of Facebook. I got a question from Christopher Ok and Im
like, okay Christopher! That is the BEST NAME EVER!!! I wish my name was Trina Alright! Woah, er, I dont know where that came from. Anyway! He asked a question about tallow CLA and ceramides. Because I didnt know a lot about ceramides and I wanted to learn more, I said I will make that a topic of a video.
What is a ceramide? They are a family! Awwwh! A family of waxy lipid molecules. Lipids are fats and oils that are found in
the body. They look a little something like this They consist of a fatty acid linked to a sphingoid
base. I LOVE that word! And they are connected by an amide bond.
There are at least nine major ceramides present
within the stratum corneum. That is the outer most layer of skin. They have conveniently named them ceramides
1-9. Imagine if you had a family and you just named
your kids one through nine.
This reminds me of when I was a kid and my
dad wanted to name my twin sisters Alpha and Beta. My mom was like, Yeah, NO. These ceramides differ by their head group,
the length of their chain, by the hydroxylation, which is the amount of OH groups they have, and
whether theyre saturated or not, so that is the number of double bonds. Youre probably wondering, where can I find
these ceramides.
I was certainly wondering that. You can find ceramides in the stratum corneum. Inside there are these layers of dead skin
cells, and sandwiched in between them is this glue, and this glue holds the skin cells together. It is called the interstitial lipid matrix
or intercellular cement.
These lipids form these ordered structures
called lamellar sheets and they alternate between water and lipids. And that lipid layer is composed of ceramides,
cholesterols, and fatty acids. These waxy lipids help us regulate our water
holding capacity, allowing a barrier that doesnt easily let fluid pass through
it. And this is important because we want to maintain
optimal water levels in our skin.
We also want to make sure we keep disease
causing microorganisms out, or for example if we come in contact with harmful chemicals,
we dont want to get them into our body. Ceramide levels increase as we get older,
so as we age we start to struggle with dry skin. The outer layer of the stratum corneum starts
to decrease, it gets a lot thinner and we start to notice fine lines. Also, people who struggle with skin disorders
like atopic dermatitis, eczema, and psoriasis.
Those folks seem to have a decreased level
of ceramides present in their skin. The idea behind ceramides in skincare, is
that if were missing ceramides in our skin, maybe we can just replenish them, by adding
them into products that we use. And so cosmetic companies have taken this
idea and theyve run with it. Theyve put ceramides into hundreds of skincare
products, that make claims like increases skin hydration, improves the cutaneous barrier,
prevents moisture loss, and reduces dry and flaking skin.
In our body their produced in the stratum
granulosum. That is below the stratum corneum. They originally appear as phospholipids, and
as they work there way up to the stratum corneum, There are these enzymes in the stratum corneum
that convert them into ceramides. But nobody is harvesting human bodies to get
these ceramides.
Instead we are getting them from other natural
and synthetic sources. Synthetics obviously come from a lab. For natural sources, They either come from
animal sources such as cows, but they are mostly extracted from plant sources like sweet
potatoes, wheat, and brown rice. What I also learned is that ceramides are
expensive, which is why we often seem them in high end skincare.
Natural ceramides are very unstable substances,
and because they are costly to obtain, synthetic ceramides are frequently used. Unfortunately synthetic ceramides do not penetrate
the skin as well, so companies are looking into technologies like liposomes to help them penetrate the skin. But I dont know, what do you guys think? Do you think it works? Do you think it doesnt? Tell me in the comments! From the studies Ive seen, so far, it looks
like ceramides do moisturize, but I havent seen any evidence that they moisturize better
than some of the inexpensive ingredients that are already out on the market. In some of these studies theyre comparing
ceramides to untreated skin -- and that hardly seems fair.
Theyre also using higher concentrations
of ceramides, then youd expect to see In a normal cosmetic product. Christopher, I hope I did an okay job with
this video. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs
up, If you want to see more like it, consider
subscribing, and lastly, dont forget to click that notification bell, especially if
you want to leave a comment right when that video drops. I will see you soon.
Have a great day..
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