Babies and Borage Oil One of the more powerful demonstrations of the benefits to the skin of topically applied borage oil is a clinical study (14) done on 48 infants suffering from severe infantile seborrhoic dermatitis, a common condition in infants known as cradle cap. This condition is characterized by dry scales and crusts on the scalp, eyelids, face, armpits, breast and groin. The infants were treated twice daily with topically applied borage oil and the condition cleared within two weeks. Not only was there improvement in the areas where the borage oil was directly applied, but also in the areas where it was not. This result indicated that the borage oil was effectively absorbed through the skin and became available throughout the body as a source of gamma-linolenic acid for the biosynthesis of Prostaglandin 1. If the treatment was discontinued, the symptoms came back within 1 week. However, if the treatment was maintained until the infants became 7 months old and was then stopped, there was no relapse. The authors hypothesized that these infants were born with an immature D6D enzyme system and were unable to produce sufficient gamma-linolenic acid on their own, thus giving rise to the symptoms of cradle cap. The borage oil treatment corrected the symptoms by supplying GLA until the infants own enzyme system caught up.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 16:00:00 +0000
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