Hyaluronic acid: The underappreciated prebiotic fiber

Marinho 2021

By way of Inventive Commons License 4.0

It comes as a shock to many individuals that each one fibers—insoluble, soluble, prebiotic, and so on.—are polymers (chains) of sugar molecules. Inulin fiber, as an illustration, that has prebiotic properties (i.e., it’s metabolized by intestine microbes) is a polymer of fructose molecules, whereas galactooligosaccharides from legumes and root greens are polymers of galactose molecules. Different fibers include mixtures of various sugars. Glucomannan, for instance, in konjac and shirataki noodles, is a combination of glucose and mannose sugars.

People lack the digestive enzymes to interrupt down the bonds between sugars in fibers. Micro organism residing within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract do have the mandatory enzymes, nonetheless. It’s an instance of an exquisite symbiosis: We will ingest fibers however we can not digest them, however micro organism can. They depend on us to ingest meals that include fibers and, in flip, generate metabolites with substantial well being advantages for the human host. Advantages of microbial metabolites created from fiber are important and embody nourishing intestinal cells, modulating insulin and blood sugar ranges, and serving to keep psychological and emotional well being.

Hyaluronic acid can be a fiber, a polymer of two sugars, glucuronic acid and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, that repeat again and again in a sequence. Many females are aware of hyaluronic acid as a result of they apply it topically as “serums” or different merchandise to moisturize and clean pores and skin. Most individuals, nonetheless, dismiss hyaluronic acid as nothing extra. However there may be loads extra to the hyaluronic acid story and human well being.

A lot of hyaluronic acid’s profit within the physique is because of its distinctive capability to bind water molecules, offering moisture, lubrication, and a medium for immune system mediators to supply safety. Whereas hyaluronic acid is produced by a number of organs all through the physique, people are additionally meant to acquire hyaluronic acid from weight loss plan. Drawback: the final 40 years of focus wasted on lowering saturated fats and ldl cholesterol consumption made many individuals, in addition to dietary “authorities,” shun meals that present plentiful hyaluronic acid. Among the many animal sources (there are not any plant sources) of hyaluronic acid are pores and skin, joints, mind, uterus, with lesser quantities in abdomen, intestines, and muscle. Pores and skin and mind are particularly wealthy sources with about 7 milligrams in a 4-ounce serving of, say, lamb mind.

Ingesting larger portions of hyaluronic acid has been demonstrated to:

• Improve joint lubrication—The synovial fluid in your joints similar to knees and hips is elevated by ingesting extra hyaluronic acid, thereby defending joint cartilage and stopping arthritis.
• Forestall deterioration of vision-–The eyes are wealthy in hyaluronic acid. Getting extra hyaluronic acid thereby helps lubricate and plump up eye tissue.
• Improve pores and skin moisture—Hyaluronic acid will increase the hyaluronic acid content material of the dermal layer of pores and skin, just under the dermis. The hyaluronic acid women apply to the floor offers a short lived impact—the pores and skin isn’t any extra more healthy, neither is the remainder of your physique. Ingesting hyaluronic acid really improves pores and skin well being and the well being of different organs.
• Improved pores and skin wound therapeutic—Due to its necessary function in pores and skin well being, orally consumed hyaluronic acid assists in pores and skin therapeutic.
• Improve vaginal moisture—Vaginal atrophy and dryness plague many females, particularly as they proceed by menopause and onwards. By a girl’s late 60s and 70s, vaginal atrophy and dryness develop into ubiquitous, almost common. The uterus, cervix, and vagina are made up largely of hyaluronic acid. Getting extra hyaluronic acid might due to this fact present a bonus. Thus far, solely topical hyaluronic acid has been studied, not oral consumption. However given the widespread moisturizing results of hyaluronic acid ingestion, a vaginal moisture impact is probably going. And, after all, there is no such thing as a draw back, since you might be merely augmenting a naturally occurring compound.
• Trigger a bloom of Akkermansia muciniphila in bowel flora—When Akkermansia blooms, it yields substantial advantages to the human host similar to diminished insulin resistance and HbA1c, encouraging manufacturing if GI mucus, and helps the proliferation of different wholesome bowel flora species. (Recall that overgrowth of Akkermansia can happen while you deprive it of fibers, as happens in some folks following ketogenic, carnivorous, or low-FODMAPs diets, however doesn’t happen with hyaluronic acid, inulin, or oleic acid consumption, i.e., different dietary components that nourish Akkermansia, within the weight loss plan.)

Though preliminary, there might also be methods that we will undertake that domesticate microbial species, similar to chosen Streptococcal species and strains, that take up residence within the GI tract and produce hyaluronic acid for us—keep tuned as this perception unfolds.

The failure to ingest hyaluronic acid-rich sources similar to mind and pores and skin is yet one more lesson discovered from the blunders of chopping dietary fats. Add this error on high of advocating the consumption of wheat and grains that trigger extravagant weight achieve and sort 2 diabetes, low-fat merchandise wealthy in high-fructose corn syrup or sugars, and “every part moderately.” Right these blunders by including again sources of hyaluronic acid similar to pores and skin or soups and broths made with the bones and carcass of animals or complement it as capsules or powders.

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