NaturaLift MD Review Blog

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer with almost two million Americans  diagnosed every year.  Normal skin cells die every few weeks, replaced by younger cells produced by their parent cells. And they stay put. Cancer cells divide and replicate every few days, and do so continually. Furthermore, they spread by pushing their way into adjacent normal skin by dissolving the intervening tissue, and penetrate deeper into fat and muscle. The more malignant forms of skin cancer metastasize and spread to distant places throughout your body, eventually killing you by damaging vital organs.

Since it takes more than one injured gene to cause a skin cell to turn cancerous, as you will read, the nutrients in NexDerma® Naturalift MD: Advanced Face Lift Therapy help stabilize pre-cancerous cells. Eventually, abnormal cells die without passing on their altered genetic state. Nutrients in our product have been scientifically demonstrated to heal damaged DNA, too.

Wrinkles, cancer, coronary artery disease, and aging have much in common. The body is a well balanced mechanism that, unlike machines, is capable of healing. Some nutrients cause imbalance while others stimulate and aid healing.

Agents, such as ultraviolet sunlight and chemicals, cause cancer by stimulating dangerous components of our cells to proliferate, altering healthy DNA. These unfortunate and preventable mutations produce cel ular enzymes and related organic compounds that allow injured cells to keep growing and spreading. Oncologists and scientists call the changes of normal to cancer cells: initiation,” followed by promotion” and progression.”

No one catches” skin cancer. When DNA has been severely altered, the brakes” on the
reasonable division of that cell, and all that come from its replications, will go unchecked (see Appendix A).

Creation of cancer is usually more than just a one-shot event. Multiple toxic enzymes are stimulated by free radicals that activate more harmful enzymes and compounds which, after a varied cascading series of events, eventually cause cancer cells to develop. Other harmful organic compounds manufactured in your body from their free radical-caused cascading series of events aid the spread of cancer cells, and other highly specific organic chemicals cause really dangerous reactions. Therefore, there’s a good opportunity to block the development of cancer and its growth and spread in many molecular chain reaction sites.

Carcinogens are chemicals, molecules, which have been created in the body or enter through diet or skin, and alter cell DNA. Usually, a number of genes are damaged before a specific cell becomes cancerous. This rarely occurs from a single, unlucky, carcinogenic hit.

The body generates dozens of toxic organic compounds after its cells have been attacked by cancer-causing substances or energy. These carcinogens include solar ultraviolet radiation, cigarette smoke, toxic chemicals, and some foods you eat. Even exercise generates free radicals of various types, all of which have the potential to cause cancer.

Naturalift MD: Advanced Face Lift Therapy helps mitigate and reverse the effects of skin cancers through the actions of the ingredients described below. These facts underpin our research and product lines:

• Scientists have discovered many bad actors” within cells that cause cancer and aging.
• They have also identified specific organic compounds and minerals that block the bad players from causing harm.

Beta-sitosterol. Among many substances tested for the ability to protect the skin, beta-sitosterol was among the few noted to offer this healing benefit. Beta-sitosterol was also shown to be a potent anti-inflammatory agent by blocking the COX-2 (CycloOXygenase-2) enzyme, which causes inflammation. Beta-sitosterol was confirmed to specifically inhibit the function of this inflammation-causing enzyme in the skin, and at a concentration even less than we suggest (we recommend a higher concentration because of all its other benefits).

Ellagic Acid that came from Pomegranate Seed Extract has proven itself again and again to be a potent topically-applied anti-cancer nutrient. In 2005, doctors at the prestigious University of California Department of Radiation Oncology determined that ellagic acid is one of the most effective compounds they tested of twenty against cancer.Ginseng Extract (Panax)

Ginseng extract blocked carcinogens applied to the skin from causing skin cancer and inflammation. It inhibited the carcinogen TPA from causing an increase in the inflammation- and cancer-causing enzyme, ornithine decarboxylase, and “…expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in TPA-stimulated mouse skin was markedly suppressed. In addition, “… ginseng extract inhibited TPA-stimulated activation of NF-kappaB and extracellular-regulated protein kinase (ERK) in skin and human breast epithelial cells.” Topical ginseng extract also prevented the potent carcinogen TPA from causing multiple skin tumors.

Borage Oil & Gamma Linolenic Acid. Doctors confirmed that the topical application of ginseng extract “… led to the inhibition of TPA-induced expression of COX-2 as well as reducing the production of prostaglandin E-2. The eukaryotic transcription factor NF-kappaB has been involved in intra-cellular signaling pathways associated with inflammation and carcinogenesis.” The use of the ginseng extract caused “… inactivation of NF-kappaB.” Furthermore, “…when ginseng extract was applied topically prior to TPA, expression and activity of ODC were inhibited dose-dependently.” Ginseng extract also “… inhibited the activation of ERK. Additionally: “… the ginseng extract given prior to each topical dose of TPA markedly lowered the number of papillomas.”

Melanoma, usually appearing as an enlarging black mole, spreads rapidly throughout the body and is lethal. In laboratory tests, ginseng extract was documented to slow the growth of these malignant cells as well as causing their death.

Researchers tested to see if GLA would help the anti-breast cancer drug tamoxifen not only penetrate the skin of patients with breast cancer, but also continue deeper to penetrate into their tumors. Yes, it did: “… [i]t was determined that 2.5 molecules of GLA were associated with each molecule of tamoxifen in the permeation process.”

GLA has itself been shown to be an anti-cancer agent against human breast cancer. This has effects against both estrogen-dependent and estrogen-independent cancer cells. At the beginning of this published article which appeared in a prominent cancer journal, these researchers stated as their basis for undertaking their 2004 study, whose positive outcome was just summarized above: “… [t]he omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid gamma linolenic acid (GLA) has raised recent interest as a novel anti-cancer agent as it possesses effective tumorcidal properties while not inducing damage to normal cells or creating harmful side effects.”

Grape Seed Extract. It has been proven that Grape seed extract proanthocyanidins (GSP) prevent skin cancer.  “Grape seed proanthocyanidins have been shown to inhibit skin chemical carcinogenesis and photo-carcinogenesis. In this study, doctors at the Department of Dermatology from the University of Alabama also found that grape seed extract kill skin cancer cells by:

“… increasing the expression of tumor-suppressor protein, p53 …” [while] … the antiapoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-l, were downregulated by GSP, whereas the expression of the pro-apoptotic protein, Bax, and levels of cytochrome c release, Apaf-1, caspase-9, and cleaved caspase 3 (p19 and p17) were markedly increased …”

Anti-tumor & antioxidant properties. Four doctors at the AMC Cancer Research Center in Denver who studied the health benefits of grape seed extract, reported that:

“… proanthocyanidins present in grape seeds are known to exert anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic and anti-allergic activities, prevent skin aging, scavenge oxygen-free radicals, and inhibit UV radiation-induced peroxidation activity. Since most of these events are associated with the tumor promotion stage of carcinogenesis, these studies suggest that grape seed polyphenols and the procyanidins present therein could be anti-carcinogenic and/or anti-tumor-promoting agents.”

These researchers applied potent carcinogens to the skin of mice and noted:

“…a highly significant inhibition of TPA tumor promotion. The observed anti-tumor-promoting effects of grape seed polyphenols were dose-dependent and were evident in terms of a reduction in tumor incidence (35 and 60% inhibition), tumor multiplicity (61 and 83% inhibition) and tumor volume (67 and 87% inhibition) at both 0.5 and 1.5 mg GSP, respectively … Taken together, for the first time these results show that grape seed polyphenols possess high anti-tumor-promoting activity due to the strong antioxidant effect of procyanidins present therein.”

Blocks cancer-causing enzymes. Grape seed extract polyphenols were shown to block the cancer-causing enzymes ornithine decarboxylase and myeloperoxidase.

“The final number of tumors per mouse in the grape seed extract polyphenol treated animals was decreased 94%.”

Green Tea Extract & EGCG.   Chemists took green tea leaves, extracted the organic molecules, and measured them. EGCG was present in the greatest concentration (approximately 47%) and was the most biologically active organic compound found in green tea. Because of their ability to extract and purify EGCG, molecular biologists, other scientists, and physicians have conducted experiments to see just how this nutrient prevented or slowed the growth of cancer cells.

EGCG treatment has been noted to reduce the recurrence rate of breast cancer and slow the growth of lung cancer cells. Another study reported that:

“…[h]igh consumption of green tea was closely associated with decreased numbers of axillary lymph node metastases among premenopausal Stage I and II breast cancer patients, and in breast cancer patients with increase expression of progesterone and estrogen receptors among post menopausal women.”

EGCG inhibited chemical-caused stomach and intestinal cancer in animal experiments.

EGCG and/or green tea extract:

• Blocks tumor promotion in skin, breast, and lung cancer.
• Helps to prevent skin and duodenal (the first part of the small intestine, extending from the pylorus to the jejunum) cancer.
• Reduces the risk of gastrointestinal cancer in humans.
• Inhibits colon cancer cell growth.

Other free radical-like toxins are directly stimulated by chemicals, including hundreds of carcinogens. And many chemicals on the skin become more toxic when exposed to the energy from sunlight including ascorbyl palmitate (ester-c, c-ester), as recently documented by doctors from the Mayo Clinic (see Appendix G). Ascorbyl palmitate is found in many skin lotions and creams. Green tea and its concentrated extracts, EGCG and ECG, offer unique protection from the high risk of photo-carcinogenesis:

“EGCG has been extensively studied and shown to be a powerful antioxidant protecting skin cells against photodamage. In this study, however, we demonstrated that another gallated catechin, (-)-epicatechin-3-gallate (ECG), was also able to protect human keratinocytes against damage induced by ultraviolet A (UVA) light. We found that ECG dose-dependently inhibited UVA-induced keratinocyte death as determined by cell viability assay. Moreover, ECG had similar potency to EGCG in inhibiting UVA-induced cell death … In a parallel experiment, UVA-induced activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase in keratinocytes was blocked by ECG. We provided here the first evidence that ECG is a potent protectant that protects keratinocytes from photodamage. Because ECG is abundant in green tea, we believe that this compound is beneficial for skin care.”

That’s why we include green tea, as well as EGCG, to give you a full spectrum of protection from UV-A injury.

“There has been a considerable interest in the use of botanical supplements to protect skin from the adverse effects of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation including photocarcinogenesis. …We report that topical application of EGCG resulted in inhibition of protein expression and activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 in UV-induced tumors compared to non-EGCG treated tumors which play a crucial role in tumor growth and metastasis … these in vivo tumor data suggested that inhibition of photocarcinogenesis in mice by EGCG is associated with inhibition of angiogenic factors and induction of anti-tumor immune reactivity.”

“The green tea fraction, with the highest flavanol/proanthocyanidin content, also exhibitedthe highest protective activity (99%) against hepatic microsomal lipid peroxidation, and completely inhibited skin tumour formation.”

“Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is an important chemopreventive agent derived from green tea. We recently reported that EGCG treatment enhances keratinocyte differentiation as evidenced by increased human involucrin promoter activity.”189 … In the present paper, we extend these findings and show that EGCG also increases the expression of other differentiation markers-procaspase 14 and type I transglutaminase (TG1).”

EGCG can reverse pre-cancerous skin changes.

“Malignant melanoma accounts for only about 4% of all skin cancer cases but most of skin cancer-related deaths. …EGCG treatment was found to result in a dose-dependent decrease in the viability and growth of both malignant melanoma cell lines. Interestingly, at similar EGCG concentrations, the normal melanocytes were not affected.”

Many researchers also concluded that if green tea taken orally can prevent cancer, it could have protective effects when applied to the skin in a lotion form. The results of their experiments to prove this went beyond all their expectations!

Experiment after experiment - almost all performed since 1995 - has documented the effectiveness of topically applied EGCG against numerous cancer-causing compounds with or without added sunlight.

The effectiveness of the anti-cancer protective spectrum of action of EGCG varied from strikingly strong through good, depending on the adversary it was opposing. It was not a magic bullet of the same protective intensity against every different toxic compound. In one experiment designed to look at preventing skin cancer, EGCG was tested head to head against silibin (from milk thistle) and quercitin (from citrus fruit). The overall results were very good, but each had its own specific advantage against each different carcinogen. As scientists from the Center for Cancer Causation and Prevention published in 2001, “… [t]ogether, these results suggest that silibin, quercitin, and EGCG exert their cancer-preventive effects by differential responses on mitogenic signaling (cancer-causing) and cell cycle regulators.”

Niacinamide (Vitamin B3) Niacinamide prevents immunosuppression and skin cancer from ultraviolet irradiation. Additionally, niacinamide is a protease inhibitor and stimulates repair of damaged DNA, and so acts as an anti-carcinogen.

Resveratrol. EGCG was not the only nutrient from plants found to have anti-cancer benefits when applied to skin. In 1999, biochemists and molecular toxicologists reported:

“Resveratrol, a phytoalexin found in grapes, and other dietary and medicinal plants including curcumin, a yellow ingredient from tumeric, and EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate), a major anti-oxidative green tea polyphenol, exert striking inhibitory effects on diverse cellular events associated with multi-stage carcinogenesis. In addition, these compounds have the ability to suppress proliferation of human cancer cells via induction apoptosis.”

In 2005, doctors at the University of California Department of Radiation Oncology determined that resveratrol is an effective compound against cancer: “The assay has a predictive accuracy of approximately 91.4%” in animal testing and is responsive at
clinically achievable concentrations.”

Resveratrol prevents skin and other cancers. In 2003, researchers at the University of Wisconsin showed that topical resveratrol protects against “… UVB-mediated cutaneous damage” and “… blocked the UVB activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) in a dose- and time-dependent fashion. Blocking the NF-kappaB pathway plays a critical role in the chemo-preventive effects of resveratrol against the adverse effects of UV radiation, including photo-carcinogenesis.”

Resveratrol, concentrated in the skin of dark grapes, is a potent anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory nutrient. Doctors at the University of Chicago Department of Surgical Oncology stated the following in a peer-reviewed article:

“Resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxy-trans-stilbane) is a naturally occurring compound shown to inhibit carcinogen-induced pre-neoplastic lesion formation in mouse mammary organ culture and tumorigenesis in the two-stage mouse skin cancer model. Cancer chemo-preventive potential was also suggested in various assays reflective of the three major stages of carcinogenesis. Anti-initiation activity was indicated by its antioxidant and anti-mutagenic effects, inhibition of the hydroxy peroxidase function of Cyclo-Oxygenase (COX), and induction of phase II drug-metabolizing enzymes. Anti-promotion activity was indicated by anti-inflammatory effects, inhibition of arachidonic acid metabolites catalyzed by either COX-1 or COX-2, and chemical carcinogen-induced neoplastic transformation of mouse embryo fibroblasts. Anti-progression activity was demonstrated by its ability to induce human promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cell differentiation.”

In 1999, researchers at the University of Minnesota claimed that:

“…Resveratrol, a plant constituent enriched in the skin of grapes, is one the most promising agents for the prevention of cancer. They proved that Resveratrol induces
apoptosis…suggesting that its anti-tumor activity may occur through the induction of
apoptosis.”

Research scientists at the University of Illinois Cancer Center, in an article published in 2000, discussed some of the abnormal organic molecules as well as pathologic enzymes and arachidonic acid metabolites derived from lipoxygenase (LOX) enzyme metabolic pathways that the body manufactures, which stimulate the formation or enhance the growth of the following cancers that resveratrol inhibits: “… colon, pancreatic, breast, prostate, lung, skin, urinary, bladder, and liver cancer.”

Squalane.   Experimentally, squalane has been demonstrated to prevent chemically-induced skin cancer and decrease the size of existing cancers. “Squalane was able to prevent the development of chemically induced skin cancer and to cause the regression of any tumors already formed.”  Squalane prevents and reverses skin cancer.  In addition to completely preventing skin cancer developing from the topical application of carcinogenic tobacco smoke compounds, as reported in the Journal of
the National Cancer Institute, squalane “… significantly diminished cutaneous angiogenesis induced by tumor cells, and tumor growth.”

Superoxide Dismutase.  Radiation therapy for breast cancer causes scarring in skin overlying a tumor because of the enormous x-ray radiation dosages used.

In 2004, the world-famous Institute Curie Department of Radiotherapy in Paris disclosed that, in most patients, topical use of superoxide dismutase relieved pain associated with the fibrosis. Additionally, the study showed that superoxide dismutase, applied twice a day for only 90 days, reduced the fibrotic area size in half. They stated:

“The radiofibrosis intensity was scored on the basis of clinical criteria before and after superoxide dismutase treatment. Superoxide dismutase was found to be effective in reducing radiation-induced fibrosis by lowering their pain score in 36 of 39 patients, and a decrease of the fibrotic area size in half of the cases. The intensity and changes of breast fibrosis were assessed also by mammography and, for the topographical distribution of subcutaneous temperature, by infrared thermography. Mammography density suggested a decrease in fibrosis in one third of the patients. Thermography showed that fibrosis decreased significantly in 36 of 44 patients. Clinical changes persisted all along the study. There were no important
side effects.”

Other physicians also used topical superoxide dismutase successfully to treat their
patients who developed radiofibrosis and obtained good results. It has been shown
that:

“…Acute and long-term effects are frequent after radiotherapy. Chronic radiodermatitis may result in ulceration and in transformation into a squamous cell carcinoma. Chronic radiodermatitis may develop after repeated small doses of ionizing radiation for cardiac catheterization and coronary angioplasties. Cytokines, e.g. transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), might be involved in the induction of fibrosis. Superoxide dismutase was used as an ointment for radiofibrosis therapy and obtains a reduction of the fibrosis.”

Dermatologists at a German Army hospital in Ulm noted:

“… [t]he cutaneous symptoms that appear after radiation exposure are caused by a combination of inflammatory processes and alteration of cellular proliferation as a result of a specific pattern of the transcriptionally activated pro-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors. The symptoms followed a time course consisting of prodromal erythema, manifestation, chronic stage, and late stage; these symptoms are referred to as cutaneous radiation syndrome (CRS). Based on the results of previous experimental and clinical research, pharmaco-therapy of CRS can include superoxide dismutase, vitamin E and corticosteroids.”

With the use of topical carcinogens, including TPA, University of Wisconsin oncologists demonstrated an 18-fold increase in tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels during skin tumor promotion by TPA, an increase that may be linked to development of metastatic squamous cell carcinoma: “… [u]sing superoxide dismutase and glutathione reductase, TPA-stimulated tumor necrosis factor-alpha could be completely attenuated.”

Titanium Dioxide. Ultraviolet radiation damages the skin’s immune system and can cause skin cancer. In a recent study, researchers tested titanium dioxide to measure its ability to block UV irradiation from causing damage to the skin’s immune system and prevent skin cancer. Titanium dioxide gave 100% protection for the skin’s immune system, and offered 100% protection against cancer promotion.

Ursolic Acid.  Ursolic acid demonstrated a: “… exhibited strong anti-tumor promoting activity in an in-vivo two-stage carcinogenesis test using DMBA as an initiator and TPA as a promoter.” Ursolic acid also “… showed an inhibitory effect comparable to EGCG of green tea on the activation of Epstein-Barr virus early antigen induced by TPA.”

Vitamin A (Retinyl Palmitate & Retinol).  Chronic inflammation or chronic chemical irritation in the presence of local vitamin A deficiency causes squamous metaplastic (pre-cancerous condition) skin changes. In one detailed study, those changes were totally reversed after only two days of topical therapy with vitamin A precursors retinyl palmitate and retinol. The higher the concentration built up from continuing application, the longer the protection time. Using topically applied vitamin A precursors, “… [s]quamous (skin) changes induced by vitamin A deficiency can be totally reversed.”Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol)

In an extensive study, scientists applied the active form of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) to the exposed skin of albino hairless mice before each UV exposure. Then the mice were exposed to ultraviolet radiation at a moderate strength (11 J/cm¹) for two hours a day, five days per week, for 20 weeks. Wrinkles formed in the untreated skin. This was documented in photographs. Microscopically, there was a loss of fat cells and an increase of fibrous tissue. No wrinkles were seen in skin topically treated with cholecalciferol; microscopically, the skin remained normal.

“…[V]itamin D3 is efficacious against fibrosis (scar tissue formation) in the lower dermis induced by chronic solar-stimulating UV irradiation. The application of vitamin D3 on the dorsal skin prior to irradiation prevented the disappearance of adipocytes. Taken together, solar-stimulating UV irradiation effects on the proliferation and differentiation of skin cells including adipocytes, fibroblasts, and keratinocytes, resulted in hyperplasia (thickening) of epidermis and fibrosis (scar tissue formation) of adipose tissue. Cholecalciferol prevents these phenomena.”

Vitamin E (Natural Alpha Tocopherol and Tocotrienols). The natural forms of vitamin E (alpha tocopherol and tocotrienols) are fat-soluble antioxidants that scavenge many free radicals, including lipid peroxyl radicals. Vitamin E absorbs only UV-B, not UV-A (vitamin A absorbs both UV-B and UV-A). However, the stratum corneum is very depleted of alpha-tocopherol following a single acute exposure to either UV-A or UV-B, or both. The destruction of the surface-level alpha tocopherol is also caused by the secondary effects of ultraviolet irradiation that generates free radicals.

Vitamin E has been demonstrated to decrease the severity of UV-caused skin wrinkling by 75% and also significantly decreases erythema and edema from UV injury.

Zinc Oxide.  Zinc helps prevent UV-B cell apoptosis, even when it is used after exposure. Zinc can also protect fibroblast cells, allowing them to resist the oxidative stress from both UV-A and UV-B.

A zinc solution was tested to see if it protects skin from ultraviolet light so intense that it would be two times the minimal dose needed to cause sunburn. It was applied topically either five days in a row or one time two hours before exposure. Both methods reduced the percentage of sunburn cells.

In other experiments, researchers also tested the topical use of zinc to see what, if any, effect it would have when applied topically one or two hours after ultraviolet light exposure. In this, zinc even offered 25% protection when applied as late as one hour after ultraviolet exposure, but none when initially applied two hours after exposure. The zinc oxide in NexDerma® Naturalift MD: Advanced Face Lift Therapy provides continuing protection.