Here is the most pathetic but clear-cut demonstration of how insane the world of cosmetics truly is. After selling us products to ward off oxygen's effects on the skin (the word antioxidant means anti-oxygen), the beauty industry then sells us products that claim to provide oxygen to the skin. Doesn't the beauty industry have anything better to do?

Oxygen depletion is one of the things that happens to older skin. Unfortunately, delivering extra oxygen to the skin doesn't reverse it. Oxygen on the surface may affect the very top layer of skin, but so what? How much extra oxygen does skin need? No one knows. Can it be absorbed? No. Plus, none of this answers the question about oxygen generating more free-radical damage.

How did this caprice of oxygen booths get started? Oxygen booths (hyperbaric chambers) are used medically to repair skin ulcers and wounds that have difficulty healing. According to the American Diabetes Association, "Diabetes Forecast" (June 1993, pages 57), "When you have a stubborn [wound] that won't heal, the white blood cells that fight the infection in the [wound] use 20 times more oxygen when they're killing bacteria. Also, the more oxygen your body has to work with, the more efficiently it lays down wound-repairing connective tissue. But it is the inhaled oxygen, which is then absorbed by your blood after you breathe it, that speeds wound healing, not the oxygen drifting past the wound."

Moreover, leg ulcers and wounds are a temporary condition, but skin aging is ongoing. The notion that oxygen treatments affect aging or wrinkles is a joke. No studies exist to support those ideas, though there is research showing that the oxidative process generated by oxygen is partly responsible for wrinkles and skin aging in general.

Hydrogen Peroxide
Given what is now known about free-radical damage, I no longer recommend hydrogen peroxide as a topical disinfectant for acne. Oxygen is clearly a problem for skin, and hydrogen peroxide is a significant oxidizing agent. The way hydrogen peroxide works is by releasing an unstable oxygen molecule onto the skin, and that generates free-radical damage. The extra oxygen molecule that makes up hydrogen peroxide is extremely unstable. That's why hydrogen peroxide is packaged in a dark brown, airtight container.

On exposure to air, hydrogen peroxide's extra oxygen molecule is released and the product becomes plain water. For skin prone to acne this extra oxygen molecule is capable of killing the bacteria that cause blemishes. Acne bacteria are anaerobic, meaning they don't like oxygen. But because of the problems that stem from impacting the skin with a substance that is known to generate free-radical damage, other options need to be sought. Please see Skin Care Solutions for Fighting Acne at any Age , for different treatments to combat the bacteria that cause acne.