The above picture, A, reveals collagen deposition (fluorescent inexperienced) in tendon tissue after stimulation by hyaluronic acid. Picture B reveals virtually no collagen when hyaluronic acid shouldn’t be added. (From Oliva 2021 by way of Inventive Commons License.)
Many individuals are acquainted with hyaluronic acid (HA) as a topical agent, utilized by many girls to enhance pores and skin hydration and easy wrinkles, given HA’s potential to bind appreciable portions of water molecules. HA can be injected into joints to extend joint lubrication (knees, hips, shoulders), into pores and skin as a short lived filler to cut back wrinkles, administered into the colon by way of enema to cut back the irritation of ulcerative colitis, and utilized topically within the vagina as a lubricant. However the true energy of hyaluronic acid comes with oral ingestion, simply because it was alleged to happen if we added again misplaced dietary sources.
Organ meats, particularly mind, kidney, coronary heart, intestines, and pores and skin, are wealthy in HA. The fashionable aversion to organ meats has subsequently induced a widespread lack of HA consumption that, I consider, is inflicting accelerated getting old of pores and skin, joints, and different organs, maybe together with the mind. Lack of HA compromises the intestinal barrier to microbial byproducts and permits better intestinal and body-wide irritation.
HA content material of organs drops as we age. Age-related discount is very marked in pores and skin, with older individuals having as much as 90% much less dermal HA in comparison with younger individuals. HA is considerable in joints, discovered each in cartilage and within the joint lubricant, additionally lowered in amount as we age. HA can be present in beneficiant portions in human breast milk, essential for gastrointestinal maturation of the breastfeeding toddler (and yet one more deficiency of artificial toddler formulation).
It’s clear that orally-ingested HA makes its solution to the dermal layer of pores and skin, the joint lubricating fluid in knees, hips and different joints, tendons and ligaments, the eyes, and different organs. After ingestion, HA is metabolized by intestine microbes into smaller fragments which are absorbed and distributed all through the physique. Because the picture above demonstrates, HA stimulates collagen deposition (as does collagen supplementation, additionally).
HA additionally has prebiotic properties and has been proven to markedly improve the inhabitants of Akkermansia muciniphila, the keystone species that exerts quite a few helpful metabolic results together with lowered insulin resistance, lowered blood sugar, and elevated manufacturing of intestinal mucus. One other keystone species, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, produces elevated portions of helpful fatty acids equivalent to butyrate when “fed” HA. Utilized orally, HA additionally reduces oral pathogens.
HA ingestion subsequently will be anticipated to:
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- Improve pores and skin moisture and scale back wrinkle depth
- Improve joint lubrication (glycosaminoglycan and proteoglycans) and scale back arthritis ache
By the way in which, if the proof demonstrating that HA, particularly when mixed with collagen hydrolysates additionally absent from the trendy weight-reduction plan, reduces arthritis ache, will increase joint lubrication, and may improve cartilage quantity, why are medical doctors so eager on injecting HA instantly into joints, however not on oral supplementation? Ah, effectively, you possibly can cost cash for injections, however not for advocating an oral complement.
- Yield metabolic well being enhancements—not less than partly as a result of prebiotic fiber properties of HA
- Scale back intestinal irritation by growing the intestinal immune response
- Scale back penetrability of the gastrointestinal lining (thereby doubtless decreasing endotoxemia and body-wide irritation)
- Improved wound therapeutic
According to the consumption of one thing that must be a pure part of weight-reduction plan, no hostile results of HA have ever been reported throughout dozens of human medical trials.
You possibly can certainly receive HA by bringing organ meats again into your weight-reduction plan. Most fashionable individuals, nonetheless, discover this objectionable. On the very least, you might improve HA consumption by consuming the pores and skin on poultry (NEVER boneless, skinless rooster breast, the epitome of low-fat blunders!) and fish, eat sausages encased in pure casings, make soups from the carcass of animals you’ve consumed, however the complete amount ingested shall be modest. Supplementation can subsequently be the answer.
If we have been to eat the mind of an animal, we’d receive round 7.4 grams of HA from a 4-ounce serving. A variety of HA doses have been explored however usually 40-240 mg per day. However is that the best consumption? That is an unanswered query, however could be price exploring. As a result of HA is so water-absorbent, small portions generate substantial hydrating results.
Picture supply: Oliva F, Marsilio E, Asparago G, Frizziero A, Berardi AC, Maffulli N. The Affect of Hyaluronic Acid on Tendon Physiology and Its Medical Utility in Tendinopathies. Cells. 2021 Nov 9;10(11):3081.
