There are many popular misconceptions about caffeine that prevent a large amount of people from experiencing its amazing health benefit. Caffeine has been wrongly accused as a cause for numerous health problems, including fibrocystic breast, “adrenal fatigue”, hypertension and more.
Fortunately; for coffee lovers, the same studies that have attempted to gather evidence to prove coffee’s harmful effects, ended up finding the opposite to be true.
For example, studies have found that consuming coffee can reduce inflammatory substances like serotonin, while increasing the production of protective substances like carbon dioxide. Consuming coffee has also been found to stimulate the production of protective hormones like pregnenolone, progesterone and thyroid hormones. Other studies have found that coffee drinkers have a lower incidence of diseases like thyroid cancer, liver disease, Parkinson’s disease and more. 1,2,3,4
Given the health promoting properties of caffeine, it would only make physiological sense that it has beautifying properties as well. After all, the condition of the skin, hair and nails is directly related to the condition of one’s health, overall. And as it turns out, caffeine does indeed have multiple mechanisms of action that support and improve the health of the one’s physical appearance.
How Caffeine Supports ‘Natural Beauty’
If you are familiar with our company, you might have noticed that we like to use caffeine in our products. This is due to the fact that caffeine has high biological activity, an ability to penetrate the skin barrier and broadrange benefits to both the skin and hair.
In addition to the many health benefits of consuming caffeine, it also has topical uses that can improve the health of the skin and hair specifically. Studies have found that topical caffeine solutions between 1-3% can provide numerous “beauty benefits”, including:
- Anti-cellulite properties: Topical caffeine can improve cellulite in a number of ways. First by increasing the rate of metabolism in the skin cells, which improves fat metabolism and prevents excessive accumulation of fat in skin cells. Caffeine is also an anti-estrogen, and too much estrogen in the skin tissue can cause cellulite. Estrogen weakens the skin tissue by increasing the skin cell’s affinity to water. Additionally, estrogen makes the skin less elastic by increasing the production of the enzyme hyaluronidase. This is the enzyme that breaks down hyaluronic acid, which is needed for the production of elastin. These effects combined can contribute to cellulite by weaken the skin matrix, making the skin less elastic and increase the appearance of fat cells as they “bulge” to the surface. Caffeine has potent antioxidant properties. 5
- Anti-Aging: Topical caffeine can help preserve the skin’s youthfulness in a number of ways. Studies have found that it helps protect skin cells against the UV-damage and slows down the process of photoaging of the skin that might otherwise cause wrinkles and age spots. Moreover, caffeine applied topically increases the microcirculation of blood in the skin, which helps to improve the appearance and health of the skin. In fact, studies have found that topically applied caffeine can decrease the appearance of sun spots, redness, and fine lines caused by photoaging.
- Anti-Wrinkle: The improved microcirculation is one of the way topical caffeine has been found to improve the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Additionally, topical application of caffeine from ground coffee was found to significantly reduced the UVB-induced wrinkle formation in mice dorsal skin. Caffeine achieves this effect by exerting potent antioxidant effects and by promoting normal collagen synthesis. 6
- Balances Skin Tone: Caffeine works to vasodilate the blood vessels, which can help to increase blood flow to the skin. Applied under the eye, this might help to combat dark circles and uneven skin tone.
- Anti-Cancer: Studies have found that topical application of caffeine has a proapoptotic effect on UVB-irradiated mouse skin. In other words, the use of topical caffeine helps to induce cell death in cancerous and tumorigenic cells, thus eradicating and inhibiting the proliferation of cancerous skin cells. Additionally, not many people realize that coffee (a rich source of caffeine) is also a rich source of vitamin B3 (niacinamide). Coffee contains trigonelline, which breaks down into niacinamide after coffee beans have been roasted. Niacinamide may be helpful in preventing non-melanoma skin cancers and can possibly prevent other skin growth by inhibiting lipolysis and the liberation of free fatty acids. This is one of the many reasons we add niacinamide to Mane Stay, in addition to caffeine. 7
- Sun-Block effect: Another way topical caffeine benefits the skin is by acting as a natural sun-block. Although we recommended getting enough sunlight daily for optimal health, too much of a good thing can be harmful. This is especially true for sun exposure. Too much sun exposure can obviously cause burning, which depending on a persons diet and the level of unsaturated fats in their skin, may cause skin cancer, photo-aging and skin damage. Fortunately, studies have found that topical caffeine not only inhibits UV-damage but has a natural sun-blocking effect, reducing sun burn when applied before sun exposure. 8
- Hair Growth: In addition to improve skin health, topical caffeine also improves hair growth. There are a number of studies that have proven that topical caffeine in concentrations of 0.001% and 0.005% can inhibit hair loss in people with “androgenic alopeica”. At the same time, topical caffeine leads to a significant stimulation of hair follicle growth, improved hair thickness/fullness and can even activate dormant (tolgen) hair follicles, putting them into an active/growth phase (anagen). These are a few of the reasons we offer Mane Stay as a 1% caffeine solution, which provides the optimal dose of caffeine for proven hair growth effects. 9,10
The Bottom Line
Although caffeine is often highly demonized and considered a drug-like substance; the truth is, caffeine is adaptogenic nutrient with many health and beauty benefits. As you have learned, caffeine is a multipurpose alkaloid that offers a variety of benefits to one’s health and physical appearance.
According to our research on topical caffeine, the dose is very important. Generally speaking, too much can have adverse or reduced effects. For example, in studies on caffeine for hair growth, research found that a solution of 1% produced the best results, and solutions of 5% were actually less effective.
A safe way to not get too much caffeine would be to use “spent” grounds in DIY masks, which have less caffeine. However, to be 100% safe and effective, we suggest trying Mane Stay, which contains exactly 1% caffeine for optimal effects. You can also try Lush and Glo, which also contain a 1% caffeine concentration for all the benefits you learned about today.
