Even though the global beauty supplements market is expected to reach US$7,100 million by 2023, a review by the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) says there is little evidence to support some ingredients used in popular oral beauty supplements.
Released today, the report – Nutraceuticals and skin appearance: Is there any evidence to support this growing trend? – concludes that while a healthy, balanced diet, containing essential vitamins and minerals, is required for healthy skin, nutraceuticals that promise ‘youthful’, ‘firm’ and ‘glowing’ skin may not add further benefit.
The BNF’s review examined published evidence behind some common ingredients used in oral beauty nutraceuticals to see if they can defend against skin damage from external factors and help reduce wrinkles and maintain skin elasticity.
Some ingredients, such as vitamins A, C, B2, B3, B7, and the minerals iodine and zinc, are proven to contribute to the maintenance of normal skin and a deficiency of these essential micronutrients can result in skin abnormalities, it says. However it adds that although other ingredients including green tea extract, pomegranate extract, carotenoids, evening primrose oil, borage oil, fish oil, collagen and co-enzyme Q10 may have health benefits when consumed as part of our diet, there is only a small amount of evidence to suggest that, as nutraceutical ingredients, they provide any real ‘anti-ageing’ benefit to skin.
While there is a body of research on the science of skin ageing, evidence for the benefit of nutraceuticals to skin appearance is currently not strong enough to draw firm conclusions
“As consumers can spend hundreds of pounds a year on oral beauty supplements, we felt it was important to investigate the association between the ingredients in these products, and the signs that we associate with skin ageing, such as wrinkles, loss of elasticity and moisture,” explains Ayela Spiro, nutrition science manager, BNF. “While there is a body of research on the science of skin ageing, evidence for the benefit of nutraceuticals to skin appearance is currently not strong enough to draw firm conclusions.”
BNF said that results from some laboratory experiments suggest these ingredients can have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or collagen enhancing effects but that these results can’t automatically be assumed to be relevant beyond the laboratory. In its review, the BNF said it was only able to identify a limited number of well-conducted human trials, and the findings of these were inconsistent.
According to the BNF, making healthy lifestyle choices like eating a nutritious diet, not smoking and not drinking alcohol in excess, as well as using topical sunscreen, is likely to be a much better route to helping delay the inevitable skin ageing process than taking oral beauty supplements, and will also have wider health benefits.
