Vegan & want glowing skin - read about what the evidence shows & what your options are
/Dr Jemima Grant MBBS (Hons) BSc(Med) (Hons) BA FRACGP FACAM GP & Cosmetic Physician, Medical Director Thrive Skin Clinic
In order to make healthy skin, your body needs the building blocks to synthesise important skin proteins like collagen and elastin. These building blocks are known as amino acids.
If you are a vegan or vegetarian, you will really struggle to do this, as these diets are plant based - and there is not a lot of protein in plants.
For my plant based patients looking to optimise skin, I suggest they supplement their diets with protein. Increasing protein will improve the look and feel of skin and also improves the outcomes of a collagen induction treatment such as microneedling, tixel, ultraformer and lasers. This is based on my experience observing clinical results - but I did recently find some evidence on this topic to share.
🌿 What does the evidence say about Vegan response to Skin Treatments?
The Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology published a recent article which followed a group of vegan vs omnivore patients having HIFU (e.g Ultraformer III ), an ultrasound based treatment that induces collagen.
This showed that vegan patients had a suboptimal response (i.e less than non vegan counterparts), which is the first article I have seen than confirms my clinical suspicion. (Volume 20(9), September 2021, p 2769-2774). There is also another study that showed that vegan patients take longer to heal post laser, and need more sessions of laser to get the results seen in non vegan patients.
🌿 Examples of Reputable Protein supplements suitable for Vegans or vegetarians:
Imbibe - Vegan Collagen Firstly, for all my skin nerd followers out there, before you point it out - YES "vegan collagen" is a misnomer (collagen by definition is from ANIMALS ). However Imbibe uses synthetically sourced bioactive and bioavailable L-Glycine, L-Lysine and L-Proline amino acids, from a non animal source: BRILLIANT.
They have also combined these amino acids with a few other special ingredients to optimise skin function, including tremella (the beauty mushroom) and antioxidants. The combination of this trio offers a vegan supplement to support collagen and elastin synthesis, along with defence against accelerated ageing and skin hydration.
Plump | Protect | Preserve
Promote skin plumping and collagen production with clinically formulated plant based nutrients in a creamy vegan vanilla concentrate.
Welleco Nourishing Protein This is a plant based protein supplement, sourced from peas and brown rice, providing all 9 essential amino acids. This combination provides an optimal amino acid profile (For the #skinnerds again: pea protein is rich in lysine, and brown rice has high levels of cysteine and methionine- a winning combination.
This award winning formulation also contains pre and probiotics, herbal extracts, vitamins and minerals for complete nourishment. These protein supplements come in vanilla and chocolate flavour, and I reccomend them before or after a workout, or as a mid afternoon snack for patients trying to lose weight.
Whatever your philosophy and dietary choices, I always recommend upping protein intake for women in perimenopause and post menopause. I also advise increasing protein intake for the 4- 6 weeks before your start any collagen induction treatment such as Ultraformer, Tixel , Skin Needling or Biostimulating treatments such as Sculptra and PRP to optimise outcomes.
