Earlier we took a look at what fatty acids are and how little about how the skin functions and what its main purpose is. Today we’ll take a look at how fatty acids are used in the skin. Let’s just refresh our memories about the most wonderful of organs: skin. Skin has a lot of things it needs to do and some of them seem contradictory. It needs to keep things out, it needs to keep things in, and it needs to let things pass. That’s a lot of functions! The only way our skin can get all of these competing tasks done is to be flexible, literally. Skin needs to retain moisture, and be soft and flexible. You don’t need to be a doctor to be able to decipher what is healthy skin and what is not. We’re hard wired to appreciate beautiful skin because beautiful skin is healthy skin. You know that if you’re looking at hard, cracked, dry skin, that it’s not healthy.
skin

So how can fatty acids help our skin?

We produce many fatty acids internally that are used throughout our system. In fact there are only two that we don’t and they are known as the essential fatty acids (EFA). The EFAs are Omega 3 alpha-linolenic acid and Omega 6 linoleic acid. We need to nourish our skin from the inside and the outside. So depending on what we are eating and how well we are taking care of ourselves, hopefully we are producing fatty acids internally. But we can (and should) also apply them topically to help our skin.
I’ve taken a look at the basic functions that skin needs to perform and tried to classify some of the most common acids by how they can help the skin. This is just my classification, so take that bit of information and do with it what you will. In order for skin to be healthy and to function properly it needs to do three basic things: (1) create an effective barrier; (2) prevent damage to the skin; and (3) repair damage to the skin. In truth each acid performs a broad range of functions in helping our skin, so this is not to say that just because an acid isn’t listed under a certain category that it doesn’t perform that function. Based on these three parameters, I’ve classified several of the fatty acids as follows:

Assists barrier function- keep bad stuff out, keeps moisture and good stuff in and allows appropriate things to pass through the skin

Palmitic acid (forms occlusive layer)
Palmitoleic acid (antimicrobial)
CLA (antimicrobial, improve epidermal differentiation)
Stearic acid (flexibility and moisture retention)
Linoleic acid (provides moisture, lack of it leads to dry skin, scaling and acne)
Oleic acid (moisturizing, softening, anti-inflammatory)
Gamma Linoleic acid (anti-inflammatory)
Lauric acid (antifungal and antibacterial)
Myristic acid (provides moisture, links proteins that form outer layer of skin)

Prevents damage

Palmitoleic acid (prevents burns, wounds and scratches)

Repairs damage

Stearic acid (flexibility)
Linoleic acid (lack of it leads to poor wound healing)
Oleic acid (regenerating- aids with collagen and elastin)
Gamma Linoleic acid (repairs skin barrier, helps reverse epidermal hyperproliferation)
CLA (elasticity, reduce inflammation, lighten skin)
Myristic acid (regulates skin cell regeneration)

Tomorrow we’ll start to look at each individual fatty acid a little closer and learn about what types of oils contain which types of acids.