3 Things Our Seacoll® Norwegian Salmon Study Taught Us
Lessons on dose, skin elasticity, moisture and why the placebo group matters.
What happens to the skin when people take Seacoll® Norwegian Salmon every day, and how much do they need?
To find out, we asked the testing company Intertek to study Seacoll® Norwegian Salmon. The purpose was to measure how different daily doses affect the skin, compared with a placebo.
133 healthy women between 30 and 55 years old, all with visible signs of aging, completed the study. They were split into four groups. Three groups took 1, 2.5 or 5 grams of Seacoll every day for four weeks. The fourth group took a placebo: a look-alike powder with no collagen in it. Everyone’s skin was measured at the start, after two weeks and after four weeks.
The two higher doses gave the clearest results. Here are three takeaways.
5 grams gave the clearest boost in elasticity
Think of gently pinching your skin and letting go. Young, elastic skin snaps back fast. The test measured exactly that.
The 5 gram group came out ahead. After four weeks, the skin’s ability to spring back improved by 56 percent, compared with 18 percent in the placebo group. 5 grams gave a statistically significant improvement over placebo on all four elasticity measures in the study, and the largest improvement of the three doses on each of them. On two of those measures, 5 grams was also significantly better than 2.5 grams.
Elasticity was not the only result. 5 grams gave a statistically significant improvement over placebo on elasticity, moisture and firmness alike, after both two and four weeks.
That is why we recommend 5 grams as the daily dose. It is what this study points to, and it matches the wider research and our own experience.
2.5 grams works too
After four weeks, the 2.5 gram group also showed a statistically significant improvement over placebo on all four elasticity measures.
On moisture and firmness, the two doses performed about equally. The study looked at how much water escapes through the skin’s surface: the less that escapes, the better the skin holds on to moisture. Water loss fell by 41 percent with 5 grams and 38 percent with 2.5 grams, compared with 22 percent with placebo. Firmness told the same story, with both doses improving by about 45 percent against 22 percent with placebo. For both doses, these improvements over placebo were statistically significant.
So 5 grams gives the fullest effect, and 2.5 grams gives a real one too. That matters for product development. Many recommendations point to 5 grams or more per day, but our results show that half that amount still works. Half the dose means roughly half the ingredient cost, and that saving can be passed on to the consumer. A smaller dose is also easier to fit into formats with limited space or complex recipes, such as gummies and gels.
A placebo group is crucial
A placebo group shows what would have happened anyway.
The skin of the placebo group changed too. That is normal. People follow a routine, they take care of themselves, and things shift a little. So we do not count the change in the Seacoll groups. We count the difference between them and the placebo group.
What the study does not tell you
The study ran for four weeks. All participants were healthy women between 30 and 55 with visible signs of aging. It was done at one test centre. And Seagarden ordered the study.
This is what the study measured. It is not a promise to consumers. Results could look different with other groups over a longer period of time.
What it does give you is a clear, honest picture of how skin responded to different amounts of Seacoll® Norwegian Salmon, compared with a placebo.