One of the most successful areas of health and beauty is Anti-ageing skin care products. it is only natural that as people get older they want to continue looking young so will use products that help them achieve this. This group of beauty products generally works by enabling the synthesis of collagen, the main protein of connective tissue in animals and the most abundant in our body; twenty-five per cent of the skin's protein is collagen. This area of anti-ageing treatments is connected to another group of products that help people to look young; called antioxidants, they help flush out toxins from the body and help reduce the signs of aging.

Probably the best known of these anti-oxidants is vitamin C although no-one really knows just how much we should have each day. Vitamin C formulated skin care treatments suffer with a particular problem of oxidizing on contact with the air which causes a problem for users and manufacturers.

Manufacturers are trying alternative skin care treatments to vitamin C that do not have this oxidization problem or cost as much to produce. These new anti-oxidant products are not quite as good as vitamin C although other naturally occurring compounds, vitamin E and lipoic acid can achieve the same effect.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant and component of human blood whose purpose is to help increase the body's immune system; one particular disease it may help to prevent is certain types of cancer. Lipoic acid is also an energy making component of the body, found in every cell; it is also able to help reduce and restore the skin's aging process.

Another group of products used to reduce the visible signs of ageing are phytochemicals which are compounds extracted from various plants and used in many anti-ageing skin care products. Phytochemicals prevent occurrence of certain types of cancer; for example:

*Cancer of the Prostate

*Cancer that attacks the Breast

*Cancer of the Colon

These types of cancer are also becoming some of the most prevalent worldwide. It has also been discovered that there are anti-ageing benefits to vitamins B5, B6 and B12. This just goes to highlight just how complex and far reaching the whole field of anti-ageing skin care products is and why so much more research is required. There is no doubt that what has been learned so far is only a small part of the jigsaw puzzle; however, research is moving forward rapidly and it is only a matter of time before a new generation of products becomes available.

With the research that is now taking place, many people are confident that in time, more effective, cheaper anti-ageing skin care products will be discovered. At the moment though, science is still behind the field of natural anti-aging methods; fortunately there is a number of natural anti-aging regimes that can be carried out that do not rely on science.

Drinking plenty of water, getting a good night's sleep, exercising regularly, maintaining healthy eating habits and keeping stress at bay are an essential means of delaying the ageing process.