Caffeine

This ingredient is one of the newest outbreak fads in personal care worldwide. Why is caffeine such a hot item now? Well, studies show that people worldwide are experiencing daily fatigue, which explains the up rise of products like Jolt, Red Bull, Altovis, and all those herbal supplements seen everywhere you go. But beyond its energizing capabilities, caffeine stimulates the breathing center of the brain. Aerobic exercise is based on air. Caffeine in small doses is purported to aid in preventing Alzheimers disease. And last but certainly not least (for our purposes) it also has skin firming, toning, and astringent effects. It also works to eliminate puffiness. It improves circulation to the surface area to which it is applied.

In an article published at WebMD, caffeine is touted as a vehicle to prevent skin cancer. In this article you'll find a detailed account of a study, which investigated whether caffeine applied directly to sun-damaged skin, would increase the death of damaged skin cells in mice. They found that the topical caffeine did increase skin cell death in UV damaged cells. http://my.webmd.com/content/article/36/1728_76535 AND (ready for this?) it has SLIMMING capabilities.

Let's explore the concept of the slimming Effects of Caffeine. Cellulite is the visible effect of an accumulation of fat, in the form of adipocyte cells, in the hypodermis. The adipocyte is a highly metabolically active cell, which plays a key role in the control of the body's energy balance. It is fully equipped with all the enzyme-producing capabilities needed to synthesize, store and eliminate fatty globules: the triglycerides. The adipocytes possess, inter alia, two antagonistic metabolic paths: the lipogenesis path leading to the storage of triglycerides, and the opposite path of lipolysis of triglycerides, which results in the reduction of fatty globules. Lipolysis corresponds to the hydrolysis of triglycerides in free fatty acids and in glycerol. This reaction is catalyzed by a key enzyme: HSL (Hormone-sensitive Lipase). The determining signal required to trigger lipolysis is cyclic AMP (cAMP). The intracellular concentration of cAMP depends on two opposed action systems, located in the plasmic membrane of the adipocyte: adenylate cyclase (AC) which activates it, and phosphodiesterase (PDE) which cleaves it into 5-AMP. Therefore a substance which is capable of stimulating adenylate cyclase or inhibiting phosphodiesterase will raise the intracellular cAMP levels, which activates the HSL enzyme and stimulates the lipolysis of fats by the adipocyte. This is the case for caffeine - a xanthic base - which inhibits phosphodiesterase and thus encourages the synthesis of the cAMP which itself stimulates the lipolysis of fatty lobules. Many scientific studies carried out to date have confirmed the slimming action of caffeine applied locally.