Stories of Health and Food ♥

Saturday, June 27, 2009 ♥ 4:26 AM

Have You Heard of Hyaluronic Acid?

I came across many types of skin care products ranging from affordable to typically expensive types and from basic skin care products to anti aging products. I’m sure girls as well as guys are constantly searching for the best skin care products and for me myself I will always look for skin care products that have great moisturizing effect.

I love my skin to be in a supple condition and of course I don’t want railway tracks to appear on my skin (wrinkled skin) so soon. I’m sure that wrinkles and signs of aging are definitely women's biggest enemy and therefore taking good care of our skin is certainly important to delay the effects of aging. Different skin care product companies use different types of chemicals to provide the moisturizing effect in their products. I found that hyaluronic acid has been very popular in many skin care products.

What causes Dry Skin?

Do you know ... the outer layer of our skin has a layer of cells called stratum corneum. This layer of cells plays a very important role in preventing physical injuries and conserving water in the skin.

Layer of stratum corneum cells

Throughout our life span, this layer of cells is constantly worn out and being replaced by new cells beneath the skin layer. The wearing process is called desquamation.
The process slows down when we grow older and this is the time where signs of aging appear.

The layer of stratum corneum helps to lock moisture in the skin and to prevent natural moisture beneath the skin layer to flow out and lost through evaporation (the flow is known as transepidermal water loss). Our skin tend to become dry, dehydrated and unhealthy without adequate moisture.The layer of stratum corneum works best when 15% of the cells contain water and the functions of the cells decline when the composition of water in the cells is lesser than 10%.

Dry skin looks ugly ><"

What is Hyaluronic Acid?

Hyaluronic acid, also called hyaluronan is a non-sulfated glycosaminoglycan is widely found in connective, epithelial and neural tissues. It is one of the main component in the extracellular matrix and it is present in the synovial fluid. Hyaluronic acid is also found in the mood vitreous of the eye, the synovia of the junctions, and the fabric subcutaneous where it functions as an agent cementing. Hyaluronan is made up of the polymer of disaccharides, composed of D-glucuronic acid and D-N-acetylglucosamine, joined by the β-1,4 and β-1,3 glycosidic bonds. The length of the hyaluronan can reach up to 25000 disaccharides. The stereochemistry of its disaccharides component makes hyaluronan energetically stable.

Structural formula of hyaluronic acid

Molecular Formula: (C₁₄H₂₁NO₁₁)_n

Hyaluronic Acid, the natural sponge

Hyaluronic acid is well known for its ability to absorb water like what a sponge does.

It is highly effective humectants (ingredients that hold moisture). Hyaluronic acid has the ability to hold up to 1000 times its weight in water. It hydrates and stores water in the skin, providing essential moistures to the skin. When Hyaluronic acid absorbs water, it gains weight and increases its volume and this is why skin becomes supple.

Skin becomes supple with sufficient amount of water

As we know our skin is made up of 3 layers, these layers have to be held effectively to be in the best condition. Here comes the hyaluronic acid to plays its role, it supports the formation of collagen and maintains them to be healthy and moisturized.

Imagine what happens when our skin does not have sufficient hyaluronic acid...definitely our skin will become dry and effects of aging will appear. Our body tend to produce lesser hyaluronic acid when our age increases and this is the reason why wrinkles start to appear and skin becomes dry.The amount of hyaluronic acid in our body starts to decline when we reach 20.

Graph showing the amount of hyaluronic acid in the skin against age

Thus, those who dream of having beautiful skin and hates aging should start using skin care product that has superb moisturizing effect. And of course, skin care product that uses hyaluronic acid as the key ingredient can definitely provide this effect.

Examples of products that contain Hyaluronic Acid:

Facial Mask Sheet with Hyaluronic Acid from The Face Shop

Products from Eucerin that also contain Hyaluronic Acid

Using Hyaluronic Mask
It's human nature-wants to be perfect
Already have sexy body but still want to have prettier and smoother skin =P

So, why not give products with Hyaluronic Acid a try and moisturized skin will be yours. =)