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Apr. 4--It's time to face the truth about oxygen and what it can do for your complexion: nothing.
This won't be welcome news to the scads of spa-goers and celebrities who think oxygen is the new fountain of youth.
Madonna, for one, enjoys oxygen facials, her rep confirmed recently. The singer has reportedly installed oxygen machines in all of her homes, so she can bathe her complexion in the element -- known on periodic tables the world over simply as O.
A tasteless, odorless gas, atomic number 8, oxygen is also the big thing in spas across the country. In Chicago, for instance, one Michigan Avenue oasis offers a $145 "Rejuvenating Oxygen Facial," which, according to the spa's Web site, is "the application of medical grade oxygen gas and antioxidants through a plastic hose directly onto the skin" that "will begin to nourish immediately."
But here's the thing: (1) Your face doesn't need more oxygen, and (2) your face cannot use whatever oxygen you may insist on giving it. (Are you taking notes, Madge?)
First, your skin gets all the oxygen it needs. Blood vessels are bringing loads of oxygen, and other nutrients, to the part of the skin known as the dermis -- which lies under the top layer of skin (the epidermis).
But what about that all-too-rapidly aging layer we can see? Couldn't that layer, you ask, use a little spa-administered oxygen boost?
Well, that layer is mostly dead, so -- no. It's not going to be able to use oxygen or anything else you apply. Plus, that layer is impermeable, so the oxygen can't get through to the living skin underneath, where it might do some good.
About this oxygen fad, Omeed Memar, a dermatologist and clinical associate professor at Northwestern Medical School says, "It's another snake oil."
Then what's an aging beauty to do? "Good skin happens from the inside out," Memar says. "Eat well, reduce stress, don't smoke, don't sun. Don't harm your skin, but also feed it."
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Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune
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