Ajune

April is National Rosacea Awareness Month. To celebrate, some facts about rosacea:

- Rosacea affects 14 million Americans
- The true cause of rosacea is unknown
- There is no cure for rosacea, only various methods of managing the symptoms
- Treatments for rosacea include both oral and topical medications, as well as laser and light-based treatments
- Gentle skin care products are recommended for rosacea-prone skin
- Blueberries are a fabulous anti-redness ingredient

Indeed, blueberries have vaso-constricting and vaso-protective properties. Blueberries have made it into the consumer media and popular advertising campaigns as a healthful fruit to eat: they are filled with antioxidants, purple, round, and delicious. The Vaccinium myrtillus L. fruit, known in English as bilberry or blueberry, has powerful protective properties which have been known and utilized since the Middle Ages. Today, blueberries are even claimed to be “the most powerful antioxidants of all.”1

However, there still is limited awareness of the potential benefits of blueberries on the skin. Indeed several compounds, in particular polyphenols (including anthocyanins, resveratrol and iron chelators such as quercetin and myricetin) and vitamins have been isolated from the Vaccinium myrtillus L. plant. The least known benefits of blueberries are their vaso-protective (protection of cutaneous capillaries) properties.

Blueberries play a role in the management of flushing symptoms: they tighten and protect fine capillaries thanks to anthocyanins2 and are thus ideal in skin care products targeting redness-prone skin. The vaso-protective effects of blueberries began to be described in the 1960s when the fruit’s capillary resistance and permeability were first
analyzed. Since, studies have confirmed that blueberries increase capillary resistance.3

So eat your blueberries, but put them on your face too!

1. Wu X, Beecher GR, Holden JM, Haytowitz DB, Gebhart SE, Prior RL. Lipophilic and hydrophilic antioxidant capacities of common foods in the United States. J Agric Food Chem. 2004;52(12):4026-4037.

2 . Bagchi D, Sen CK, Bagchi M, Atalay M. Anti-angiogenic, antioxidant, and anti-carcinogenic properties of a novel anthocyanin-rich berry extract formula. Biochemistry (Mosc). 2004;69(1):75-80.

3 . Morazzoni P, Bombardelli E. Vaccinium myrtillus L. Fitotherapia. 1996;67(1):3-29.