Idebenone

Antioxidants

Antioxidants help protect against the damage caused by free radicals in the environment. Free radicals are unstable compounds that occur naturally in the body and try to stabilize by attaching to the nearest normal cell. This results in a chain-reaction because once the free radical attaches to a healthy cell, it too becomes a free radical in search of stabilization causing cellular damage. Antioxidants, such as Idebenone and others, stop this process by donating a molecule to the free radical making it stable.

Idebenone vs.CoQ10

A close cousin to Ubiquinone, otherwise known by the name co-enzyme CoQ10. It is closely related to CoQ10 in its structure. However, Idebenone is more effective than CoQ10 in protecting cells from the free radical damage resulting from reduced blood flow.

What does all this have to do with skin care? Recently CoQ10 has been shown to improve skin wrinkles. Not surprisingly, some skin care companies decided that CoQ10 analogs might do a similar or better job. So, they found out that Idebenone was also a good anti-wrinkle remedy.

Skin Protector

Although Idebenone is thought of as a wrinkle reducer, it is more of a skin protector. It is a true antiaging phenomena because it blocks the causes of aging and treats its effects. For best results, use it in addition to a broad spectrum sun block.

American Academy of Dermatology meeting

Antioxidants Compared In A New Protocol To Measure Protective Capacity Against Oxidative Stress-Part II (DiNardo, Lewis, et al.; presented at the American Academy of Dermatology meeting; February 6-11, 2004; Washington, D.C.) and it was Idebenone that finished first against Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Coenzyme Q10, Kinetin, and Alpha-Lipoic acid.