
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 28, 1992                   TAG: 9203280110
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Short

CHEAP PETROLEUM JELLY FOUND TO HELP SKIN

Petroleum jelly penetrates the skin's upper layer, moisturizes and helps repair tissue, according to a study suggesting the inexpensive product works as well as more expensive remedies.

Five human volunteers and specially bred hairless mice were treated with acetone, an irritant that dries out the skin. The affected areas then were covered with petroleum jelly to determine how well it moisturizes the skin.

The ointment penetrated the uppermost skin layers and helped speed healing, researchers reported in March's Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

One researcher, Dr. Peter Elias of the University of California, San Francisco, said the team expected the jelly to slow the skin's recovery.

"Instead, it allowed normal recovery to occur and actually accelerated the recovery," Elias said.

Dr. Andrew Lazar, an assistant professor of clinical dermatology at Northwestern University Medical School, questioned the results.

"You may have been able to reach live tissue because you stripped [dead skin cells] off with the acetone," he said.

But Lazar said if the acetone did not play a part, the results could lead to better skin treatment.

- Associated Press

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB