What is Melanin and what is its role in your skin?
Melanin is a natural pigment found in many living things including humans. It is known to give the skin its brown coloration when tanning. Its role is essential because it helps protect the skin against ultraviolet rays. To prepare and protect the skin in anticipation of sun exposure, it is now possible to rely on food supplements of natural melanin.
Melanin is a pigment or macro molecule produced by tyrosine (an amino acid) which circulates in the blood through melanocytes, located in the deep layer of the epidermis. They are mainly used to protect our body and our skin from the devastating effects of ultraviolet radiation and free radicals.
They protect us from:
- Premature aging of the DNA of our skin cells,
- loss of elasticity,
- an early appearance of wrinkles and expression lines, risk of cancer, etc.
- It is these pigments that give color to our skin, hair, body hair and iris; they are also found in the vascular streak of our inner ear and in our brain
How does it make the skin automatically tan?
When in contact with ultraviolet rays, the body automatically produces a greater quantity of melanin, which will make it possible to absorb the ultraviolet radiations which is a filtration process; and restores the energy received in the form of heat. Â Darken. Â it succeeds in protecting the skin cells from the dangers of the ultraviolet radiation.
In addition, the action of melanin varies according to its type: therefore eumelanin (greater in quantity) is much more effective at this precise moment than pheomelanin which in addition to protecting the skin only very weakly, easily decomposes under the effect of ultraviolet rays, and thus releasing carcinogenic free radicals; this explains why redheads or blondes are more fragile than brunettes, albinos more than black skin.
However, eumelanin does not provide 100% protection for melanodermic skin, as prolonged exposure to the sun could seriously degrade its DNA, causing skin cancer.
