Hyaluronic Acid for Skin Health

Research suggests that hyaluronic acid (HA) shows meaningful promise for skin health, supported by a 2025 meta-analysis of seven randomized controlled trials and a 2023 randomized controlled trial, both finding that oral HA supplementation was associated with improvements in skin hydration, elasticity, and wrinkle depth, with the clinical trial also reporting increased epidermal thickness after extended use. Topical and injectable forms of HA have been reviewed favorably for moisturizing, anti-aging, and scar-related applications, and a 2024 laboratory study suggests that chemically modified HA may offer enhanced anti-inflammatory properties compared to standard HA. The supporting review literature further indicates that HA may work synergistically with other ingredients such as trehalose to address oxidative stress and glycation-related skin aging, though those reviews emphasize that more clinical research is needed to confirm combined-ingredient efficacy. Overall, the body of evidence leans supportive, but limitations across studies — including small sample sizes, variability in HA formulations and molecular weights, and populations composed predominantly of women — mean that findings should be interpreted with some caution, and several studies included in the linked research concerned unrelated topics such as bone repair and muscle bioprinting and do not bear on skin health outcomes.