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Thanks for reading The Abstract. This month’s edition is
1,423 words, about a
6-minute read.
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July is UV Awareness Month—and a very hot one in parts of the U.S. In this edition of
The Abstract, we’re focused on the science of sun protection, including questions about the efficacy of American sunscreens, the “sunscreen paradox,” and how oral supplementation with carotenoids can improve the skin’s appearance and protect against stressors from the sun. We also give a recap of a new clinical trial on nicotinamide riboside and walking endurance, and explore the science of fasting to fight cancer.
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Are American sunscreens falling short?
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We usually think of the U.S. as a hub of innovation, but when it comes to sunscreen we may be stuck in the past. Asian and European countries permit sunscreens with a variety of new chemical filters that provide better protection from UV radiation—both UVA and UVB—compared to some U.S.-approved ingredients, and may be less likely to penetrate skin and end up in the bloodstream. The different rules come down to regulation: Most countries regulate sunscreen as a cosmetic, while in the U.S. it’s an over-the-counter drug. The FDA hasn’t approved a new UV filter for sunscreen in 20 years, though there is now bipartisan political support to speed up the approval process. Bemotrizinol, a key ingredient in European and Asian sunscreens with a strong safety profile, was reported to be under consideration for approval by the FDA in January.
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This is an important development for your skin. The sun protection factor, or SPF, rating on American sunscreen bottles refers to a sunscreen's ability to block UVB rays, which damage the upper layer of the skin and are largely responsible for sunburn and most skin cancers. But UVA makes up about 95% of the rays that reach your skin, penetrating deeper to the dermis where they contribute to
skin aging. Both rays can cause skin cancer. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S., and rates are rising faster than other cancers. While some American sunscreen ingredients provide broad spectrum protection (UVA and UVB), including the mineral zinc oxide, most are more focused on UVB and preventing burns.
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The Expert’s Take:
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“Due to the legal situation in the United States and complex requirements for approving sunscreen ingredients, the United States does not allow the use of certain more effective convective UVA sunscreens that are commonly incorporated into sunscreens in Europe and Asia. These have long been available elsewhere and there are many years of safety data supporting their use. Approval of this has also been complicated by the recent discovery that various sunscreen ingredients supplied to the skin can be detected in low levels in blood. There is much controversy about the significance of these findings, although there does appear to be much safety data regarding use of these various agents. Some of these agents are known in experimental systems to have hormone-like effects.
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There is considerable scientific evidence that lycopene (a key ingredient in
Mosaic), through antioxidant and other activities, supports a healthy skin response to broad spectrum sun exposure, and clinical studies show that oral administration significantly improves the signs of photoaging of the skin. Thus, while lycopene cannot replace sunscreen, it may be rational to use it in combination with sunscreens.”
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Richard Granstein, M.D.
George W. Hambrick, Jr. Professor and chairman of dermatology at Weill Cornell Medicine, dermatologist-in-chief at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and Elysium Scientific Advisory Board member
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Protect and restore your sun-kissed skin
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Up to 90% of observable skin aging is due to sun exposure.
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Protect with Mosaic
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Phytonutrient Carotenoid Complex
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Resilience to environmental stressors and skin aging
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Maintain collagen levels
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Restore with Basis
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Raise NAD+ levels (critical after sun exposure)
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Synergistic, protective response to sun exposure at the cellular level with NR and PT
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THIS MONTH
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What We’re Reading
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These are third-party articles about science that we find interesting but have no relationship to Elysium or any of our products. Elysium’s products are not intended to screen, diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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Solving the sunscreen paradox
More people than ever are using sunscreen, but rates of melanoma and skin cancers are rising. This is the “sunscreen paradox,” and researchers at McGill University conducted two studies to investigate the seeming contradiction. In the first study, using focus groups in the Atlantic provinces of Canada, they found that people in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (provinces with high melanoma incidence rates) tended to use sun protection and be educated about the risks of UV radiation. In the second study, using data from the UK Biobank, sunscreen use was surprisingly associated with a more than twofold risk of developing skin cancer. The paradox seems to be easily resolved: Those who use sunscreen are more likely to get more sun exposure, using it as a sort of “permission slip” to tan, in the words of Dr. Ivan Litvinov, Chair of the Dermatology Division at McGill University and co-author on the studies. (Cancers)
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Carotenoids provide endogenous sun protection
A growing body of research suggests that
carotenoids can improve the appearance of skin and protect against environmental stressors, including sun exposure, and skin aging. Lycopene and other carotenoids found in tomatoes are of particular benefit. In a systematic review and meta-analysis of intervention trials, researchers found that supplementing with tomato or lycopene was associated with significant reductions in skin redness in an experimental model of sun exposure, skin pigmentation, and levels of MMP-1 (which degrades collagen and inhibits its synthesis) and ICAM-1 (a marker of inflammation). The findings suggest that oral supplementation with specific carotenoids could complement sunscreen use by targeting sun-induced skin aging.
(Clinical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition)
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Nicotinamide riboside improves walking endurance
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a chronic condition that reduces blood flow to the limbs, especially the legs, making it progressively harder and more painful to walk. A new study found that
nicotinamide riboside (NR) can help. Researchers at Northwestern University and University of Florida conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial with 90 participants with an average age of 71 who had PAD. Daily supplementation of 1,000 mg of NR for six months increased participants’ 6-minute walking distance by more than 57 feet compared to participants who took a placebo. That number went up to more than 100 feet for those who took at least 75% of their NR doses. Larger studies are needed to confirm the findings—and to determine whether there is a benefit for walking endurance in healthy people. (Nature Communications)
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Fasting primes immune cells to fight cancer better
Intermittent fasting is emerging as a potential supplemental strategy for treating cancer, starving cancer cells and making standard treatments more effective. In a new study in mice, researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center illuminated some of the underlying biology. In the study, fasting impacted natural killer (NK) cells—immune cells that can kill abnormal or damaged cells—in two profound ways. During fasting, NK cells got “metabolic training” to use lipids as fuel rather than glucose, which allowed them to better survive in the hostile, lipid-rich microenvironment of tumors. Fasting also reprogrammed NK cells to produce more interferon-gamma, a cytokine that plays an important role in anti-tumor responses. More research is underway to explore how specific fasting protocols can benefit cancer patients, and future studies may investigate whether NK cells can be targeted without fasting. (MSKCC news)
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TERM OF THE MONTH
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Sun protection factor
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Sun protection factor, or SPF, is a measure of how much UV radiation from the sun is required to give you sunburn on protected skin (i.e., using sunscreen) relative to the amount of UV radiation required to produce sunburn on unprotected skin. In other words, it would take 15 times the amount of solar energy to burn while wearing SPF 15 versus no protection if you were wearing the correct amount of sunscreen—2 mg of sunscreen per square cm of skin. This doesn’t necessarily translate to taking 15 times
as long to burn since other variables contribute to solar intensity, such as time of day. As the SPF value increases, sunburn protection increases. In the U.S., SPF only refers to protection from sunburn-causing UVB rays, and not UVA rays that contribute to skin aging and skin cancer.
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AGING 101
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The skin benefits of carotenoids
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Carotenoids are pigments synthesized by plants, and they are fundamental to our health—especially our skin. Read on to learn about how carotenoids benefit our skin and how to obtain more carotenoids in our diet. (Read more)
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