Abstract
We investigated effects of bovine milk derived dietary sphingomyelin (SPM) concentrate on skin. A placebo-control double-blind study of the 6-week oral intake of the SPM concentrate (330 mg/day; SPM 22 mg/day) was conducted on 25 individuals. The effect of SPM concentrate on skin was measured by skin hydration, transepidermal water loss and sebum production at a day before intake, after 3 weeks and 6 weeks, and at 2 weeks after completion of the trial. We found that the skin hydration in the SPM group was significantly higher than that in the placebo group. The sebum production in the SPM group tended to be higher on the part under the left eye. Answers to questionnaires revealed that the skin elasticity and reflectance in the SPM group tended to improve.
These results indicate that the dietary SPM concentrate improves the skin function.
