Zinc

Zinc is critical to the entire body’s immune and repair processes. The study of skin injuries has shown a skin injury site becomes saturated with zinc within 90 minutes of the injury. Zinc levels increase to a peak on approximately the 7th day following the injury and return to normal at about the 14th day. Other studies show that as we age, zinc saturation of an injury does not achieve the same levels as younger skin and overall systemic (bodily) zinc levels decline. The inability of elderly people to heal quickly or heal completely is most frequently related to inadequate zinc-injury response and low systemic zinc levels.

Zinc is required for collagen production and elastin synthesis. It is required for DNA repair. Zinc is required for DNA duplication, which is required for cell division. It is required for the production of superoxide dismutase, a powerful skin antioxidant. Zinc is a co-factor in the skin’s production of certain metalloproteinases that remove damaged or mutated tissue. It is a co-factor in the production of adenosine deaminase, which signals T-cells as one of our body’s immune processes. Zinc is critically important to the skin and body.

Each of these processes is involved in healing and repair and without adequate zinc levels, the process of skin rejuvenation is slow or simply does not happen. When rejuvenating the skin with vitamin A, betaglucan, or centella asiatica there is no physical injury and the zinc-injury response does not automatically increase zinc levels to facilitate repair. Additionally, mature patients may not have adequate zinc levels in the skin. Therefore zinc levels may need to be increased by topical application.

Zinc has rapidly growing applications to medical science and some of these uses are becoming quite sophisticated. For example, zinc is applied to the lesion site after biopsy of high-risk melanomas to enhance anti-tumor immunity, reduce metastasis and increase cancer-specific survival. Systemic zinc integrity (as measured from blood) is becoming a means of measuring the body’s progress in fighting diseases, such as cancer.

Zinc is contained in Vitamin A + Antioxidant Complex, Titanium Dioxide Sunscreen, Nutrient Essentials Mask and Bio-Essence Nighttime Calcium Complex. Since acne involves multiple injuries to the skin, zinc is also contained in BiON’s acne products. BiON is one of a rather small number of skin care manufacturers that understands zinc and formulates with this powerful ingredient.