Hyaluronic acid: should you be putting that on your face?

Hyaluronic acid

Should you be putting that on your face?

Hyaluronic acid is one of the buzzwords for health and beauty in 2018, and with good reason. It’s one of the key components of healthy, youthful skin and has been shown to be effective in reducing joint pain in arthritis sufferers.

Often combined with collagen in beauty creams and supplements, hyaluronic acid is an essential component of skin because of its ability to promote collagen. Think of hyaluronic acid as the hydrating agent: collagen firms the skin, while hyaluronic acid nourishes the collagen. You want moist and elastic collagen to keep skin plump, smooth and springy; as hyaluronic acid and collagen concentrations decrease with age, skin loses elasticity, forming lines and wrinkles.

Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring substance found in almost every cell in the body; distributed throughout connective tissue, neural tissue and the epithelial tissue that lines the organs, vessels and cavities of the body, hyaluronic acid is everywhere. It’s the hydrator—each molecule can retain up to 1000 times its weight in water.

Half the body’s hyaluronic acid is found in the skin and is crucial for wound healing, tissue repair, fixing chapped lips, dry scalp issues and gums, and maintaining the moisture levels in the eyes—as well as its coveted skin and beauty effects. The most popular injectable fillers (Juvederm and Restylane) are made from cross-linked hyaluronic acid—supplementing with capsules and serums seems like a no-brainer for anyone wanting to replenish their levels and rejuvenate their skin.

Except, it’s not that easy.

Hyaluronic acid is a large chain of sugar molecules known as a polymer: N-acetyl-glucosamine-6-phosphate and glucuronic acid are linked together to form a heavy molecule: each molecule can weigh more than two million daltons. For perspective, a Vitamin C molecule weighs 176 daltons. For hyaluronic acid, there are three categories: low molecular weight (under 1 million daltons), medium molecular weight (between one and two million) and high molecular weight (greater than 2 million daltons). This is where the problem with topical serums and creams comes in: in dermatology, there’s a strongly supported theory that skin allergens larger than 500 daltons can’t be a contact sensitizer, because they can’t penetrate the skin’s surface. Even a cream claiming to contain low molecular weight hyaluronic acid will have molecules of at least 50,000 daltons. If the 500 dalton rule is true, hyaluronic acid has no hope. It may offer a temporary benefit of increased surface moisture while it sits on your skin, giving you younger-looking skin for a little bit, but if it’s long-term benefits you’re after, spending a fortune on creams is not worth it.

Turning to supplementation is the next logical step. There are plenty of supplements out there to provide your daily dose of hyaluronic acid and boost your skin from within.

The body contains around 15 grams of hyaluronic acid at any given time, and roughly one third of that is broken down and replaced on a daily basis. It is very sensitive to the free radicals produced in the body’s natural oxidation processes, and the unhealthy activities that promote free radical production exacerbate this degradation: alcohol, smoking, high blood sugar, UV exposure and so on. This explains the weathered look attributed to heavy drinkers and smokers: their hyaluronic acid levels are decreasing at a great rate. So, given the fragility of the molecule inside your body, it’s a stretch to imagine the supplements will survive contact with your stomach acid. Even injectable dermal fillers break down within a year, and they’re a hydrogel form of hyaluronic acid, better able to resist degradation. Why don’t we have hydrogel supplements? The molecules would simply be too big to pass into your blood vessels—negating taking the supplement in the first place.

Couple this fragility with the fact most supplements only contain 50 or 100mg per serving—if each serving is 1 to 2 percent of what’s lost by your body on a daily basis, you’d need to be taking up to 100 pills every day. That’s just not feasible. By all means, check the labels on supplements and take larger doses, but you can also look to your diet to ensure an adequate intake. If you’re not into eating rooster combs, cartilage or umbilical cords, try bone broths, soy-based foods like tofu and edamame, starchy root vegetables like sweet potatoes and Jerusalem artichoke, citrus fruits and leafy greens. Citrus fruits all contain naringenin, which inhibits the breakdown of hyaluronic acid in the body, and leafy greens contain magnesium, which helps with production in the body. Other foods high in magnesium include avocados, nuts and seeds.

Remember: if something shows true biological activity, it’ll be regulated as a drug. Creams bought at beauty counters will not have the same effect as prescription-strength products. Rubbing a fancy cream with hyaluronic acid onto your face will temporarily fill in fine lines and reduce the appearance of wrinkles, but it’s not going to do anything for your skin in the long run—and it certainly won’t stimulate collagen production.