There are some cosmetic issues that respond really well to supplementation, and the beauty industry is trying to get in on that. Want nice nails? Take biotin. Want better skin? Take collagen. Thicker eyebrows? Try a growth serum. Take this 8 question quiz and get all the supplements you need to address your health… the list goes on and on.
Unfortunately it is not quite that simple. How many of us have bottles of product on the shelf that we don’t use because our skin just didn’t like it, or we stopped using it because we didn’t notice any changes? Let’s take a deeper dive into 3 of the most common beauty concerns to help guide your next product selection.
First up are fingernails. The nail exam is one of my favorite parts of new patient physical exams because you can learn a lot about a person just from their nails. One of the most common issues with nails is weak, peeling, or brittle nails. Often, the beauty industry suggests biotin for this. While biotin is an integral component of your nails, it is by no means the only one!
If you find that your nails peel or are weak, you may actually have a more generalized mineral deficiency. Trace minerals are critical to our health, but are very rarely tested or fortified, and so they are commonly deficient. The most bioavailable minerals are chelates made by Albion labs, and the least bioavailable are the oxide form of the mineral.
A chelate is a mineral bound to an amino acid. Because our digestive tract absorbs amino acids with ease, the mineral is taken up into the bloodstream much more effectively than if it was floating around as a free mineral. Before buying a supplement for nail support, read the label and make sure it has the right form of the minerals.
If your nails are strong but they just don’t grow, that is more likely a thyroid issue and so they won’t be helped by biotin at all. Ridges on the nails are conventionally considered a natural part of aging as the nail thins, but I challenge that assumption and find that it may be from mineral deficiency or from B vitamin deficiency.
The second issue many women supplement for is hair. Over 50% of women will experience hair loss over her lifetime - This is the sort of hair concern that can respond well to supplementation. Thinning hair, very slow growing hair, or hair follicle shrinkage can all be traced back to thyroid function.
The thyroid is the master gland of metabolism, and so if it is lagging, cells that are the most metabolically active will struggle the most noticeably. You may notice dry skin, thin eyebrows, low energy, and weight gain in addition to your hair loss. In this situation, you don’t need hair support, you need thyroid support and your hair will grow back on its own.
For some women, stress can be a trigger for hair loss as well. However, it doesn’t always correlate exactly with the stressful period. Normally there is a delay of several months, which can make it really hard to track down. Remember that caloric restriction is a stress on the body! Once I had a patient who was experiencing drastic hair loss and she was completely beside herself (understandably). The only change in her life was that she had started a restrictive diet, so when we added in more calories, the hair loss completely stopped!
There is no oral supplement to make your hair instantly shiny, because your hair is dead. You can however, improve its shine over time with hair masks to nourish the scalp and hair follicle. Here is an example of a scalp nourishing mask. Other things that would be useful for hair quality are omega 3s, protein, and sulfur containing foods.
The last item that women are always looking to work on is skin integrity. Men get wrinkles and they look “distinguished”, women get wrinkles and we look “old”. Not fair! As we age, we lose subcutaneous fat which makes our bony structures more prominent, and there is not much we can do about this besides generally taking care of yourself. Those who age prematurely tend to have had a tough life, emotionally or physically. Antioxidants are helpful here, and something that I like to test if someone is working on overall health or if she is showing signs of premature aging.
For women, hormones actually play an important role in skin health as well. We are all familiar with hormonal impacts on the skin in terms of acne, but it also plays a role in skin aging as well which is most evident after menopause. Balancing hormones and supporting their production in the late 40s and through the 50s can have a positive impact on this transition phase and skin health.
These hormonal changes may be responsible in part for some of the collagen changes we experience as we age. Taking collagen powder doesn’t guarantee that you will make more collagen, but it does at least give your body the building blocks to make more collagen. There is some positive research on particular collagen peptides for skin elasticity and moisture, although there have not been many studies investigating the mechanism.
In summary, there is a lot we can do to improve our appearance from the inside out! If you tried a supplement to help your hair, skin, or nails and it didn’t work, don’t give up hope! It may be that you just got the wrong nutrients and taking a different approach to the concern could still work!