The Quest for the Fountain of Youth

The yearning for immortality and the quest for the fountain of youth is a desire embedded in the human psyche. Poets and writers immortalized their thoughts and their powerful words transcended through generations of sensibilities staying relevant until today. Similarly, scientists, explorers, artists, sculptors, painters, and people of great excellence have defied the confinement of one human life and have lived beyond mortal existence. But the mortal self has to go and ageing is the most natural progression of this culmination. So, most of us deep down are searching for that eternal fountain of youth to defy ageing.

Kudos to dynamic scientific breakthroughs, commercial steadfastness, and the innate human will to be in command, we seem to be making significant strides in the right direction. While it is still difficult to pinpoint on a single factor of ageing, it can be broadly understood under two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic ageing. Intrinsic ageing refers to the biological ageing of cells. As the building blocks of life, cells divide, multiply, and perform various functions. The more the cells divide, the older they get and eventually they lose their ability to function properly leading to cellular damage. Extrinsic factors, on the other hand, relate to environmental factors like pollution, ultraviolet radiation exposure. and lifestyle choices such as, alcohol consumption, smoking, and malnutrition.

Thus, while the medical sciences have been studying ways to help humanity live a better, fuller, and healthier life, the cosmetic industry is in the race of churning the greatest profit by reducing it to a strife that is just skin deep. The most mindless consequence of this spiraling trend has put the entire focus on physical appearance. Closely aligned to the idea of youth is beauty and in the quest of a beautiful, youthful, flawless appearance consumers largely women are caught off guard. Sometimes they even find themselves irrevocably harmed. Recently, a woman lost part of her vision due to high levels of mercury exposure found in her skin whitening cream and the contamination was not confined to her but the entire household has been exposed to it.

Mercury is used in skin lightening products for its ability to suppress melanin production, and to lighten hyperpigmentation such as blemishes, freckles, and dark spots. But it is highly toxic and its exposure can cause damage to the eyes, breathing difficulty, damage to the nervous system, kidney issues, etc. The Minnesota Department of Health tested 27 cosmetic products and among those 11 were found to have mercury compounds exceeding the limit of 1ppm allowed by the FDA. These creams were either marked as anti-ageing or skin-lightening creams.

Yet the cosmetic industry powered by commercials and the advent of influencers reviewing and pushing new products everyday through the web of social platforms and mainstream media, findings such as the one connecting chemical hair straighteners and relaxers as possible cause of uterine cancer, go unnoticed. For many years researchers have been studying a possible link between various cancers (blood cancer, bladder cancer and breast cancer) and the use of hair dyes. Permanent and semi-permanent hair dyes often contain chemicals that are carcinogenic.

The global anti-ageing products’ market share was estimated at around 60 billion USD in 2021 and is expected to be about 120 billion USD by 2030s. So, does that mean by 2030 most of the world population would bid adieu to old age or would bottle up ageing to insignificant proportion? A 2020 survey by RealSelf, a healthcare marketplace, reveals about 62 percent Americans use anti-ageing products. Does all that spending really turning us younger or the extensive use of chemical based products with unattainable claims more a placebo with no long term effects? Often the claims made by cosmetic products are very hard to substantiate because there are multiple variable factors in effect and there is no proper regulatory mechanism to verify the authenticity of such assertions.

Most often the medical researches like the one conducted by Dr. Samuel Epstein, Chairman Cancer Prevention Coalition, which linked an active ingredient alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) present in anti-ageing creams to cancer, remain largely unacknowledged. By scientific yardsticks the anti-ageing claims by cosmetic companies are very vague and most dermatologists are not convinced of their efficacy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not require companies to prove the safety and efficacy of a product, which leaves a lot of unanswered questions to think over. Also, the realm of cosmetic surgery has opened new doors for turning back the clock or probably its illusion with unpronounced side effects.

I wonder what Shakespeare’s poem the Seven Ages would have shaped up if he wrote it in today’s world. Possibly after the third stage of youthful pleasure, the next stages would be muffled. As the human race has evolved through centuries it is trying to triumph over the laws of the natural world by meddling with the organic process of life. But what exactly is ageing and is it an isolated phenomenon that can be addressed separately? And do we even address ageing by treating its outer manifestations like sagging skin or graying hair strands? While researches suggest that a healthy lifestyle coupled with appropriate diet and stress free environment is crucial for holistic wellness, dyeing the grays for a youthful look, or resorting to Botox treatment is the placebo we often settle with.

Growing up, I always adored the gray strands of my father’s hairline but my mother was ill at ease with it when she got them. Perhaps that is how we process this change as a society. The silver strands are graceful too and the fine lines of age narrate a story of a fuller existence aware of the subtle transformation of how infancy progressed to youth and further on. But hope our perception towards the abstract idea of beauty is not a prisoner to youthful appearance. Change is the essence of life and any organic transformation should be acceptable for a fuller experience and to celebrate life in its natural hues. The wisdom that growing years bring, the understanding of life’s ups and downs and the grace of fathoming it all is often stored in a treasure of a head lined with silver strands. Celebrate it!