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| Category: Holistic Skin Care |
Date published: July 29, 2003 |
© By Lena Sanchez
And You thought it was only for cooking!
APPLYING virgin olive oil to your skin after sunbathing protects you against skin cancer, claim Japanese scientists. They have found that using it as an after-sun lotion slows tumor growth in mice.
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight creates free radicals, which damage DNA in skin cells and trigger abnormal growth, often leading to skin cancer. Antioxidants such as vitamin E mop up these radicals and are thought to protect against UV damage. So Masamitsu Ichihashi and his colleagues from the Kobe University School of Medicine decided to find out if olive oil, which is a potent source of antioxidants, provides UV protection.
They gave hairless mice three UV sessions a week under a sunlamp. Five minutes after the treatment, they painted their skin with either regular or extra virgin olive oil. After 18 weeks, control mice started to grow skin tumors, and mice treated with regular olive oil fared little better. But mice daubed with virgin olive oil took an extra six weeks to show any sign of cancer. What's more, their tumors were smaller, less frequent and there was less DNA damage to skin cells.
The researchers are quick to point out that olive oil isn't a sunscreen. But they claim that rubbing on olive oil after sunbathing could help protect skin from UV damage.
*** Author Lena Sanchez's Experience and Experiences found at http://www.antibiotic-alternatives.com/lena.htm Editor of A Natural Environmental Health Facts and Your Home Business Coach Ezines Get One of Lena's books at http://www.antibiotic-alternatives.com for more secrets to a healthy life that she learned in her twenty years as a medical office nurse!
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