Anti-ageing Creams a Waste of Time and Money

Beauty companies have not been slow on jumping on the bandwagon following the discovery of resveratrol an amazing antioxidant derived from red wine. Health food companies sell resveratrol supplements to boost the body's supply of the famed antioxidant.

The cosmetic companies have manufactured various creams containing the anti-ageing resveratrol. These creams sell at phenomenal prices. One example is La Prairie’s Cellular Serum Platinum Rare face cream which costs more than £400 for 30ml – or two tablespoons. Another overpriced potion that exploits the antioxidant is REN Clean Skincare’s Sirtuin Phytohormone Replenishing Cream.

Resveratrol has good publicity due to its alleged ability to trigger a "key" longevity gene. However, this is strongly contested by leading biology experts who say that the gene does little or nothing to increase lifespan.

It's better, asserts David Gems a researcher at University College, London to make healthy lifestyle adjustments like stopping smoking, taking regular exercise, using sunscreen and eating healthily.

New information about the powers of resveratrol originally came to light after studies on fruit flies and worms indicated that it triggered a longevity gene. The idea was that it raised levels of proteins called sirtuins, which increase lifespan by as much as half.

However, Dr Gems' subsequent work showed that these findings were flawed. It was found that when he used pairs of worms that had every other gene in common apart from the longevity gene, there was no difference in lifespan between the different genes. This suggests that Resveratrol is not the only gene to increase lifespan as they all do the same thing.

Further work and experiments also contributed to disproving the theory about the anti-ageing gene in resveratrol.

Dr Gems said: "These results are very surprising. We have re-examined the key experiments linking sirtuin with longevity in animals and none seem to stand up to close scrutiny."

The scientist went on to advise people to steer clear of wonder pills and potions and instead to focus on living healthily.

However, he did say that there are some amazing pills being developed which even if they do not significantly extend life would enable people to live longer in better health and happiness.

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