Natural yogurt is a staple of homemade acne remedies. Bio-live yogurt is recommended everywhere, in recipes combined with cinnamon, honey, cucumber, ginger and endless natural ingredients.
The reality? Yes, yogurt is an excellent ingredient, to carry other ingredients and increase their penetration due to its fats.
But the potential of topical yogurt goes far beyond what many realise. In short, yogurt is among the weirdest yet most effective moisturisers you can apply to your face.
It has nothing to do with yogurt’s fats, nutrients, or thickness and creaminess. The moisturising properties are entirely down to the bacteria.
Yogurt increases skin hydration and moisture
Recently, the discovery of healthy gut bacteria has opened a whole new realm of opportunity for acne. Bacteria which lower inflammation, churn out serotonin, and enhance nutrient absorption have all been discovered. There’s millions of these strains, and more juicy facts are being revealed constantly.
But there’s another area colonised by microorganisms which is much less investigated – the skin. Many interesting facts have emerged: p.acnes bacteria causes acne, while malassezia yeasts cause pityrosporum folliculitis. P.acnes substrain 1a is much worse for acne compared to beneficial strains. The skin also has colonies of bifidobacterium which can prevent yeast overgrowth.
Knowledge is exploding, and topical creams containing probiotics are becoming increasingly popular. For example, one purchasable probiotic spray contains Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria, known as “sweat eating bacteria”. After consuming ammonia in sweat for its own energy, AOB churns out healthy metabolites which improve skin tone and appearance.
Ammonia-oxidising bacteria is found naturally in human skin pores, but in low levels. This spray intends to increase its levels and benefits…
…which brings us to yogurt. Natural yogurt is the most famous biolive food sold widely today. It’s also popular in the homemade recipes of the acne underground.
The specific strains of bacteria in most yogurt are Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Both strains consume the lactose sugars in milk and churn out lactic acid in its place, thus providing the signature taste of yoghurt.
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Of the two, it’s Streptococcus thermophilus which holds all the skin promise. This is a member of the feared streptococcus family, but completely safe, unlike the disease-causing Streptococcus pneumoniae. Streptococcus thermophilus is not indigenous to human skin, but has excellent powers once it arrives there. In this study, scientists applied a cream containing high amounts of streptococcus thermophilus to human skin.
After 14 days, the bacteria group enjoyed a significant increase in skin hydration. In the placebo group, nothing changed.
The streptococcus thermophilus significantly increased the skin’s water binding ability, as well as skin barrier function. Trans-epidermal water loss, the quantity of moisture leaving the skin’s outermost layer, fell significantly.
Essentially, this bacteria is an excellent moisturiser, excellent against dry skin, and excellent for skin tone. The greater the fermentation, the more biolive a yogurt, and the more streptococcus thermophilus it will contain.
The joys of ceramides…
What was responsible? According to the study, the bacteria strongly increased the skin’s ceramide levels.
Ceramides are fat-based structural compounds in skin which form approximately 43% of the stratum corneum layer. They’re vital for skin barrier function, and reductions are linked to both atopic dermatitis and ageing.
Ceramides are very important in controlling trans-epidermal water loss, or essentially, keeping water bound in the skin. You could say that while hyaluronic acid forms water containers that store moisture in the skin, ceramides are like the brick wall that seals moisture in and prevent its escape.
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An earlier 1999 study tested streptococcus thermophilus once again, and observed massive, dose-dependant increases in skin ceramide levels after just 7 days. Yet another study detected increased ceramide levels, with bonus benefits of soothing atopic dermatitis symptoms such as scaling and irritation.
Interestingly, acne patients were proven in this study to have lower ceramide levels than average. Topical yogurt can increase ceramide levels, if it’s properly biolive and dense in bacteria.
The normal formation of ceramides begins when an enzyme called sphingomyelinase converts sphingomyelin into sphingosines, one of the main ingredients of ceramides. You don’t need to know exactly how ceramides are formed, just that the sphingomyelinase enzyme is vital. Deficiencies in sphingomyelinase lead to low ceramide formation, poorly hydrated skin, and possibly acne.
…and the connection to yogurt
It turns out that the Streptococcus thermophilus bacteria naturally churns out its own sphingomyelinase, a form which acts identically to human sphingomyelinase.
The studies confirmed that Streptococcus thermophilus increased sphingomyelinase activity on human skin. Therefore, it can join forces with your skin’s natural production lines and massively enhance ceramide formation.
You might expect bacteria to be less active in real human skin. How is a mere bacterial strain supposed to penetrate the depths of human skin, and then gain entry to cells where the ceramide ingredients lie? The likes of p.acnes bacteria only dwell within skin pores.
It turns out that the skin stores sphingomyelin within multiple pools. Some sphingomyelin is stored within deep keratinocyte cells, but some exists on the external surface of cells, while small pools also exist in intercellular space.
Streptococcus thermophilus and its enzymes can reach those latter two stores, and combine them for a strong increase in ceramides. This mechanism is why the bacteria increased hydration, skin barrier function, and ended atopic dermatitis so well.
Consequently, this is why yogurt is a secret moisturising miracle for your skin. Not because of its fats, but its profile of bacteria. It’s about as obscure a moisturiser as you can use, but a rock solid one.
Hyaluronic acid potential
Also interesting is that streptococcus thermophilus churns out hyaluronic acid, just like it produces sphingomyelinases. In fact, commercial hyaluronic acid used in creams is manufactured using Streptococcus zooepidemicus, and it yoghurty relative has the power too. That’s why yogurt is one of the best food sources of hyaluronic acid.
As we discussed here, hyaluronic acid stores moisture within your skin and increases hydration massively. Declines in hyaluronic acid are why older people have dryer, thinner and less elastic skin. Therefore it’s also possible that topical yogurt increases your hyaluronic acid levels.
The flaw is that unlike vitamin C or antioxidants, applying hyaluronic acid topically usually achieves nothing. Hyaluronates are created and organised deep within your skin’s structure. However, there is a chance that bacteria could migrate deeper into your dermis and churn out hyalurounic acid there. It’s also possible that your skin breaks down the fresh hyaluronic acid and recycle its ingredients.
The jury’s out on yoghurt then, but there is one confirmed remedy for hyaluronic acid – soy milk.
Properly fermented soy milk, as opposed to cheaper products, contains high amounts of the bacteria Bifidobacterium breve. Scientists in a 2000 study applied bacteria-rich soy milk to mice skin, and after six weeks, the skin’s own production of hyaluronic acid significantly increased.
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The benefits also materialised, specifically more moisturised skin and thicker skin. Meanwhile, the mice receiving unfermented soy milk enjoyed no benefits.
The two compounds believed to explain the increase were genistein and daidzein. Both were present in the fermented milk, but not the unfermented batch. These isoflavone compounds are produced by bifidobacterium breve, and have been confirmed separately to increase the density of hyaluronates in skin.
Soy milk joins yogurt as another hidden secret for moisturising, and this illustrates the potential of topical probiotics overall.
Other yogurty powers
Proper yogurt is also drenched in lactic acid, and topically applied lactic acid improved skin quality massively after 3 months in this study.
At 5% concentration, it thickened and firmed up the epidermis. At 12% concentration, the lactic acid thickened and firmed up the dermis and epidermis. The skin grew smoother, while wrinkles faded away. What’s better is that lactic acid enhances ceramide formation as well, so it multiplies yogurt’s main benefit further.
Lactic acid is an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) similarly to citric acid, a group is used in cosmetics for dissolving dead skin cells on the outer layer of the face. What’s weird is that alpha hydroxy acids have a side effect of thinning the skin, but the study above happily contradicts this.
Another advantage is that yogurt will automatically enhance nutrient penetration, because of its natural fats like lauric acid and palmitic acid. You normally have to add carrier oils to topical remedies (like tea tree oil), but yogurt comes prepacked. This will apply to the bacteria too, as the great studies on Streptococcus thermophilus used a fat-based cream.
Other nutrients in yogurt include vitamin E and vitamin A, which will both be enhanced. There’s also decent quantities of antioxidants, which are believed to be generated by bacterial activity.
How to find the most bio-live yogurt
The success of yogurt for acne depends entirely on its bacteria, so how does one acquire the holy grail of yogurts?
Your first task is to avoid basic grocery store yogurts. Put simply, artificially flavoured, filler-loaded yogurts are fun foods, not health foods. Being bio-live was never the goal; they’re intended to taste great and appeal to kids while maybe delivering some calcium.
Commercial yogurts often contain the correct species of bacteria, streptococcus thermophilus, but far from the right content. The glorious seal of “Live and Active Cultures” means nothing. Numerous common brands bearing this seal have been analysed and found to contain less than the legally required 100 million live cultures per gram. The seal is often only true at the time of manufacture, not sale.
For topical purposes, the only two ingredients should be organic milk, and live cultures. Get an organic brand which specifically boasts of high probiotic counts.
Full fat yogurt is also vital, because the streptococcus thermophilus was applied in an oil base in the studies. You also need fats for lactic acid and antioxidant penetration.
There’s so many different brands coming and going that it’s hard to recommend a specific one. But the situation is decent overall – most large supermarkets sell true biolive yoghurts. Be careful to always check the label for streptococcus thermophilus. The vast majority of yogurts contain this strain, but there are exceptions: the popular brand Chobani is an example.
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Also, the sour taste of yoghurt is derived from lactic acid, which is pumped out furiously by bacteria. Tanginess is therefore a great sign that the beneficial bacteria are present.
If you leave a biolive yoghurt in the fridge for two weeks while on holiday, you might be pleasantly surprised to find that it’s still edible when you return. You might be unpleasantly surprised to feel like your tongue is melting when you eat it; the tanginess will have multiplied exponentially thanks to neverending bacterial fermentation. The sugar content should have also decreased.
This is also a secret advanced strategy. You could actually leave your yoghurt for longer in the fridge on purpose, to deliberately maximise the Streptococcus thermophilus and the moisturising benefits they produce.
Finally, for any UK-based clear skin maniacs, the brand of natural yogurt which I eat, Yeo Valley Natural Yogurt in the big, green, 1kg tubs, contains Streptococcus thermophilus as one of its three strains.
The verdict – analysis
Full-fat, organic biolive yogurt is an excellent hidden moisturiser, operating through a unique mechanism compared to others we recommend. It may even have acne benefits, as low ceramide levels have a tentative correlation.
Grapeseed oil is a great moisturiser, as it supplies nourishing linoleic acid, but yoghurt’s bacterial stimulation of ceramides is a completely different mechanism. The fats of yoghurt will also provide more traditional moisturising properties.
You can surrender to the skin-clearing hive mind and use yogurt in recipes (just avoid lemon juice), or you can use yogurt in isolation. Yoghurt would even make a great carrier for other remedies, like tea tree oil or witch hazel.
Don’t forget about biolive yoghurt’s great qualities as a food either, for nourishing your acne-friendly gut bacteria.
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Thanks for reading!