Viqua nourishes, rejuvenates and illuminates your skin from the inside out
Why use Viqua?
Free radicals & ageing
Free radicals are attacking our bodies!
Scientists have finally pinpointed the invisible enemy which causes our bodies to age prematurely: they are called ’free radicals’ or ROS – ’reactive oxygen species’. UV exposure, pollution, smoking and toxins trigger their production inside the body, and crucially inside the cell mitochondria.
Their effects can be disastrous: they break down the proteins and lipids essential for keeping muscles strong and skin supple and smooth, and can even be responsible for DNA mutations linked to cancer. On the skin, they degrade the skin’s structure and lead to wrinkles, blemishes and reduced elasticity.
Produced in the mitochondria
The mitochondria are our cells’ power plants: they burn fats and sugars to produce the energy we need. Unfortunately, they are also the part of the cell where free radicals are created.
In strong, young people, the body has enough natural defences to neutralise these destructive forces. As we get older, however, we lost our ability to do this and so get problems such as visible muscle loss, reduced memory and vision, blood pressure issues and dull, wrinkled skin.
What can we do to fight back?
Anti-oxidants are naturally-occurring substances which help our bodies in their fight against free radicals. They are so effective, in fact, that people who eat enough fruits and vegetables with high levels of them have noticeably lower instances of cardio-vascular disease, cataracts and even certain cancers. The biggest problem isn’t eating enough of these foods, though — it’s that many anti-oxidants get altered every time we cook what we eat. They are also generally very bad at getting where they need to be in our bodies.
A great way of combating these issues is oral supplementation and/or topical application of antioxidant-rich fruit extracts. Pomegranate extract has been shown to be particularly effective – especially in fighting signs of ageing such as wrinkles and dull skin tones.
How it works
Free radicals play a vital part in how skin cells respond to external forces. This makes them a key cause of:
- Inflammation
- Wrinkle formation
- Elasticity loss
- Skin tone changes
With its potent anti-oxidants to fight the free radicals, Viqua® can help to combat all of the above.
Free radicals and inflammation
When skins gets attacked by microbes, chemicals or radiation (such as the sun’s UV rays), it defends itself by triggering inflammation. This is commonly seen with sunburn and often passes in just a few days, but at a microscopic level the damage can be permanent: inflammation can alter the skin’s structure to create problems such as wrinkles and dullness.
Free radicals are some of the first things to be released when the skin gets attacked. Produced to excess in the mitochondria, they tell the skin cells, to produce other chemicals like Prostaglandins, Cytokines, and Proteases. This is all part of the body’s process of triggering inflammation as a means of protecting itself.
Moreover, free radicals also tell the skin cells to synthesise the enzymes Collagenases and Elastases, which destroy the skin’s structure and flush blood to the its surface. This is where some of the most serious skin damage occurs.
Free radicals and the ageing process
As we age, our cells lose their capacity to fight the excess free radicals produced when we’re exposed to external forces. Over time, the oxidative stress damage these free radicals cause becomes permanent, and instead of repairing Collagen and Elastin, the skin cells destroy them with Collagenases and Elastases.
Over-production of these enzymes disorganises the skin’s matrix, causing the skin to lose its firmness and elasticity and making it appear prematurely-aged.
Free radicals and skin pigmentation
When skin gets tanned, it’s because of an accumulation of a dark pigment called Melanin which is synthesised by a group of cells known as the Melanocytes.
Exposure to UV radiation causes an overproduction of free radicals including NO, Nitric Oxide. This induces the synthesis of inflammation–causing chemicals such as Prostaglandin and Histamine which bind to receptors on the surface of the Melanocytes. These in turn respond by producing Melanin and sending it to the outer skin cells, causing them to become darker.
This is the process by which skin colour changes as a result of sun exposure.
Copyright © 2015 Axialys Innovations