What You Should Know About Moisturizers

We are often asked why most Asepta foot products do not contain Urea.

Doctors classify moisturizers in four categories:

• Occlusives - These contain mineral oils, or lanolin, or zinc oxides. They are generally messy to use. Mineral oils can cause folliculitis and lanolin causes dermatitis. For these reasons they are not often prescribed these days, although you can see them at the pharmacy.
• Humectants - These contain ingredients such as sorbitol, glycerine, alphahydroxyacids, and also UREA. Humectants attract water when applied to the skin and this should theoretically improve hydration of the upper levels. However, the water that is drawn to the skin is often water from other cells, not atmospheric water. With this type of moisturizer evaporation from the skin can continue and actually make the dryness worse. Manufacturers’ attempts to include humectants into moisturizers do not always produce a beneficial effect. High concentrations of propylene glycol and urea can be irritating. Pure mixtures of amino acids are useless as moisturizers. Pure solutions of glycerin are ineffective, and propylene glycol by itself is irritating. Alphahydroxyacids, such as lactic acid or glycolic acid appear to increase cohesion of the stratum corneum cells, thereby reducing roughness and scaling, but again, lactic acid can cause irritation. For these reasons some people are said to be allergic to urea when they have a reaction such as skin rash and irritation. Also urea can tend to clog up the pores of the skin because of the effect of the evaporation from the skin. The skin does not absorb urea quickly and may leave a greasy feeling.
• Emollients - Emollients such as fatty acids and cholesterol are said to reduce the roughness of the skin but they are not always effective.
• Rejuvenators - Skin rejuvenators contain proteins to rejuvenate the skin. Akieine is in this category. Some say these will not work because the molecules are too large to penetrate the epidermis, and this is true in some cases. However, Akileine creams have proven to be effective, and this is because of their patented lipoaminoacids that work to regenerate the skin. Lipoaminoacids are a combination of fatty acids and amino acids that form a chain that can penetrate into the skin at the molecular level. It is this action that makes Akileine a unique range of products. No other footcare line in the world contains lipoaminoacids.