AIDS research led to beauty pills

JAKARTA (JP): Staying young and healthy has become an obsession for many people, especially since old age is associated with wrinkles, physical disabilities and even senility.

Nobody can stop the clock ticking, but that has not discouraged people from at least trying to stall nature from taking its toll. Just look at the wide range of health and beauty products, therapies and treatments available to those concerned about their physical health and looks. Every one boasts that it help maintains health, stamina and performance as well as boosting longevity.

Spirulina, made by U.S.-based Earthrise, for example, claims to contain the most powerful combination of nutrients ever known. Earthrise has other ranges of food and nutrition supplements.

Royal Jelly produces Cenovis, a honey-based food supplement that is supposed to help boost vitality, slow down the aging process and improve skin, hair and nails.

Another product, Imedeen, has gained popularity among Indonesian women -- old and young -- as indicated by the 500 people who attended a one-day clinic on how to look physically and mentally beautiful. The talk, held at Hotel Indonesia early this month, featured Indonesian model Okky Asokawati, and Prof. Ake Dahlgren and his son Atti-La Dahlgren, who invented Imedeen.

Imedeen is a food supplement that can actually help slow the aging process, claims Linda Poerwoko, managing director of PT Berumas Libera Corpora, Indonesia's sole Imedeen distributor.

According to Linda, Imedeen is a natural product that contains a specific combination of marine proteins and polysaccharides that have a unique effect on the skin. Imedeen also contains calcium, acerola and zinc which is very important in the development of collagen, she adds.

The skin consists of two layers, the epidermis, or the outer layer, and the corium or the dermis, the connective tissue layer below the epidermis.

The most important layer is the dermis because it contains the cells that produce the collagen and elastin fibrils, explains Atti-La, 28.

Imedeen acts as nutrition to the collagen and elastin, says Atti-La, who spends most of his time between laboratories in Copenhagen, where he is working on cancer research, and the Royal Society of Medicine in London, where he is leading an AIDS research team.

Unlike the epidermis, the regeneration process takes places more slowly in the dermis. Aging is caused by changes in the dermis. Collagen becomes stiffer as a result of increased cross-linkage between collagen molecules making the skin becomes less pliable.

Imedeen's active ingredients help the regeneration process of the skin cells and the collagen and elastin fibers in the dermis, improving their thickness, moisture and elasticity, Atti-La says.

The story of Imedeen itself started in 1972 when Prof. Ake Dahlgren, an European biochemistry professor and researcher, was searching for a product to combat HIV. By accident, he stumbled across a substance which later became Imedeen.

Four years later, the senior Dahlgren launched his own research which he funded with the money he obtained from the sale of his house. After eight years and several failures, his research started to yield results.

From mainstream work on AIDS, a promising sidetrack emerged which led them on to work with herpes and then beyond that to the Imedeen protein.

"Following a meeting with Prof. Luc Montagnier at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, our early optimism on HIV became more balanced and we investigated many new substances," says Atti-La.

One group of substances in particular, called EMP 9301, persisted in the investigations. Later, this proved important to the appearance of the skin. In 1988, new tests were performed on EMP 9301 which showed an interesting effect on sun-damaged skin. From this, the product Imedeen started to take its final form.

"Although a 'spinoff' from other research, we quickly saw the potential benefit of Imedeen, which rebuilds skin from the inside, using the body's own repair mechanism," says Atti-La.

Atti-La, who presented his first scientific paper at the age of 11, maintains that Imedeen has been scientifically tested and proven safe.

"In essence it is a food supplement," says Atti-La, who won the Young Inventor's Award from the Swedish government for his thesis entitled Preventing Staphylococcus Infection in Hospitals when he was 12 years old.

Linda cautions that since it is a sea product, those allergic to seafood should consult a physician before deciding to take Imedeen.

"Of course they still can take Imedeen but they need to take anti-allergy pills," says Linda, who has been using the pills since November 1994.

There have also been complaints that the pills cause weight increase.

"I stopped using it because it of the weight problem. Which is a pity, because the product kept my skin young and healthy," says a former Imedeen user.

"It's only natural, because Imedeen boosts the activities of the body cells and every cell works to the full capacity it may cause weight gain," Linda explains. "Users should combine it with a healthy diet." (lem)