We read the Ohio State study on shilajit and women's skin. Here's what it actually says.

Most skin care works on the surface. But the layer that keeps skin firm, the collagen framework in the dermis, is built from the inside, by cells that depend on tiny blood vessels for their oxygen and nutrients.

So when researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center tested whether an oral shilajit supplement could change what happens in that layer, we paid attention. Their results were published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition in 2019. Here's what they did, what they found, and what they didn't.

They recruited 45 healthy women aged 30 to 65 and randomly split them into three groups of 15. For 14 weeks, one group took a placebo, one took 125 mg of a purified shilajit extract twice a day, and one took 250 mg twice a day.

Along the way the team measured blood flow in the skin with dermoscopic imaging, took skin biopsies to see which genes were more or less active, and tested hydration, elasticity and moisture loss on the women's cheeks.

In the biopsies, women taking shilajit showed higher activity in genes tied to the extracellular matrix, the scaffolding that gives skin its structure. Three collagen genes rose significantly compared with placebo:

• COL1A1, which codes for type I collagen, the main collagen in skin
• COL5A2, part of type V collagen, which helps organize collagen fibers
• COL14A1, type XIV collagen, which also helps regulate how those fibers are laid down

Gene activity isn't the same as visible change. But it's where collagen production starts.

At the higher dose, 250 mg twice a day, blood flow through the skin's smallest vessels improved compared with both the start of the study and the placebo group. The biopsies backed that up: genes involved in blood vessel growth were more active too.

That matters because, as the authors point out, reduced blood flow is one of the hallmarks of aging skin. Those tiny vessels are how skin cells get their oxygen and nutrients.

This is the part most shilajit ads leave out. Over 14 weeks, the study found no significant change in skin hydration, elasticity or moisture loss. The measurable changes were underneath, in gene activity and blood flow, rather than on those surface tests. No adverse effects were reported.

It was also a small study, 45 women, funded in part by Natreon, the company that makes the extract that was tested. None of that makes it wrong, but it's why we'd call the results promising rather than proven.

The extract in the study, PrimaVie®, is standardized to at least 60% fulvic acid. Fulvic acid is a small natural molecule that binds minerals and is thought to help the body absorb them. That's why we think of it this way: shilajit is the mineral, and fulvic acid is the delivery system.

It's also the easiest thing to check. Ask any shilajit brand for its fulvic acid number, and if it can't show you a lab report, keep looking.

If you want to try shilajit for your skin, the study suggests a sensible way to do it: take it every day, and give it at least 14 weeks before you judge it. That's how our 100-shot supply is built. At one a day it lasts 100 days, just past the length of the study.

Prefer something more traditional? Dissolve a pea-sized piece of resin in warm water or tea once or twice a day. And if you're pregnant, breastfeeding or taking medication, check with your doctor first.