People began to take notice of the potential for omega-3 pills to improve skin conditions due to a series of studies performed during the 1980s and 1990s examining their benefits for treating psoriasis. The mostly positive results encouraged investigation into their active ingredients which you've probably heard of and are known as EPA and DHA fatty acids. If you're thinking about supplementing omega-3 pills to improve a skin condition, it's really important you consult with your doctor first.
Psoriasis Studies
If you're concerned about skin dryness and itching, you may find a 1988 article published in the February issue of "Lancet" interesting. The article is representative of the era's studies reporting benefits from omega-3s in alleviating psoriasis symptoms including dryness, itching and inflammation. Twenty-eight psoriasis patients were randomly assigned to receive either 10 omega-3 oil capsules of combined DHA and EPA, or placebo, per day for eight weeks. The omega-3 group enjoyed significant improvement in all psoriasis symptoms with an overall trend toward a lessening in the body surface area affected. There was no improvement in the placebo group.
EPA Efficacy
You may be wondering if it was EPA or DHA that produced the improvements. So were researchers reporting in the January 1991 issue of "Dermatologica," who tested the efficacy of isolated EPA. Psoriasis patients were administered 3.6 g of purified EPA for either three months, six months or 12 months. Upon analysis, the researchers found the EPA supplementation also produced increases in DHA levels. The patients showed improvement within three months of supplementation, which was sustained in the patients supplementing for 12 months. The researchers reported there were no adverse side effects from supplementation.
Intravenous or Oral
Because taking omega-3 pills worked so well, some researchers wondered if intravenous administration would work any better. A group publishing in the January 2002 issue of the "British Journal of Nutrition" conducted three separate trials to examine the possible benefits. Their last study performed in 1998 involved 83 patients hospitalized for psoriasis. They received twice daily infusions of 100 ml of omega-3s for 14 days and 37 percent of them improved by 50 percent or better. It may help set your expectations about possible benefits to know that these results were better than taking pills.
Omega Imbalance
If you eat a lot of packaged baked goods, you should read the following carefully. Such foods contain large amounts of omega-6s fatty acids, and eating too much causes an imbalance in the ratio of omega-3s to omega-6s. Researchers reporting in the April 2008 issue of the "British Journal of Dermatology" hypothesized that the imbalance contributes to skin disorders, so they supplemented 53 eczema patients with either 5.4 g of omega-3 or placebo for eight weeks. The omega-3 group improved significantly while the placebo group showed no improvement. Further, the omega-6 levels in the omega-3 group decreased significantly.
References
- "Lancet"; A Double-blind, Randomised, Placebo-controlled Trial of Fish Oil in Psoriasis; Saul Bittner et al.; February 1988
- "Dermatologica"; Long-Term Administration of Highly Purified Eicosapentaenoic Acid Provides Improvement of Psoriasis; Takayuki Kojima; January 1991
- "British Journal of Nutrition"; N-3 Fatty Acids in Psoriasis; Peter Mayser et al.; January 2002
- "British Journal of Dermatology"; Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) Supplementation in Atopic Eczema: a Randomized, Double-blind, Controlled Trial; Carl Koch et al.; April 2008
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