Clinical trials important to support Anti-aging Claims
Posted by Charls Gerg on May 14th, 2016
There has been a lot of development in skin care formulations and also extensive clinical trial advancements in the Anti-Aging Industry. This has led to vigorous gains within Personal Care Products Sector. Currently if one observes, the beauty store shelves are filled with the latest skincare products promising to make a person look years younger. But which of these anti-aging formulas must be really working? What is the best anti aging cream? What is the best anti aging night cream? What is the difference between an anti aging face cream and an anti wrinkle night cream? With so many products but so few results it’s hard to believe what’s true and what’s just another attention-grabber.
As a consumer you must first understand what type of skin you have; oily, dry, normal, or combination. Further, to find the best anti aging cream, you have to understand which ingredients will best treat your specific problems; like wrinkles, age spots, or dry, blotchy skin etc. Wrinkles and fine lines are universal problems that start to appear in 30’s. Even at age 30, many women have never considered their skin type, and instead relied on recommendations from friends or Celebrity endorsed products. But in order to choose the best anti aging cream, understanding skin type is just as important as knowing which ingredients to look for. Also if the claim made by anti-aging product shows evidence of it being true through Clinical trial.
Now- a -days both consumers and the regulatory authorities are becoming more demanding in asking for proof of the efficacy claims made by manufacturers of personal care and healthcare products. Food and Drug Administration is taking on the cosmetic industry and some of the exaggerated claims being made for some of the products. Some companies cite scientific evidence that anti-aging ingredients work, but they do not provide Clinical trial data or some evidence to show that the product contains enough of the substances to have an effect. However, it is always possible for an anti-aging cream manufacturer company to stand by the efficacy of the products which are proven by scientific testing and clinical trials.
Clinical trial to prove efficacy of the anti-aging formulations is commonly evaluated by non-invasive instrumentation techniques and skin image analyses. Parameters like hydration of stratum corneum, trans-epidermal water loss, skin color etc are also evaluated through instrumentation. One of the most important technique is 3D images analysis of crow’s feet area through Fringe Projection system. Here live images of wrinkles at the crows feet area are captured before and after treatment to see the difference. To have more accuracy silicon imprints of crows feet are taken pre and post treatment and analyzed through Fringe projection system to evaluate the decrease in wrinkle depth of the particular area of measurement.
There are many clinical trial protocols and technologies available to support an anti-aging claim. Novel methods and new instrumentation are continually being developed. In the past many cosmetic claims were considered “puffery” i.e emotional claims (feels better, happy, sensuous etc.) for which substantiation was not required. However both marketing research and technological methodologies have evolved so as to permit a more objective evaluation of these claims.
Subjective and Objective assessment of an anti-aging claim through clinical trials has now become necessary to provide evidence. Therefore these clinical trials should be conducted in controlled manner so that it can withstand the review of regulatory authorities such as FDA and also consumers.
