By now you would have heard of Hyaluronic Acid (HA) in a tv commercial, online, in beauty store or by a friend as it is widely popular for being touted as a magic wand for youthfulness and is recognized for an ultimate moisturizing factor by the skincare industry. Do you care how is it derived? Is it synthetic based or in its natural form? Let’s dig in.
What is Hyaluronic Acid?
Hyaluronic Acid is a molecule that naturally originates within the skin and the connective tissue of your body. HA is a naturally occurring polysaccharide (long chain glucose) found in the maximum concentrations inside your skin, hair, eye sockets, joints and nerves of a human body. It helps to preserve collagen, escalate the moisture, make the skin look plump, full, smooth, also provides elasticity to the joints, nerves, eyes and hair. Its benefits are countless. But as we age it keeps on declining.
What is Collagen and Why is it important when we are talking about HA?
Collagen is a protein abundantly found in our bodies. It exists in our muscles, bones, teeth, skin, blood vessels, digestive system, tendons and other parts. In the skin, it creates a network of support and elasticity to provide strength to the dermal layer. Benefits of collagen are outstanding because this protein gives our skin its strength and agility, and also helps with replacing dead skin cells. The benefits of Hyaluronic Acid & Collagen overlap as they help us achieving youthful skin. However, as we keep aging, the loss of collagen keeps accelerating just as Hyaluronic Acid and due to it there is an onset of thinning of the skin, losing skins elasticity, dermal tissue begins to collapse therefore sagging, aging and wrinkles. When it’s about our joints and tendons, in layman terms, Collagen is the “cement” that helps hold our body together.
HA and Collagen are the two major components of dermal tissue. They both strongly support our dermal layer. Collagen creates a network of support for the elasticity of the dermal layer and Hyaluronic Acid is able to keep the skin soft, moist and supple. Hyaluronic Acid & Collagen work for the health of our dermal layer and their work and benefits overlap.
Back to Hyaluronic Acid
Hyaluronic Acid is the hydration that your skin starts quenching for as you start aging. HA works as a mechanism that draws and locks in the moisture to your skin therefore HA helps us to look youthful with plump skin and minimized wrinkles. HA draws and absorbs water from its surroundings can you believe even from the air. Due to its polar nature, 1 gram of hyaluronic acid can hold up-to 6 liters of water that means it has an ability to absorb up to 6,000 times its weight in water.
However, HA can’t be absorbed by your skin topically. Now, Sodium Hyaluronate (SH) Hyaluronic Acid’s salt form or its sister ingredient comes into play. It is of lower molecular size that can penetrate into the skin when applied topically quite opposite to HA. Unlike the natural HA found in our bodies, it can only penetrate into the lower epidermis. In a skincare industry, Sodium hyaluronate is referred as Hyaluronic Acid. But the question is 'Is Hyaluronic Acid and Sodium Hyaluronate' same? Let’s find that out
What is the difference between Hyaluronic Acid & Sodium Hyaluronate?
As discussed above, Sodium Hyaluronate is a water-soluble salt form of HA. SH is extracted from vegetable sources by the method of bio-fermentation (made by bacteria) from the vegetable sources such as (soybean & corn). SH have a smaller molecule which allows it to penetrate into the skin easily. It's a fantastic ingredient when it comes to hydration. It helps in reversing the signs of aging, bringing back the youthfulness of the skin, increase the elasticity of the skin and minimize the possibility of oxidation. SH comes in low molecule weight for maximum bioavailability. Therefore, SH helps your skin, hair retain the moisture while reducing trans epidermal water loss.
Hyaluronic Acid can be found in micro macro molecular sizes inside our body as it works on different levels of the skin from inside out. As learnt and established above, HA is produced by our body, but it continues to decline dramatically as we age, due to pollution and UV light. Beware of chemically modified Hyaluronic Acid/ Sodium Hyaluronate available in the market. Not all Hyaluronic Acids available in the market are same. They are highly engineered in the labs by scientists. Hyaluronic Acid/ Sodium Hyaluronate are used by the beauty industry extensively in their products like skin smoothing primer and etc always try to find out the source behind their HA/SH and how is it derived. Stay away from engineered ingredients because it can harm you more than helping you.This is why it is of utmost importance to support your skin, hair, nerves, synovial fluid present in your joints when you start aging with the right care.
Are there any options in holistic lifestyle to support our Dear Dermal Layer?
Less is more. Try to choose the products which has natural ingredients. Labels should be easier to read. Let the body work from inside out to give you the maximum benefits. Give your body the right fuel to run through nutrient dense diet & healthy lifestyle. Foods like berries, garlic, tomatoes, carrots, greens, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, avocado, bell pepper, chlorella, bone broth and eggs are great in supporting our Dear Dermal Layer. Collagen and HA works for the same guy still guessing who? Don’t go any farther it’s you!! Remember their work and benefits overlap. They help us achieve the goal of looking youthful for longer also they keep our joints, muscles, nails, nerves and hair strong for the rainy or windy days in life.
Now, it’s up to you whether you want to work from inside out to look youthful in the long run or you only want to apply engineered things topically to get the visible results for a short sprint.
Life is a marathon not a short sprint. Nature has answers to our queries all we need to do is to look for it at the right places. The magical wand is nowhere else but within us, in our choices. Holistic lifestyle and Natural ingredients bring longevity to life and beauty beyond the short-term artificiality of engineered products.
Food for thought:
In the last decade or more sugar free, 0 fat food was the frenzy and now it has been proved that good fats and natural sugar of the fruits and vegetables are required to stay healthy, young and stay put on this planet for long. Don’t make the poor choices for yourself by trading off the healthy fat and natural sugar with unhealthy packaged food drenched in synthetics and deprived of healthy dense nutrients. Our body is our temple lets work to preserve its sanity.
Gaea Organics lives and breathes holistic lifestyle and that’s why you will find only natural ingredients which are free of synthetics, toxins, fillers, artificial colors, artificial fragrance and endocrine disruptors in our products. We create, manufacture and package our products by hand ourselves, thus leaving no room for shortcuts or outsourcing. Our products are made with love, care and brilliance of plants which are safe, potent and can bring tangible results.
Gaea Organics Anti Aging Serum
PS: Be ready to show some patience for the healthy holistic lifestyle, as it can take some time to show the results because of our past choices but be rest assured that you have nothing to worry about as there are no side effects that can be found easily in engineered synthetic based products.
~Gaea Organics
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3583886/
https://www.hyalogic.com/about-ha/about-hyaluronic-acid/
https://www.truenatural.com/glossary/entry/Sodium_Hyaluronate
https://www.byrdie.com/what-is-hyaluronic-acid
https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/706071/SODIUM_HYALURONATE/
https://labmuffin.com/what-is-hyaluronic-acid-and-how-does-it-work/