NEKTRE LABS Beauty Blog

Read New Beauty Review of Internal Affair!

2009-04-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

Click here to read the latest review of Internal Affair from New Beauty Magazine.

The Hottest Trend for Summer 2009: Internal Sunscreen

2009-03-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

With summer just around the corner we are temped more than ever to spend a day lying in the sun reading a great novel or taking a midday ciesta. Popular belief used to be that if you did such an activity, sunscreen would be your shield against those aggressive skin damaging rays. And while it is vitally important to use a high quality sunscreen, it is not going to entirely erase the premature aging affects.

The dangerous fact is that 90% of premature skin aging is caused by UV radiation, according to The American Academy of Dermatology. Recent scientific studies have also revealed that sunscreen is less effective than originally thought at blocking full spectrum UV rays. In addition, UVA rays, newly recognized as the more damaging of the two, can actually penetrate through windows as well.

So now you are faced with what seems like two choices. Live in the dark, shut the curtains, and take out all of your light bulbs. Or be destined to have a face that more closely resembles a Ralph Lauren Serana riding boot than a porcelain doll. And though we do encourage a life of darkness over one of sun worship, there is an alternative.

The first step is to wear a high quality sunscreen. Surprise, surprise, like all other products in the world, sunscreens are not created equal. Make sure that you look for zinc oxide or avobenzone in the ingredient list to ensure that you are getting both UVA and UVB protection and don’t necessarily trust labels claiming “broad-spectrum” protection because there is no UVA measurement standard in the U.S. The second is to take an ingestible supplement designed to combat the damaging effects of UV radiation.

Nektre Labs, an antioxidant focused skincare company based in California, is at the forefront of the internal sunscreen movement. Internal Affair their debut product is an ingestible supplement designed to repair and prevent UV induced skin damage. Internal Affair contains 20 powerful age-fight micronutrients that work hand in hand to keep your skin youthful and radiant.

Niacin, one of Internal Affair’s key ingredients, has been clinically shown to repair DNA damage caused by UV exposure. Niacin also increases vessel dilation, aiding in the delivery of micronutrients to the upper skin layers. L-Tyrosine, also one of Internal Affair’s key ingredients, is actually a precursor to both CoQ10 and melanin (a product of skin cells that diffuses UV radiation and turns it into heat before it can break apart DNA) acting as both an internal sunscreen and as an antioxidant booster. Pomegranate extract and green tea are also a few of the ingredients that help control free radical damage and inflammation caused by the sun.

Learn 3 Rules for Flawless Skin by Watching Benjamin Button

2009-01-14T15:05:00.001-08:00

This past weekend I finally caved and took to the cinema with my wife to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (I have a natural aversion to any movie that is 3+ hours long).

And while yes it was a touching love story that highlights how little time we have on this earth, especially with our true loves, it also got me thinking. We don't have that many years of looking really really attractive either. And frankly that's like top 3 in my life right now.

Sure the latter years will be great and all with the kids out of the house, and the travel, and grand kids etc. but I'm really going to miss looking in the mirror and thinking "I'm looking dead sexy today."

I realized that while I was watching Button I learned some valuable lessons that will keep you looking younger longer.

1. Stop Eating So Much Sugar

I was fortunate to have enough self control (i.e. my wife clinching my scooping arm) to avoid my favorite candy cocktail of sour belts and Reese's pieces. But, I did indulge in about half of a medium popcorn, which as it turns out is pretty sugary (It's classified as Medium bad on the glycemic index at about 55).

It sounds strange but your cells (i.e. you) run off sugar a.k.a. Glucose. The things we eat range from processed sugar, which is immediately available for cell use, to foods that take a while for our bodies to convert to sugar, like brown rice.

At any given time your body only needs a certain amount of this sugar to run properly and when there is a lot of extra roaming about, besides expanding our waistlines, it does something very sinister - it breaks down collagen. Yep, the very same collagen that stops those wrinkles you saw on Brad when he was young, well old but young, and very wrinkly.

That excess sugar, with nothing else to do, pairs up with collagen and elastin proteins and creates advanced glycation end products. This wouldn't be a problem except healthy collagen and elastin is cushy and resilient and AGEs (as they are known) are brittle and dry which causes wrinkles.

Logistics: Try to reduce the consumption of sugar and other high-glycemic foods like candy, white rice, and potatoes. Google "glycemic index" to give you an idea of what foods are good and which aren't.

2. UV Radiation is the Single Biggest Cause of Skin Aging

Watching a movie in the dark may be bad for the eyes (or so I'm told) but it turns out it's great for the skin. Every day you are bombarded by ultraviolet radiation that, while it feels great on a warm day,will destroy your skin over time.

You may not see the results immediately but the effects of UV radiation are powerful and far reaching. Not only do these rays damage the DNA of your skins epidermal layer and the stem cells that regenerate your skin, they easily pass into the dermal layer where your collagen and elastin are. This causes abnormal elastin growth and an enzyme called metalloproteinase to be produced. This enzyme is supposed to repair the damaged collagen but too much ends up hurting the healthy collagen and rebuilding an uneven surface causing wrinkles.

UV light also accelerates the production of melanin which is designed to help shield your skin cells from the radiation. This crates those unattractive solar spots or little brown blotches on your skin (I prefer smooth and even skin.)

Logistics: Live in the dark. Take out all your light bulbs...just kidding! There is a simple solution: wear sunscreen. I'm always amazed at the sheer number of facial moisturizers and prep serums that don't have SPF in them. You should be wearing at least SPF 30 everyday - even if you work indoors. There are many luxurious moisturizers that are light enough to wear under your makeup and that contain SPF 30. Take a trip to your local Sephora and give some a try! And remember, tanning on vacation is fine, but please, skip the tanning beds during the rest of the year and opt for a Mystic. The results are instant and UV free.

3. Consistency is the Key to Success

While Benjamin is busy meeting new people around the retirement home, Daisy spends most of her early adulthood in New York studying to be a professional ballet dancer. Throughout the first half of the movie they often cut to her practicing diligently and precisely. As time goes on she becomes a famous ballerina having performed all over the world and respected as one of the finest American ballet dancers ever produced.

This made me consider the value of consistency in life and this lesson holds especially true when it comes to skincare. If you want great skin then we have to choose a high quality skincare regimen and stick to it. Putting a moisturizer on every other day will help but will never give you the kind of results you could be getting.

What does a high quality regimen look like? Well that's up to you. But I recommend a few basics that will make a HUGE difference in your skin's appearance and texture if you're consistent. The five components are nutricosmetic, cleanser, serum, daily moisturizer, and night cream.

Logistics: Get a good nutricosmetic going and stick with it. Aging is caused by a buildup of DNA damage over time. This was proven recently by scientists who "knocked out" a gene repairing enzyme in mice. The ones who couldn't repair their DNA began aging quickly and exhibited all the physical symptoms of old age like wrinkled skin. Consuming a full range of powerful antioxidants each day will help you stay looking younger longer.

Next is the cleanser. This will clear away the outer layer of dead skin cells which will allow better penetration of your serum.

There are many serums out there so pick one that you like the best and has the active ingredients that work for your particular situation. For example I like a vitamin c serum that helps rebuild collagen. Serums are important because they have a high concentration of active ingredients which can penetrate the outer layers of the skin.

Follow with your daily moisturizer that has SPF 30. (See lesson 2) This will seal in your serum and lock in moisture throughout the day. The night cream is the last step, no SPF needed obviously, but is often overlooked. I know how it is, you get home and your tired. I bet you even go to bed sometimes without washing makeup off your face! Well, don't let that happen to you. Get that stuff off and get the good stuff on before you get your sleep on. It's called beauty sleep for a reason you know.

While we can't all age in reverse like Benjamin Button, these 3 easy lessons can have a big impact on how quickly our skin ages. It just takes a little knowledge and discipline. Try it, consistently, for just a couple of weeks and you will see and feel a noticeable difference in the quality of your skin.

Your Skin's Stem Cells Win "Breakthrough of the Year" of 2008

2008-12-30T12:25:00.000-08:00

Well, sort of. It turns out that the very same stem cells that are regenerating our skin day-in and day-out can be converted into embryonic stem cells by changing the cellular instructions.

Pregnant women know the value of excellent nutrition when stem cells are creating an entire person. Well, some of those same stem cells go on to continuously create new skin our entire lives. Maybe we should elevate out nutritional regimen for truly radiant and healthy skin.

USA Today reports:

A crescendo of discoveries pushed stem cells from the lab dish to news headlines this year. Only two years ago, a Japanese research team led by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University announced a method for turning mouse skin cells into unspecialized ones that resembled embryonic stem cells, prized by biomedical researchers for the potential to turn into any kind of tissue. This year, teams made use of the discovery in human cells to earn "Breakthrough of the Year" status from Science magazine.

For the first time, two teams created families of induced pluripotent cells — unspecialized cells derived from specialized cells — from patients suffering 11 different diseases, including Parkinson's disease and juvenile diabetes. And a team led by Harvard's Doug Melton demonstrated "lineage switching" in a Nature journal study, switching ordinary kidney cells into specialized tissues that produce insulin in mice. The end goal of cell reprogrammers is to create immune-system-friendly transplant tissues for patients.

When you're ready for truly luxurious skin consider upgrading to Internal Affair.

Is Your Diet Giving You Wrinkles?

2008-12-26T13:55:00.000-08:00

from RealAge

Wrinkles may be an inevitable part of aging, but that doesn't mean fighting them is useless. Protecting your skin from exposure to ultraviolet radiation is the most significant thing you can do to prevent wrinkles, sagging, and discoloration. And, some people try invasive techniques, such as chemical peels, Botox, dermal fillers, or surgery.

But those efforts are all done from the outside. What about protecting your skin from the inside?

Can something as simple as modifying what you eat and drink help you smooth the lines on your face or prevent future wrinkles?

Erase wrinkles NO, look younger YES
Studies show that what you eat, or don't eat, has a definite effect on the health of your skin. As the outermost barrier of the body and your largest organ, the skin is continuously exposed to various sources of stress, including many environmental factors. So, although a new diet won't clear away all your wrinkles or halt skin aging, nutrition can make a huge difference not only in how you look, but also how you feel. This in turn will influence how young or old you may appear to be.

Food fight... against aging
Researchers are just beginning to explore the extent of diet's role in the skin aging process. One recent study revealed that people whose diets are rich in vegetables, beans, olive oil, nuts, and multigrain breads are less likely to wrinkle than those who feast on red meat, butter, and sugary foods.

Experts suspect that antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E and the minerals zinc and selenium may keep wrinkles at bay by reducing the amount of potentially damaging free radicals produced by skin cells. One study revealed that a supplement that included a combination of these antioxidant vitamins helped protect the skin from aging due to solar UV exposure.

Consider this. With all the new research demonstrating that antioxidants and anti-inflammatories help slow the skin aging process how are you not taking a daily skin supplement like Internal Affair?

YOU! Being Beautiful, from the Introduction

2008-12-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

This excerpt is from the new book, YOU! Being Beautiful by Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz. It is generally a well written book that takes a scientific approach to beauty, although it covers the entire gamut, not just focusing on skin. Having said that, the section on your skin is done pretty well, in particular the explanation and illustration of how and why our skin ages. Advanced beauty consumers may want to skip this one as much of the information is beginner level.

YOU: Being Beautiful is really about the fact that we're all hardwired with automatic thoughts and perceptions about beauty. That means that many of these ideas have evolved over thousands of years to form a foundation for human behavior, emphasizing that it's especially hard to overcome some of the automatic drives.

To that end, beauty is very serious business—as in survival-of-the-species serious. When we think about survival of the species (living long enough to pass your genes on to the next generation), it's natural to emphasize the survival part of the equation. But when it comes down to a choice between surviving and breeding, breeding often wins. (Think of male grizzlies fighting to the death for a mate.) Considering the stakes, you'd better be sure that the object of your affection (that man with those magnificent abs) is worthy of the effort to attract him. But how can you know for sure? Thankfully, just like the metal detector–toting treasure hunter who leaves luck and serendipity to the amateurs, you come fully equipped with your own professional-grade beauty detectors.

When we spot a particularly attractive person, somewhere deep in our reptilian brains, a beauty alarm goes off. It tells us when we've struck gold, and it does so automatically and subconsciously. Just like a reflex, it's automatic, impossible to stop, and Annie Oakley accurate. Your beauty detectors have the mathematical precision of a Swiss watch, and this precision comes in the form of some very specific numbers that you'll learn about in this book, including something called the Fibonacci sequence. You'll also learn that's the reason why we make so many decisions with our emotions and not our logic; those decisions play a major role in how beautiful and healthy we feel.

Spotlight On: Green Tea

2008-12-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

"It's one of the most powerful antioxidants around", says Leslie Baumann, MD, director of the Cosmetic Medicine and Research Institute at the University of Miami, who drinks 3 cups a day to fight the free radical damage and inflammation that can contribute to skin aging.

The Bottom Line: Skin experts know that Antioxidants, like the Green Tea Leaf extract in Internal Affair, do make a difference to the quality of your skin. Remember, the inside-out / outside-in approach is superior and scientifically proven.

DNA damage repair defect unifies theories of aging

2008-12-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

A novel form of progeria shows aging has both DNA damage and genetic components

from The Scientist Magazine

Analysis of a novel form of progeria caused by a mutation in a DNA repair gene has unified two competing theories of aging, according to a report in Nature. DNA damage induces aging, but at a rate that is genetically determined, Jan Hoeijmakers, head of the department of genetics at Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues determined after studying a patient with the disease as well as a knockout mouse model.

The novel disease, which the authors called XFE progeroid syndrome, presented as a blend of progeria, or premature aging, and symptoms more typically seen in DNA damage repair-related diseases like xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) or Cockayne syndrome. The 15-year-old patient studied showed delayed growth and problems with kidney and liver function, as well as features normally associated with aging, like hypertension. But he also displayed the increased sun sensitivity that is the hallmark of a DNA repair defect.

In the knockout mouse model of the disease, the researchers found a transcriptome profile at the age of 15 days that was similar to that of normally aged mice at 2.5 years of age, with a shift toward DNA repair and cell maintenance functions and away from growth activities. Aging can thus be viewed as a gradual shift, in the face of unrepaired DNA damage or other cellular stress, from a cellular emphasis on growth to an emphasis on staying alive, they concluded. In progeria patients, this shift occurs early in life, while in normal individuals it occurs much later.

The study arose from the unexpected finding that mutation of the DNA repair gene ERCC1, which is implicated in nucleotide excision repair of DNA, induced symptoms associated with old age in mice. "If you knock out other genes required for nucleotide excision repair to model the human disease xeroderma pigmentosum, you don't get accelerated aging, you get a cancer predisposition, so ERCC1 was a big surprise," said lead author Laura Niedernhofer, assistant professor of molecular genetics and biochemistry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

That surprise led the team to look for human patients with a similar disease. A 15-year-old Afghan boy was referred to the Erasmus clinic genetics service because of severe and chronic sunburn, suggestive of XP, but showed progeroid symptoms as well. Genetic analysis of DNA repair pathway components in cells from this patient indicated a mutation in XPF, a gene normally associated with mild XP.

XPF, in complex with ERCC1, is involved in nucleotide excision repair of both intrastrand and interstrand DNA lesions. XP patients normally are deficient in intrastrand repair, but this patient's cells were also deficient in repairing interstrand crosslinks, which disrupt DNA replication and transcription processes. The inability to remove these more severe lesions could be an important factor in the premature aging symptoms seen in both the patient and ERCC1 mice, according to Hoeijmakers.

In particular, genes in the so-called somatotroph axis, which Niedernhofer calls "a fancy word for growth hormone and IGF1 signaling," were downregulated. The somatotroph axis governs whether cells focus on growth or maintenance functions; mutations in this axis can extend the life of model organisms, while caloric restriction, which also extends life, downregulates it.

"If the system is very high [and] insulin levels are high, you grow rapidly. If that system is tuned down, then you don't grow that abundantly, but you invest more in maintenance and repair. We call this a 'survival response,'" Hoeijmakers said.

Frederick Alt, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and professor of genetics at Children's Hospital, Boston, who did not participate in the study, told The Scientist that the research "provides probably some of the best support to date that accumulation of unrepaired DNA damage can contribute to normal aging." Also exciting, he said, is the paper's support for a connection between DNA damage and the IGF1/insulin signaling pathway in aging.

According to Alt, who earlier this year described a different knockout mouse that also suggested a link between DNA damage, insulin signaling and aging, the key unanswered question is how the DNA repair and IGF1/insulin pathways communicate.

Leslie Gordon, medical director of the Progeria Research Foundation, praised the new study as "carefully constructed" and told The Scientist in an email that she thinks it "supports the body of evidence that shows that aging likely has many contributing elements, but perhaps feeding in to only a few common pathways downstream."

Free Radicals: The Visual

2008-12-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's difficult to envision what exactly is happening when Free Radical damage occurs in a cell. This is an excellent graphic provided by the ALS Society of Canada.

Sugar and High-Glycemic Foods: The New Axis of Evil

2008-12-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

I came across this very succinct and scientifically correct explanation of the effect of consuming sugar and High glycemic foods from skincare-news.com.

How they hurt skin: Carbs are found in foods like bread, rice, pasta and potatoes. Not surprisingly, sweet treats, such as cookies, cake and candy, are full of sugar. High glycemic foods: Our bodies convert carbs and sugar to blood glucose very quickly. The measure of how long this takes is called the glycemic index. Foods quickly converted to glucose are high-glycemic. If we load up on carbs and sugars, our glucose levels go up. "When the glucose level is too high, the body increases its production of insulin to get it back down," according to the National Skin Care Institute. So what happens to skin when our insulin levels are too high? Oil production rises and skin cells die quicker. Oil and dead skin cells block pores, which can lead to acne breakouts. Not surprisingly, studies show a correlation between a high-glycemic diet and acne.

Risk of wrinkles: Sugar binds to skin protein, causing wrinkles, explains Gregory Nikolaidis, M.D., of Westlake Dermatology to KEYE-TV — a binding process called glycation. After these sugar/skin protein bonds are made, damaging structures called advanced glycation end products — or AGEs, for short — are formed. AGEs destroy collagen (which keeps skin firm), causing wrinkles. Then, free radicals are created, which damage skin cells. Particularly in people over age 35, the effects of glycation become stronger. Diabetics are also highly affected by glycation: they "can have up to 50 times the number of AGEs in their skin as those who don’t have diabetes," dermatologist Karyn Grossman, M.D., tells Karyn Repinski in Prevention.

NEKTRE LABS Parters with Napa Valley's Largest Resort Spa: The Spa at Silverado County Club

2008-12-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

"This is an extremely exciting partnership for NEKTRE LABS. Internal Affair is our flagship nutricosmetic product and we are so proud to have established this very special relationship with such a world-class spa."

Internal Affair will be served as part of select spa treatment packages as well as being available as a retail item.

About The Spa at Silverado

This luxury 16,000-square-foot complex is the largest private resort spa in Napa Valley -California’s famed wine country- and is available exclusively for Silverado Resort guests and Club members.

Inspired by the serene sophistication of a classic Roman spa, The Spa at Silverado offers fitness, spa and salon services surrounded by tranquil garden courtyards and breathtaking scenic views right in the heart of Napa Valley.

Vitamin C and Linoleic Acid Slow Skin Wrinkling

2008-12-08T14:03:00.000-08:00

In a recent landmark study of 4,025 women ages 40 to 74, researchers found that people who ate plenty of vitamin C-rich foods had fewer wrinkles than people whose diets contained little of the vitamin.

Diets rich in the omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid (which can be found in acai berry) were also associated with less skin aging from dryness and thinning, while higher-fat diets and those higher in carbohydrates were associated with more wrinkling.

The findings are far from conclusive, but they do suggest that when it comes to skin aging, you truly are what you eat.

"Our findings add evidence to a predominately supplement and topical application-based hypothesis that what we eat affects our skin-aging appearance," nutritional epidemiologist Maeve C. Cosgrove and colleagues write in the October issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

You can read the full study published in the AJCN here.

Back to School: Biology 101 - Cells and You

2008-12-05T12:10:00.000-08:00

Do you ever remember sitting in high school biology class, seems like it was always right after lunch, and thinking to yourself, "This is such a waste of time. I'll never need to know this stuff again."? Well, as it turns out, you do. And those chapters on Cells are going to come in extra handy.

Let's take a moment and consider a startling fact - our bodies are made up of cells, about 10 trillion of them in about 200 different varieties. Now really take a minute and consider that. When you look at yourself in the mirror you see skin. But what you are really seeing is billions of tiny skin cells, and just below the surface are layers and layers more working around the clock to repair and renew your skin.

This becomes an important insight when deciding the strategy to care for and nourish your skin, i.e. your skin cells. Where do these cells receive the raw materials to create collagen and divide and stay healthy? From the nutrients we ingest.

For those of you with a scientific side, here is a great primer on cells from HowStuffWorks.

Quote of the Day: Dr. Oz on Beauty

2008-12-04T14:59:00.000-08:00

"Beauty is not some issue of vanity—beauty is hardwired into us," Dr. Oz says. "Our ancestors didn't have the access to blood tests and DNA profiles and MRI scans. They had to decide, in a quarter of the time, if you were a suitable mate for them—they looked for beauty. Beauty reflects health and, equally important, your ability to procreate."

Dr. Oz is a regular on the Oprah show and is the author of numerous books on health and wellness.

Thursday Q+A: Why Does Smoking Cause Wrinkles?

2008-12-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

This is going to surprise many of you. When I asked this question to a sample of skin-savvy people the two most common answers were:

1. That smoking decreases the available oxygen around the facial skin. And the decreased oxygen to the skin cells causes degradation and therefore wrinkles. (TRUE)

2. That smoking is a an extremely potent source of Free Radicals which damages skin cells and leads to wrinkles and other pre-mature aging symptoms. (TRUE)

But as it turns out, there is another reason that smoking causes those deep wrinkles, even on relatively young people who smoke heavily. According to renowned cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Eric Mariotti, the factor that contributes the most to wrinkles has to do with blood circulation. Smoking causes blood vessels to constrict, which in turn reduces the amount of blood that can reach the skin cells. This causes a lot of nutrients, like Glucose and Antioxidants, to not reach these cells and they begin to degrade and cause wrinkles.

This is an important lesson and is closely related to many earlier posts which explained the importance of getting those critical antioxidants and micronutrients to the skin cells to stop pre-mature aging.

One thing you can do is take a skin supplement product that contains L-Arginine, like Internal Affair. This critical amino acid relaxes blood vessels allowing the nutrients to reach the skin cells.

Nutrients for Healthy Skin: Inside and Out

2008-12-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

This is a great article from WebMD explaining how micronutrients affect the appearance of your skin. It gets a little technical but here are the highlights:

Vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients can give your skin the youthful glow of good health

Of all the news coming from the beauty community, the loudest buzz may be about the power of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to give skin a more radiant, healthy, and, yes, youthful glow.

The excitement is focused not only on creams and lotions you put on your skin but what you put into your body as well. Health experts say that vitamins and minerals in all forms play an integral role in a healthy complexion, whether the source is food, supplements, or even a jar of cream. "Your skin is the fingerprint of what is going on inside your body, and all skin conditions, from psoriasis to acne to aging, are the manifestations of your body's internal needs, including its nutritional needs," says Georgiana Donadio, PhD, DC, MSc

"There is a lot of important new research showing tremendous power of antioxidants in general, and in some specific nutrients in particular that can make an important difference in the way your skin looks and feels -- and even in how well it ages,"

Cell Mutations Spark Aging

2008-12-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

This is an article from DISCOVER Magazine. It talks about one of the most important discoveries ever made into the nature of why cells age and represents what the future of skincare will address.

Aging may begin in the mitochondria—the powerplants of the cells

Molecular biologists may be on the brink of unleashing a cellular fountain of youth. In May Nils-Goran Larsson of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden pinpointed where the process of aging begins in a cell—the mitochondria—and thus where it may be slowed.

Mitochondria are tiny organelles that harness energy and turn it into a usable form. They are also the only structures outside a cell’s nucleus that contain their own DNA, and that turns out to be important. While DNA in the nucleus has an extensive system of proofreading and repairing enzymes, mitochondria depend mostly on a single protein to patch up mutations. When Larsson engineered mice with a defective, error-prone version of the protein, mice accumulated mutations unchecked. The results were startling. At young adulthood, Larsson’s mice resembled those three times their age, with bone and muscle loss, heart disease—even baldness.

The study is the first hard evidence that these mutations are a cause of aging rather than just a sign, like wrinkles. When mitochondria begin to break down, they run less efficiently, creating more toxic free radicals. The process resembles an inefficient engine producing more smoke. Larsson’s research suggests that the damage from these free radicals—either to the mitochondria or other parts of a cell—is what triggers the aging process. Mitochondrial mutations may also underlie Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other diseases that are common among senior citizens, says Doug Wallace, director of the University of California at Irvine’s new Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics.

“If we could find a way to protect mitochondrial DNA, either with drugs or by using gene therapy to transplant it to the nucleus, it could not only extend our life spans but prevent many of the diseases we associate with aging as well.”

The Power of Resveratrol

2008-12-03T14:43:00.001-08:00

Have you ever heard of the "French Paradox"? It is the observation that although the French eat a diet that has more saturated fat than we do they suffer less from heart disease. It is believed that the answer lies within a nutrient that is present in red wine, which the French drink on a daily basis, call Reveratrol.

There is an interesting article in DISCOVER Magazine about Resveratrol slowing the aging process. Here are the highlights:

Is Wine What Flows Through the Fountain of Youth?
GlaxoSmithKline bets $720 million that a new class of red wine-inspired drugs will slow aging in humans

The quest for eternal youth may be as old as human life itself, but the latest elixir to promise longer life—a molecule found in red wine—continues to surprise skeptics who can’t believe it could actually work. In the past five years, that compound, resveratrol, has been shown to slow aging in worms, flies, and mice.

One true believer is GlaxoSmithKline. Last spring the company paid $720 million for Sirtris, a biotech start-up that has developed a family of resveratrol-mimicking compounds. “GSK is betting that we have discovered a whole new class of drugs that will treat all or many diseases of aging at once,”

You too can benefit from the anti-aging properties of Resvertrol by taking Internal Affair each day.

Introducing Your Skin's New Best Friend: Antioxidants

2008-12-03T13:47:00.000-08:00

Recently there was a great introduction to antioxidants published in an issue of The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry:

The Chemistry behind Antioxidant Capacity Assays

1. INTRODUCTION
Clinical trials and epidemiological studies has established an inverse correlation between the intake of fruits and vegetables and the occurrence of diseases such as inflammation, cardio-vascular disease, cancer, and aging-related disorders (1).

Dietary antioxidants, including polyphenolic compounds, vitamin E and C, and carotenoids, are believed to be the effective nutrients in the prevention of these oxidative stress related diseases (2).

Making sure the body has an adequate supply of antioxidants and polyphenols can be a challenge, especially given that the nutritional value of our foods has degraded so much. Taking just one serving of Internal Affair delivers high doses of the antioxidants and polyphenols your skin needs. Take a look at the Supplement Facts.

Welcome to NEKTRE LABS Beauty Blog

2008-12-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

This blog is dedicated to you. To providing you with the information you need to make informed decisions about your beauty regimen, decisions based in real science not marketing hype.

NEKTRE LABS creates luxury skincare products based on cutting-edge scientific research for discerning consumers.

Since many of our products are based on biological principles that you may not be familiar with, we have created this blog where we can discuss, together, the newest advances in skincare research and development.

So welcome! And if you are ready to speak with one of our representatives about your beauty regimen or want to learn more about any of our products just email service@nektre.com or Chat with a representative live on the website (coming in January).

www.nektre.com