Oxygen treatments for face and body

Danne Montague-King, Doctor of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, founder of DMK (USA)

For over 45 years, as a scientist, I have been amazed and amazed by how a small part of a natural phenomenon is used by marketing in protocols or products, causing clients to run to the doctor or esthetician in the hope of solving skin problems, be it aging or dermatitis. The Retin-A craze of the 80s and the Vitamin C flood of the 90s are good examples. Both retinoids and vitamin C have their place in the pharmacopoeia. However, they only have specific chemical functions and cannot be considered a self-sufficient therapy at the cellular level.

Oxygen therapy is a similar category and understanding the real role of oxygen is not easy as its action as a fundamental life process involves many scientific disciplines, most of which have broad concepts.

Oxygen is the key to life in general and the aging process in particular. Estheticians, dermatologists and aesthetic surgeons are concerned with the health and appearance of the skin, and this is where we focus on oxygen as a core treatment. However, in order to fully understand this, we must also focus our efforts on the general effects that oxygen has on the body as a whole.

Chemistry of oxygen

The symbol for molecular oxygen is O2. A small two means that two oxygen atoms are needed for an oxygen molecule. There is another form of oxygen called ozone, and it is designated by the symbol O3. An atom is the smallest structural unit of any element, which consists of protons, electrons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons represent the nucleus of an atom, and electrons orbit around the nucleus. These orbits are actually the energy levels of other electrons, and electrons occupy these orbits according to the strict laws of quantum mechanics. It takes two or more atoms to create a molecule.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but while it's simple, it's important to remember these facts as we evaluate the new benefits of oxygen therapy. If the term "oxygen" is used and there is no additional information, it refers to molecular oxygen.

The molecular structure of oxygen is simple, but the submolecular structure is very complex. A critical factor about the structure of oxygen is that the outer orbits contain two unpaired electrons. This property makes life on Earth possible, but is the cause of most of our diseases, creating a biradical - a free radical with two chances to cause destruction in the body and skin.

Most chemical compounds have two paired electrons in their outer orbit, allowing them to react with other compounds in two electron reactions. Since oxygen can't do this, it must do it one electron at a time. The unpaired electrode in the atom or molecule then creates another chemical compound known as a free radical. The name “radical” comes from the Latin word radix – “root”. The root is not the whole plant, but only part of it. Likewise, free radicals are not complete atoms or molecules. Something else needs to be added to make them complete, and usually a hydrogen ion or electron is added.

Most of the energy, with the exception of energy from volcanic activity deep in the sea, comes from the sun 93 million miles away in space. Of all living organisms, only plants can convert the sun's energy into food. In order for there to be life, energy must be available in unlimited forms. So we eat plants and then extract the energy stored in proteins, carbohydrates and fats. This is the starting point for a journey into food metabolism and how oxygen plays a vital role in converting food into energy. This points to the well-known fact that oxygen enters our body through the lungs and not through the skin.

Breath

With every breath of air we inhale oxygen, which enters the body. Our skin cannot breathe for us. A simple test of this fact is to tightly close your nose and mouth with your palm and see how your skin breathes for you. The skin operates with anaerobic metabolism, which means “without air”; the pores of the skin do not penetrate deep into our body. We can store a great variety of substances in the gaps (or shunts) of the epidermis, but oxygen is not one of them.

The number of liters of air inhaled per minute depends on the size of a person's lungs and the activity in which they are involved. A liter is just over a quart (the unit of volume used in the UK and US) and this quantity contains about 20% oxygen. Oxygen passes through the bronchial tree into the parenchymal tissues of the lungs, reaching small sacs called alveoli. From these small sacs, oxygen passes through thin tissues and enters the bloodstream through capillaries. Next, the capillaries carry oxygen to the skin cells, depositing oxygen and carrying away toxins.

Once in the bloodstream, oxygen combines with red blood cells and binds to the carrier pigment in red blood cells, which forms bright red oxyhemoglobin. When oxygen reaches other tissues in the body, it is released from hemoglobin and enters the tissue cells. This action releases carbon dioxide, a byproduct of food metabolism, which is also released from cell tissue, taken up by red blood cells and binding to hemoglobin, turning it blue. This stage is called "carboxyhemoglobin" (the blue pigment in all veins). All this activity is just to provide a transport system for oxygen from the air to the cells, where it is used to produce energy.

Energy Factory

The oxygen electron transport system is called oxidative phosphorylation. This is a mechanism for extracting energy from food, which is ultimately converted into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) through the mitochondria. A simple example of this mechanism is the burning of wood: when oxygen is rapidly supplied to the burning wood, heat and light are produced, as well as some water, carbon dioxide and ash. This simple example of oxidation or combustion is the same process that occurs in the body under the control of highly organized systems.

Summary: Oxygen entering the body through the lungs is used to burn food and convert it into energy. It is also needed as energy by cells, especially mitochondria, in the complex process of processing ATP, the main source of energy in the body. The production of ATP by combining electrons with oxygen is the end result of food consumption and the process of respiration.

Powerful Mitochondria

Two billion years ago, these small spindle-like organelles entered mammalian cells and changed the process of life at a fundamental level. With their own DNA, mitochondria can be thought of as the cell's powerhouse and biological clock. Science is very close to genetically engineering mitochondria, and at this stage, aging as we know it today will be something of the past. Mitochondria can be influenced by electromagnetic negative pulses with a frequency of 8 Hz. However, applying oxygen to the skin does not affect the mitochondria or help it produce more ATP. When oxygen is inhaled through the lungs, about 95% of it is used to produce ATP through the electron transport chain.

Anyone who talks about oxygen without focusing on the electron transport system and free radical activity knows nothing about it. The diffusion of oxygen into tissue depends on the health of the tissue, the solubility of oxygen in body fluids, and the partial pressure of oxygen. Oxygen occupies about 20% of air (as a gas), so 20% of 760 mm Hg, which is 152 mm Hg, is the partial pressure of oxygen in the air. An interesting fact to note: the higher you go into the mountains in a small plane, the lower the partial pressure of oxygen becomes and less oxygen gets into the cells.

Legal Use of Oxygen

The main use of oxygen is in the production of chemicals. A certain amount is used in medical practice, mainly for bronchopulmonary pathologies. Being a toxic substance, especially in the hands of untrained personnel, a whole new specialty has entered the pulmonary arena simply to provide inhalation therapy. Some cases of hypoxia require oxygen therapy because there are low levels of oxygen in the bloodstream. Besides carbon monoxide poisoning, there are four types of hypoxia:

• anemic hypoxia ⎼ does not require oxygen therapy, requires treatment of anemia;
• congestive hypoxia ⎼ occurs mainly in states of shock due to poor circulation (it is necessary to recognize the cause and prescribe appropriate treatment; sometimes oxygen is used);
• histotoxic anoxia ⎼ occurs in cyanide poisoning (along with other treatment protocols, hyperbaric chambers can be used in oxygen treatment);
• hypoxic hypoxia ⎼ decrease in oxygen in the blood due to pulmonary pathology (inhaled oxygen is the main treatment, but at least 100% oxygen is prescribed, many times over several years).
• Remember that oxygen toxicity is no joke and no plant, organism, bacterium, fungus or cell culture can escape its toxicity. The parameters for the vital use of oxygen were established millions of years ago and have a very narrow corridor. Superoxide is the main toxic effect of oxygen and is responsible for lipofuscin in cells and most cellular damage from free radicals.

Oxygen treatments for skin

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Oxygen ⎼ under pressure above atmospheric. A special chamber is needed that maintains the required pressure so that oxygen dilutes the plasma, which brings it to the tissues. At 4 atmospheres (4 times the normal partial pressure of oxygen), toxicity develops in less than 3 minutes. Therefore, the presence of a doctor is necessary to carefully monitor the patient. This type of medical procedure can be extremely beneficial for burn patients and post-surgical recovery. Other medical indications for this type of therapy are still being studied. Remember that even this type of therapy is based on oxygen absorption through the lungs, not through the skin.

Unfortunately, the beauty business has come into this arena with fake high-tech hyperbaric chamber designs. The FDA does not allow actual high-pressure chambers to be sold or used by anyone other than medical personnel, so in reality these "oxygen chambers" are nothing more than giant-sized coffins of oxygen pumped through a ventilation system. Sometimes a little ozone is added for extra "glamour" when the seller actively talks about the anti-aging and cleansing benefits of oxygen. You can save several thousand dollars by simply going to a cliff above the ocean or anywhere where the air is relatively clear and doing a series of deep breathing exercises. But, of course, no one will earn anything.

Topical oxygen treatments for skin

By far the biggest scam. We have already determined that anatomically and physiologically the skin does not breathe. In fact, it uses very little oxygen even from the inside, about 12.8 ml per minute. This is about 4.9% of the oxygen entering the lungs per minute. For every 100 grams of skin, oxygen use is only 0.3 ml/min. And 100 grams of skin is a lot, if you only take into account the epidermis.

The process of providing energy without oxygen is essential for skin survival. T. Ryan (MD, Oxford University) observed that the capillary loops supplying the epidermis are located away from the projection of the papillae. This is very important because the tissues are metabolically active or require large amounts of oxygen and nutrients and have capillary loops close to the cells they serve. Muscle cells, for example, are highly active. From this we can conclude that oxygenation of the skin is less important when based on blood supply. Lymph circulation and intestinal pressure strength play a more important role. Remember that the skin is under pressure very often (when we sit, lie), and pressure reduces blood flow in the skin and, accordingly, oxygen supply. This is why the skin prefers to metabolize without oxygen.

Oxygen creams

They were started by the European company Karen Herzog Cosmetic Company. It so happened that I owned formulas of this type, but never used them. Oxygen creams are just peroxide, either hydrogen or zinc peroxide, with calcium added as the main element. These compounds only break down to release small amounts of oxygen and hydroxide, the main element.

In the case of hydrogen peroxide, the most common source of oxygen in cosmetics, water and oxygen are produced. When oxygen is released, it reacts with anything on the surface of the skin that can oxidize. Becomes a bleaching or weak germicidal agent on the surface of the skin, but that's all it does. It cannot penetrate the skin and give life to dying cells. If you want to get an effective remedy against p. acnes, add the chemical benzoyl to the peroxide, a humectant that will draw the peroxide into the skin pores and help kill acne-causing bacteria because most pathogens cannot live in an environment with peroxide or intense oxygen. And how can living cells survive with such a concentration of released oxygen, even if it could penetrate under the epidermal layers?

Perflurodecalin

This is one of the last "oxygen therapy" ingredients to be wary of. In the US, it is believed to have a botulinum-like effect, causing oxygen to rush to the epidermis, eliminating wrinkles almost immediately. In reality, you get two hours of swelling.

Perflurodecalin has no medical use, for example in surgery, but is a hydrophobic and lipophobic liquid, easily detected in emulsions as an intermediate of oil or water. It is a gas carrier, and the characterization of gas carriers at a controlled volume level allows us to create a fourth active gas phase of the emulsion. All it does on the skin is release carbon dioxide, if any is present. So this is not a “wrinkle eraser” at all.

Plasma effect

Created by some limited skin treatments, it represents a light on the horizon of true oxygen therapy. For more than 37 years, we, together with colleagues from other countries, have been developing oxygen therapy inside the deep layers of the epidermis. This is achieved by increasing blood circulation through the capillaries and peripheral capillaries. Isometric contractions of the delicate underlying facial muscles are involved in this type of treatment, as is dilation of the peripheral capillaries. After these types of treatments, all capillaries are visualized through the transparent layers of the skin for up to 30 minutes. This phenomenon can be observed not only on the face, but also on the body.

In general, these are treatments with special types of enzymes that have proven to be effective and exceptional in revising the skin, removing dead cellular material through hydrolysis and reverse osmosis. Circulation stimulating factor is a side effect of the procedure, but has been a huge success in the preparatory stages of aesthetic surgery and is especially useful after surgery, when restoration of blood circulation is necessary.

Dr. Jurgen Jesche (Hamburg, Germany), for example, does not perform liposuction or abdominoplasty unless he has prepared the patient with this enzyme therapy in advance. Sometimes the procedure is completed just an hour before surgery, and can be continued for several years afterwards to maintain results.

However, these oxygen treatments are the only true oxygen therapy I know of that use oxygen already in the bloodstream rather than from external sources.

Such elementary facts are easy to investigate, and almost every good chemist knows about them. The huge mystery to me is that despite all this, manufacturers are trying to sell “oxygen therapy” in the form of chambers, tanks and creams. Of course, the new pseudoscientific nonsense that accompanies these sales makes it appear that there is some new research or breakthrough that defies the rules of chemistry, physics and human anatomy. If you really study the booklets carefully, you will notice that almost every paragraph or case study is not related to the next paragraph, that entire sections are taken from textbooks and are also out of context!

Remember that oxygen is a gas and will diffuse into other gases before dissolving into anything else. You can't affect anything other than the stratum corneum with topical products containing peroxide. Even if you were able to introduce oxygen into the skin by following some unknown law or revolutionary technology, it would still have no effect on it due to its physiological characteristics.

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The medical use of oxygen gas is limited and difficult. There is no information to support the use of topical oxygen for non-medical purposes.

Bibliography:

1. Ryan T. Exchange and mechanical properties of the skin // Onoctic and hydrostatic forces by blood supply and lymphatic drainage. Wound repair and regeneration. ⎼ 1995; 3: 258⎼264.

2. Pugliese P., MD. Biological Role of Oxygen // Physiology of Skin. Pugliese Group. ⎼ 1999.

3. Evans PFD and Naylor NTS. Steady States of oxygen in the human dermis // Respir Рhystol. ⎼ 1966/67; 2; 61⎼72.

4. Ganong WF Respiratory adjustments in Health and Disease // Review of Medical Physiology. ⎼ 1997; 18th edition, Stanford, CT; Appleton and Lang. ⎼638⎼651.

First published in " Les Nouvelles Esthétiques Ukraine" 6 (100)/2016 3