Courtesy of Cosmetics & Toiletries, the word is out that plants such as feverfew has anti-inflammatory characteristics and may be used in place of topical steroid creams to treat sensitive skin and moderate atopic dermatitis. That's a stunning conclusion! Dr. Jessica Wu, a Los Angeles-based dermatologist and previous consultant for Johnson & Johnson, shared her findings in a report in Dermatology Times.Feverfew, according to Wu, has a well-documented anti-inflammatory effect. While she notes that pure feverfew can cause dermatitis due to its highly irritating compound parthenolide, the parthenolide-free extract developed by Johnson & Johnson for its Aveeno Ultra-Calming products was shown in a study to be 35 times more powerful than green tea in fig
hting cytokines that cause inflammation. In addition, patients treated with the extract showed less redness, blotchiness, dryness, and tightness.This is good news for people with sensitive skin who want to use natural products to control irritation, redness and rozacea, and inflammatory processes - maybe even cystic acne.
The study of plants and their medicinal and cosmetic effects, despite many years of research, is still in its infancy, given the rich source of materials available for study. We still have a lot to learn from plant lore and ancient practices!
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4 comments:
Very intrigued to see the use of Feverfew in the cosmetic world. My experience with Feverfew has been in the treatment of migraine headaches. Watch the FDA try to slap restrictions on it...
Wow...that's really interesting! I suffered from migraines most of my adult life. When Imitrex was released, it changed my life. Nothing I had used before that worked. I didn't love injecting myself in the thigh, though, so I was really glad when the drug came out in pill form.
Are you taking feverfew in pill form?
I do have a fear that the FDA is going to take a harsh stand on cosmeceuticals at some point soon. Here's hoping my fears are unwarranted!
Puritan's Pride offers FeverFew in pill form at www.puritan.com. The label on the bottle has the tag line "Supports the easing of tension from stressful lifestyles." I had a cluster of extremely bad migraines back in the 2003-04 timeframe, and was also on imitrex, the injection. Know what you mean by not loving the injection. It was suggested that I take FeverFew in the effort to "ward off" migraines from happening, sort of a preventive effort.
Did it help? I always took Excedrin as a preventive because of the caffeine, which is a vasoconstrictor.
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