Most people know their skin needs collagen and elastin to hold its youthful shape and elasticity, and to keep from wrinkling.
They're the connective tissue and structural support holding your skin together. We lose them as we age, which affects how our skin looks.
But there's another important substance that forms the structural foundations of our skin - and our hair and nails as well.
You simply can't look as young as you wish unless you also have plenty of keratin.
What is Keratin
Keratin is the fibrous protein making up your hair, nails and skin -and is also found in your internal organs. It helps injured cells to heal.
It's a strong, protective protein, less prone to scratching or tearing than other proteins.
That's also why it's found in animal feathers, wool and horns. Keratin comprises 90% of the weight of poultry feathers.
Keratin is Most Popular for Hair Care
It's a common ingredient in shampoos, conditioners and serums. Product makers claim it can repair hair damaged by heat and dyes.
It may be listed as keratin hydrolysates in the list of ingredients.
You can find do-it-yourself keratin treatments that're stronger and more effective than just delivering via a shampoo.
You can also pay a professional salon for Brazilian keratin treatments.
These are even more extensive, and take days to complete.
First, they apply formaldehyde to your hair, then blow it dry. You must keep it dry for days.
Then you return for another treatment.
That allegedly makes your hair smoother, straighter and free of the frizzies.
Formaldehyde is a powerful flammable and industrial chemical used in making pressed wood products. However, it's best known as the preservative used for corpses in funeral homes.
It is also associated with increased risk of leukemia, and some rare cancers.
It's your hair and your health, but is a possible case of cancer worth whatever formaldehyde does to your hair?
Stick to keratin shampoos and conditioners.
Keratin Supplements
Past keratin supplements have been a waste of money. The keratin was taken from animal sources - hooves, horns and feathers. The heat necessary to process this keratin - basically melting it down - robs it of all its potential biological activity.
The process is called hydrolyzation, and it changes the chemical makeup of the keratin.
When you swallow it or place a cream with it on your skin, it's doesn't help you.
The keratin complex peptides are so large they often cannot penetrate past the surface of your skin. That is, they can't go deep enough to replenish the keratin you've lost. Therefore, instead, the keratin is simply washed off, not doing you any good.
This lead scientists to come up with ways to make keratin soluble in water, so it's highly bioavailable.
Researchers believe solubilized keratin gets delivered through the blood to the cells in your hair, skin and nails, building up their supply.
Benefits of Solubilized Keratin
In one clinical trial, one-half of a group of women received 500 mg of solubilized keratin. The other half received a placebo.
After 90 days, the women taking the keratin demonstrated clear improvements in the health of their skin, nails and hair.
Another trial, with women with damaged hair, found:
* The number of hairs lost when washing went down by 30%
* Strength of hair increased 12%
* All hair of the women who took keratin appeared shinier and smoother
It gets even better. In one study, the women who took the solubilized keratin had:
* 9.2% increase in growth-phase hair follicles
* 47.1% improvement in the appearance of their hair
* 47% decline in the number of hairs removed during a hair-pull test
Don't Ignore Your Nails
In one of those studies, the women who took solubulized keratin also had great improement in the health and appearance of their nails.
* 87.5% decrease in broken nails
* 50% increase in nail strength
* 20.8% improvement in the appearance of their nails
* 37.5% increase in the smoothness of their nails
Solubilized Keratin has Obvious Skincare Benefits
In one study, women aged 40-71 years old - and who all had obvious skin aging - experienced these results:
* Reduction of wrinkle depth in 58.3% of the participants
* 30.4% increase in skin moisture
* 17.9% smoother skin
* 16.8% improvement in skin elasticity
NOTE: In most all of the above scientific studies, the women took 500 mg a day - either all at once, or 250 mg twice a day. That amount seems safe.
An alternative you may find is "functional keratin."
That's made in New Zealand by a company that figured out how to extract it from the wool of sheep (New Zealand has lots of sheep), without destroying its usefulness through hydrolyzation.
Studies have shown these internal wool lipids do penetrate your skin, giving it the benefit of the keratin.
Clearly, you want to look for solubilized keratin as a supplement and functional keratin as a skin cream.
Foods that Encourage Your Body's Natural Production of Keratin
They include:
* Onions
* Salmon
* Eggs
* Sunflower seeds
* Mangoes
* Sweet potatoes
* Kale
* Garlic
* Carrots
As with many personal care products, you need to do a lot of research before selecting a brand. Just because a label says the product contains keratin (or many other such ingredients) doesn't mean it'll do you any good.
Do your due diligence before following trends.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/keratin-rich-foods
https://www.streetdirectory.com/etoday/-upuaup.html
https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-018-0251-x
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/formaldehyde
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKctKNrUex0
https://www.lorealparisusa.com/ingredient-library/keratin
https://www.healthline.com/health/keratin
https://www.healthline.com/health/keratin#methods-and-uses
https://www.roxlor.com/cynatinehns.ph
https://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2016/2/beauty-from-within-healthy-hair-skin-and-nails
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/keratin-rich-foods