First some facts. Skin pigments are generated in cells called melanocytes by a process called melanogenesis. Peoples skin colour will depend on how much of these melanocytes you have under your skin.
There are 3 types of skin pigments that can be produced in these cells.
- Eumelanin
- Pheomelanin
- Neuromelanin
Eumelanin – the more you have the darker your skin colour. For a darker skin, you will have lots of melanocyte cells under your skin hence more Eumelanin.
Pheomelanin is the pigment in your skin that will give you a pink hue. It is by producing more of this that will give you a lighter skin.
Neuromelanin is present only in the brain and its function is unknown.
So why is it possible for N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) to give you a lighter skin.
Melanogenesis summary:
UV light from the sun – interacts with Tyrosine an amino acid in your body with the help of the enzyme Tyrosinase-this produces Dopaquinone – From here there are 2 pathways this reaction can proceed – one is to make Eumelanin and the other is to make Pheomelanin depending if you have excess L-cysteine in your body. If the Pheomelanin pathway dominates then there is more of a pink hue to your skin rather than the Eumelanin which would have given you a darker skin colour.
This is where the supplement NAC comes in where it generates L-cysteine and predominates the Pheomelanin production and with excess Pheomelanin together with the Eumelanin generated, your skin colour gets a lighter shade. You now have a sliding scale of skin colour you could create every month for different times of the year.
You understand that this is only possible for those with a lot of melanocyte cells in their body or those with darker skin.
As a positive side effect, NAC will also generate Glutathione which is a strong antioxidant for the body. So you will now own a sliding scale for skin colour and also a firewall of antioxidants for your body by just taking a daily dose of N-acetyl cysteine. please research web for daily dosage.
You can also inhibit the enzyme Tyrosinase, the enzyme in the diagram above, to produce less pigments by taking Pine Bark extract (sometimes sold by brand name Pycnogenol). Have you come across the product called Pynocare. Its ingredients are:
French Maritime Pine Bark Extract 40 mg, Vitamin C 60 mg, D. Salina Extract 20 mg and Natural Vitamin E. The French Maritime Pine Bark Extract has Pycnogenol in it. It is also a strong antioxidant.
So you see how you can manipulate the metabolic pathway for melanogenesis to produce pigments or not, for the best shade of skin colour you want for every month of the year and while you are doing this you are also producing some antioxidants for free radical protection.
Here is a reference:
and,
Facts of Glutathione Skin Whitening
update reference:
More information on Pine bark extract: I mentioned Pynocare above with its active ingredient pine bark extract. This below is just that in a capsule, more practical and easier to obtain and cheaper. It is a German product. Mercedes Benz, BMW, Bosch, all German Gold Standard products. Hence this pine bark extract from Germany cannot be far off reliable as a product. It blocks the enzyme TYROSINASE and hence stops the pigment production process and lightens the skin. You should see results within a handful of days. You can choose to control the hue of your skin using the pine bark extract and N-acetyl cysteine. Looking at the pathway below, you have to use them separately, as NAC will give you a slightly pinkish hue. Both produce lots of antioxidants as a by-products to neutralise your free radicals and minimise tissue damage.
From Holland and Barrett,
Pycnogenol is a brand name for the Pine bark extract. It contains a class of polyphenols known as proanthocyanidins. Now there are many types of polyphenols. Wine they say is good for you because they have a set of polyphenols of their own. Pine bark extract has a collection of their own polyphenols called proanthocyanidins which in this case will lighten your skin colour.
Can you believe this: it is also a natural DHT blocker and these proanthocyanidins in pine bark extract is also a natural DHT blocker to promote hair growth. So you take care of your skin colour and hair at the same time especially for men as DHT converts testosterone to DHT which then attaches to hair follicles causing miniaturisation of the cell follicle and it stops producing hair – balding.
It is standardized to contain 95% of proanthocyanidins which prevents the changing of testosterone into DHT. It is also used in the treatment of other diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, skin cancer, and tooth decay. It has been shown to stimulate wound healing and offer protection to the liver. It helps in hair growth through lowering the amount of DHT in the hair follicles. It also slows down the process of growing old and makes one look younger and healthy. It is available in both liquid and capsules in many pharmacies and health food stores. A recent study conducted by researchers from Japan proved the viability of Grape Seed extract as a DHT Blocker.
Grape seed extract and pine bark extract are a source for proanthocyanidins
BUT they also protect your body in other ways:
This pine bark extract seems too good to be true, but it does what it says on the label: it will lighten your skin colour, so why should it not do the others that they mention in the diagram above. It looks like something that will slow the aging process: antioxidants, connective tissue support, capillary support and reduces inflammation in the body (like Tumeric). Food is food and vitamins is vitamins in our minds but really food is vitamins and vitamins is food.
Who would have thought these chemicals in pine bark which is to defend against insects and microorganisms that attack the tree will also lighten our skin colour and do all the goodness above for us.
Pine Bark Extract | Health Benefits and Uses of Pine Bark
What else don’t we know about our health? Like this link below which says that aging has nothing to do with genetics/DNA but rather if you are getting all the right amino acids every day so the puzzle of your metabolic pathways in your body is complete.
From one of our very own:
Rory Blake’s answer to How can the effects of aging be reversed?
He said he got it from here: NIH Turning Discovery Into Health.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) • Funds and Conducts Medical Research Throughout the United States and Around the World • Trains Scientists for Tomorrow • Provides Health and Science Information to the Public.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) – Gold Standard USA
As perspective and perception of health changes what they are saying is that although our DNA template might be fixed, it can still be flexible in the way it works by our experiences and habits being used as signals to switch on or off the various parts of the template. What this means is that we can alter our DNA template with our habits. If our diet is bad, parts of our DNA switches off-or-on accordingly to make it a permanent feature for you, and these switches get passed on to future generations. I think this flexible aspect of the DNA is how aging can be reversed or slowed down. You are what you make yourself to be. Epigenetics.
The Epigenome Learns From Its Experiences
The Epigenome Learns From Its Experiences
“Epigenetic tags act as a kind of cellular memory. A cell’s epigenetic profile — a collection of tags that tell genes whether to be on or off — is the sum of the signals it has received during its lifetime.”
As far as health is concerned, what you want and do is what you get.
Update from India (December 2018): just spent some time in India and found this:
KAMA Kumkumadi oil. You get them relatively cheaply in India but from outside India the prices seem to escalate. This is a great skin whitening and conditioning application. It evens out tones etc. For testing this oil you could get very cheap small packs from shops like the “Khadi” shops. You need to apply the oil on a damp skin to get best results. Becareful you don’t go all colourless with this oil! Immediate next day results can be seen with this oil when applied on damp (towards wet) skin.
The ingredients of Kumkumadi Tailam. Just pure goodness to nourish and even out the tone of your skin – natural and Ayurveda India.
26 Ingredients of Kumkumadi Tailam are:
- Keshara-saffron-Crocus sativus
- Chandana– Pterocarpus santalinus
- Laksha– Laccifer lacca
- Manjishta-Rubia cordifolia
- Madhuyashtika-Licorice
- Kaliyaka-Berberis aristata
- Usheera-Vetiveria zizianioides
- Padma-Prunus cerasoides
- Neelotpala-Nymphaea stellata
- Nyagrodha-Ficus bengalenis
- Plaksha-Ficus lacor
- Kamala Keshara-Pollen of Lotus- Nelumbonucifera
- Bilva-Aegle marmelos
- Agnimantha-Premna mucronata
- Shyonaka-Oroxylum indicum
- Gambhari-Gmelinaarborea
- Patala-Stereospermum suaveolens
- Shalaparni-Desmodium gangeticum
- Prinshnaparni-Urarica picta
- Gokshura-Tribulus terrestris
- Brihati-solanum indicum
- Kantakari-Slanum xanthocarpum
- Madhuka-Madhuca longifolia
- Pattanga-Caesalpinia sappan
- Yastimadhu-Licorice-Glycyrrhiza glabra
I would assume that if you have lots of dead skin on your skin that are also highly pigmented, and you have not had a facial scrub in years and you are wondering all your skin lightening ideas have not worked – is it possible at all that under all that dead darkly pigmented skin is a lighter shade and a facial scrub is due – just thinking aloud of the possibilities.
So I would like to introduce you to this facial scrub (Tanamera) which you will find is so easy and messyless to use. You use it on damp skin and scrub away and as its moisture content diminishes it starts to become gluee-like and starts to stickly take of the dead cells and they start to accumulate in tiny beads on your face – then you wash it all off. So I asked myself why does this scrub work in this sticky way. I looked at the ingredients and saw this: Guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride. That Guar was a give away. So did a quick search and found this:
Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride is a quaternary ammonium derivative of guar gum; used in hair conditioning products. Function(s): Antistatic Agent; Hair Conditioning Agent; Viscosity Increasing Agent
Guar gum is a kind of glue. It is water soluble and after all the dead cells collect in the beads that start to build up as you scrub away – you just wash it off.
What kind of skin colour do you want: all white, slightly tanned, Deep-tan black, blueish black, charcoal black – melanogenesis, control your skin colour for a different shade every month.
I came to this idea via a mistake I made in buying haircare vitamin tablets that were made of bovine capsules. I paid quiet a lot for them and hence did not want to throw them away. So I thought I will just snip off the tip and squeeze out the contents and eat that instead and bin the capsule. Also quick absorption etc. So all is good, until one day i looked at the capsule content and thought the creamy contents was very much like the moisturizing cream one would buy from a shop. The tablet (Crowning Glory Extra – with 27 key nutritional ingredients) was sold to me as a complete package that was needed for haircare – the vitamins, the minerals and even the amino acids. So plastered it on my face and scalp and left it for as long as I could and was ready for a wash and I must say I was very much surprised at my aging skin quality. Hair or skin, same thing, and actually saving money off my haircare treatment to get my aging hair to grow back again and if I can do this then I can assume that I even might be reversing my aging process because of the vitamins and minerals and amino acids I am taking. Reverse an aging symptom and actually reverse the aging process might just be true and possible. So now you have a tablet that has everything it needs for hair and skin care that you can either apply on skin and scalp or take it orally. Just looking at it, the idea seems such a beautiful one.