Whether it’s during puberty or throughout early adulthood, almost all of us have experienced acne, even if it was only a pimple or two here or there. If you’re like me, then you have followed bold claims and advertisements for all kinds of creams, ointments, and cures to manage your acne only to find most of them to be disappointingly ineffective despite their large price tags. Today, we’ll go over some actual research behind one supplement that’s commonly used, though not typically for acne: omega-3’s.
With promising data related to cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, mental health, and arthritis, omega-3 supplementation is touted for all kinds of benefits and purposes, much of which connects back to these fatty acids' anti-inflammatory properties. (I) And, it is these properties, amongst others, that led researchers to the hypothesis that omega-3 supplementation may be helpful in reducing acne, a condition at least partly driven via inflammation. (II)
In 2014, Jung and colleagues put this idea to the test, studying how omega-3 and gamma linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid referred to as GLA) supplementation impacted acne in 30 patients in comparison to no treatment in another 15 patients. (III) The 15 subjects in the omega-3 group consumed 500 mg each of EPA and DHA in pill form twice per day, while the 15 subjects in the GLA group consumed 200 mg of GLA in pill form twice per day. The remaining 15 subjects in the study took nothing, so they were solely a control group, not a placebo-control group. This is important to note, as the design does not allow us to rule out the placebo effect’s impact on the results.
After 10 weeks of supplementation, both treatment groups showed significant improvements in their acne, including 42.6% and 32.6% reductions in inflammatory acne lesions for the omega-3 and GLA groups, respectively. (III) In addition, the patients’ subjective assessments of the severity of their own acne improved by 35% and 32%, respectively in the omega-3 and GLA groups. (III) Notably, none of the markers in the study showed statistically significant changes in the control group. (III) Check out Figures 1 and 2 below for visuals of these data.
Interestingly, when the researcher’s took acne samples from 7 subjects in each of the omega-3 and GLA groups before and after the treatment period, they found decreases in inflammatory pathology markers and interleukin-8 content (a pro-inflammatory cytokine). Thus, there is some evidence suggesting that the acne improvements were due to these fatty acids’ impacts on inflammation.
Of course, this study is limited by small sample size, lack of placebo-control, and unforeseen confounding variables. (III) Still, whether this data reflects a true positive effect of omega-3 supplementation on acne or not, in my opinion, since there are countless other benefits to supplementing omega-3’s, trying out these fatty acids seems reasonable. (I) If you’re interested in learning more about omega-3’s and their other use-cases, I highly recommend checking out Dr. Rhonda Patrick’s comprehensive review here. And, stay tuned because I plan on covering more content on omega-3’s here at Shortcut U in the future. For now, I’ll leave additional resources I’ve found interesting below.