Heliocare Advanced: For Beautiful, Safe Skin, a Humble Fern Can Help
Our board-certified dermatologists in Jupiter, at Genesis Dermatology, are always on the lookout for ways to keep your skin youthful and—even more important—safe. We have found a product we’d like to tell you about that does both.
We’ve told you many times that the best way to avoid wrinkles, as well as skin cancer, is to stay out of the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays. But maybe this advice came too late for you—even a single bad sunburn as a child can result in skin cancer later in life—or maybe you chose not to heed it, and now you’re paying the price with visibly aging skin or even precancerous lesions.
Either way, if the damage is done, one product that can help is one based on an extract from a Central American fern, polypodium leucotomos, which also contains nicotanimide (vitamin B3), the non-flushing form of niacin. Both elements have been shown to lessen the effects of exposure to the UV rays of the sun and tanning beds.
Fortunately, this product, Heliocare Advanced, offers clinically proven antioxidant protection against the harmful free radicals that lead to premature aging of the skin and skin cancer. It contains both nicotinamide and polypodium leucotomos extract (PLE or Fernblock®) in an exclusive formulation shown to be effective in helping the skin protect itself from UV damage.
Let’s look at the effects of each of its main components.
Nicotinamide (vitamin B3)
This vitamin, also called niacinamide, is one of the eight B-complex vitamins. It is water-soluble, which means it flushes readily from the system without building up in tissues. Well-known for reducing inflammation throughout the body, it can be applied as a gel to treat acne, or taken as an oral supplement for its anti-aging effects, including reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in the skin. This is due to the way it increases the natural production of collagen, which makes skin appear plumper and more taut.
A Japanese study in 2008, for example, found a “marked and moderate improvement” in wrinkle reduction in 64 percent of subjects studied.
Even more important, nicotinamide has been shown to prevent common skin cancers and precancers. One 2015 study published in the journal of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that taking a vitamin B3 supplement twice daily cut the rate of new squamous-cell and basal-cell skin cancers by 23 percent compared with a placebo among patients at high risk for skin cancer. It also reduced the risk of developing actinic keratosis, a common precancer of the skin.
However, “The pill does not take the place of sunscreen use and regular skin checkups by dermatologists for people at high risk,” cautioned the study’s lead investigator, Dr. Diona Damian.
Polypodium leucotomos
Polypodium leucotomos produces underground rhizomes which yields an extract, PLE, that has been shown to be effective in preventing or treating such varied skin conditions as eczema, psoriasis, melasma, sunburn, and even skin cancer.
A 2016 study found that PLE is effective in reducing reddening of the skin when taken before sun exposure as well as decreasing sun damage.
An NIH-published study in 2015 found that study subjects were less likely to experience sunburn than those in a placebo group, and concluded that PLE was a safe and effective means for reducing the damaging effects of UV radiation.
Together, nicotinamide (B3) and PLE offer a powerful combination of skin care and skin cancer prevention. Both of these substances are found in Heliocare Advanced, with Fernblock®, their exclusive formulation of PLE.
Of course, this does not mean you can pop a pill and lie in unprotected in the sun or a tanning booth for hours on end. It does mean that Heliocare Advanced offers one more weapon against not only premature skin aging but the cancer that kills more than all other cancers combined. We recommend taking Heliocare Plus daily. If daily is too much to ask at least take it prior to golf, tennis or any other outdoor activities in addition to a zinc oxide physical sunscreen.
