Do you know what the difference is between glutathione, lipoic acid, and vitamins when it comes to skincare?
The antioxidant and skin-lightening effects of glutathione have only recently come to the forefront. It is gradually being used in a wide range of skincare products. Some of the more popular skin lightening and antioxidant products we are familiar with are vitamin C and lipoic acid. Vitamin C lightens the skin by inhibiting the activity of the enzyme complexities, which reduces the formation of melanin and lightens pigmentation. Lipoic acid prevents the binding of sugars to proteins and thus reduces protein loss, achieving anti-sugar and thus inhibiting oxidative aging. In contrast to vitamin C and lipoic acid, glutathione can block the formation of melanin at the source and is an effective antioxidant to achieve the anti-aging effect, which is why it is favored by most people.
Mechanism of action of glutathione in the human body
Glutathione (GSH) is a short peptide consisting of three amino acid residues, glutamate, cysteine, and glycine, that can be produced naturally in human cells. Its main functional group is the sulfhydryl group (-SH), which can be oxidized to form -S-S-bonds (disulfide bonds), which are converted back to sulfhydryl groups by reduction. This property has a major impact on the activity of many enzymes, especially those related to protein conversion, and is mainly involved in the scavenging of free radicals in the body. Free radicals are produced as a result of the body's constant oxidation and reduction reactions. Too many free radicals can damage the body and are an important factor in aging.
There is an antioxidant process in the human body, which is completed by the involvement of vitamin C, vitamin E, and glutathione. Vitamin E scavenges free radicals and turns into oxidized vitamin E. Vitamin C regenerates vitamin E. After vitamin E is regenerated, vitamin C becomes dehydroascorbic acid and glutathione is what turns dehydroascorbic acid back into vitamin C, thus completing an antioxidant cycle that allows the body to function continuously to protect our skin. Glutathione thus plays an important role in this cycle.
How does glutathione protect our skin?
1. Whitening mechanism
In the whitening process, glutathione has a dual action of anti-oxidation + inhibition. It can directly inhibit tyrosinase activity, while sweeping away a large number of oxidative free radicals, preventing free radicals from activating tyrosinase, and also hydrolyzing into cysteine, interfering with melanin synthesis. It is a small molecular peptide with a molecular weight of 307 daltons (molecules larger than 500 daltons do not cross the skin barrier) and is more easily absorbed into the body when applied to the skin.
2. Fighting inflammation and allergies
According to researchers, glutathione is an anti-allergic agent that inhibits hyaluronidase and inhibits delayed allergic reactions, with effects comparable to those of paracetamol at 5mg/ml.
3. Detoxifying effects
Glutathione can detoxify both exogenous and endogenous toxins. Due to its structure, it contains a sulfhydryl group - SH, which is easily dehydrogenated by oxidation. This specific structure makes it the main free radical scavenger in the body, and by scavenging free radicals, it can purify the body's environment and achieve detoxification effects.
The loss of glutathione makes this product popular. Skin care products containing a high enough concentration of glutathione can be applied directly to the skin for effective whitening. Most of the finished glutathione products available on the market are in the form of ampoules or lyophilized powders, mainly because they are unstable in aqueous solutions and require special forms of production to solve the problem of stability, such as wet and dry packaging technology, lyophilization technology, etc. We hope that you can use glutathione in a scientific way to understand the correct use of skincare ingredients.
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