Do Beauty Products Damage Your DNA?

Recently, I received the following question from a reader:

Does prolonged use of products like AHAs and BHAs [i.e., exfoliating ingredients] that increase skin cell turnover increase telomere shortening? -G

Such an excellent question!  But first, let’s break it down.

What is a telomere?

A telomere is a piece of DNA at the end of your chromosomes.  It protects the ends of your chromosomes from being lost through DNA replication.  As we age, it has been noted that telomere length naturally shortens.  Decreased length of telomeres has also been associated with mental and physical illness, as well as abuse in early childhood.  It is no wonder, then, that many scientists (and drug companies!) are interested in developing agents to increase or preserve the size of your telomeres.   One agent, telomerase, is a natural enzyme that naturally increases the size of your telomeres.  Unfortunately, no forms of telomerase to date have been found to preserve telomere length through DNA replication cycles.  Interestingly enough, patients with lupus have increased amounts of telomerase, but not enough to overcome shortening.

How You Could Be Hurting Your DNA…

Inarguably, increased cell cycles will cause for telomeres to shorten. By refusing to use AHAs and BHAs, you would theoretically preserve telomere length by keeping cells undisturbed for a longer period of time. For instance, the use of multivitamins has been found to increase the integrity of the cell, preserving telomere length by sparing the cells of the life-death cycle, as stated in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

…But Why You Really Are Not

On the other hand, there are several more bits of evidence to support the idea that increasing cell turnover is not a bad thing. Cell turnover in the skin naturally decreases about 7% for each decade of life after age 20, which is one reason why exfoliation leads to such an instantly younger appearance.

Stimulation of the cell cycle also only leads to shortening of the telomeres in each individual cell until the telomeres reach a shortened length known as the “Hayflick limit.” At this point, these cells start to die, and cell division occurs so a new generation of cells is available. The issue is that the Hayflick limit can be increased with certain nutrients, like Carnosine, as found in a 2004 study: Furthermore, the Hayflick limit can also be decreased with stressors like emotional abuse, physical trauma, etc., as found in research published in Biochemical and Biophysical Communications.

We also do not definitively know how much telomeres shorten through each round of cellular division via AHA/BHA stimulation or exfoliation.  However, we do know that using skin care ingredients and taking care of one’s physical and mental health can elevate the Hayflick limit, so the integrity of the cell would be maintained longer.  Given the fact that AHAs and BHAs help nutrient skin care ingredients be absorbed into the skin better, it seems that perhaps more benefit than detriment can be gained from stimulating the cell cycle in the context of other beneficial skin care ingredients.

Furthermore, hanging onto dead skin cells may not be good either. It has been found that dead/dying cells secrete noxious chemicals that stimulate neighboring cells to undergo apoptosis and die as well. So you may not be doing yourself any favors by not exfoliating.

Bottom Line:  We Need More Research, But in the Meantime, Keep Exfoliating!

Certainly a very interesting subject – expounding on this may take several years to get a complete idea of the mechanisms involved, and we could debate this for days in the meantime.  Pretty much, someone with an interest in dermatology and biochemistry simply needs to do a study and measure the effects of these exfoliating ingredients on the length of telomeres (both alone and with other beneficial skin care ingredients).

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