Green Tea-based Cosmetics and Youthful Skin: A Beautiful Combination

Green tea is one of the most important anti-ageing superstars today. If you're not drinking green tea daily or using green tea-based personal care products and cosmetics, you may be missing out on one of the most important healthy skin herbs available today.

And if you're not using green tea-based cosmetics and personal care products but choosing products with formaldehyde-based preservatives and other potentially dangerous ingredients, well, you may be placing yourself at a higher risk for allergies, irritation, and possibly even cancer. On the other hand, using the right cosmetics and personal care products can even help you to reduce your risk of cancer, particularly that of the skin, as well as ward off premature aging.

Topical Green Tea Reduces Skin Cancer Risk

One of the fastest growing cancers in the world today is skin cancer (melanoma), which is caused by exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays and sometimes from chemicals that come into contact with the skin. The mortality rate of malignant melanoma, a potentially fatal skin cancer associated with sun exposure, is rapidly increasing. Malignant melanoma among men increased 50% between 1973 and 1988, from 2.2 to 3.3 per 100,000, according to the National Cancer Institute. The largest recorded increase was among men age 50 and older. Sharp increases are also occurring in women under 45.

Furthermore, although it was once thought that people with pale skin, light or red hair, and blue or gray eyes were the prime target, melanomas are now being found in Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hawaiian, and other, darker skinned persons. If the protective ozone surrounding the planet continues to be destroyed, experts estimate that the number of skin cancer cases will continue to rise.

Green Tea to the Rescue

Clearly, our skin requires extra protection these days. That's where green tea becomes a valuable ally, one that we should want in our cosmetics and personal care products.

Green tea's potent phytochemicals, especially green tea polyphenols (catechins), have been shown to be highly effective protectors against skin cancer, as well as providing other beneficial effects. Green tea works both when consumed as a beverage and applied topically, according to a 1994 report. According to the report, applying benzoyl peroxide (commonly used in acne medications) to skin has been shown to quickly promote tumors. Applying green tea topically to the same area prior to the application of benzoyl peroxide significantly protects against such skin tumours.

Green tea, according to the same report, also protects against the sun's ultraviolet rays when both applied topically and consumed as a beverage. The report concludes that "green tea may reduce the risk of some forms of human cancer induced by solar radiation." In a recent (2001) study, topical application of green tea polyphenols to the skin of human volunteers clearly reduced the ability of sunlight to cause sunburn and reduced the ability of sunlight to damage the DNA of skin cells.


How Green Tea Works

How does green tea offer so much protection? Green tea's polyphenols increase the performance of a number of the body's most important detoxification enzymes, including catalase and glutathione peroxidase. Not only do glutathione, peroxidase and catalase provide the body with cancer fighting protection, green tea's polyphenls are estimated to be twenty times more potent than even vitamin E, one of the body's most important antioxidants and cancer protectors.

Green tea offers other substantial benefits. It is a natural astringent and antibacterial agent that can help to detoxify and purify the skin at the same time that it helps to ward off the ravages of sun-related skin ageing.

The skin is an important first line of defence for the body's immune system - it has mechanisms to prevent infectious bacteria and viruses from gaining entry into the body from the outside environment. Green tea has been shown to protect the most important component of the immune system in the skin - cells named Langerhans cells - from the damage radiation damage.

For anyone who uses alpha hydroxy acid products, green tea also helps to prevent irritation of the skin caused by glycolic acid and other irritating chemicals used in alpha-hydroxy acid products. According to some experts, green tea may even have anti-cellulite properties.

As you can see, a lot of good reasons can be found for using green tea-based cosmetics and personal care products. It's smart and healthy.

The Take-Home Message

• Using topical green tea skin products can reduce some aspects of skin ageing, sunlight-induced damage and helps to prevent sunburn and skin cancer.
• Topical green tea products should be applied to the skin prior to exposure to sunlight.
• Oral supplementation with green tea polyphenols can further increase the protective effects of topical green tea skin products. A suggested dosage is 240 - 320 mg of green tea polyphenols per day. This is equivalent to five to ten cups of green tea per day.

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