I was reading about the maillard reaction and how it's much better to boil or steam our foods. I remember once when was a teenager (about 14-15) with acne I got a bowl with really hot water and steamed myself with it on several occasions. It was probably actually to hot and I may have caused damage to my skin at the time but I'm wondering if such as thing would have helped to break up some of the crosslinks in the skin e.g. advanced glycation end products (AGEs)?
AGEs may be formed external to the body (exogenosly) by heating (e.g. cooking) sugars with fats or proteins; or, inside the body (endogenously) through normal metabolism and aging. Under certain pathologic conditions (e.g. oxidative stress due to hyperglycemia in patients with diabetes), AGE formation can be increased beyond normal levels.
Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs) are the result of a chain of chemical reactions after an initial
glycation reaction. Side products generated in the intermediate steps may be oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide, and others, such as beta amyloid proteins.
Glycosylation is also sometimes used as a synonym for
glycation in the literature, but is then usually referred to as 'non-enzymatic glycosylation.'
So the answer is NO. The only thing you might have damadged is some capillaries in your skin
(And that is because of the heat).
LongeCity
