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Ep 293 – The Rogue Pharmacist: Caffeine and Your Complexion – the Skin Health Debate
00:12:28
While a daily cup of joe is a lifeline for many, it’s possible that caffeine may have affects on skin wellness and gut health. In this episode of The Rogue Pharmacist, Ben Fuchs delves into the differences between various sources of caffeine,...
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- [00:00]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
Calling all forward thinking estheticians, it's time to redefine the art of skincare and embrace a revolutionary approach that begins with your clients. Skin Cell Health. I'm pharmacist Benjamin Knife Fuchs WELcoming you to Truth Treatment Systems where beauty begins. At the cell we believe you're not just a beauty professional, you are a healthcare professional. You want to make a positive difference and you want to make a good living and we will help you do both. We're here to support your out of the box thinking and empower you to question traditional products, outdated formulations and old school ingredients. Imagine a world where solutions to the skin's enigmatic conditions lie just beyond the horizon. At Truth, we're not just a skincare brand. We're a movement that encourages you to explore better solutions and find that aha moment that changes the game. You are an artist and a healer of the skin and we're here to provide the canvas and the tools for you to create tailored protocols leaving generic ones in the past. Sign up now@Truth TreatmentsPro.com and receive two complimentary mineral rich electrolyte sheet masks. That's TruthTreatmentsPro.com where healthy skin is beautiful skin.
- [01:09]
Maggie Stasik
This podcast is sponsored by Lamp Probe. Lamp Probe is a popular esthetic tool that enables skincare practitioners to rapidly treat a wide variety of common minor skin irregularities. Or red. MSI treated by Lamprobe include dilated capillaries and cherry angiomas, yellow MSI cholesterol deposits and sebaceous hyperplasia and brown MSI treated include skin tags and more. Lamprobe MSI treatments are non invasive and deliver immediate results. Lamprobe can empower your skin practice with these new and highly in demand services. For more information visit lampprobe.com that's L A M P R O B E dot com and follow Lamp Probe on social media. Lampprobe.
- [02:04]
C
Hello and welcome to ASCP and the Rogue Pharmacist with Benjamin Knight Fuchs. In each episode we'll explore how internal and external factors can impact the skin. I'm Maggie Stasik, ASCP's program director and joining me is Ben Fuchs, skincare formulator and pharmacist. Hi Ben.
- [02:18]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
Hello, Maggie.
- [02:19]
C
So here's the facts. I can't live without my cup of joe. It's my source of life, literally. But I know it has to have a negative impact on my skin health, if not my gut health.
- [02:33]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
Maybe, maybe, maybe not. Okay, all right, well, do you like coffee or do you like caffeine?
- [02:38]
C
Ah okay, coffee.
- [02:40]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
You like to taste coffee. Is it because you associate the coffee with pick me up?
- [02:45]
C
Well, it's all the things I like. The morning ritual.
- [02:47]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
The ritual.
- [02:48]
C
I like the pick me up.
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Benjamin Knight Fuchs
It's warm.
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C
I like the taste.
- [02:51]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
Yes. Yeah, but you didn't like the taste when you first started drinking it. Probably.
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C
You know what, I don't know. That started a little long time ago.
- [02:58]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
When you were a little kid.
- [02:59]
C
Yep.
- [02:59]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
Well, caffeine's very, coffee's very bitter. So chances are it's an acquired taste. But because of the pick me up and the mood enhancing benefits and the nootropic or brain enhancing benefits are, and learning benefits, if you will, we start to link that bitter taste to something pleasurable. And so while it may taste bitter and kids pretty much aren't going to drink coffee, little kids, unless they've been trained to or acculturated to, mostly it's an adult thing. And I remember my mom used to try to kiss me with coffee breath. And I just found that the most repulsive thing. And to this day I've never tasted coffee. Really, I never even tasted it.
- [03:35]
C
Oh my gosh.
- [03:36]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
I just can't, I can't get over that horrible, that horrible taste, that horrible kind of smell that's associated with it. But tea is very light and delicate. And in fact, green tea, which is a source of caffeine, is incredibly healthy. There's so many benefits to green tea, both topically and internally. But caffeine, you know, you feel good when you get a little caffeine in your system. And that's because it's, it is a pick me up. And it has some really interesting effects at the very most fundamental level of awakeness, which involves a molecule called ATP, which you may have heard of. I think we've talked about ATP in the past. But topically it turns out caffeine has got some really interesting properties above and beyond the whole pick me up thing. Caffeine is on the skin. It's a vasodilator, meaning it opens up blood vessels when you apply topically. And this accounts for improved circulation on the skin and improved. When you have improved circulation, you get improved oxygenation, improved nutrient delivery. So it's become somewhat of a thing in skincare products. Not a lot, but 2, 3%. Caffeine has become kind of a sort of a bioactive ingredient that is used in certain skincare products. What's confusing about caffeine is some of the benefits of caffeine are due to its vasoconstricting properties. Now remember, the vasoconstriction and vasodilating effects are above and beyond the pick me up thing. The pick me up thing involves ATP. And that's, that's separate from what we're talking about. The vasoconstricting and vasodilating effects are really where caffeine's got some very interesting properties. Now you may know that caffeine's used to treat headaches and Excedrin, and there are prescription drugs for migraine headaches that contain caffeine. A lot of folks will drink a little bit of caffeine when they get a migraine. That's because caffeine has a vasoconstricting effect on the blood vessels in the head. But the same molecule has a vasodilating effect on other parts of the body, particularly the skin. And this accounts for caffeine's ability to improve circulation. Microcirculation, they say, on the skin. And that's why people, that's why it's used in skincare products, topical skincare products. But caffeine is pleiotropic, meaning it has multiple benefits. In addition to the ATP benefits that keep you awake and in addition to the vasoconstricting benefits that are good for treating headaches and in addition to the vasodilating treatments that are important for improving microcirculation in the skin, whether it's the face or the body. Caffeine, it turns out, is a very powerful antioxidant and it can be used for its antioxidant benefits to prevent oxidation for anti aging. But it's even more than that. Caffeine has anti inflammatory effects, so it can be used to treat inflammation, particularly inflammation like puffiness that occur in the skin or puffiness that occurs under the eyes. But it's even better than that. Caffeine also has UV protection benefits, ultraviolet protection benefits. This is both topically applied and taken internally. And its vasodilating effects are also helpful for male pattern baldness for treat or female pattern baldness for that, for that matter, also. And you can treat alopecia by using topical caffeine. Now, these topical benefits are not necessarily going to accrue when you take caffeine internally. So these are specifically for topical, for if you want to take advantage of caffeine topically also, then this is using caffeine internally as well as topically. It's anti cellulite. It helps protect the accumulation of fat inside cells. And so caffeine can be used as a topical cellulite treatment. You can make your own caffeine products with coffee. You can make a take your coffee and put it into your favorite cream or coffee grounds and put it into your favorite cream. You can get caffeine pills and you can grind them up and put them in your favorite cream or lotion, or you can make toners with it. Personally, I like products that are made with caffeine that contain caffeine in it, so you don't have to actually make it yourself. But we make caffeine products in the lab all the time, on a prescription, as well as over the counter. And we have caffeine toners and caffeine creams that we sell to wholesalers as well. If you're going to do caffeine internally, it's probably a good idea to take some days off. And you may have noticed this, that the caffeine doesn't work as well over time. But if you take a day off from caffeine, or you take a couple days off from caffeine, you go camping or you go on vacation or whatever, and then you do your caffeine, boom, you'll get an incredible buzz also. And I don't know if you do this, but if you wait a while to do your caffeine in the morning, you get better effects. If you take your caffeine first thing in the morning, like you wake up and you go right to the coffee and start drinking it, it's not as effective as if you wait a couple of hours and do your caffeine, you'll get a much better buzz from the caffeine. If you've already started your day and then you do your caffeine.
- [08:13]
C
Why is that?
- [08:14]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
Why is that? Because the ATP effects are more prominent after you've been moving around for a while. First thing, when you first get out of bed, you don't get the same kind of ATP benefits as if your body has been moving and the ATP is being generated. So wait an hour or two hours and you'll notice that you get, you'll get a better buzz from your caffeine. And if you're starting to notice that you're plateauing from your caffeine, you want to take some days off. The downside on caffeine is it is a powerful stimulant and it can be cardiotoxic. It can affect hypertension, high blood pressure, it can burn out your adrenal glands. In essence, it's like a type of speed. So it is a good idea to take. I don't know if you've ever done this, to take a day off from caffeine and then the best way to cat, the best way to get your caffeine, I should say this coffee is a very medicinal drink. In fact, some of the ingredients in coffee that are not exactly caffeine but are similar to caffeine are used pharmaceutically to treat asthma. There's a product.
- [09:15]
C
Oh, interesting.
- [09:16]
Benjamin Knight Fuchs
Yeah, there's a product called theophylline. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. Theophylline is similar to caffeine and there's other ingredients in coffee that were used like a thousand years ago and 1500 years ago by Native Americans and indigenous populations to have spiritual experiences. And in fact, one of these ingredients that's in coffee which is similar to caffeine is called theobromine, which means food of the gods. And that's because people would do this theobromine and they actually, I don't think they drink the coffee. They'd actually do the coffee bean. And theobromine and caffeine like compounds are found in chocolate too, in the cacao bean. And they would actually have hallucinogenic and psychedelic and psychoactive experiences by using the theobromine that they got from coffee and they got from chocolate. And so it could very well be that one of the reasons why we like coffee so much, and chocolate for that matter, is because of its psychoactive properties. The best beverage with caffeine is going to be green tea by far and away, because green tea contains powerful, powerful antioxidants in addition to the caffeine. And it doesn't have as much caffeine as coffee either. In fact, green tea is the most dry after water. It's the most indulged in beverage in the world. You should probably not do the energy drinks with caffeine. The energy drinks have got mega amounts of caffeine in it. For example, coffee has about maybe a cup of coffee have like 90 to 180 to 100 milligrams. Somewhere in there of caffeine. Tea is about 30 or 40 milligrams of caffeine. If you do espresso, you may get like 140 or 150 milligrams of caffeine. But these Red Bulls, and it's a monster and Rockstar, they have hundreds of milligrams of caffeine. And sometimes people are doing two or three of those a day or even more. Coke and Pepsi and soda pop, they tend to spike those things with caffeine and a lot of weight loss pills will have caffeine in them because the stimulating effects of caffeine have anti anti appetite effects or immune appetite suppressant effects. So people will use them for weight loss pills. If you have a weight loss pill or an energy pill, chances are pretty good that weight loss pill or that energy pill has caffeine in it. And so a lot of times drinks that are supposed to be good for you, like have, have stimulant herbs in them. They'll spike it with caffeine to really get things going, because we human beings cannot get enough caffeine. As you know, if you do something called theanine or another, which is a nutrient, or you do something called holy basil, which is an herb that can take the edge off of your caffeine. So both theanine and holy basil taken with caffeine can give you some of the caffeine benefits without that jitteriness that caffeine can cause. And this can be especially important for people using high doses of caffeine.
- [12:09]
C
That concludes our show for today, and we thank you for listening. But if you just can't get enough of Ben Fuchs, the ASCP's rogue pharmacist, you can find him at Truth Treatment. For more information on this episode, or for ways to connect with Ben Fuchs or to learn more about ascp, check out the show notes.