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Knowledgebase Article
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What is Chiral, and what does it mean to me?
Chirality, also known as 'isomeric' (hence iSO-Care) is what separates our skin care products from everything else in the world. No hype, real results.
Chiral-- pronounced ki-rul, is derived from the Greek work meaning "hand." All molecules exist in left-handed and right-handed form. Like your hands, the molecules are perfect mirrored images of each other, making them exact opposites.
Your body can use either the right or the left handed form of any given molecule,
but not the other.
For example, ascorbic acid-- Vitamin C-- exists as L-ascorbic acid (L for levo meaning left) and D-ascorbic acid (D for dextro meaning right).
L-ascorbic acid is good for you and your skin. It promotes health at the molecular level. You will find L-Ascorbic acid in iSO-Care products.
D-ascorbic acid is not good for you or your skin. It promotes drying, itching, and burning. In fact, this 'natural' component of Vitamin C is used in turpentine and for re-cycling tires. You will NEVER find D-Ascorbic acid in iSO-Care products.
All things living contain chiral molecules; our bodies and our skin are chiral. Throughout our lives, chiral molecules control our health and our aging process. IsoCare products are formulated using this dramatically different technology. IsoCare products provide real solutions using real-life, chirally-correct ingredients including green tea, chamomile, berries, nutmeg, jasmine, and cranberries.
The following is an example of chirality in action: Limonene. An active chiral compound in citrus fruits, Limonene has an equal number of left-handed and right-handed molecules, each producing decidedly different results. Letıs compare:
On the one hand:
L-Limonene (left-handed) is a powerful anti-viral agent in the body, it is an anti-fungal, it stops candida, it does not cause allergic reactions, it fights free radicals, and it suppresses tumor growth, particularly melanoma.
But on the other hand:
D-Limonene (right-handed) is the molecule that is used for industrial cleaners and degreasers, as well as a tire solvent for recycling tire rubber. It is known to cause allergic reactions, it promotes free radicals, and it promotes mutations in human embryos.
In the case shown here, the left-handed molecule is the one that should be isolated for skin care products, while the right-handed molecule should be used only in industry. With chirally-correct IsoCare, the harmful molecule-- either right or left-- is removed from each of the ingredients, leaving only safe and beneficial molecules.
iSO-Care Chirality: The Essence of Life
The exclusive chiral science of iSO-Care products elevates cosmeceuticals to the technologic level of the most advanced prescription drug companies. Very simply: no other line of skin care products can compete. Trust iSO-Care for the safest and most effective skin care products in the world!
Visible results in just a few days - iSO-Care is the first cosmeceutical product line with the astounding science of Chirality.
Chiral (pronounced KI-RUL) is the Greek word for "handed". As the compounds that comprise all organic structures in life have both a left and right hand molecular orbit, the study of these individual hands or "sides", and the effects they have on the human body and other organic structures, is called Chirality.
iSO-Care: Time for Science to choose a side!!
Just as we could not put a right-handed glove on our left hand - even though they are mirror images of each other - scientists now understand that this law of "chirality" or handedness applies to all asymmetric structures of life. Although compounds comprised of these "molecular twins" contain seemingly identical right and left handed mirror images of one another, their effects on human physiology are very, very different. While molecules of one "hand" are necessary to life, such as L-amino acids and D-sugars, scientists have learned that their mirror image or opposite "hand" will usually exhibit different effects, ranging from harmless to toxic or even poisonous.
The "chirality" or "handedness" of a mirror - compound is described in chemistry by using the term "L" to define the left side of a molecular twin (the L- Isomer) and the term "D" to define the right side or the D-Isomer. The human body is so sensitive to chiral correctness, that when simultaneously presented with both sides of a chiral compound it will do one of three things. Either it will:
Recognize and use one side and discard the other as waste · The two sides being present at the same time cancel one another · The side that is incompatible with human physiology will cause harm.
Such was the case in the '1950's, with the "chirally incorrect" pharmaceutical called Thalidomide. In 1979 when the drug was finally chirally resolved, it was discovered that the left hand or L-form caused birth defects, while the right hand or D-form and the racemic DL-form both exhibited equal sedative ability.
So fundamental is the study and application of chiral chemistry to human biology that the pharmaceutical industry is already spending close to US$100 billion annually on these unique compounds. It is now clearly understood that many of the unfortunate side-effects of prescription drugs are caused by chiral incorrectness. Therefore, as individual pharmaceutical compound patents reach expiry, many of the corporate patent holders are choosing to re-patent only the chirally correct side of their discovery!
Chirality represents the last frontier in ingredient research and development for active biological compounds that ultimately end up in or on a human being!
Ever wonder why some products work and some don't?
Simply stated, if an active ingredient is chirally correct - meaning it has the right optical activity so as to be recognized and "fit" the chemistry of the human body, it will do the job it is intended to do. If the compound is not chirally correct, it won't work or worse yet . . . it will do actual harm.
As simple as it sounds, "chiral incorrectness" is the principal reason that mainstream skin care products can't deliver on their promises!
For example, naturally occurring Vitamin B5 is D-panthenol. Synthetic DL-panthenol, found as an ingredient on most shampoo labels, is virtually useless, since the L-isomer cancels out the effects and benefits of the D-isomer. It makes for wonderful label claim, but does little for the hair.
If a product formulation fails to consider the actual shape of the molecules that comprise its active ingredients, it cannot be effective on hair or a highly evolved, complex biochemical organ like human skin, whose very structure is chiral and therefore enantio-selective.
This is just one reason why iSO-Care products use only left-handed, chirally correct hydroxy acids (optically active L-lactic) in our exfoliation products, as opposed to optically inactive glycolic acid. Being achiral, glycolic acid is responsible for many reported ill side-effects including very serious free-radical cascade within the subcutaneous layers of the skin.
The term - cosmeceuticalsı - coined over the last few years - refers to products compounded with pharmacologically active ingredients that lie somewhere between cosmetics (that cover up) and pharamceuticals (that elicit physiological reactions). Because ingredients in such formulations are indeed 'active', it is irresponsible for any skin care company to be chirally ignorant when using highly active ingredients such as alpha and beta hydroxy acids, glycolics, vitamins, and enzymes.
To be truly effective in the skin yet not deliver damaging processes, product formulations must be chirally selective in the same way that the body is chirally selective (enantio-selective).
Chiral compounds and their properties are underlying every biochemical process in the human body. Even now at this point in our human evolutionary history, the biochemistry of the human body is becoming increasingly chirally selective and chirally pure.
The chirally correct active ingredients in iSO-Care are the very keys to the biomolecular locks within the skin - as only the right shape works. iSO-Care is the world's first line of skin care treatments that addresses the chiral-pure nature of the human body on a molecular level!
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