Evening Primrose Oil—Skin health cheat!

This week I’ll be discussing about skin health and some supplements and products that you can take to improve your skin health. However, you should remember no matter the supplement, the best product to take is WATER as it is nature’s way of removing toxins from your body so definitely increase your intake of it as well.

Evening Primrose Oil (EPO) is supplement that you can find at WholeFoods, Amazon, GNC, and many such stores plus it is also seen in many beauty products. Why is that? EPO is rich in a fatty acid, gamma linolenic acid or GLA. Because of this fatty acid profile, the Omega 6s present in EPO can have profound impact on your health.

Do you have wrinkles? One way to minimize these is buy taking EPO. EPO contains high levels of antioxidants that prevent a reduction in skin oxidation. EPO can also help reduce acne breakouts due to the high level of fatty acids which may help decrease pore clogging. If you Google, there are studies that show that EPO can even reduce symptoms of psoriasis and eczema patients as the gut lining is improved by GLA when consumed—typically, most treatments for these conditions is topical but EPO provides a way to treat from within. There are many other uses for EPO including hair loss, arthritis, osteoporosis, fertility, and headaches. The uses are many but make sure to check with your doctor prior to consuming any supplement including EPO.

What should I look for when I am buying EPO? Well, look for the EPO content and the GLA content. If the label breaks down to show Omegas in it as well, that’s a plus. Typically, you will find bottles that have 500 mg EPO and the label will then show the amount of GLA which should be between 7 to 30% of the EPO—this amount depends on what the manufacturer did to make that product. Look for bottles that have just EPO in it only, not other additional supplements in it, that way you can isolate and determine if it is working for you. If you don’t like taking softgels, there are plenty of other superfood powders that have EPO in it that you can add to your smoothie, just have to look for that ingredient and the level it is at to determine if it will actually help you or not.

Disclaimer: this is an opinion post and should not be taken as an endorsement or lack of for any product by me or my employer.