INBODY 1

Collagen is a natural protein that provides our bodies with structural support. Twenty-five per cent of the dry protein weight of the human body is collagen —the fibrous, elastic, connective tissue in our bodies that holds us together. Seventy-five per cent of our skin is made up of collagen, providing texture, resiliency, and shape. Collagen also provides tensile properties to the skin so as to allow it to serve as a protective organ against external trauma.

 

With aging, and as a result of exposure to the sun, our collagen fibre components begin to weaken, become less pliant and more hardened. The result is the development of dry, wrinkled skin that has lost its inherent elasticity

Further from our late twenties, you will no longer produce all the collagen you need to repair your body.

 

CK contains a high quality Hydrolised Collagen, which is a rich source of the primary amino acids that make up the collagen molecule – glycine, proline, hydroxyproline, lysine and hydroxylysine. As a concentrated source of these amino acids, Hydrolised Collagen is thought to help nourish the collagen-containing tissues throughout the body – tissues such as cartilage, bones, tendons, ligaments and skin and thus providing an improvement in the skin's elasticity and suppleness and in turn reducing lines & wrinkles. 

 

Keratin on the other hand is the component, which gives the skin strength and flexibility and serves to provide a waterproof barrier; Keratin is 2% of our skin tissue. As with collagen the older we get the less we regenerate Keratin and in turn less protection is afforded.

 

Complex K is a natural Keratin, which has significant antioxidant activity (4158 micro moles TEAC/100g*) and is a naturally protected form of cysteine. There are many health benefits associated with the ability of cysteine derivatives to prevent oxidative stress and assist the body’s intracellular antioxidant, glutathione, to prevent and repair damage associated with free radical attack.

Complex K is an intact form of keratin isolated using a mild process that maintains the integrity of the amino acid cysteine in a naturally protected form.  Complex K is derived from pure New Zealand wool to food quality standard using a process in which animals are unharmed. Complex K is the most desirable natural source of cysteine available provides the skin with the building blocks to assist bind the components of the skin together (to strengthen) and aid in the synthesis of Collagen.

 

Cysteine the major component in Keratin has been the subject of numerous studies;

 

1. Respiratory diseases (2-6)

A number of studies had shown that cysteine and its derivatives can help dissolve mucus, loosen phlegm and improve symptoms associated with chronic bronchitis, asthma, cystic fibrosis and emphysema. Chronic smokers also can benefit from cysteine derivative supplementation. Studies, involving a total of about 1,400 individuals, suggest that NAC taken daily at a dose of 400 to 1,200 mg can reduce the number of acute attacks of severe bronchitis.

* Measurement based on ATBS radical scavenging assay of dilute aqueous solution

 

2. Angina Pectoris

Cysteine derivatives can reduce incidence of heart attacks and other severe heart problems when combined with nitroglycerin (7).

 

3. Colon Cancer Prevention

A double-blind placebo-controlled study showed potential anticancer benefits of NAC treatment. Taking NAC at 800 mg daily for 12 weeks resulted in observations of more normal cells in biopsy tissue as compared to those in the placebo group (8).

 

4. AIDS/HIV

CD4 lymphocytes are known to decline with the progression of AIDS. Many treatment modalities incorporate procedures to enhance immune function, including the evaluation and monitoring of glutathione and CD4 lymphocyte function. Cysteine derivatives may increase levels of CD4 cells in healthy people and slow CD4+ cell decline in people with HIV (9,10).

 

5. Breast cancer

Zhang et al conducted a prospective nested case-control study among 32,826 women who provided blood specimens during 1989–1990. They found higher plasma total cysteine concentrations were significantly associated with a lower risk of breast cancer. The findings from this prospective study suggest that higher plasma concentrations of total cysteine predict a reduced risk of breast cancer. Cysteine or its precursors might have the potential to be chemopreventive against breast cancer (11).

 

6. Acetaminophen (paracetamol) Poisoning (12,13)

NAC is commonly administered oral or intravenous to prevent or reduce liver and kidney damage associated with overdose of acetaminophen.

 

7. Cervical dysplasia

Cervical dysplasia is a premalignant or precancerous change to the cells of the cervix. Low levels of cysteine may be linked to an increased risk of cervical dysplasia (14).

 

8. Acute respiratory distress syndrome

Cysteine derivatives may be helpful in acute respiratory distress syndrome by increasing the lungs surfactants (15).

 

9. Protection of the kidney

Radiologists often administer contrast agents in order to get more information from certain types of x-rays, which can be damaging to the kidney. Cysteine derivatives can help protect the kidney from such damage (16).

 

10. Sjogren's syndrome

This syndrome is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system destroys moisture-producing glands. Thus, patients have following symptoms, dry eyes, dry mouth, difficulty swallowing, severe dental cavities caused by dry mouth, oral yeast infections, and vaginal dryness, etc. When NAC is administrated, it helps the body make antioxidant enzyme glutathione. It is also thought to help loosen secretions, and for this reason it has been tried as a treatment for Sjogren’s syndrome (17).

 

11. Cancer prevention

European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) chemoprevention study chose NAC in curatively treated patients with oral, laryngeal, or lung cancer because NAC is showed the ability to exert protective effects, including extracellular inhibition of mutagenic agents from exogenous and endogenous sources, inhibition of genotoxicity of reactive oxygen species, modulation of metabolism coordinated with blocking of reactive metabolites, protection of DNA and nuclear enzymes, and prevention of the formation of carcinogen-DNA adducts. NAC has also demonstrated an effect on mutagen-induced chromosomal sensitivity assays, and on anticarcinogenicity in experimental animal models. In addition, preliminary data from EUROSCAN show good compliance in treated patients and a low frequency of side effects (18).

 

12. Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C virus is an RNA virus that replicates in both the liver and lymphoid cells. Interferon-alpha (IFN) is a useful treatment of chronic hepatitis C. However, resistance to IFN occurs frequently. NAC administrated to IFNunresponsive patients resulted in an improvement in liver enzyme activity in all patients, with complete normalization in 41% of cases after 5-6 months of combined therapy (19). Administration of NAC alone for 1 month was without effect in the patients that were not receiving IFN (19).

 

13. Hearing improvement

Cysteine derivatives have been found to prevent damage to the inner ear by chemotherapy in the laboratory (20). Balli et al. found NAC may be useful in enhancing the functional effects of surgery in serous otitis media. They found hearing had improved more significantly in the group taking NAC than in the control group. These findings indicated the pharmacological effect of oral NAC

in the middle ear, and showed that it enhanced recovery of hearing (21).  The three main causes of hearing loss -- noise, ototoxic drugs and aging. All of these involve the common factor of oxidative stress, either through increased free radical formation or reduced antioxidant availability. Therefore, cysteine derivatives, as antioxidants, have the potential to reduce hearing

 

14. Eye disorders

Cysteine derivatives may be beneficial for individuals with chronic posterior blepharitis, a common inflammatory condition of the inner eyelid. The abnormality of the tear film that occurs in people with blepharitis may be a result of oxidation damage of certain key molecules produced by the

meibomian glands; resulting in increased evaporation of tears and dryness and irritation of the eyes. NAC protects the tear film by increasing glutathione levels in the eye (22).

 

15. Detoxification effects

L-cysteine can help neutralize heavy metal toxins and toxic by-products of smoking, smog, alcohol and fats (23). Toxic metals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury, usually will find their way to the liver. The liver then binds the metals with cysteine and other amino acids and releases them into the bile, which will find its way to the bowel (24). Under normal circumstances, the metals are usually re-absorbed back into the system. Cysteine and other amino acid can bind to heavy metals and carry them out of the body.

 

16. Autism

Autism, which occurs in approximately 15 of 10,000 individuals, is a developmental disability and affects functioning of the brain. Cysteine can stabilize the secretin preparation and may help autistic children who are receiving secretin (25).

 

SAFETY INFORMATION

Keratin is found in abundance in humans and their diet. Keratin has an estimated acute oral toxicity (LD50 oral pig) >2g/kg (26), and a No Observed Effect level of 0.35g/kg/day (27). Low or no effects have been observed with regards to chronic toxicity, carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, sensitisation, irritation and pharmacokinetics

 

 

REFERENCES

(1) JW Olney, OL Ho. (1970). Brain damage in infant mice following oral intake of glutamate, aspartate or cysteine. Nature 1970; 227:609–10.

(2)GC Riise, et al. (1994). The intrabronchial microbial flora in chronic bronchitis patients: a target for N-acetylcysteine therapy? European Respiratory Journal. 7:94-101.

(3) EM Grandjean, et al. (2000). Efficacy of oral long-term N-acetylcysteine in chronic bronchopulmonary disease: a meta-analysis of published doubleblind,placebo-controlled clinical trials. Clinical Therapy. 22:209-221. (4) NCG Hansen, et al. (1994). Orally administered N-acetylcysteine may improve general well-being in patients with mild chronic bronchitis. Respiratory Medicine. 88:531-535.

(5) JB Rasmussen, C Glennow. (1988). Reduction in days of illness after long-term treatment with N-acetylcysteine controlled-release tablets in patients with chronic bronchitis. European Respiratory Journal. 1:351-355.

(6) GD Parr, A Huitson. (1987). Oral fabrol (oral N-acetylcysteine) in chronic bronchitis. British Journal of Diseases of Chest. 81:341-348.

(7) D Ardissino, et al. (1997). Effect of transdermal nitroglycerin or Nacetylcysteine,or both, in the long-term treatment of unstable angina pectoris. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 29:941-947.

(8) RD Estensen, et al. (1999). N-acetylcysteine suppression of the proliferative index in the colon of patients with previous adenomatous colonic polyps. Cancer Letters. 147:109-114.

(9) R Kinscherf, et al. (1994). Effect of glutathione depletion and oral N-acetylcysteine treatment on CD4+ and CD8+ cells. FASEB Journal. 8:448-451.

(10)B Akerlund, et al. (1996). Effect of N-acetylcystine (NAC) treatment on HIV-1 infection: a double-blind placebo-controlled trial. European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 50:457-461.

(11) Shumin Zhang, et al. (2003). A prospective study of plasma total cysteine and risk of breast cancer. Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. 12, 1188-1193,

(12) LP James, et al. (2003) Effect of N-Acetylcysteine on Acetaminophen Toxicity in Mice: Relationship to Reactive Nitrogen and Cytokine Formation.Toxicological Sciences 75(2): 458-467.

(13) K Shankar, et al. (2003). Type 1 Diabetic Mice Are Protected from Acetaminophen Hepatotoxicity. Toxicological Sciences. 73(2): 220 - 234.

(14) MT Goodman. (2000). Case-control study of plasma folate,homocysteine, vitamin B12, and cysteine as markers of cervical dysplasia.Cancer. 89(2):376-382.

(15) GR Bernard, et al. (1997). A trial of antioxidants N-acetylcysteine and procysteine in ARDS. The Antioxidant in ARDS Study Group. Chest.112:164–172.

(16) M Tepel, et al. (2000). Prevention of radiographic-contrast-agent-induced reductions in renal function by acetylcysteine. New England Journal ofMedicine. 343:180–184.

(17) MT Walters, et al. (1986). A double-blind, cross-over, study of oral Nacetylcysteine in Sjogren's syndrome. Scand J Rheumatol Suppl. 61:253-258.

(18) N De Vries, S De Flora. (1993). N-acetyl-l-cysteine. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry. Supplement. 17F:270-277.

(19) O Beloqui, et al. (1993). N-acetyl cysteine enhances the response to interferon-alpha in chronic hepatitis C: a pilot study. Journal of Interferon Research. 13:279-282.

(20) JG Feghali, et al. (2001) L-n-acetyl-cysteine protection against cisplatin induced auditory neuronal and hair cell toxicity. Laryngoscope. 111(7):1147-55.

(21) R Balli. (1980). Controlled trial on the use of oral acetylcysteine in the treatment of glue-ear following drainage. European Journal of Respiratory Diseases. 61, Suppl 111;158.

(22) E Yalcin, et al. (2002). N-acetylcysteine in chronic blepharitis. Cornea.21:164-168.

(23) S De Flora, et al. (2001). Mechanisms of N-acetylcysteine in the prevention of DNA damage and cancer, with special reference to smoking related end-points. Carcinogenesis, 22(7): 999 – 1013.

(24) ER Braverman, et al ed. (2003). The healing nutrients within: facts,findings, and new research on amino acids. Basic Health Publications Inc.(25) SL Connors, et al. (1999). Secretin and autism: the role of cysteine.

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.38:795-796.

(26) JK Apple, CB Boger, DC Brown, CV Mxwell, KG Friessen, WJ Roberts,ZB Johnson. Effect of feather meal on live animal performance and carcass quality and composition of growing finishing swine, J. Anim. Sci. 81: 172-81, 2003.

(27) TW Loy, GP Lardy, ML Bauer, WD Slanger, JS Caton. Effects of supplementation on intake an growth of nursing calves grazing native range in southeastern North Dakota, J. Anim. Sci 80: 2717-25, 2002.