Hyaluronic Acid?????

[Flee]

After hearing about the 20/20 special on the ageless people in the small Japanese town I started poking around. Figured I would post to see if anyone has any experience or knows anyone who has tried an HA supplement?

Hyaluronic Acid is found in many important places in the body. It has been tied to joint health, skin health, eye tissue health and many more. Here's a link if you wanna have a read.

Hopefully someone will say it is wonderful.

Hyaluronic Acid

Fire away.

Ryan

[bryanc]

Well, that someone isn't going to be me.

Hyaluronic acid is a proteoglycan and is a massive molecule. It is the primary non-collagenous component of cartilage. While it is true that people with Ehlers-Danlos and Marfans do have problems with their joints, those diseases and the other ones mentioned on the web site are primarily collagen formation defects, not hyaluronic acid ones.

It is true that if things go wrong with HA synthesis, that cartilage problems tend to happen. Skin, and eye do not have high amounts of HA in them.

Eating HA however, is likely to provide very few benefits for two reasons:

1. HA is a HUGE molecule. It is debateable as to whether it can actually pass through the walls of the small intestine intact without being broken down into smaller pieces.

2. Cartilage is basically avascular (i.e. no blood supply). Cartilage gets it nutrients from synovial fluid, which is produced by the cells lining the synovium. HA is highly unlikely to pass through the 'outer' edges of synovial cells and into the joint through the 'inner' edge intact as well. So, even if you were to eat HA, to your body, it's not any different than eating steak or any other protein.

[Jean-Paul]

What HE said!


Actually, Bryan, you bring up an interesting point when you talk about the molecule size and whether or not it actually passes the intestinal wall intact. I have long felt that the GH supplements that seem to have taken the industry by storm were bogus for the same reason. If you are going to actually take HGH, you have to inject it.

With this in mind, do you think some injectable form of HA could work in a desired manner?

[bryanc]

There are synthetic HA treatments for osteoarthritis. It's technically called 'viscosupplementation'. The product is called Synvisc. Synvisc has HA in it as well as other stuff and is used relatively commonly as an injectable. It is essentially synovial fluid that is injected into a joint capsule in the hope that it will help lubricate the joint in cartilage-damaged or deficient people. Unfortunately, Synvisc does get resorbed by the synovial cells and thus, repeated Synvisc injections are required to maintain 'lubrication'.

But, vascular injection of HA would be weird, since intact or large portions of HA don't normally travel around in your blood. I'm not sure what would happen if you did it that way.

[gardener]

There is another use for HA, in a topical application. A couple of years ago when a dermatologist used laser treatments to treat a little skin problem, she also prescribed HA for facial use as a moisturizer. It leaves your face as smooth as a baby's butt. My wife latched onto it muy pronto and claims that it smooths out wrinkle lines. It's great stuff, but very, very expensive, about $175 for a couple of ounces. (It does go a long way; a tiny drop is enough to cover the entire face.) I haven't bothered to buy a second bottle; I figure I've earned my worry lines.