Retinoids: Retinol vs Retinal vs Retinoic Acid vs..?

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Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• There’s a lot of confusion out there around retinoids, retinol, retinal, retinoic acid, and assorted brand names that look like chemical names.

  • Today’s main feature demystifies these quickly and simply, so that you can choose what’s right for your face (if you want to! We’re sure your face is already beautiful as it is)

• At 10almonds, we know our readers love free things, and convenience.

  • Today’s sponsor, Brad’s Deals, is a free service that offers many price reductions when shopping on Amazon—and also, a list of 10 hidden Prime benefits that most people don’t know about!

• Today’s featured book is about standing up to the life-shortening harms of sitting down! And yes, there’s a lot more here than just “sit less”.

Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive

A Word To The Wise

Watch and Learn

Serotonin vs Dopamine (Know The Differences)

Of the various neurotransmitters that people confuse with each other, serotonin and dopamine are the two highest on the list (with oxytocin coming third as people often attribute its effects to serotonin).

But, for all they are both "happiness molecules", serotonin and dopamine are quite different, and are even opposites in some ways:

Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text-overview, as well as the video!

Q&A Thursday

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝I’m confused about retinol, retinal, retinoin, retinoids, etc, and of course every product claims to be the best, what’s the actual science on it?❞

Before we get into these skincare products, let’s first note that for most people, what’s best for the skin is good sleep and hydration, a plants-centric whole foods diet, and good stress management:

See for example: Of Brains And Breakouts: The Brain Skin Doctor

However, the world of potions and lotions can be an alluring one, and there is some merit there too. So, in a nutshell:

• Retinoids are the overall class of chemicals, and not a specific type

  • Retinoic acid is the strongest form of this chemical and is prescription-controlled in most places

    • “Retinoin” is probably tretinoin (all-trans retinoic acid) with the “t” having falling off; we can only find it being used as a product name, not an actual substance

  • Retinal, when it’s not an adjective referring to the retina (the part of the eye that receives refocussed light) and is instead a noun, is a less potent retinoid than the prescription-only kinds, but still stronger than retinol

  • Retinol is a much less potent form, and is the most widely found in skincare products

All of them work the same way; it is only how serious they are about it that differs.

The mechanism of action is that they speed up the turnover (shedding cycle) of skin, so that cells are replaced sooner. As with any non-cancerous human tissue, this means that the tissue itself (in this case, your skin) will be biologically younger than if it had been replaced later.

The downside, of course, of this is that—while trying to make your skin healthier and more beautiful—the first thing that will happen is skin shedding. Depending on the retinoid type, dose, and the health of your skin to start with, this may mean anything from needing to exfoliate in the morning, to having to go to hospital with what looks like the world’s worst sunburn. For this reason, it is recommended to start with weaker products and lower doses, and work up carefully.

A note on doses: the recommended doses for these products are always truly tiny, like “use a pea-sized amount of this 0.05% serum on your face”. Take them seriously until you’re absolutely sure from experience that your skin can handle more.

Also, a tip: wear gloves when you apply any of the above products. This is because your fingers are also covered in skin, and if you don’t use gloves, then half the product that you intended for your face will be absorbed into your fingers instead.

You can learn more about the science of retinoids here, in our article about tretinoin, the usually prescription-only form of retinoic acid:

Tretinoin: Undo The Sun’s Damage To Your Skin

Want to try some?

We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product of retinal (stronger than retinol) on Amazon 😎

Take care!

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One-Minute Book Review

Death by Sitting: The Hidden Health Risks of a Sedentary Life and How to Stand Up for Your Well-Being – by Carolyne Thompson

You may be wondering: is this a lot of words to say “sit down less”?

And the answer is: there’s a lot more in here than that. Of course, yes, “sit down less” is an important take-away, but there’s a lot about the specific problems caused by sitting in chairs, the health risks are that are increased and how, and the early warning signs to watch out for.

After these chapters of woe, most of the book is given over to solutions; about taking standing and walking breaks, tying movement to productivity, why exercise alone is not enough to offset the damage of sitting, relearning ergonomic posture in the context of mitigating the harm, psychological shifts to break the habit of sitting, redefining social norms around sitting and socializing, rewiring one’s body and retraining better movements as well as postures to always immediately move out of if one finds oneself in, and much much more.

The style is light and easy to read, while still including scientific research as appropriate along with practical, actionable advice.

Bottom line: if you’d like to do better for your body than slowly killing it for however many hours a day, then this book has a wealth of advice far beyond the obvious (but important!) “sit less”.

Click here to check out Death By Sitting, and get living!

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Wishing you glowingly good health today and every day,

The 10almonds Team