What Is Hyaluronic Acid And How to Use it?
Hyaluronic acid is a natural polysaccharide, a transparent, sticky colloidal substance that is filled in the space of cells and collagen fibers in the human body and is covered in some connective tissue. Hyaluronic acid not only maintains the elastic function of the skin but also locks a large number of water molecules. It has a moisturizing and lubricating function on the tissue and is also a component of the ocular lens and joint lubricating fluid. So it is often used to make beauty cosmetics and drugs for arthritis and cataracts.
The Origin of Hyaluronic Acid
Sodium Hyaluronate is a natural and undeficient hyaluronic acid salt in human tissue, a straight-chain macromolecule polysaccharide consisting of a double sugar unit (glucuronic acid -N- acetylglucosamine), with an average molecular weight of 1 million to 10 million Dalton and a structure of the tissue. Overall maintenance and intercellular transport have important functions. The basic structure of hyaluronic acid is a large polysaccharide hyaluronic acid composed of two disaccharide units GlcNAc and GlcA.
In 1934, Meyer, Professor of Ophthalmology at Columbia University, first isolated hyaluronic acid from the bovine vitreous body and analyzed its structure. Since uronic acid is extracted from Hyaloid, it is named Hyaluronic acid. According to the Meyer study, the structure of hyaluronic acid is mainly composed of disaccharide, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, and D-glucuronic acid, which are linked by the beta -1-3 bond. Hyaluronic acid is widely found in natural connective tissue, mucous tissue, eyeball lens, and some bacterial capsular in nature. Hyaluronic acid has the same chemical composition and structure. This biological compatibility, absorbability, and hyaluronic acid as a medical polymer material will have no immune reaction, the material can be decomposed by the organism.
Properties of hyaluronic acid
Hyaluronic acid exists in the connective tissue and the dermis of the human body. It is a transparent colloidal substance, which is filled with water. It is a moisturizing factor for the skin. 1 gram of hyaluronic acid can absorb 500c.c. of water, equivalent to 500 times of the water absorption capacity. Compared with thirty times the moisture of collagen molecules, hyaluronic acid molecules can carry more than five hundred times water, which is recognized as the best moisturizer in the literature.
Hyaluronic acid exists in the skin. Proper supplementation of hyaluronic acid can not only help the skin to absorb a lot of moisture from the body and the surface of the skin but also enhance the ability of the skin to keep water for a long time. When hyaluronic acid absorbs a lot of water, the elastic fibers and collagen are in a water-filled environment, and the skin becomes more elastic. Young skin is rich in hyaluronic acid, so it is soft and elastic. After the age of 25, hyaluronic acid began to drain. At the age of 30, only 25% of the children were 65% or 60 years old. And hyaluronic acid will be lost with age, causing skin loss of moisture, loss of elasticity and luster, and the aging of skin wrinkles will last for a long time.
The effect of hyaluronic acid on skincare
In the early 1980s, the excellent moisturizing function of hyaluronic acid was widely concerned by the international cosmetics industry. Hyaluronic acid is applied to the skin to absorb a large amount of moisture. It has the same high water retention in all kinds of humidity, climate, environment, and different skin quality.
The actual effect has exceeded the hydration degree of the stratum corneum. Therefore, hyaluronic acid is an ideal moisturizing ingredient for dry or aging to severe water deficiency. The water content of the normal stratum corneum is about 10 to 15%. If the moisture content is less than 10%, the skin will start drying and desquamation, which will further cause the loss of moisture in the dermal tissue and form wrinkles and slack. Hyaluronic acid can increase and maintain the moisture content of the skin, let the skin present elasticity and luster, can achieve long-term moisturizing, and retain the moisture of the skin.
The correct use of hyaluronic acid
Because of the high price, general hyaluronic acid maintenance products are provided with high concentrations of hyaluronic acid, which requires consumers to mix it with make-up water. When the skin is dry, if a high concentration of the moisturizer (such as 5% hyaluronic acid) is used alone, there is no direct moisturizing effect, even if the hyaluronic acid sucks a lot of water from the skin, it will make the skin drier after use. So the correct use is, after washing the face in the morning and evening, only need to put 2-3 drops of hyaluronic acid in the palm of the hand, plus a proper amount of water mixed, thin smear on the face, so more effective, a bottle of hyaluronic acid can also be used for more than 1-2 months.
