The truth about Kim’s £20 gummy bear hair pills...
THINK gummy vitamins are just for kids? According to the latest wellness trend sweeping the US – and now the UK – you’d be mistaken. Far from being glorified sweets, these chewy vitamins are billed by social media stars – including, of course, reality TV queens the Kardashian sisters – as the secret to free-flowing locks, strong nails and a flawless complexion.
And the target audience is not older women seeking an antidote to thinning hair or wrinkles, but sprightly twentysomethings. Most vitamins are brightly coloured and moulded into cutesy emoji-like shapes such as teddy bears or love hearts. At the heart of the trend is social-media platform Instagram, where there are 140,000 pictures of young women posing seductively with pots of the ‘healthy’ gummy bears and crediting them for their radiant beauty.
Search for ‘vitamin gummies’ on YouTube and you’ll see hundreds of ‘before and after’ transformations of young women modelling their astonishing hair growth. Some videos have been seen 500,000 times.
The most popular brand, Sugarbearhair, has more than two million loyal fans on Instagram, including Kim Kardashian, half-sister Kylie Jenner and model Emily Ratajkowski. Such is the ‘Kardashian effect’ that Sugarbearhair, which costs £25 for a month’s supply, took more online orders than any other hair supplement in 2016. Another product adored by the bikini-clad stars of Love Island, claims to contain ingredients ‘clinically proven’ to boost nail, hair and skin health.
According to one recent poll, more than a third of women aged 18 to 34 consume a type of these chews regularly, with the beauty supplement market worth more than £3billion.
Their secret, they claim, lies in a wealth of vitamins such A, C and D plus a B vitamin called biotin, which is known to be essential for nail, hair and skin quality.
And if some of the transformation videos are to be believed, they really do seem to work. But they are not without controversy.
A 2016 test by independent laboratory Labdoor of Sugarbearhair products found that the gummies contain 70 per cent more biotin than is claimed on the label (8,500 micrograms compared to the stated 5,000). It’s a concern to some scientists given that whopping levels of the B vitamin have been found to have harmful effects on the immune system and make the results of certain medical tests inaccurate. Sugarbearhair responded, saying more than 100 lab tests have shown the product is well within US guidelines.
But there’s half a teaspoon of sugar in every dose, and the annual cost of taking them is £300. So are they really worth it?
COMPANIES FUND THEIR OWN TESTS
ACCORDING to Sugarbearhair’s website, its combination of ingredients feed the scalp vital nutrients, leading to longer and stronger hair. Starpowa, which claims to offer results in just 30 days, is a ‘threein-one’ product, containing a combination that targets brittle nails, creased skin and thinning hair.
Both products base their claims on the amounts of Vitamins A, C, E, iodine, zinc and B vitamins they contain. B vitamins are involved in the creation of hair follicles, zinc provides structure to skin and nail cells, and Vitamin A, also called retinol, is a precursor to sebum – an oil that keeps the skin and scalp moist and supple.
Vitamin E boosts the immune system and iodine is important for the functioning of the thyroid, the gland in the neck that regulates the release of vital hormones. And Vitamin C is involved in collagen production, a protein that helps the skin to remain elastic.
Deficiencies in all these nutrients are associated with thinning, brittle hair, nails and, on rare occasions, rashes on the skin. The star of the show in many products is the B vitamin biotin, which is also found in liver, egg yolks and dairy foods.
We examined five of the most popular products, and found that many contain up to 100 times the recommended daily intake, per daily dose. Biotin, also known as Vitamin B7, is essential for converting nutrients from food into energy for the body’s cells, including those in the scalp and nails.
Several studies have found biotin deficiency to be common in those with alopecia or chronic hair loss, as reported in a review published earlier this year in the journal Dermatology And Therapy.
Severe deficiencies in all the above vitamins and minerals can lead to hair loss, weak nails and greying or spotty skin, but this is usually caused by serious malnutrition.
As dietician Frankie Phillips says: ‘It is very easy to get all of these from foods without even realising it. Indeed, most people do. For those who struggle, you can get the same boost in a cheaper multivitamin.’
Very few Britons are deficient in any of the above nutrients. According to a 2010 review in the Encyclopedia Of Dietary Supplements, a severe deficiency in biotin in individuals eating a normal, balanced diet has never been reported. Zinc deficiency is noted in the Government’s latest nutritional survey – however, only in women over the age of 75.
And for those without deficiencies, there’s little proof that boosting intake will make any difference at all. Many studies looking at the efficacy of beauty supplement products are conducted on a small number of participants and are funded by the manufacturers.
A 2018 report by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York concluded that even for those
with skin, hair and nail disorders, supplements containing these ingredients were not helpful.
Another widescale analysis of thousands of studies looking at how supplements – including gummies – affect hair loss found insufficient evidence that they work.
So how do suppliers back up their claims? According to EU law, companies are allowed to claim that vitamins and minerals ‘support’ or ‘maintain’ health. However, some manufacturers exaggerate this on their sites, using claims such as ‘amazing hair growing properties’.
It is up to the UK’s advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Agency, to check each claim individually, meaning many false or exaggerated claims fly under the radar.
USELESS FOR HAIR AND A RISK TO YOUR HEALTH
BUBBLING beneath the gummy vitamin trend is a significant health concern. Some biotin is essential for health but excessive amounts in some products (up to 500 egg yolks’worth is in a daily serving in Beauty And The Bear hair, skin and nails) are not only useless for hair, skin and nails, but could be harmful.
Although Beauty And The Bear, say that ‘no toxic level of biotin has been established’, a recent study in the Journal Of Nutrition found taking a supplement for two weeks containing even 15 times more biotin than the recommended amount of 50 micrograms daily led to a fall in white blood cells – vital for healthy immune function.
Researchers warned that it could potentially increase the risk of infections. Rather ironically, US dermatologists claim excessive amounts of biotin can lead to spotty skin. As biotin and vitamin B5 act on the same receptor, an overload of the former can reduce the amount of vitamin B5 the body is able to absorb. Vitamin B5 strengthens the outer layer of the skin, helping to block bacteria from the pores and preventing spots.
But most concerning are warnings by the US Food and Drug Administration that excess biotin can interfere with the results of dozens of medical tests, including those to see if someone has had a heart attack.
Consuming more than the recommended 50 micrograms of biotin daily has been seen in some studies to lead to false diagnoses of serious conditions such as thyroid disease.
These medical tests work by adding biotin to blood samples, as the vitamin binds to specific disease-related proteins, making them easier to spot. But if there’s too much biotin already in the blood, it appears to doctors as an excess of disease proteins, leading to false positive results.
TOO MUCH VITAMIN A CAN DAMAGE THE LIVER
IT’S not just an excess of biotin that could cause problems elsewhere in the body. Too much Vitamin A in the diet could, strangely, cause hair loss.
Excessive amounts cause blood levels to become saturated, causing a breakdown of hair follicle cells, according to a review paper in Dermatology and Therapy.
Of more concern, large amounts of Vitamin A have been known to cause liver and bone damage, according to the British Nutrition Foundation. Some gummies make up almost 60 per cent of the daily recommended maximum intake of 1,500 micrograms. If you eat one cracker and a generous spoon of liver paté, you reach the upper limit.
Other ‘health’ sweets contain additives that, in large quantities, are known to have embarrassing repercussions. A type of sulphur called MSM – said to rebuild skin tissue – has been linked to headaches and stomach upsets. Meanwhile, in those with irritable bowel syndrome, sweeteners such as sorbitol – a common addition to gummies – can cause diarrhoea.
Studies have seen this effect in quantities as little as just ten grams. Curious as to what else is contained inside these gummies? See our panel, left.
In a statement, Starpowa said: ‘Our gummies are compliant with European Food Safety Authority regulations and do not contain excessive quantities of vitamins.
‘We have focused on quality and making our product as healthy as possible, which is why we have great results from real people.’