Fashion and Beauty 10th June 2015 by Kirstie McDermott

Science Has Just Discovered The Secret To Eternal Skin Youth Thanks To Olay

Forever young: thanks to science a plethora of new youth-boosting skincare products are in the making.

Everyone knows someone who looks seriously younger than the date of birth stamped on their passport, and her age is often the subject of much debate over glasses of wine. She’s swearing blind she’s au naturel, but we’re just not so sure: c’mon – there’s got to be a little surgical intervention going on in the form of a gentle nip ‘n’ tuck, or heck, even some Botox?

Well, maybe not. Science has known about the Methuselah gene mutation since about 2002, when it was discovered during an Icelandic study by DeCode Genetics, who were able, according to The Guardian, to use Iceland’s birth and death records, to track those who’d gotten to the ripe old age of 90 or over.

A similar study was conducted on exceptionally long-living Ashkenazi Jews. Many of the participants had one of two similar mutations in the gene for insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R).

Essentially, and to be extremely simplistic about it, what this means is that yup, some people just don’t age as fast as others. Named for the bible’s oldest patriarch, who lived to be over 900-years-old, the Methuselah gene mutation has of course, ignited the fire of researchers across all spheres of science, not least of all in beauty.

We often see interesting things happening in topical skincare as a result of genetic research, like Lancome’s Genifique and Visionnaire serums, and now Olay has had a breakthrough in its research too. Its scientists recently presented new data from their Multi Decade and Ethnicity Study at the 23rd World Congress of Dermatology in Vancouver, where they revealed a new skin ‘fingerprint’ in women who look exceptionally young for their age.

Through analysing 20,000 Caucasian and African genes, researchers were able to identify what they say is a “a unique skin ‘fingerprint’ among these ‘exceptional skin agers’, comprised of around 2,000 genes.”

The understanding of ‘exceptional skin agers’ enables us to create next generation products to better delay the onset of visible skin ageing.

So what does this mean for those of us who, er, might not be quite the exceptional skin agers we’d like? Well, it’s good news.

Basically, now that Olay has identified these genes, the next step is to create products to work with them. “What’s exciting about these findings is that the genes that make up the unique skin fingerprint of ‘exceptional skin agers’ may hold the key to successful ageing. Decoding which pathways they affect, and understanding why they are acting differently in these women, ‘nature or nurture’, can enable Olay researchers to help more women achieve skin that looks like the exception, not the rule, at any stage of life,” confirms Dr. Rosemarie Osborne, Procter & Gamble (P&G) Beauty Research Fellow.

The upshot? We may well be seeing skincare – sooner rather than later – that’ll help turn our Methuselah genes right on and up to 11. “The understanding of ‘exceptional skin agers’ enables us to create next generation products to better delay the onset of visible skin ageing by offering more personalised solutions,” confirms Dawn French, Vice President, Global Beauty Care Research & Development, P&G.

Now, who wouldn’t say yes to that?

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