This is the 3690th article of Da Medical Care
When it comes to niacinamide, the first thing that everyone thinks of is whitening, the so-called white cover up ugly, with white and transparent skin is the pursuit of many female friends. In recent years, niacinamide in the cosmetics industry is very hot, is widely used in a variety of skin care products, many people use products containing niacinamide found that did not achieve whitening effect, then what is the actual effect of niacinamide ingredients on skin whitening?
1. What is niacinamide?
In essence, niacinamide is a B vitamin, is a derivative of vitamin B3 (niacin), also known as niacinamide, it is a multifunctional water-soluble component, stable in nature, not easy to be destroyed by acids and alkalis and high temperatures, clinically more widely used for the treatment of photosensitive dermatitis, acne and so on.
Regarding the skin care effect of niacinamide, we must start from whitening, and the whitening mechanism of niacinamide has two main points:
1. Block the transport of melanocytes from melanocytes to keratinocytes, thus affecting skin pigmentation. Melanin is only delivered to keratin cells to make the skin appear black. Niacinamide acts on the melanin that has been produced, inhibiting its transport, making it impossible to reach the stratum corneum of the skin for deposition, so as to achieve a whitening effect.
2. Accelerate metabolism and promote the shedding of melanin-containing keratin cells. Since the nicotinamide molecule is small, it can be directly absorbed by the cells, which can restore cellular energy and accelerate the synthesis of collagen, thereby promoting the shedding of keratin cells containing melanin.
Since there is a mechanism for whitening, why do some people say that it has no effect?
In fact, the color of human skin and hair is mainly determined by the amount, distribution and type of melanin. Melanin is a polymer biochrome synthesized from melanocytes distributed in the underlying layer of the epidermis. Melanin from synthesis to distribution to keratinocytes eventually leads to pigmentation is a more complex process.
Objectively speaking, niacinamide itself does have a whitening effect, but sometimes it does not achieve the desired effect. First of all, because the current market for the publicity of niacinamide products is too exaggerated, resulting in high expectations of it; secondly, whitening is a complex process, involving a lot of complex biochemical processes and mechanisms, from melanocytes tyrosine through tyrosinase catalytic synthesis, generation, secretion and transport to the steps of keratinocytes, and niacinamide mainly plays a certain inhibitory role in the melanin transfer process, only a small part of it, expecting niacinamide to play a powerful role is actually far from enough. If you do not inhibit tyrosinase activity, do not block ultraviolet rays, do not control the occurrence of inflammation, and rely only on niacinamide products to achieve whitening is not easy to do.
What are the side effects of niacinamide? allergic? Intolerant?
Niacinamide has the best stability in a solution with a pH of 6, and will decompose to form niacin when the pH is greater or less than 6. At the same time, niacinamide itself is an acylated agent of niacin, which is further reacted by niacin, and the raw material of niacinamide will inevitably contain impurity niacin. Niacin has the effect of dilating blood vessels, so allergies such as redness, swelling, heat and pain may occur when using high concentrations of nicotinamide products. This is also what we often call niacinamide intolerance, so people with sensitive skin should pay special attention when using niacinamide externally.
Can using niacinamide cause skin hair to grow? This is also a problem that everyone cares about a lot. If you feel that the facial hair becomes obvious after using a product containing niacinamide, there are two possibilities, the first is that there is hair itself, but it is not obvious, and the contrast is more obvious after the skin turns white, giving people the illusion of long hair. Second, niacinamide promotes microcirculation of capillaries, which may help with the nutrition of hair, which has grown out of hair that did not grow in the hair follicle due to insufficient nutrient supply.
In short, for the niacinamide product girls must be objective to look at, it is neither so magical nor so terrible, when using products containing niacinamide, we must pay attention to the use of low concentration to high concentration of the ladder use method, gradually improve the skin tolerance to it, reduce the occurrence of allergies.
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Author: The Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine
Chen Yan Xie Xueping