Melanin supplement - deeper tan

What is melanin?

Melanin is a pigment in the skin that protects you from the sun's dangerous rays. Melanin can absorb the sun's harmful rays and thus protect the skin. People with dark skin naturally have a higher amount of melanin in their skin than those with lighter skin.

Melanin production in the skin can increase over time, which means that you get better protection against the harmful UV rays. Melanin is the pigment that makes you tan beautifully and gives your skin a deeper tan that lasts longer.

Melanin is also the pigment that gives your hair and eyes their color. Melanin slows down the appearance of new gray hairs and contributes to the gradual re-pigmentation of the hair's natural color.

Why does the skin get tanned?

Tanning is actually a pigment change in the skin when it is exposed to ultraviolet radiation (UV). When the skin gets sunburned, the skin forms pigment (melanin) that absorbs more of the UV radiation and protects the skin. It is this pigment - melanin - that causes the skin to turn brown!

When you are in the sun, the skin tries to protect itself against the UV rays. Even if it's cloudy outside, the UV rays pass through the clouds and reach your skin.

It is important to protect your skin from sun damage caused by UV radiation. Natural components of the skin, such as melanin, can help the skin protect itself from the inside out!

Can a dietary supplement with melanin protect the skin and make it tan?

Melanin gives the skin its tanned look, while the amount of melanin increases with sunburn. In addition to making the skin tan, melanin also protects the skin from the sun's harmful UV rays! Simplified; the more melanin there is in the skin, the tanner we become and we also get a higher protection against UV rays; UV rays that can cause skin cancer and that our collagen breaks down.

What are melanin and keratin?

In the epidermis (epidermis) there are three types of cells. The cells that occur most are keratinocytes (90%). Keratinocytes manufacture keratin. These cells take up melanin from melanocytes, which are located in the bottom layer of the epidermis. (Interspersed between the keratinocytes are Langerhans cells that are part of the adaptive immune system).

In more detail, it can be said that skin pigmentation reflects an interaction between two cell types within an epidermal-melanin unit. Melanocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis synthesize melanin pigment in specialized membrane-bound compartments called melanosomes. The melanins in the melanosomes polymerize on an amyloid matrix to form a melanin core. Subsequently, melanin pigment is transferred from melanocyte dendrites to closely approximated keratinocytes in the basal epidermal layer. Keratinocytes store melanin in membrane-bound compartments and place them in a "helmet" that surrounds the nucleus to protect their DNA from UV radiation.

Melanin is a polymer that is made up of a chain of molecular parts, monomers. Melanocytes produce mainly two types of pigment: pheomelanin (red) and eumelanin (dark brown)

• Pheomelanin is a human melanin, which is found in smaller amounts in skin and hair. Light-skinned people have more pheomelanin than dark-skinned people. Pheomelanin contains the amino acid cysteine ​​which gives red/yellow color tones, and pheoalanine is very abundant in large quantities in red hair and also contributes to the reddish color of freckles.
• Eumelanin is the most common melanin in human skin and hair, and dark-skinned people have more eumelanin. Eumelanin colors hair from brown to black, and eumelanin is also the form of melanin that is usually missing in albinism.

Melanin is found in addition to the skin, also in the hair, in the retina, in the medulla of the kidney and in the zona reticularis of the adrenal gland, in the inner ear, and in some places in the brain.

What causes the melanin in the skin to increase?

When the skin is exposed to the sun's UVB radiation, it gradually forms a pigment, melanin, which protects against mainly UVB radiation, and causes the skin to tan. This production of melanin is called melanogenesis. The increased production of melanin is a reaction to the DNA damage caused by UV radiation. Melanogenesis leads to delayed tanning, which typically becomes visible two or three days after exposure.

UVA radiation does not cause sunburn, but reaches deeper into the skin and can break down the connective tissue protein collagen, which among other things accelerates skin aging, and makes the skin wrinkled and inelastic. If you have read our previous articles on collagen, you understand how important it is to protect this protein - for both your health and beauty! The UVA radiation causes the melanin formed from the UVB radiation to darken. UVA radiation can also release melanin from the melanocytes, but does not increase the amount of melanin in the body, as UVB radiation does.

The tan created by increased melanogenesis typically lasts a few weeks or months, much longer than the tan created by oxidation of previous melanin (what happens when the skin is exposed to UVA radiation), and is thus an effective protection against radiation damage from UV- radiation, and not just cosmetic.

Tanning through exposure to UVA radiation therefore does not lead to increased protection against sun damage. In order to get a true "melanogenesis tan" through UV radiation, the skin must first be exposed to some direct DNA damage. This requires UVB exposure.

Is it genetic that some people tan more easily?

Answer: YES! Some people have an easier time turning brown, which depends on the genes that cause melanin to be produced. In contrast, all people have roughly the same concentration of melanocytes in their skin, but the melanocytes of darker-skinned people express more of certain genes that cause melanin to be produced.

More specifically, melanin formation is a product of complex biochemical events starting from the amino acid tyrosine and its metabolite, dopa. The types and amounts of melanin produced by melanocytes are genetically determined and influenced by a range of factors, such as hormonal changes, inflammation, age and exposure to UV light. These stimuli affect the different pathways in melanogenesis.

What to eat to increase melanin production? What should you eat to get tanned more easily?

To increase melanin production in the skin, you can help the body a little along the way to increase the amount of this protective pigment. Nutrients may be the key to increasing melanin naturally in the skin. Here are some nutrients that can help your body produce more melanin. You can also take a food supplement with melanin.

Food supplements with melanin

Food supplements containing melanin protect the skin against UV radiation by improving the skin's natural protection, increase skin pigmentation and brownness by stimulating melanogenesis, intensify, accelerate and prolong the effect of browning, and regenerate the epidermis. Melanin also helps the hair roots to gradually restore the hair's natural color and slow down the development of new gray hairs by stimulating melanogenesis. Melanogenesis is the biochemical process in which the pigment melanin is formed, which gives hair its color. The speed of melanogenesis is controlled by the enzyme tyrosinase, which also determines how actively the cells form the melanin pigment.

Copper

Copper helps the body produce melanin, and likewise elastin which is another important component of the skin. Copper is needed in small amounts, but is such an important nutrient for our bodies. Copper is found in, among other things, oysters, liver and shellfish. Other foods that contain copper are plums, whole grains, dark leafy vegetables, potatoes and nuts.

Tyrosine

Tyrosine is an amino acid that is needed for the production of melanin. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, so you can find tyrosine in both plant and animal foods. Soy products, eggs, fish, cheese and turkey are all good sources of the amino acid tyrosine.

The speed of melanogenesis is controlled by the enzyme tyrosinase, which determines how active the cells are in forming melanin. The melanin is formed, as previously mentioned, by melanocytes in melanosomes, which are found, among other things, in the skin and in the hair roots.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants show the strongest potential for increasing melanin production. Micronutrients such as flavonoids or polyphenols, which come from the plants we eat, act as powerful antioxidants and can affect melanin production. Some of them increase melanin, while others can help reduce it. Eat more antioxidant-rich foods such as dark leafy greens, dark berries and colorful vegetables to get more antioxidants.

Do you want to get a tan without burning yourself or staying too long in the sun?

According to studies, you can get "a tanned look" just by eating vegetables. The color that contributes to the tanned look comes from carotenoids found in vegetables.

Many carotenoids are red, orange or yellow. These are found in large quantities in vegetables such as carrots and tomatoes and to a lesser extent in fruits such as apricots and mangoes. Because these pigments are fat-soluble, some accumulate under the skin and change skin color.

Carotenoids tend to yellow the skin. The color change from the tan, on the other hand, comes from an increase in the skin's melanin. Melanin darkens the skin and also increases the yellowness of the skin.

What is the best sunscreen?

Sunscreens in various forms are used more and more to protect against the sun's ultraviolet radiation, and are "the basics" when it comes to avoiding wrinkles and skin cancer. When the sun's rays reach the earth, it contains both UVA and UVB rays. It is mainly the UVB rays that cause sunburned skin, while the UVA rays, which have a longer wavelength, penetrate deeper into the skin and, among other things, contributes to premature aging of the skin. The sunscreens we use therefore need to protect against both UVA and UVB radiation. In 2006, the EU Commission drew up a recommendation to clarify the requirements placed on sun protection products. One of the requirements was, among other things, that they must protect against all kinds of solar radiation, both UVA and UVB.

Can you counteract the premature aging of the skin when you sunbathe?

Yes, you can take a food supplement with collagen to prevent the skin from aging prematurely when you sunbathe.

Wrinkles are mostly a result of UVA radiation. The UVA rays won't burn you through a window, but will age your skin - which is because glass absorbs all the UVB rays, but not all the UVA rays. The UVA rays break down the skin's collagen.

Can you get sunburned through a window pane?

The answer is generally no. Sunburn is caused by UV radiation that lies between visible light and X-ray radiation.

UV radiation is divided into three variants:

• UVA – wavelength between 315–400 nanometers, is the least energetic part of UV radiation. At the same time, it is the one that has the easiest time penetrating different materials. This radiation also reaches a little further down into our skin, and breaks down the beauty protein collagen. As also mentioned above, it is the UVA rays that cause the pigment melanin to darken, so that we get a beautiful tan. But it is not the UVA rays, but the UVB rays that stimulate the skin to form new melanin.

• UVB – wavelength between 280–315 nanometers, relatively high in energy. It is this radiation that causes us to burn if we sunbathe too much. The UVB radiation is partially filtered out by the ozone layer in the atmosphere, so that only part of the UVB radiation reaches the earth's surface.
• UVC – wavelength shorter than 280 nanometers, which is extremely strong. But this does not reach the earth's surface because it is absorbed by the atmosphere (not only by the ozone layer, but by the entire atmosphere).

Ordinary window glass lets most of the UVA rays through, but almost no UVB rays. The melanin we already have in our skin can therefore darken if we sunbathe through a window pane, but then the process stops.

A few quick ones about UV radiation

• There are three types of UV radiation: UVA, B and C
• Cancer, sun damage is likely a result of UVB radiation
• Wrinkles are mostly a result of UVA radiation. The UVA rays won't burn you through a window, but will age your skin - which is because glass absorbs all the UVB rays, but not all the UVA rays. The UVA rays break down the skin's collagen
• You can get sunburned on a cloudy day because the UVB rays can penetrate the clouds