Skin Care Myths: Antioxidants Treat Wrinkles

Antioxidants will reverse your wrinkles. This is a common misconception.

fix-my-wrinkles.jpg

Antioxidants can help prevent wrinkles by soaking up harmful free radicals that damage your collagen.

Wrinkles result when collagen is damaged by ultraviolet radiation. Antioxidants, regardless of how potent they are, cannot alter existing collagen that is damaged. Antioxidants therefore do not treat existing wrinkles.

In terms of topical creams, only products that can cause growth of new collagen such as tretinoin (like Renova®, Retin-A®, and Tazorac®) can treat existing wrinkles.

You might also like:

I’m on Oprah. Er, well, in Oprah anyway.

Are You Over-Scrubbing Your Face?

5 Tips to Stay Safe When Having a Procedure Done

The Most Exclusive Facial Moisturizer You Could Ever Buy

Why Do Women Bruise More Easily than Men?

Like this blog? Grab The Derm Feed

Photo: Jon Rawlinson, Flickr.com

Comments

5 Responses to “Skin Care Myths: Antioxidants Treat Wrinkles”

  1. hanner on April 18th, 2008 3:53 am

    I have recently seen quite a few ads for tablets that contain(?) collagen or that boosts collagen when one takes it. Is there any merit in such products?

  2. Dr. Benabio on April 22nd, 2008 4:36 am

    Hanner-
    The only topical products that can “boost” collagen are topical retinoids such as Retin-A or Renova. Applying collagen to your skin would have no effect (except maybe as a nice moisturizer). Thanks for stopping by.

  3. hanner on April 23rd, 2008 9:30 pm

    Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question, dr Benabio. I love your blog - I have subscribed through Bloglines - and I have alerted a few friends who are now regular readers as well!

  4. Marie on May 5th, 2008 7:25 am

    I’ve been using .5 retin-a under my eyes for about 3 months. I would like to know if I can really expect my lines to be much improved, and how long will it take.
    Thanks Doc!

  5. Dr. Benabio on May 10th, 2008 11:01 am

    Hanner-
    Thank you so much. Don’t hesitate to contact me if I can help you.

    Marie-
    By three months you should notice results; however, you should still continue to see improvement over time.

Leave a Reply