From ‘Oral Intake of Enzymatically Decomposed AP Collagen Peptides Improves Skin Moisture and Ceramide and Natural Moisturizing Factor Contents in the Stratum Corneum’.
Bottom Line – from Kyoungmi Jung, et al: The fifty participants in this study did exhibit improved skin moisture content and increased skin elements which enhance the skin’s barrier function.
List of all authors: Kyoungmi Jung, Seung-Hun Kim, Kyung-Mi Joo, Sung-Hwan Lim, Jin-Hee Shin, Jonghwa Roh, Eunjoo Ki, Chan Woong Park and Wangi Kim
Published in: Nutrients 2021,13;4372
Objective: This study seeks to find out if ingestion of powdered collagen truly does improve skin moisture and barrier function.
Methods: Fifty participants orally ingested collagen or a placebo for 12 weeks.
Results: The participants who took the collagen showed a 7.33% improved skin moisture content. They also showed increased ceramide, an important part of the skin’s protective barrier, and natural moisturizing factor, the skin element that maintains the water gradient in the stratum corneum.
Conclusions: This study showed that intact of collagen powder increased the skin’s moisture content, improving its ability to protect the body against dehydration and prevent invaders.
My thoughts – The number of test subjects was pretty small (only 25 ingested the collagen while 25 received a placebo) and the perceived improvement was marginal. I will seek out more studies like this to see if the same results bear out. Follow my blog and or follow me on Linkedin for more summaries like this!
