal. Now I assume this may make your skin look younger for a while, but I suspect that it will worsen things in the long run. Here's why:
Just like the rest of your body, your skin is made up of cells. These skin cells regenerate by means of mitosis. Basically these cells reproduce by splitting in two. In order to do so DNA needs to be copied before the cell is split. This DNA is rolled up in chromosomes, and at the end of each of these chromosomes there are telomeres. These telomeres shorten every time the cell splits, but at a certain point the telomeres have become so short, the cell cannot split any longer (the Hayflick limit). According to Wikipedia "Telomere shortening in humans eventually makes cell division impossible,
and this aging of the cell population appears to correlate with the
overall physical aging of the human body."
So if these anti-ageing creams really do accelerate cell renewal, -which I don't assume to be true, but if they do- then aren't they speeding up the ageing process of the skin in the long run?
Sincerely,
R.
PS: I am not a biologist, physician, biochemist or anything the like, but this is something I've just been wondering after learning about telomere shortening. If you know the answer to my question, please do let me know!
