Berry Good News For Wrinkle Bustin!

Yet another study has found a positive link between natural flavonoids found in berries and a reduction in UV induced skin damage. Well, at least in mice! Although a little more investigating is required before we can boost our skin’s UV tolerance this way with any confidence, it brings us a step closer to oral sun screen’s!

Blueberries are a great source of Myricetin

The study was carried out by the Department of agriculture Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Republic Of Korea  and was made available to download online on 20th Jan 2010. 

Basically the study investigated the effect that Myricetin had on UVB-induced wrinkle formation. They did this by irradiating the skin of a mouse (most probably the hairless mouse  but I haven’t read the report) with UVB light (sunlight consists of  a number of different wavelengths of light meaning that this study wasn’t a ‘real life’ scenario).   In vivo (mouse model) results were checked against in vitro (test tube) results to assess what was happening. 

Basically it looks like the Myricetin is able to stopping an inflammatory free-radical induced reaction within the skin.  Repeated inflammation can lead to skin thickening which can then speed up wrinkle formation (traumatized cells). Stopping this is, therefore quite desirable!

Unless I purchase the full paper I can’t find out if the myricetin was rubbed into the skin or ingested and it is also hard to ascertain the effectiveness of the study but on the surface it looks quite interesting!

While I go off and look into this a bit more,  you may want to add the following fruits into your diet just in case this turns out to be a game-changing find!

• A University in Finland studied 25 different berries for their Myricetin content and found between 14-142 mg/Kg  present in Cranberry, Blackcurrent, Crowberry, Bog Whortleberry, Blueberry and Bilberry.
• Myricetin is also found in a number of vegetables including Onions, Kale and Broccoli and in Tea.
• Myricetin is completely water soluble and is metabolised quite readily in the body meaning that you would have to keep eating it to keep up its effects.

 Let’s eat berries and enjoy the sunshine!