A patch a day? Why the vitamin skin patches appearing on social media may not be for you

There are vitamin patches social media trends and advertised in posts and podcasts.

Patches marketed to enhance sleep, detoxing, immunity and hangovers are said to be magic stickers that fix all the pieces. Manufacturers claim they’re easy to make use of, convenient and ethical in comparison with other sorts of vitamin products. Some even come beautiful floral patterns.

So do they work, are they secure and why should you use them as a substitute of just taking vitamin pills?

What are vitamin patches?

Vitamin patches are adhesives designed to deliver vitamins or nutrients into the bloodstream directly through the skin.

You have to peel off the protective layer, place it on a hairless area of ​​skin where it’s less more likely to be impacted, after which the patches release the vitamins over 12 to 24 hours.

Two dominant ones brands This market in Australia they sell patches containing various chemical and plant ingredients.

There are fixes for menopause symptoms which claim to contain plant extracts from gotu kola, damiana, black cohosh, valerian, skullcap, oat seeds and ginger. Patches promising energy shot they provide caffeine, taurine, gluconolactone, green tea extract and vitamins B3, B5 and B6.

Do they work and are they secure?

In Australia, vitamins are considered pharmaceutical products and are regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Agency. Vitamins are generally approved as listed drugs, which suggests the ingredients have been evaluated for safety but not effectiveness (no matter whether or not they live as much as their guarantees).

Being a listed drug also implies that the vitamins are manufactured in a factory good manufacturing practicesso you can be sure that the ingredients listed on the packaging come from the right sources and are provided in the right concentration.

However, there are not any products listed as vitamin patches on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods. This implies that they currently cannot be legally supplied or purchased in Australia. It does not matter whether or not they are sold in a stationary store or online inside the country. The TGA won’t do that make it unimaginable to purchase them abroadbut they advise you not to do it because you cannot be sure about the quality and safety.

There can also be insufficient evidence that vitamins delivered this manner work. Not all drugs and chemicals can penetrate the skin. Typically, a chemical must be absorbed before it will probably be absorbed into the skin lipophilicwhich suggests it prefers fats and oils to water.

Therefore, the form by which the vitamins are produced and delivered will determine whether or not they reach the skin. For example, a water extract of the plant is less absorbed in comparison with an oil-based extract.

A small study from 2019 patients prone to dietary deficiencies after bariatric (weight reduction) surgery, a few of them used a day by day multivitamin patch for a 12 months. These patients had lower blood concentrations of several vitamins and were at greater risk of vitamin D deficiency in comparison with patients receiving oral vitamins. The study concluded that transdermal vitamin patches are not as effective as oral supplements.

Another problem with vitamin patches is that they contain very low concentrations of the ingredients, so the dose may be ineffective even when all of the vitamin in the patch is 100% absorbed into the skin.

For example, one particular patch advertised for immunity states that it accommodates 3 milligrams of vitamin C, which might be not enough if used as a complement to a food regimen low in vitamin C. The so-called scurvy This is assumed to occur when day by day vitamin C intake falls below 7 milligrams per day.

However, a typical vitamin C tablet accommodates 500 milligrams. The advisable day by day intake of vitamin C is approx 45 milligrams per day – more if a woman is breastfeeding.

Why not just take a tablet?

When other medications are provided as patches, it is often because the body needs a constant supply of the medication; consider replacing nicotine patches with smoking, hormone therapy during menopause and a few types analgesic.

There’s no reason you need the slow, regular delivery of vitamins that patches promise – but there may be other reasons to decide on them over tablets and gummies.

One selling point utilized by marketers is that the patches are a “purer” type of vitamins. Vitamin tablets or jellies will contain inactive ingredients called Excipients. Excipients in medicines perform a number of tasks, from binding ingredients together, making the medicine look and smell nice, to making sure that the medicine does not break down during storage. It is assumed that the patches do not contain or release any or only a few excipients into the body.

However, many patches do not list all the ingredients – only the energetic vitamins – so this claim cannot be verified. Some patches may still contain a large variety of excipients, a few of which may irritate the skin.

For example, one kind nicotine patches accommodates 12 excipients, including acrylic acid and vinyl acetate, that are chemicals that help the patch stick with the skin.

The patch may be price trying out for individuals who have trouble swallowing or chewing. In this case it could be It’s hard to take a solid pill or gummy to get vitamins.

Is it price buying?

As there are not any TGA approved vitamin patches in Australia, you should not buy them.

If these are included in the future list of medicines, please be aware that they may not have been evaluated for effectiveness.

If you’re still excited about vitamin patches, you should discuss them along with your doctor or local pharmacist.