Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis
Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis
Hyaluronic acid: Most important DIETARY fiber of all?
We’ve been urged to include plenty of dietary fiber in our daily routines, fibers that come from vegetables, legumes, grains and other plant sources. But there is an animal-sourced fiber that has nearly disappeared from the modern human diet: hyaluronic acid.
Hyluronic acid has nearly disappeared from the diet because it is primarily sourced from animal products, especially organ meats like brain, skin, and tongue. But hyaluronic acid is a fiber crucial for the health of many human organs: skin, joints, uterus, cervix, vagina, arteries. It is also a fiber with significant benefits on the gastrointestinal microbiome that, in turn, yields substantial benefits via microbial metabolites.
In this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, let’s discuss the role of this important fiber and how to bring it back into your lifestyle to obtain its many benefits.
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We've been urged to include plenty of dietary fiber in our daily routines, fibers that come from vegetables, legumes, grains and other plant sources. But there is an animal-sourced fiber that has nearly disappeared from the modern human diet Hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid has nearly disappeared from the diet because it is primarily sourced from animal products, especially organ meats like brain, skin and tongue. But hyaluronic acid is a fiber crucial for the health of many human organs skin joints, uterus, cervix, vagina arteries. It is also a fiber with significant benefits on the gastrointestinal microbiome that in turn, yields substantial benefits via microbial metabolites. In this episode of the Define Health podcast, let's discuss the role of this important fiber and how to bring it back into your lifestyle to obtain its many benefits. I'd like to take a few minutes to talk about this important fiber, hyaluronic acid. Now many people are surprised that we call it a fiber, but it is a fiber. Recall that fibers are nothing more than polymers of different sugars. So cellulose fiber, fructooligosaccharide fiber, xylooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides and hyaluronic acid these are all examples of fibers that differ in their sugar construction. They also share the property that they are indigestible by humans, that is, we don't have the enzymes to break down the unique sequence of sugars in these fibers, but microbes have those enzymes, and so these fibers become a very important microbial or microbiome type conversation. Well, hyaluronic acid is a fiber, and it's a very unique fiber in that it's one of the rare fibers that are sourced from animals. Right, the vast majority of fibers come from plant matter green leafy vegetables, root vegetables and similar plant sourced foods but hyaluronic acid is animal sourced, typically coming from organs such as brain, skin, tongue and other organs. Of course, most modern people have abandoned consumption of those hyaluronic acid sources, and so modern people have ended up leading a hyaluronic acid depleted lifestyle, and this has consequences. So let's talk about those consequences Now.
William Davis, MD:I know that a lot of ladies will say things like well, don't tell me about hyaluronic acid, I know all about it. What they mean is they know about topical hyaluronic acid serums. I know a lot of you ladies pay a lot of money. I've seen ladies paying $100, $180 for an ounce of serum of hyaluronic acid and they apply it to the fine wrinkles of their face, such as the crow's feet or smile lines, and it does work. It does at least temporarily reduce the depth of wrinkles. But here's the thing If you apply it, say, to the crow's feet around your eyes. What does it do to the skin on your neck or abdomen or thighs or other areas where skin aging can occur? Nothing, of course, right. It's a topical, superficial application.
William Davis, MD:The real power of hyaluronic acid isn't when ingested orally. But now most modern people have essentially abandoned consumption of hyaluronic acid-rich sources. So if you go back to obtaining hyaluronic acid, what can you expect? Well, since most of you are interested in skin, you can expect an increase in dermal collagen. So hyaluronic acid in the dermal layer of skin, just below the surface epidermis, triggers the production of collagen, so it increases dermal collagen, thereby reduces wrinkles. It also increases the retention of water in the dermal layer, generating that plumpness that ladies like, and so there are major skin effects. Hyaluronic acid also increases the production of collagen in joint cartilage. So it's Joints like knees and hips have cartilage, of course, and cartilage is mostly collagen. The hyaluronic acid that you ingest increases dermal collagen production, so it's one of the things you can do to help rebuild joint collagen. Hyaluronic acid also adds to the synovial fluid, the lubricating, gel-like substance in your joints that protects your joint cartilage in your joints. That protects your joint cartilage, and hyaluronic acid is also very important and critical fiber to nourish your gastrointestinal microbiome. So when you ingest orally hyaluronic acid, you bloom very important species that produce the fatty acid butyrate. And that's important because when your microbiome produces more butyrate, you obtain effects like reduced insulin resistance, reduced blood glucose, reduced blood pressure, better mood, deeper sleep, more vivid dreams and other beneficial effects.
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William Davis, MD:With regard to skin, that butyrate, also called butyric acid, goes to the skin and helps acidify the skin. Healthy skin is acidic. It's much more acidic than unhealthy skin. Healthy skin is acidic. It's much more acidic than unhealthy skin. So people who have skin problems like psoriasis, rosacea, acne they have a less acidic skin that allows proliferation of unhealthy microbes such as Staphylococcus aureus. When you get hyaluronic acid it blooms bacterial species in your gastrointestinal microbiome that produce abundant quantities of butyric acid. That in turn acidifies the skin and discourages the proliferation of those unhealthy microbes like staphylococcus aureus and it makes it more difficult, makes it less likely to have those skin rashes and it improves complexion, reduces blemishes and redness. So hyaluronic acid taken orally is a wonderful factor in generating better appearing skin and skin health.
William Davis, MD:Now those butyrogenic species that are bloomed by hyaluronic acid, such as acromantia muciniphila, fecalobacterium prosnitzii, lachnosporacea, ruminic, acacia. Those are very beneficial species for gastrointestinal and overall health as well. And hyaluronic acid even goes so far as to discourage the proliferation, the over proliferation, of fecal microbes like E coli and Klebsiella. Those are the species of colonic dysbiosis or SIBO small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. If you've been following my conversations, you know that SIBO is epidemic now. About half the US population has it. Now, hyaluronic acid is very important, it's helpful. It's insufficient by itself. So please don't hear that taking hyaluronic acid gets rid of SIBO. It can be part of the program. You can do more like see my videos, see my Define Health podcast, see my many blog posts about SIBO and the use of SIBO yogurt.
William Davis, MD:But hyaluronic acid, because of its wonderful effect on blooming butyrogenic species, is part of the solution. Now there's some uncertain benefits, further benefits to hyaluronic acid. But think about this the uterus, cervix and vagina is largely made of hyaluronic acid. Now many ladies lose moisture and sensation in their vagina as they age, especially over age 65, it becomes universal. Well, restoration of hyaluronic acid can be part of the solution. There's more that a woman can do, but part of the solution is to ingest hyaluronic acid. You know the eyes and brain are largely hyaluronic acid also. So what does a diet depleted in hyaluronic acid do? So we can only speculate, but it's likely that restoration of depleted in hyaluronic acid do. So we can only speculate, but it's likely that restoration of orally consumed hyaluronic acid is also important for those organs. Then, lastly, arteries Arterial disease, like coronary disease, heart attack, sudden cardiac death, need for stents and bypass surgery, all that stuff?
William Davis, MD:Well, arteries. Healthy arteries are lined by something called a glycocalyx. These are hair-like projections that are microscopic, that line all arteries and they are the pressure sensors and they control the tone of arteries. Healthy arteries are relaxed. Unhealthy arteries are constriction prone. They constrict and that's governed by the glycocalyx. What do you think? The glycocalyx is made of Hyaluronic acid. So I believe that emerging science in coming months and years is going to tell us that hyaluronic acid is one of the most important things you can do for heart and arterial health.
William Davis, MD:So how do you get hyaluronic acid? Well, you could go back to consuming organ meats, especially brain and skin. Most Americans don't want to do that, of course, because we've been told I think given absurd advice to cut your saturated fat and cholesterol. It costs most modern people to abandon consumption of organ meats. So you could do that. One thing I would not urge you to do is consume something called bone broth, because people think it mobilizes the collagen and hyaluronic acid as well as minerals, but it's also concentrated in lead, the heavy metal lead. So I would not do that.
William Davis, MD:If you want to use soups and broths, make what I call the unhabitizing sounding carcass broth. Let's say you bake a chicken, eat meat whatever, save the skin, bones, tendons, ligaments, whatever organs you might have, and don't boil it like you would for bone broth. Don't do it 36 hours. Don't add vinegar, because those things mobilize lead stored in the bones. Instead, boil for a brief period, maybe no more than three or four hours. Do not add vinegar, and you mobilize the collagen and the hyaluronic acid from the ligaments, tendons and other body parts from that carcass.
William Davis, MD:Now you can also take a supplement. That's probably the easiest way for most modern people who are averse to eating organ meats. It's become kind of a commodity supplement. The quality differences are not that great. If you want to be really specific, you want what's called high molecular weight hyaluronic acid, because that seems to have somewhat better benefits. But what you're doing really is feeding microbes that in turn convert the pieces after microbial digestion into all the things that benefit skin, joints, brain, arteries, etc.
William Davis, MD:So the dose typical dose is 120 milligrams per day. We don't know if more would be better. There's very little information, only one clinical study I'm aware. I've used 240 milligrams in a skin study and there was no additional improvement. So that has resulted in the fact that most manufacturers, most retailers, use 120 milligrams. It's up to future research to see if that's true. I suspect that more could be better, but no one has yet, to my knowledge, tested that. So 120 milligrams of hyaluronic acid fiber per day in powder form, added to coffee, added to your smoothie, added to yogurt, whatever doesn't matter. And that's how you get, that's how you restore hyaluronic acid to obtain all those varied benefits from this thing lacking in modern life.
