Hyaluronic acid can help increase the moisture content in your skin, which can have various skin benefits, including reducing the appearance of wrinkles and improving wound healing, among others.

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a naturally occurring glycosaminoglycan found throughout the body’s connective tissue. Glycosaminoglycans are simply long unbranched carbohydrates, or sugars, called polysaccharides.

HA is the main component of what gives your skin structure, and is responsible for that plump and hydrated look. You may have heard the chatter around collagen, but hyaluronic acid is where it’s at.

With the buzz around anti-aging, it’s about time we talk about hyaluronic acid, its benefits for our skin, and why molecular weight of an ingredient is important! It plays a pivotal role in the wound healing processTrusted Source, and decreases as we age making us more susceptible to sagging and wrinklesTrusted Source.

Read on to learn the science behind hyaluronic acid, so you can see that HA isn’t just a fad ingredient, but a staple for your skin care routine.

What are the benefits of hyaluronic acid?

Why’s hyaluronic acid so magical? For starters, HA can bind up to 1000 times its weight in water! In other words, it functions as a humectant and holds water molecules onto the surface of your skin to keep it nice and hydrated.

Anytime we’re talking about skin that’s well-moisturized, we’re mainly referring to skin that has a lot of water content. Perhaps you’ve heard the term transepidermal water loss, or TEWL for short? This is the scientific term for the measurement of how much water is evaporated from the skin.

When a product prevents TEWL, that means it’s keeping your skin hydrated by making sure that water doesn’t escape from your skin’s surface. Hyaluronic acid does exactly that by slowing the rate at which the water evaporates.

Apart from being a very effective hydrator, a couple of studies have also found that it’s very good for healing wounds, too!