Have you heard of probiotics in cosmetics? How about a bacterial mist? A young company called Mother Dirt, with research partner AOBiome, sells a mist containing their now patented strain of Nitrosomonas bacteria (Nitrosomonas D23), an ammonia-oxidizer. The species was cultured from the skin of one of the heads (or arm? leg?) of the company. Here’s how they say it works on their website, which you can check out here.
“The Nitrosomonas in the AO+ Mist work by consuming the irritating compounds produced by your skin (like ammonia and urea in sweat), and in turn producing beneficial byproducts. Specifically, Nitrosomonas produce Nitrite and Nitric Oxide. Nitrite tames the bad bacteria and promotes the good bacteria on the skin. Nitric Oxide is a key antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. These two byproducts together do a great deal to help promote healthy skin overall.”
There are more products popping up with similar health benefit claims. For example, Probiotic Action is another company whose products, aimed at acne prevention, contain the very specific “Bacillus spp” as the main ingredient… you can check out more about that here.
Yes, well a key question here is – what actual evidence do they have? As opposed to what do they claim.
So far it’s iffy to say the least. A 24-person study presented at the 5th ASM conference, but I can’t find anything else written about it yet. AOBiome said they had begun a Phase 2 clinical trial back in June, and I don’t see any results on it yet. But this is a product that is already on the market – I think it’s concerning that companies are able to fast-track probiotics this way with such ease.
There is an interesting American Microbiome Institute podcast with one of AOBiome’s scientists if you are interested in learning more.
http://www.microbiomeinstitute.org/podcast/episode9
It really works. Other bloggers like http://paleoforwomen.com/acne/ are also talking about topical probiotics. Just as gastrointestinal microbiome therapy is proving to be essential for gut
and immune health, I am positive that probiotic skin treatments will become
the standard of the future.
I’ve used Probiotic Action for a few months now and it seems to noticeably help with my acne. Just my own experience though, so who knows.
I’ve literally tried everything and probiotic action is the only solution that actually seems to work.
Very happy I’ve discovered probiotic action, would recommend to anyone who’s suffering from adult acne.