Aubrey Organics - Use These Sun-protective Herbs & Nutrients to Defy the Sun!

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Use These Sun-protective Herbs & Nutrients to Defy the Sun!

By David Steinman, from Healthy Living

Is there no more cruel lover than that pitiless yellow summer orb? We love the sun; yet it repays our summer worship with leathering, splotching, and wrinkling--and for some increased risk for skin cancer. The sun has worn away the Sphinx at Giza and even Acropolis of Athens. It has cracked and crackled Mother Earth. Imagine what this pitiless monster can do to unprotected skin. Yet, Mother Nature is benevolent and has provided a wide range of highly effective sun protectants. For women--as well as men and children--taking advantage of the protection nature's sun shields offer is essential to good health this summer. What's more, each of the rejuvenators detailed in this report has been shown to help prevent leathering, wrinkling and splotching and even skin cancer in experimental and, sometimes, clinical studies. For a sun care update detailing both beneficial herbs and nutrients and possibly harmful ingredients in products, be sure to visit www.freedompressonline.com.

Safe Shopper Advisor Best Formulas for Sun Protection and After-Sun Care

Our field research team investigated many sun care formulas and found that while most contain beneficial herbal extracts and nutrients they frequently utilize ingredients with questionable safety records. The formulas recommended below provide not only protective herbs and nutrients but also have very clean bases, avoiding most, if not all, possibly toxic preservatives and other ingredients. These recommended formulas, available at health food stores and natural product supermarkets, are the best of the best.

Aubrey Organics Aloe Vera formulas use unrefined and minimally processed organically grown aloe vera without potential problem preservatives, as in other formulas. Unlike other aloe vera gels, Aubrey Organics' aloe formulas also avoid use of triethanolamine and synthetic glycols.

Aloe Vera -- This ancient natural skin care herb protects the skin's immune cells against the damaging effects of the sun, according to research from the Department of Immunology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. Fresh aloe vera may be applied after any type of sun exposure. Its anti-inflammatory, moisturizing, emollient, and antimicrobial actions make it especially useful for preventing sunburn damage, notes Michael Murray, N.D. in Healing Power of Herbs.

Grape Seed Extract -- This powerful free radical scavenger is excellent for helping to maintain healthy collagen--the threads and fiber that make-up human skin. It particularly strengthens the many tiny capillaries and vessels responsible for bringing blood to and nourishing the skin.

Milk Thistle -- Skin cancer is linked to enhanced activity of an enzyme called tyrosine kinase, which can be caused by overexposure to the sun. Silymarin, a flavonoid antioxidant constituent of milk thistle, "affords exceptionally high to complete protection against several skin tumor promoters" by helping to maintain this enzyme's normal activity.

Aubrey Organics Blue Green Algae Moisturizer SPF 15 contains organic aloe vera, Canadian willowherb, evening primrose oil, Rosa Mosqueta rose hip seed oil, blue green algae, milk thistle, and grape seed extract, as well as several herbal emollients. Use this formula as a daytime moisturizer and for its sun protection properties.

Aubrey Organics Blue Green Algae Clay Mask can be used daily for drawing out impurities and maintaining silky smooth skin. Like many Aubrey Organics after-sun products, this formula contains many of the sun-protective herbs and nutrients recommended in this report.

Blue Green Algae Blue green algae has long been used as a food source by native peoples for thousands of years. More recently, it appears to provide excellent after-sun protection when applied topically, due to its high chlorophyll content (which makes it excellent for detoxification of the skin); trace minerals and antioxidants; and a protein content with an amino acid profile similar to that of humans.

Sea Buckthorn -- This newly arrived skin rejuvenator holds more promise perhaps than any other commercially available natural topical agent today. Sea buckthorn is capable of rejuvenating the skin. The Guangdong Provincial Institute of Materia Medica, Guangzhou, China, developed several kinds of sea buckthorn cosmetics that have been clinically studied. The results showed that sea buckthorn beauty cream had a therapeutic efficacy on skin discoloration, freckles, prematurely aging skin, skin sclerosis (hardening), scaling or rough skin, facial acne, recurrent dermatitis or chemically damaged skin. The hospital was gratified to find that applications of cream containing sea buckthorn oil made the tested person's skin fair, clear and delicate.

Aubrey Organics Sea Buckthorn Silky Smooth Moisturizer with Ester-C combines organic aloe vera, Canadian willowherb extract, Ester-C, sea buckthorn oil, and vitamins C and E, among its ingredients.

Aubrey Organics Sea Buckthorn Rejuvenating Serum with Ester-C combines healing sea buckthorn oil with Ester-C, vitamins C and E and organic jojoba oil as a moisturizer.

Avalon CoQ10 Wrinkle Defense formulas -- including their serum, crème and firming lotion -- are very clean formulas that offer excellent sun-protection factors, including mineral ascorbates and emollients.

Coenzyme Q10 -- Here's a new skin protectant to be sure to use. Also known as ubiquinone and CoQ10, this enzymatic co-factor penetrates into the viable layers of the skin and markedly counteracts damaging free radical activity (oxidation) caused by the sun. Furthermore, a reduction in wrinkle depth following CoQ10 application was also shown. "These results indicate that CoQ10 has the efficacy to prevent many of the detrimental effects of photoaging," say researchers with the Paul Gerson Unna Research Center, Beiersdorf AG, Hamburg, Germany. There's more to the CoQ10 story. One research team says, "Wrinkles around the region of the eyes (Ścrow feet') could be reduced by long-term application of CoQ10."

Rosa Mosqueta® Rose Hip Moisturizing Cream combines aloe vera, horsetail, coltsfoot, nettle, coneflower, St. John's wort oil, calendula, almond oil and vitamins A, C and E with an essential fatty acid base.

Rosa Mosqueta® Rose Hip Seed Oil Many consumers have turned to rose hip seed oil for their most intractable skin problems. This special healing herb from a rare South American rose is especially rich in essential fatty acids and vitamin C. Although it was initially thought that Rosa Mosqueta's powerful skin rejuvenating properties were due to its high content of omega-3 fatty acids (second only to flaxseed) and other essential fatty acids, it is now thought that the component responsible for its remarkable rejuvenation properties is retinoic acid. A derivative of retinol or vitamin A, many readers will recognize its synthetic counterpart, Tretinoin, a topical pharmaceutical drug used against premature wrinkling. As with Tretinoin which has been thoroughly researched for over 30 years, Rosa Mosqueta has impressive skin rejuvenation properties but without the complications.

Green Tea -- Whether applied topically or consumed as a beverage or dietary supplement, green tea is a premiere skin protectant. It protects against direct damage to the cell and moderates inflammation, according to research from the Department of Dermatology, Columbia University, New York. Studies suggest that the catechins in green tea are some 20 times stronger in their antioxidant powers than even vitamin E. Men, women and children need to position this super shield on their side against the ravaging effects of the sun.

Zia Ultimate "C" Serum provides green tea extract, jojoba oil, vitamin E, milk thistle, and many other antioxidants. This is one of the few formulas today, along with Aubrey Organics, that provides a very clean base, free from formaldehyde-releasing preservatives.

Vitamins C and E Every sun-care formula should contain antioxidant vitamins such as C and E. When both of these nutrients are added to your sun formula's sunscreen, they enhance the sunscreen's protective shield.

As researchers from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Raleigh, note, "When vitamin C or a combination of vitamin C and E is formulated with a commercial UVA sunscreen (oxybenzone), an apparently greater than additive protection is noted against the phototoxic [sun] damage. These results confirm the utility of anti-oxidants as photoprotectants but suggest the importance of combining the compounds with known sunscreens to maximize photoprotection." What's more, both nutrients enhance protection against both UVA and UVB radiation.

For use while in the sun, the premiere product today in our opinion is Aubrey Organics Green Tea Sunblock for Children. We've been recommending this gentle yet super protective formula to adults as well as for children for several years. This formula uses a particularly high quality green tea extract. Known as matcha, this is very different than typical green tea extracts because it is so finely powdered and made from the most potent leaves of young green tea. The matcha in this formula is combined with antioxidant vitamins C and E, organic aloe vera, rose hip seed oil. The formula uses both PABA and titanium oxide as sun shields.

Zia Ultimate Moisture Antioxidant Complex with Vitamin C and Green Tea provides green tea extract, vitamin C and other mineral ascorbates, jojoba oil, grape seed extract, ginkgo biloba, and other nurturing herbal medicines in a very clean base.

References

Ahmad, N., et al. "Skin cancer chemopreventive effects of a flavonoid antioxidant silymarin are mediated via impairment of receptor tyrosine kinase signaling and perturbation in cell cycle progression." Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 1998; 247(2): 294-301.

Akihisa, T., et al. "Triterpene alcohols from the flowers of compositae and their anti-inflammatory effects." Phytochemistry, 1996; 43(6): 1255-1260. Blatt, T., et al. "[Modulation of oxidative stresses in human aging skin]." Z Gerontol Geriatr, 1999; 32(2): 83-88.

Byeon, S.W., et al. "Aloe barbadensis extracts reduce the production of interleukin-10 after exposure to ultraviolet radiation." J Invest Dermatol, 1998; 110(5): 811-817.

Darr, D., et al. "Effectiveness of antioxidants (vitamin C and E) with and without sunscreens as topical photoprotectants." Acta Derm Venereol, 1996; 76(4): 264-268.

"Development and Utilization of Sea Buckthorn Fruit Cosmetic" by He Xuejiao, Fang Zheng, Liang Zhaorong, Jiang Lisha (Guangdong Provincial Institute of Materia Medica, Guangzhou, China); Zhang Fushun, Gao Jinming, Zhao Enqu (Shaanxi Quinyong Chemical Bioengineering Institute, Yongshou, Shaanxi, China).

Hoppe, U., et al. "Coenzyme Q10, a cutaneous antioxidant and energizer." Biofactors, 1999; 9(2-4): 371-378.

Murray, M.T. The Healing Power of Herbs. Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, 1995, pp. 29-42.

w Zhao, J.F., et al. "Green tea protects against psoralen plus ultraviolet A-induced photochemical damage to skin." J Invest Dermatol, 1999; 113(6): 1070-1075.

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