Can swallowing jelly help smooth wrinkles?
Oral hyaluronan relieves wrinkles: a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study over a 12-week period
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Placebo group reported the same subjective skin improvements (luster, suppleness) as the HA groups—even though they took sugar pills.
Most people assume supplements must be doing something if users feel better—but here, belief alone created the same perceived results, challenging the idea that oral HA directly improves skin texture.
Practical Takeaways
If you want to try oral HA for wrinkles, look for supplements containing 120 mg/day of high-molecular-weight (300 kDa) hyaluronan.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Placebo group reported the same subjective skin improvements (luster, suppleness) as the HA groups—even though they took sugar pills.
Most people assume supplements must be doing something if users feel better—but here, belief alone created the same perceived results, challenging the idea that oral HA directly improves skin texture.
Practical Takeaways
If you want to try oral HA for wrinkles, look for supplements containing 120 mg/day of high-molecular-weight (300 kDa) hyaluronan.
Publication
Journal
Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology
Year
2017
Authors
Mariko Oe, S. Sakai, Hideto Yoshida, Naoki Okado, Haruna Kaneda, Y. Masuda, O. Urushibata
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Claims (5)
Taking a specific type of hyaluronic acid pill every day for 3 months can noticeably reduce the wrinkles around your eyes, according to a study where people who took it had 22% fewer wrinkles than those who took a fake pill.
People in Japan between 22 and 59 years old took a daily supplement of hyaluronan for 12 weeks and didn’t feel any bad side effects—so it seems safe for them to take it this way for a short time.
Taking a daily supplement of hyaluronan for 3 months may make your skin look shinier and feel softer, at least according to how people felt about it — but it didn’t work any better than a fake pill.
People who took a specific type of hyaluronic acid supplement every day for 3 months didn’t show a clear improvement in crow’s feet wrinkles, but there was a tiny hint that it might help—just not enough to be sure.
People in every group—even those who got a fake treatment—said their wrinkles looked better after 8 or 12 weeks, which suggests that the improvement might just be in their heads or because of the season, not because of the actual skin product they used.