How vitamin C beat pricey alternatives to treat age spots

A vitamin C solution has been found by scientists to be more effective at treating age spots on the skin than a luxury serum whose creators were paying for the research!

For the study, scientists tested a product made with human platelet extract (HPE) against the vitamin C solution.

They asked 60 participants (52 female), aged between 40 and 80, to apply the HPE serum to their right hand and the vitamin C solution to their left hand twice daily.

After 12 weeks, participants showed roughly a 27% reduction in dark spots with HPE and a 32% decrease with vitamin C. Both products improved wrinkles by about 15 to 17%.

The reduction in age spots in both cases was found to be competitive with some clinical treatments, including IPL.

Improvement continued to be observed at 26 weeks, though only around half the participants kept going to that point.

The vitamin C serum they used was SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic available here

Antioxidants make the difference

L-ascorbic acid is the chemically active form of vitamin C and is the ingredient you’ll often notice in skincare products, including the SkinCeuticals formula. 

And while the best thing we can do to ensure the supply of nutrients, including vitamin C, to our skin and other parts of our body is to eat a diet that includes a diverse range of plant foods, the use of topical vitamin C could help ensure our skin has an adequate supply. 

As with most things in life, it’s thought the amount of vitamin C in our skin diminishes with age.

It’s an important antioxidant which helps counter the effects of free radicals – the build-up of which can cause oxidative stress in the skin, accelerating the signs of aging.

Oxidative stress broken down

Free radicals are incomplete atoms that roam around looking for electrons to complete them.

For that reason they are unstable and react quickly with other substances.

We often hear this can lead to oxidative stress both within the body and in our skin.

When oxygen molecules split into individual atoms that have unpaired electrons, they become unstable free radicals.

A build-up of free radicals begins the process known as oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress can damage the body’s cells, triggering disease and causing the signs of aging, including wrinkles and age spots,

As the body ages, it loses its ability to fight the effects of free radicals as effectively as it once did.

This leads to more free radicals, more oxidative stress, and more damage to cells, which contributes to the degenerative process we know as aging.

Why do we need antioxidants?

That’s why we hear nutritionists encouraging us to eat a diet which is high in antioxidants because they are chemicals that interact with free radicals and neutralize them by donating some of their own electrons.

But skincare companies have also been fast to pick up on the anti-aging benefits of antioxidants by creating topical treatments.

This latest study is another good indicator that a vitamin C serum can be just as effective as much more expensive home and clinical options.