The Ultimate Efamol Trial

 

The trial included 40 healthy males and females between the ages of 32 and 56 years that were randomly assigned to take either six 500 mg capsules per day of Efamol® EPO or an inert placebo for 84 days.  Each group of patients was roughly comprised of an equal number of males and females. During the course of the study, neither the participants nor the clinicians monitoring the trial were aware of which treatment was being taken by each individual, thereby ensuring the results obtained were unbiased.

The skin on the forearm of all volunteers was assessed at the start of the trial and following treatment, for skin moisture, redness, trans epidermal water loss which is the rate at which water escapes from the body through the skin, smoothness and biomechanical properties including elasticity, firmness and fatigue.

Now, improvements in physical properties of skin govern the overall condition and appearance of skin, and play a role in the production of wrinkles, and visible skin aging.

Skin softness, suppleness, fine lines, signs of fatigue, and complexion are all determined by the physical properties of the skin. So as we age and those properties change, they cause the skin to deteriorate, which causes wrinkles and older appearance.

Research has shown that elasticity, firmness, and fatigue strength of the skin each play a role in the speed of development, and also the size, depth, and length of skin wrinkles, such that wrinkles are more likely to develop if the skin is less elastic, less firm, or has a lower fatigue strength.

So what we hoped to see was improvements in all these skin parameters which would translate into less wrinkles and younger looking skin.

We knew from studies done in the past that EPO when applied to the surface of the skin could both reduce moisture loss and improve skin smoothness and moisture content.

We also knew that EPO taken orally could improve skin health in people with atopic ezcema and it also appeared to improve skin smoothness in a normal control group in one of the early atopic eczema trials.

We were interested to see if these benefits could also be achieved through oral supplementation with EPO capsules.

So the purpose of our study was to see if EPO could improve skin health from within, knowing full well that these improvements would make skin look younger and healthier.

These are the results.

After 84 days of treatment with Efamol® Evening Primrose Oil, there was a statistically significant improvement in skin moisture, moisture loss, firmness, elasticity, fatigue and smoothness.

There was no improvement in any of these parameters following treatment with placebo.

This slide also shows a picture of a cutometer which was used to record some of these measurements and shows a women having her readings taken on her face.

As I mentioned before, our study measured these parameters on the forearm and that is where we will be doing measurements today on anyone who would like to know their biological skin age.

These next few slides are the results relative to baseline after 4 weeks and 12 weeks treatment with EPO (red bar) and placebo (green bar).

18% improvement in moisture relative to baseline.

16% on firmness

The results of this study are really exciting because there is a direct relationship between these parameters and perceived skin age. For example, here is the relationship between skin elasticity and skin age where younger skin is more elastic than older skin.

So if we can improve skin elasticity, we are essentially making the skin biologically younger.

For example, if your skin elasticity indicated that your skin has a biological age of 45 years, after taking Efamol® Evening Primrose Oil your skin elasticity would improve to that of about a forty year old.

And we all know that a difference of 5 years in the age group between 35 and 50 is really noticeable in the skin around the eyes, mouth and forehead. So these improvements are going to be particularly interesting to our aging baby bomber population.