It’s hot in Hollywood.

The latest anti-ageing ingredient is beta glucan. Found in Pro-Ferm Protective Day Cream, it's said to smooth lines and help wounds heal.

Currently flying off the shelves at Space.NK the Pro-Ferm range is big in Hollywood. Scarlett Johansson (picture) is said to be a fan of the Instant Lifting Serum!

 

Now Magazine
May 2007

WHAT DOES IT CLAIM TO DO?
The cream claims to stimulate the skin's own immune system to improve skin texture, by encouraging the activity of collagen-producing fibroblasts. As well as making the skin that bit thicker and more elastic, the cream is particularly hydrating.

WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL?
The cream is made of a patented molecular complex, Glucaferm. This combines 'beta-glucans', substances that activate the immune cells (the Langerhans cells) in the skin and accelerate tissue repair. The pills, which include spirulina (an alga), vitamins and antioxidant carotenoids, give nutritional back-up.

A DERMATOLOGIST SAYS:
The beta-glucans in the cream have been shown to prevent contact dermatitis through calming the Langerhans cells, which can tell when a foreign body is present. I love the idea of combining oral supplements with topical skincare - the carotenoids and the vitamin E are great for skin.

OUR TESTER SAYS:
The cream was lovely. It sank into my skin really well and made it feel cosseted. After six weeks it felt springier. My skin also looked lightly tanned, which I later learned was due to the pills' carotenoids.               

Alice Hart-Davis - YOU Magazine, Mail on Sunday Oct '06

The World renown beauty Editor Lucia van de Post described the pro-ferm range by saying: "Skincare Treatments have finally come of age".

Luxury with Lucia

Skincare treatments have finally come of age

It was the American wit Jean Kerr who, many years ago, said: "I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin deep. That’s deep enough. What do you want — an adorable pancreas?" Which just goes to show how things have changed.

These days the boys and girls in white coats have decided that a beautiful pancreas — or at the very least a beautiful immune system — is where beautiful skin begins. The new buzz from the world of creams and potions is about treating your skin on the outside AND the inside. We're not talking inner beauty of the spiritual kind here but inner beauty of the physical kind, based on providing the right vitamins and nutrients.

Pro-Ferm and Pro-Ferm+, which are hitting the shelves of Space.NK as I write, are the result of eight years of serious research carried out by a joint British and German team at the Biotechnology Institute of the Berlin Technical University, based on the notion that, for really good skin, we need to boost our immune systems.

According to Dr Paul Clayton, one of the scientists involved: "We've oversanitised our environment and our innate immune system has become slack. On top of that we're at the end of the antibiotics era — they've been overused and have lost their effectiveness. Superbugs are just the tip of the iceberg: today we're almost back to the pre-penicillin era."

The answer to the problem, the scientists say, is to build up the immune system, which not only will give greater resistance to disease but will boost cellular regeneration and improve the skin. The pills, creams I and lotions that make up the Pro-Ferm collection are made with beta-glucans (www.beta-glucans.co.uk). “This is an amazing molecule that almost everybody in beta-glucan research — including me — believes in so much that they give it to their children.” says Clayton. The Pro-Ferm collection is what he calls “the first co-ordinated approach to skin matrix renewal".

Young skin cells regenerate at a much faster rate than ageing ones, and skin begins to look old, tired and slack when the rate of cell destruction outstrips the rate of cell renewal. Clayton says that the thinking about why skin ages has changed. “We used to think that the signs of ageing were caused by unavoidable degeneration but, in fact, the skin can be regenerated. It is slow — the reversal takes months — but it can be done.”

Part of the brilliance of the science behind the Pro-Ferm range, which includes pills as well as creams, is the tagging of betaglucans to hyaluronic acid molecules (contained in the fluid that lubricates the joints), which deliver them deep into the basal cell layers of the skin where they promote cell regeneration. In simple terms, the idea is to make the skin behave as it used to when it was younger, “reversing ageing at a very fundamental level”, as Clayton puts it.

Nicky Kinnaird, founder of Space.NK, which is selling the range exclusively, believes that Pro-Ferm marks a huge step forward in helping to delay skin ageing. “What I also like is that it is helping to boost a natural skin process, which means that it is also a great range for people whose skin is sensitive to ranges with active ingredients,” she says.

The range consists of six products, including a Protective Skin Balm for men, at prices ranging from £35 for the men's balm to £75 for the Instant Lifting Serum. A two-month supply of the supplements is £55. Pro-Ferm products are available at selected Space.NK stores or online at www.spacenk.com .

What you must to know about anti-ageing creams....

Recent technological advances have allowed skin care marketers to develop products that target more specific consumer needs such as anti-ageing and anti-acne. As a result, consumer attitudes have changed in many ways. More women today, for example, believe that using the right skin care can make a visible improvement to their skin.

One or the most controversial products to grace our shelves in 2007 is Amatokm. The result of more than a decade or stem cell research, Amatokin is claimed to be the first and only topical compound to highlight the expression of stem cell markers in skin. The product works by kick-starting dormant cells, helping to reduce the appearance of both deep and superficial wrinkles, leaving skin smooth.

The product has built up something of a cult status among consumers with significant waiting lists and products rumoured to he kept behind the counter by certain retailers for only their truly 'valued' customers. Many industry insiders however remain undecided on the merits of these kinds of products.

"These new formulations push the envelope between science, technology and cosmetics but the claims seem to be getting out of control," says Lewis. "Without hard scientific data that skin care products used topically can have an effect on DNA and stem cells, the industry may be at risk of misleading customers."

More worryingly, pharmaco nutritionist, Paul Clayton believes that because this is such new ground for cosmetics, not enough research has been done to assess the potential health risks to the consumer.

“Epidermal Growth Factor is an interesting approach to correcting ageing skin, and may well have the capacity to reduce wrinkles, but like other non-specific growth factors such as polyamines, there is a risk that unhealthy (ie cancerous) cells may be stimulated along with healthy skin cells” he warns.

“As cancer cells are more likely to occur in sun aged skin, and the owners of sun aged skin will be at the head of the queue to purchase these new creams there is a distinct possibility that we will see an increase in the numbers of skin cancers”.

It's frightening food for thought although only theory, and such risks have not discouraged manufacturers from pushing the boundaries of cosmetic science.

Another world first is Pro-Ferm, a range of cosmeceutical and nutriceutical products, said to work on the body's immune system, strengthening it, boosting cellular regeneration and improving skin tone. Central to the range is a combination of the beta-glucan Glucaferm and Hyaferm that stimulate the skin's Langerhans cells, “We've over sanitised our environment and our innate immune system has become slack,” explains Dr Clayton, part of the team behind Pro-Ferm.

“Pro-Ferm works by firstly improving the skin's immune defences and secondly speeding up the rate of skin regeneration and healing. Not only that, but beta glucan, via improving local immunity, protects against organisms that could otherwise cause disease and clear way damaged cells.

I think this (Pro-Ferm) is probably the biggest advance in non invasive anti-ageing treatments we have seen yet. It sets the bar for the next generation of products.”

SPC Magazine July 2007