Dr. Raja Sivamani is a board-certified dermatologist, Ayurvedic practitioner, practices at Pacific Skin Institute and runs clinical studies at Zen Dermatology. He is a founder of Jiva Factory, an online platform dedicated to overall wellness and health. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Clinical Dermatology at the University of California, Davis. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the California State University, Sacramento and Co- Director of the Microbiome Research Initiative. He engages in clinical practice as well as both clinical and translational research that integrates bioengineering, nutrition, plant science, cosmetics, and skin biology.
The potential health benefits of ingesting nuts, like almonds, include both health-related benefits and ‘beauty from within’ benefits, as recently discovered through a clinical trial investigating the role of almonds on skin health. The health-related benefits of almonds, as ascertained through randomized clinical trials, include heart health, blood glucose regulation, weight management, and satiety (www.almonds.com/health-professionals/nutrition-and-research/ references). Almonds are high in vitamin E, monounsaturated fat (healthy fatty acids), and minerals such as calcium, zinc, and magnesium2, among others, which are important for general health as well as skin health. Therefore, almonds are uniquely positioned for the ’beauty from within’ approach. Almonds have been revered for their skin rejuvenating potential for thousands of years in other traditions, such as Ayurvedic medicine that originates in India. According to Ayurveda, almonds are known for imparting health and glow to the skin.
Apart from the general effects on health, the unique properties of almonds have raised excitement about them as functional foods for the skin. For example, almonds are high in vitamin E3 with potential for skin related benefits4, and there has been a growth of interest in seeing how almonds may influence the skin.
One of the only prospective randomized clinical studies in nuts evaluated how almonds may influence the development of wrinkles in thirty-one post-menopausal women with Fitzpatrick skin type 1 and 2. The Fitzpatrick scale, developed by Thomas B. Fitzpatrick in 1975, is a well-established and widely-accepted numerical classification for skin sensitivity to sunlight and a tendency to experience sun damage as a result of ultraviolet light. Type 1 and 2 on this scale have a skin type that tends to get sunburnt very quickly and experience ultraviolet light related aging more quickly. The women were randomly split into two groups that either received almonds or a healthy nut-free alternative snack. The women in the almond group were supplied with almonds that would make up 20% of their caloric intake. On average, this amounted to approximately two small handfuls of almonds a day. Facial wrinkles were tracked with a high-resolution facial image analysis software that could track the size and depth of facial wrinkles over time.
The clinical study found that women in the almond group had a 10% and 9% reduction in wrinkle width and wrinkle severity, respectively after four months of almond consumption. The women in the nut-free group did not show any change in their wrinkles over the four months. None of the women had any side effects. This work showed that almonds have potential as a functional food as a natural approach to improve wrinkles.
While this was a pilot study in a small group of people, it highlights the role of almonds in imparting skin health benefits and of the potential for including them as an aesthetic functional food. A larger and longer follow-up study is currently underway to not only reconfirm almond’s wrinkle improvement property but to also investigate the role of almond consumption in improving facial pigmentation, gut and skin microbiome shift, the blood lipidome shift, and improvement in skin barrier property.
While supplements are a growing trend, this is also paced with the demand for functional foods with the global market for functional foods estimated to grow to $275 billion. What this means is that there is a growing demand for natural approaches to skin care and aesthetics and it's not just focused on topical treatments. It is also driven by the understanding that what we eat may, in fact, have an impact on the rest of the body and skin health.
Many studies in the past have explored how the skin is influenced by what we eat. One study from the UK showed that the ingestion of foods and vegetables could influence the development of a "food tan" that was graded as more attractive5. Another study showed that the type of food eaten could affect the skin's production of oil and the skin's pH differently6. So it may not be much of a surprise, in light of these other findings, that almonds may influence skin health as well.
While many studies have evaluated the role of almonds for cardiovascular health, blood sugar control, improvement of cholesterol levels, the evidence linking almonds with skin health benefits is missing. The prospective study on almonds and wrinkles is a start. More studies should follow so that we can better understand how nuts may serve as a functional food for the skin.
References
1. https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Article/2018/09/27/The-rise-ofbeauty- supplements-in-the-US-in-charts#. Accessed January 10, 2020. 2. Rehm CD and Drewnoski A. Replacing American snacks with tree nuts increases consumption of key nutrients among US children and adults: results of an NHANES modeling study. Nutr J.2017;16(1):17. 3. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/ food-details/171031/nutrients. Accessed January 10, 2020. 4. Keen MA, Hassan I. Vitamin E in dermatology. Indian Dermatol Online J.2016;7(4):311-315. 5. Whitehead RD, Re D, Xiao D, et al. You are what you eat: within-subject increases in fruit and vegetable consumption confer beneficial skin-color changes. PLoS One.2012;7(3):e32988. 6. Lim S, Shin J, Cho Y, et al. Dietary Patterns Associated with Sebum Content, Skin Hydration and pH, and Their Sex- Dependent Differences in Healthy Korean Adults. Nutrients.2019;11(3).
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