A ‘Super Antioxidant’ From Algae for Sunscreen?

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10/15/2022

Updated:

11/17/2022

Even though they live by photosynthesis, algae can get too much sun, just as humans can. When faced with difficult conditions, including excessive sun, algae protect themselves by making a compound called astaxanthin.

“Astaxanthin is a ketocarotenoid, super antioxidant molecule,” wrote researchers in a 2022 review published in the Journal of Basic Microbiology.

“It has higher antioxidant activity than a range of carotenoids, [and] thus has applications in cosmetics, aquaculture, nutraceuticals, therapeutics, and pharmaceuticals,” they wrote, adding that it was “one of the high-valued microalgae products of the future.”

Astaxanthin is in the same biochemical class as beta carotene, found in carrots and other orange foods. But astaxanthin, first identified in lobsters, comes from the marine biosystem.

Lobsters don’t actually produce the pigment. They get it from consuming a species of algae called Haematococcus pluvialis, which then gives the crustaceans their red hue. In fact, this distinctive color produced from consuming the algae is also found in salmon, flamingoes, shrimp, and many other red-colored aquatic life.

H. pluvialis is a form of microalgae, made up of tiny individual units that live free-floating as plankton in the water—as opposed to macroalgae such as seaweed.

These algae live by photosynthesis and are normally green, thriving on sunlight. But excessive light can be harmful to them. The astaxanthin they produce protects them while still allowing the light they need through.

Astaxanthin Protects Algae DNA From Damage

Astaxanthin is actually a defense mechanism of the algae. H. pluvialis produces the pigment when it’s under environmental stress.

This stress can come from excessive light, heat, salt, or radiation, or from dehydration or a lack of nutrients. When stressed, the alga pauses its growth and goes into a dormant, protective form. It then produces astaxanthin to protect itself from harmful ultraviolet (UV) light. So, the pigment actually protects the alga’s DNA from damage.

We know that it’s beneficial to get sunlight on our skin and eyes every day. But we also know that too much sun exposure can burn the skin and has been linked to skin cancers.

My husband’s grandfather and father both had many carcinomas removed. My husband believes if they had protected themselves better from the sun, they wouldn’t have had so many skin cancers.

At the same time, it has become increasingly clear that conventional sunscreens aren’t the answer.

America’s Sunscreen Problem

For one, conventional sunscreens are made of chemicals known to be toxic. The skin is the body’s largest organ. Smearing your skin—or your child’s skin—with products containing harmful chemicals is never a good idea.

For another, conventional sunscreens are often contaminated with known human carcinogens such as benzene.

Last year, Coppertone products were found to contain unacceptably high levels of benzene, as reported by The Epoch Times. This July, the FDA announced a large recall of Banana Boat Hair & Scalp sunscreen sprays due to the presence of benzene in the “propellant that sprays the product out of the can.”

Ironically, in using sunscreen to protect ourselves from skin cancer, we may be exposing ourselves to cancer-causing chemicals.

Sunscreens block UV radiation in two ways: mineral and chemical. Many sunscreens have both mineral and chemical components. The once-popular surfers’ zinc oxide (remember when everyone at the beach had a white nose?) was a mineral sunscreen. Many sunscreens today still contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide as a mineral block. They are simply white, reflecting both UV and visible light.

But, since nobody wants their face to look snow-white and shiny, sunscreen manufacturers have been making the particles in their products finer and finer. These nanoparticles are thought to confer benefits, including making medications more effective, because they are taken up by cells so effectively.

But nanotechnology is also highly problematic, as nanoparticles have been increasingly found to be harmful for human respiratory and cardiac health, according to a comprehensive scientific review published last year in Frontiers in Sustainable Cities. What’s more, though they’re found in a wide variety of sunscreens, cosmetics, and even foods, nanoparticles aren’t regulated.

Chemical sunscreen agents commonly include oxybenzone, octisalate, para-aminobenzoic acid (commonly known as PABA), and other related chemical compounds. These reflect UV light that causes DNA damage and skin cancer without turning the skin white. But many of these chemically active organic compounds have also been shown to have harmful effects on humans.

Lotion in the Ocean

Sunscreens are also harmful to the environment. Several common ingredients, including oxybenzone and octinoxate, wash off in the sea and freshwater bodies when we swim, and they get into the water treatment system when we shower.

These ingredients are highly poisonous to coral reefs, a foundation of the marine ecosystem. Without coral, the small fish that live on them die off, and larger sea creatures that feed on the small fish then starve. Between 6,000 and 14,000 tons of sunscreen go into coral reefs each year, Craig Downs, a leading researcher and head of the nonprofit Haereticus Environmental Laboratory, told The Guardian.

In a 2009 study conducted by the University of Toledo, scientists found that nanoparticles of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide can harm all living cells, from human to microbial, including bacteria beneficial to the soil and waterways, Scientific American reported.

But with advertising and public health campaigns trying to convince us that sunlight is harmful and sunscreen is necessary, what’s a responsible consumer to do?

Not Just for Algae

Enter astaxanthin. Though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits companies that use astaxanthin in their beauty products from referring to it as a “sunscreen” or even as a sun protectant, astaxanthin appears to help humans as much as it helps algae.

Some cutting-edge small companies have started making skin serums containing astaxanthin. I first learned about it from Jane May Graves, the founder of Luxe Beauty, whom I met this summer while presenting at a health conference in Roswell, Georgia.

Graves told me that after her mom was diagnosed with stage 4, supposedly “incurable,” cancer, her family started taking inventory of the ingredients in every product they used. Graves became “obsessed with finding natural ways to heal [her mother’s] cancer,” she said in a 2021 interview. Part of her journey was eliminating all known and suspected carcinogens from their lives.

It was then that Graves found out about the harms of conventional sunscreens and other beauty products. And, despite the doctors believing her mom had only a few months more to live, her mom made a full recovery.

It was Graves who explained to me that astaxanthin can be applied externally or taken internally. Because it’s opaque to UV light, astaxanthin is effective in protecting animals, algae, and ocean coral from sun damage. When some friends invited us out on their boat, I slathered myself in Graves’s astaxanthin skin serum. Despite six hours in the hot sun, my skin didn’t burn.

My husband and I have also started consciously eating more foods high in astaxanthin, including wild-caught salmon and shrimp, and we recently started taking 12 milligrams of organic astaxanthin as a supplement.

A study published in Marine Drugs this year is among the few that have looked into the protection offered by astaxanthin. Researchers gave guinea pigs astaxanthin with a high Z-isomer content and exposed them to UV radiation. They found it protected the rodents.

“This study indicates that dietary astaxanthin accumulates in the skin and appears to prevent UV light-induced skin damage,” they concluded.

Astaxanthin’s potent antioxidant effect may help explain why it works so well.

Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an award-winning journalist and book author. A frequent contributor to The Epoch Times, she also has a Substack channel called Vibrant Life.

A ‘Super Antioxidant’ From Algae for Sunscreen?

Astaxanthin produced by marine algae may offer the solution we need for nontoxic sunscreen

Astaxanthin Protects Algae DNA From Damage

America’s Sunscreen Problem

Lotion in the Ocean

Not Just for Algae

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