For the duration of the experiment, I consumed approximately 25mg doxycycline in the morning on top of my usual stack of supplements. Unfortunately, due to laziness and lack of time, I don’t have any objective observational data of the effects (i.e., comparative photos taken under identical conditions), so I’ll instead talk about how things appeared. I wouldn’t normally be satisfied with such subjective measurement, but the outcome was so resoundingly bad that I don’t think it matters! :/

Initially, I was perplexed that an ulcer I developed in my mouth was seeming to take far longer than normal to heal; however, this may have something to do with my expectation that healing, especially of oral wounds, would be accelerated.

The one important factor that I intended to measure was if doxycycline supplementation would do anything to increase the production of collagen in the skin. As someone who has experienced the obvious and profound (and positive) effect of oral retinoids on skin texture and quality, I was somewhat disappointed in doxycycline’s effect. Not only was there no (subjective) reduction in the number, severity, or depth of the photo-aging induced wrinkles on my face, but the doxycycline appeared to be making the condition worse!

About two weeks into the experimental period, I was continually dismayed every time I looked into the mirror at what appeared to be a ‘thinning’ of the skin on my face, particularly noticeable on my forehead, as well as more noticeable wrinkles and an overall reduction in any remnants of the youthful glow that Father Time has yet to wrestle from me. Even within the short duration of the experiment, the skin on my face started to take on that ‘papery’ stiffness one associates with the skin of the elderly.

It really was difficult to persist with the regimen in the face of what I felt to be outright failure of my idea, but I did anyway.

About ten days after ceasing the medication, I already feel my skin has mostly regained its normal texture, but I can’t be sure because I didn’t carry out any real quantitative analysis. It has definitely reverted to its normal elasticity.

All in all, I recommend not employing doxycycline to improve the quality of one’s skin. As for why this happened, I can only speculate. If we assume that doxycycline does in fact inhibit the breakdown of collagen, I suppose it could have caused a ’stiffening’ of the skin, which then caused it to appear more wrinkly and deeply lined. The perceived reduction in facial subcutaneous fat my have just been my interpretation of the changed texture. Perhaps it skews the ratio of collagen to elastin, again resulting in a reduced elasticity of the skin.

Regardless, I seem to have discovered for myself why there is apparently no research taking place regarding doxycycline as a potential ‘cosmaceutical’!

Which is to say, you’re less likely to get melanoma if you spend all day out in the sun smoking cigarettes. Of course, your chances of getting lung cancer will be greatly enhanced, but whatever.

It appeared to be the degree of ’skin aging’ – the loss of elastin and collagen that makes skin look old and saggy (a process that occurs sooner in smokers) – that conferred resistance to melanoma.

I don’t really know what to make of this! Personally, I’d avoid the cigarettes but continue with my fairly lax approach to UV protection. What do you think?

Here’s the abstract:

Skin aging from ultraviolet irradiance and smoking reduces risk of melanoma: epidemiological evidence.

Anticancer Res. 2008 Nov-Dec;28(6B):4003-8. PMID: 1919266

Grant WB.
Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center (SUNARC), P.O. Box 641603, San Francisco, CA 94164-1603, USA. wbgrant@infionline.net

Long-term smoking appears to be inversely correlated with development of melanoma. Chronic ultraviolet (UV) irradiance also reduces and/or delays the development of melanoma. Thus, a common process is indicated. To examine the link between smoking and melanoma, articles reporting the relation between incidence of lung cancer and melanoma for individuals were sought. A very strong inverse correlation (r = -0.96) was found between the standardized incidence ratios for lung cancer and melanoma, passing through the value of 1 for each with a slope of -0.74. Smoking increases skin aging or elastosis in a manner similar to that of UV irradiance. Development of elastosis seems to explain why long-term smoking and chronic UV irradiance reduce the risk of melanoma. Further work is required to elucidate the mechanism whereby elastosis retards and reduces the development of melanoma.

The article is reasonably technical, but I’ll summarize the results here:

Green tea polyphenol (GTP) supplementation in mice prevents photocarcinogenesis (i.e., skin cancer). I’ve not mentioned this before, so here’s a link to a review on the matter.

Salient points from above-mentioned review:

Extensive in vitro and in vivo studies have been conducted to determine the anti-UV carcinogenic effects of green tea. It has been found that the oral administration of GTPs (a mixture of polyphenolic components isolated from green tea) in the drinking water of mice results in significant protection against UV-induced skin carcinogenesis in terms of tumor incidence, tumor multiplicity and tumor size, compared to those mice that were not given GTPs in their drinking water.

The mice that were given crude water extracts of green tea as a sole source of drinking water developed a lesser number of tumors compared to those mice that were not given water extracts of green tea. The administration of GTPs in drinking water or the topical application of EGCG also induced partial regression or inhibition of the tumor growth of established skin papillomas in mice.

The researchers in this case showed that GTP supplementation in mice reduced the levels of inflammation markers cyclooxygenase-2, prostaglandin E2, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, and cyclin D1, and proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha, IL-6, and IL-1-beta. UVB-induced DNA damage was rapidly resolved in the GTP-supplemented mice compared with the wild type mice.

The major contribution of this study was that all these effects appear to be mediated through interleukin 12.

Personally, I have been supplementing with Now Foods EGCg Green Tea extract, available from bulknutrition.com. At 4 capsules per day, this is apparently equivalent to 12 cups of green tea. Hopefully this will keep me skin cancer free!

All study participants with recalcitrant leg ulcers saw rapidly improved healing following treatment with activated protein C.

The likely mechanism of action is activated protein C’s recognized ability to stimulate angiogenesis and reepithelialization and to inhibit inflammation.

What the hell is protein C? Protein C is an enzyme component of the chemical cascade that controls blood coagulation (clotting), except it works to break down clots. Protein C deficiency prepredisposes one to venous thrombosis and habitual abortion.