Women Skin Care and Beauty

New research suggests that broccoli can prevent the damage from ultraviolet light that often leads to skin cancer. And, as many children would surely appreciate, you do not even have to eat it. The research suggests that people who lather themselves with an extract of broccoli sprouts are protected from the skin damage associated with ultraviolet radiation.
The results in human volunteers, backed by parallel evidence obtained in mice, show that the degree of skin redness (erythema) caused by UV rays, which is an accurate index of the inflammation and cell damage caused by UV radiation, is markedly reduced in extract-treated skin.

According to the findings, unlike a normal sunscreen, the extract did not absorb ultraviolet light to prevent it entering the skin. Instead, it worked inside the body by boosting the production of enzymes that protected cells against ultraviolet damage and the risk of skin cancer.
“The treatment could decrease the long-term risk of developing cancer,” Talalay wrote in the latest edition of the ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ journal.
Dr. Paul Talalay of Johns Hopkins University says in a statement “this chemical extract is not a sunscreen. Unlike sunscreens, it does not absorb UV light and prevent its entry into the skin. Rather, the extract works inside cells by boosting the production of a network of protective enzymes that defend cells against many aspects of UV damage. Consequently, the effects are long-lasting; the protection lasts for several days, even after the extract is no longer present on or in the skin.”

The research team exposed areas of skin to intense ultraviolet light one to three days after the broccoli sprout extract was applied to some areas. Spots treated with the extract had, on average, 37 per cent less redness and inflammation — key measures of future skin cancer development.