AIDS research led to beauty pills

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)