I asked my dermatologist about Heliocare but he said he'd never heard of the stuff. He went and did about 5 minutes of research for me while I sat in the office. He said that it looked promising and at least it would probably not hurt.
With his half hearted blessing i've been using Heliocare for the past 3 weeks. I was going on vacation and I knew that i'd definately be exposing myself to excessive amounts of sun.
Over the course of the trip I used a high quality EU sunscreen and 2-3 Heliocare per day. Since i've been back I switched to 1 a day. I don't like the Titanium Dioxide in the pills so I opened it up and took the powder straight with some water.
I can report that while on it I did burn mildly. all on my nose and forehead while in Rome.
The sunburn lightened considerably and after a 24 hour period it was gone completely. This all occurred while I was still exposing myself to sunlight with protection.
I figured from all of the exposure that i'd of tanned at least slightly but I had no discernable skin tone difference, which I was very happy about. Comparing exposed parts (arms,legs and head) to my non-exposed areas there was no tan.
I'll say that I "think" it works according to claim, I've been looking for a cheaper quality alternative to Heliocare. In searches I was only able to pull up Heliocare and Kalwalla as containing Polypodium Leucotemos. I didn't trust suplliers selling extract over over Ebay and I think Kalwalla's brand is a little sketchy. I'm happy to see that there are other names for this herb but I was wondering if anyone can recommend a quality brand or supplier other than Heliocare?
$40-$60 a bottle is a little rich for my blood.
Edited by shadowrun, 10 June 2008 - 08:01 PM.