If glycation is what happens when sugar attaches to your collagen, oxidation is what happens when oxygen radicals damage it. Different mechanism. Same visible effect. Both are aging your skin, quietly, every day.
At JenSkin we measure oxidative stress with a marker called oxidized LDL. It's not just a cardiovascular number — it's a systemic damage signal that reaches your skin. Here's how to think about it.
What oxidative stress actually is.
Your body's cells produce energy by burning oxygen. That process — as much as we depend on it — creates a small amount of highly reactive molecules called free radicals as byproduct. Free radicals are unstable oxygen atoms that will grab an electron from whatever they can reach.
In a body running well, antioxidants (from food, from your own body's production) mop up free radicals before they damage anything. That's the balance.
When there are more free radicals than antioxidants — from stress, poor sleep, smoking, sun damage, processed food, alcohol, or just aging — free radicals start damaging things. Cell membranes. DNA. Proteins. Cholesterol particles.
The specific damage we measure on the JenSkin panel is oxidation of LDL cholesterol. When LDL gets oxidized, it becomes something new — a more inflammatory, more damaging particle. As Holvoet and colleagues showed in a landmark 2008 JAMA paper, circulating oxidized LDL is one of the strongest predictors of systemic metabolic damage. It's a proxy for how much oxidative damage is happening in the rest of your body, including in your skin.
The mental picture: rust. Same chemistry, same result, same slow timeline.
If glycation is sugar-crusting your collagen, oxidation is rusting the fibroblasts that make it.
Why this shows up in skin.
Three ways.
1. Fibroblast damage. Fibroblasts are the cells that produce your collagen and elastin. When oxidative stress is high, those cells work less efficiently and eventually die off faster. The 2015 Biomolecules review by Rinnerthaler and colleagues on oxidative stress in aging human skin documented this at the cellular level: chronic oxidative burden accelerates fibroblast senescence, and fewer working fibroblasts means less collagen production over time.
2. Direct collagen and elastin oxidation. The structural proteins in your skin can themselves be oxidized. Oxidized proteins don't function well — they lose their elasticity, they cross-link inappropriately, they get cleared out and replaced more slowly than they can be rebuilt.
3. Compounded UV damage. UV light generates enormous amounts of free radicals in the skin. Pillai, Oresajo, and Hayward's 2005 review in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science established this clearly: UV-generated reactive oxygen species are one of the primary drivers of extrinsic (sun-induced) skin aging. If your baseline oxidative stress is already elevated, the sun damage you get from a summer at the pool is amplified. Your body's ability to repair that damage is what determines how much of it becomes permanent.
Elevated oxidized LDL, over years, is one of the strongest predictors of accelerated visible skin aging in the research on skin biology. It shows up as leathery texture, uneven pigmentation, deeper lines, and skin that photographs poorly in bright light.
What oxidative stress responds to.
Antioxidants. Not from a bottle labeled "antioxidant serum" — from the actual chemistry of what you eat.
Colorful vegetables and berries. The polyphenols and anthocyanins in colorful plants are directly antioxidant. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, spinach, kale, broccoli, red peppers. These are the highest-impact everyday foods.
Extra virgin olive oil. Oleocanthal is a real antioxidant. The PREDIMED trial — a landmark 2018 New England Journal of Medicine analysis by Estruch and colleagues — followed thousands of participants on a Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil, and demonstrated meaningful cardiovascular protection through mechanisms that include reduced oxidative stress. Two to three tablespoons a day, ideally replacing seed oils in cooking, is consistent with the trial's protocol.
Green tea. EGCG (a compound in green tea) is a well-studied antioxidant with documented photoprotective effects on skin. A cup or two a day is meaningful.
Minimize processed and charred foods. Anything cooked at very high heat (fried foods, charred meats, most industrial baked goods) is high in the compounds that raise oxidative stress. Reduce, don't eliminate.
Cut back on alcohol. Chronic alcohol use significantly raises systemic oxidative stress. One of the clearest single-lever findings.
Stop smoking, if applicable. Smoking is the largest single driver of oxidative stress in the body. Nothing else compares.
Sunscreen daily. UV without protection creates the largest daily oxidative burden most people encounter. Sunscreen is anti-oxidant as much as it is anti-cancer.
The connection to the other markers.
Oxidative stress rarely shows up alone. On a JenSkin panel it usually comes with:
- Elevated hsCRP (systemic inflammation is a driver and a consequence)
- Low omega-3 (which is anti-inflammatory and helps with membrane integrity)
- Lower vitamin D (which supports several antioxidant pathways)
If you see oxidized LDL elevated, look for those companions on the same report. They will usually be there — because the underlying story is one integrated inflammatory-oxidative-metabolic pattern, not five unrelated findings.
Address the pattern, not the individual numbers.
The frame.
Oxidation is rusting. It happens to metal, it happens to cars, and it happens to the cells that build your skin. The chemistry is real, the timeline is measured in years, and the intervention is straightforward if unglamorous: eat colorful food, protect yourself from the sun, get more sleep, drink less.
Boring, effective, and cheap. Which is why nobody's selling it in a $200 bottle.
References.
- Holvoet P, Lee DH, Steffes M, Gross M, Jacobs DR Jr. "Association between circulating oxidized low-density lipoprotein and incidence of the metabolic syndrome." JAMA. 2008;299(19):2287-2293.
- Pillai S, Oresajo C, Hayward J. "Ultraviolet radiation and skin aging: roles of reactive oxygen species, inflammation and proteolysis in intrinsic and extrinsic skin aging — a review." International Journal of Cosmetic Science. 2005;27(1):17-34.
- Rinnerthaler M, Bischof J, Streubel MK, Trost A, Richter K. "Oxidative stress in aging human skin." Biomolecules. 2015;5(2):545-589.
- Estruch R, Ros E, Salas-Salvadó J, et al. "Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts." New England Journal of Medicine. 2018;378(25):e34.
