Once again, an article which is not my own work, but taken from the vast array of professional commentaries on skincare, which I hope you find interesting. The citation for the full article is given at the bottom of the test.
Here, we are taking about individuality in our skin - that we are all different and so, what works for one, may not work for another. Perhaps this shows the need to visit a skin care professional before just taking the more expensive route of hit-and-miss trying of what are, in many cases, expensive products.
Systematic strategies to influence both the skin chemistry and microbiome (that is, the make up of the outer layers of your skin) have not yet been fully investigated. The outermost layer of the skin turns over every 3 to 4 weeks. How the microbiome and chemistry are influenced by altering personal care and how long the chemicals of personal care products persist on the skin; this is, essentially, unchartered territory.
When any hygiene routine is modified, the skin metabolome and microbiome can be altered, but this alteration depends on product use and location on the body. We can also find the same with the gut microbiome and responses to dietary changes. All these responses are individual-specific.
Traces of our lifestyle molecules can be detected on the skin, days and months after the original application. Many of the molecules associated with our personal skin and hygiene products have a half-life of 0.5 to 1.9 weeks even though we regularly shower, swim, or spend time in the ocean. Thus, a single application of some products has the potential to alter the microbiome and skin chemistry for extensive periods of time.
Data suggests (3) that although host genetics and diet may play a role, a significant part of the resilience of the microbiome that has been reported, is due to the resilience of the skin chemistry associated with our personal skin and hygiene routines, or perhaps even continuous re-exposure to chemicals from our personal care routines that are found on mattresses, furniture, and other personal objects with which we are in constant contact.
Consistent with this observation is that individuals in tribal regions and remote villages, that are infrequently exposed to the types of products used in our cultures, have very different skin microbial communities and that individuals who rarely apply personal care products had a different starting metabolome (collection of small molecules, or metabolites, found in a biological system)
Most striking is how the personal care routines influenced changes in hormones and pheromones in a personalised manner. This suggests that there may be personalised recipes that make it possible to make someone more or less attractive to others via adjustments of hormonal and pheromonal levels through alterations in skin care.
Revealing how such factors can affect skin microbes and their associated metabolites may be essential to define long-term skin health by restoring the appropriate microbes particularly in the context of skin aging (1) and skin diseases (2) as has shown to be necessary for amphibian health, or perhaps even create a precision skin care approach that utilises the proper care ingredients based on the microbial and chemical signatures that could act as key players in our skin care defence regimes.
NOT MY OWN WORK! Taken from:
Bouslimani, A., da Silva, R., Kosciolek, T. et al. The impact of skin care products on skin chemistry and microbiome dynamics. BMC Biol 17, 47 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-019-0660-6
References:
(1) Zapata HJ, Quagliarello VJ. The microbiota and microbiome in aging: potential implications in health and age-related diseases. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2015;63(4):776–81.
(2) Nakatsuji T, Chen TH, Narala S, Chun KA, Two AM, Yun T, et al. Antimicrobials from human skin commensal bacteria protect against Staphylococcus aureus and are deficient in atopic dermatitis. Sci Transl Med 2017;9(378)eaah4680.
(3) Oh J, Byrd AL, Park M, Kong HH, Segre JA. Temporal stability of the human skin microbiome. Cell. 2016;165(4):854–66.
Comments