For me, skin quality is probably the main reason for my interest in anti-aging/longevity. It is the biggest organ and also the most visible of all. Good skin = you look healthy, simple.
There are already plenty of things that seem useful: (iso)tretinoin, hyaluronic acid, azelaic acid, niacinamide, SPF, etc. But recently I came across some anecdotes from people claiming that dutasteride improved their skin in addition to helping with androgenetic alopecia (MPB).
This isn’t well studied, but I started wondering whether reducing DHT could have some effect on collagen/elastin production or preservation. We don’t really know, and obviously internet anecdotes are not exactly the pinnacle of science, but it got me interested and led me to look into it further. If lowering DHT really does improve skin, perhaps there are more interesting ways of doing this than simply taking dutasteride for a purpose it wasn’t designed for.
So that’s how I came across this patent: US8668914B2 - Use of equol for treating skin diseases
Equol is a metabolite of soy isoflavones and is usually described as a phytoestrogen. However, it isn’t simply “plant estrogen.” It has much weaker and more selective estrogen-receptor activity than estradiol, and there are two forms: S-equol and R-equol, which behave differently. Some people (especially Asians) naturally produce S-equol when they consume soy foods such as tofu, while many other people don’t. And R-equol isn’t naturally produced by humans from how I understand it.
This is especially interesting for men because equol can also bind DHT and potentially reduce its androgenic activity. So unlike dutasteride, which reduces DHT production, equol may essentially act as a little DHT sponge. And R-equol is particularly interesting because it has much weaker estrogen-receptor activity than S-equol while still retaining the DHT-binding properties. So potentially you could get some of the anti-DHT effect without simply taking an estrogenic drug, which would be nice because it could eliminate (or at least reduce) feminising effects in men, which you’d have to be mindful of with things link estriol creams.
Then I found this study:
The researchers tested topical and oral R/S-equol in men and reported improvements in various skin parameters. Notice the following experiment where it was applied to the nasolabial fold area for 7 weeks:
Nasolabial folds are kind of the final boss when combatting signs of aging in the face. People get threads or Sculptra in hopes of improving them. But here we see significant improvement in only 7 weeks of using some topical equol? I don’t know what to think of this tbh…
Consider also these results
Ok, ‘improvement’ may not be exactly quantified here, it’s self reported. But regardless, consider that the▲-sign indicates significant improvement compared to the baseline and we see that after 12 weeks there is reported significant improvement in all of the reported categories: smoothness, fine lines/wrinkles, even tone, spots, and hydration.
And interestingly, this was an oral study in men. The dose was only 6 mg/day of R/S-equol for 12 weeks.
Another study I found was this one: Effects of 10 Mg S-Equol on Menopausal Symptoms and Skin Health in Perimenopausal Women: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. So they took 10mg/day of S-equol for 8 weeks (only women for this study). Some of the results below:
This measures the Kupperman Menopausal Index (KMI) for the first few items, and Skin Condition Rating Scale (SCRS) for the skin results. With these indices, lower values = better results. For the hair, it uses Hair Condition Rating Scale (HCRS) where higher values = better results! Besides significant improvements in skin quality, we also notice some bonus effects, like on anxiety and insomnia.
What is causing the skin effects?
It could potentially be several things happening at once:
DHT ↓ / DHT blocked → less androgen signaling
Some estrogen-receptor activity → potentially beneficial effects on skin
Direct effects on skin cells → potentially more collagen/elastin and better extracellular matrix
The patent specifically claims increased collagen and elastin production, and there are some experimental studies pointing in the same general direction. I think the elastin increase is especially interesting, because unlike collagen, this can be very difficult (near impossible) to reliable achieve from what I know about it.
Effects on Men vs Women
This is an important consideration I think. Equol is mostly sold as a supplement for menopausal women, so is it basically like taking estrogen? It seems that’s not really the case: S-equol has considerably more estrogen-receptor activity, especially at ERβ, while R-equol has much weaker estrogenic activity. That might make R-equol particularly interesting for men. Perhaps at higher doses there could still be issues with feminising effects, but the human skin study used only 6 mg/day, and most commercial products I’ve found contain S-equol rather than R-equol. From what I can tell a dose around 5-20mg/day should not cause big issues in men (but that’s just based on what I found). For women I don’t think they even have to worry about potential negative sides here.
Availability on the Market
Most commercial equol products seem to be S-equol products aimed at menopausal symptoms. If you think it might be worth giving it a try, here are some products I found:
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Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Equol 30 Capsules
This is a Japanese product which you can import, features only 2mg Equol (probably S-Equol) among some other components. Costs about 50c USD per pill. There are other Japanese brands selling similar products I have noticed (maybe more potent, too?). -
Nutrined Equol
120 capsules, 6mg (probably S-)Equol per capsule. Also costs about 50c USD per capsule, so this is more reasonable -
Zentra S-Equol
At least this one specifies it’s just S-Equol. Anyway, 10mg per capsule, which is nice, but it costs about 1.70USD per capsule, which is not necessarily cheap. -
Equelle Menopause Symptom Relief
This brand seems well-established. Features 5mg S-Equol per tablet. Container has 60 tabs. Costs about 70c USD per tablet. -
Dr. Morgan S-Equol Plus
Some Canadian brand I think. Contains 10mg S-Equol along with Genistein (some other component which might be interesting but I won’t get into that here). Bit expensive though, also ~1.70USD/capsule. -
Garden of Life Herbals Menopause + Hair Growth
Just another option, also contains 10mg S-equol, also ~1.70USD/capsule.
Research chems
There may be more options, and I would be especially interested in finding an affordable source for raw “research” chemicals. Particularly, I think it would be great if there were an affordable source for R-equol or racemic (R,S)-equol, since that seems more relevant to the DHT hypothesis. Maybe people more experienced in this can share their insights about such procurement? For dosing, I think taking something like 10-15mg per day would probably a good start to see if there are any benefits. Might be worthwhile to experiment with lower and higher doses as well.
I did find that the CAS code is probably 94105-90-5 (that’s for the (R,S)-equol variant). And on this site that I found it seems like you can order 100g for 342 EUR. So assuming 20mg/day, that’d last you 5000 days at 7c per day. But I have no experience ordering such things and I’m not even sure I’m interpreting this correctly as some other sites offer is for exponentially higher prices.
Anyway, what do you think? Would this be worth trying? I think it wouldn’t hurt to just get a 3mo supply of S-equol (because this can be found easily) and see if there are indeed any noticable improvements of the skin. So perhaps I’ll do that… If you are interested in this or already have experience with it, please share you thoughts. I did a search for equol on the forum, but surprisingly nothing came up yet, so I hope this post can prompt a discussion in R/S-Equol for those interested.
Maybe it would also be nice if someone could AI summarise relevant papers on the subject.