Apples are Anti-Aging foods because they contain 2 important Anti-Aging components – Quercetin and Catechins – that prevent aging process and help to keep the skin look young.
What is Quercetin?
Quercetin is a natural flavonoid and antioxidant, that can help to slow down aging by restoring fibroblasts. Fibroblasts contribute to the formation of connective tissue and collagen production. Quercetin also increase protein production and skin elasticity. Flavonoids are not created by the body and are an important part of an anti-aging nutrition.
Why Fibroplasts do for the skin?
Skin wrinkles and sagging depend on the amount of collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid. Fibroblasts play a key role in the production of these components in the skin. Skin aging is the consequence of reduced numbers of Fibroblasts, lower levels of extracellular matrix proteins, and decreased skin elasticity and tonus, thereby resulting in the formation of wrinkles. Therefore, maintaining the population of dermal Fibroblasts is important for both preventing and treating age-related skin changes.
Oxidative stress and skin aging
Oxidative stress has been suggested as a mechanism underlying skin aging, as it triggers distruction in various cell types, including fibroblasts.
Oxidation is one of the reason accelerating aging process. Our bodies produce free radicals as a byproduct of our mitochondria making energy, which is likely to be one of the reasons we age. This process called oxidation and is normal metabolic process to certain extend but there are many reasons in our life that increase normal oxidation level like stress, UV damage, smoking, alcohol. Taking Antioxidants can prevent oxidative damage of cells ant therefore skin aging.
Quercetin also has anti-inflammatory effect
Some researches show that Quercetin may destroy senescent cells, which are another reason we age. Senescent cells are dysfunctional, non-dividing, damaged cells that are normally removed by the immune system, but as we age, this system declines and more and more of these cells build up.
Senescent cell accumulation is one of the reasons we age. Senescent cells also increase chronic inflammation in the body. This persistent inflammation, called “inflammaging”, is believed to be one of the drivers of aging.
Sun aging
Quercetin reduces skin damage from solar radiation, one of the first causes of the appearance of blemishes, spots and wrinkles.
Catechins also provide several health advantages by scavenging free radicals and and reduce skin agein induced by ultraviolet radiation. Catechins can directly affect the skin by activating collagen synthesis.
Catechins contained in apples and also green tea are also antioxidants exert various actions such as anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-cancer actions, prevent distruction induced by oxidative stress in Fibroblasts.
References:
1. Activity of catechins and their applications
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7149075/
2. Chapter 13 – Tea catechins as potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents: possibilities of drug development to promote healthy aging
3. Green tea catechins EGCG and ECG enhance the fitness and lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans by complex I inhibition
https://www.aging-us.com/article/203597/text
4. Role of tea catechins in prevention of aging and age-related disorders
http://koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO201207337642020.page
5. (+)-Catechin protects dermal fibroblasts against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis
https://bmccomplementmedtherapies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6882-14-133
6. Restoring Effects of Natural Anti-Oxidant Quercetin on Cellular Senescent Human Dermal Fibroblasts
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29737207/
7. Anti-ageing and rejuvenating effects of quercetin
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0531556510002196
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