Anti-Wrinkle Blog

Your skin is bombarded daily by the elements in the environment, with everything from sunlight to air pollution contributing to skin damage.

A California company says it’s come up with a cream that not only protects skin from the harmful effects of the environment, but also reduces fine lines and wrinkles.

Health-care providers in the Des Moines area say they’re seeing a surge of interest in the antioxidant cream Prevage , a new anti-wrinkle treatment released in early January from manufacturer Allergan Inc., maker of the beauty blockbuster Botox.

What sets Prevage apart from other wrinkle-smoothers, providers say, is its active ingredient, idebenone . The antioxidant cream works twofold: It helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and improves skin tone, and it also prevents the free-radical damage caused by smoke, air pollution, ozone and UV light.

Prevage is currently available exclusively at doctors’ offices, but doesn’t require a prescription. The cream doesn’t come cheap - you should expect to pay about $100 to $115 an ounce, which physicians say lasts a few months.

One major plus for this new cream, physicians say, is that it’s milder than Retin-A, making it well-tolerated by most patients.

It takes about six weeks to start seeing results, Allergan says. Physicians in Iowa say the product is so new that few individuals have been using Prevage long enough to begin seeing results.

But Dr. Ava Feldman , a dermatologist at Heartland Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center in Clive, said some individuals have called to “rave” about Prevage, claiming to see a reduction in fine lines in as little as three weeks.

Prevage works by protecting cells and inhibiting inflammation caused by free radicals. This process breaks down collagen and elastin, which causes aging.

Feldman said that unlike other creams, Prevage has the science to back its effectiveness.

Research looking at idebenone has shown it to be more effective than antioxidants like vitamins C and E, coenzyme Q10, kinetin and lipoic acid, she said.

What’s still lacking are the long-term studies that show the effectiveness of Prevage, said Dr. Roger Ceilley, a West Des Moines dermatologist.

“Hopefully we’ll have some good, double-blind, controlled studies done,” Ceilley said.

Feldman, along with other physicians, caution that Prevage is not the magical solution to great, youthful-looking skin.

“This is not a miracle in a bottle,” Feldman said. “It’s one more thing in our skin rejuvenation armamentarium.”

She said a healthy lifestyle - that includes avoiding smoking, daily using sunscreen, eating a healthy diet and taking vitamins - are crucial to having good skin.

Other products on the market with idebenone are Radiance Revealing Complex and Youth Revealing Complex from True Cosmetics in San Francisco.

Janet Hill, director of Tomorrow’s Health Medical Spa in West Des Moines, said while her office will probably carry Prevage, she’d still like to see more research done on these antioxidant creams.

Hill said other topical antioxidants that can help achieve results similar to those of Prevage are vitamin E and vitamin C serums, or a product by SkinCeuticals , which is a combination of vitamins E and C and ferulic acid.