A patch a day? Why the vitamin skin patches spruiked on social media might not be for you

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Vitamin patches are trending on social media and advertised in posts and podcasts.

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The ConversationThe Conversation
URL: 
https://theconversation.com/a-patch-a-day-why-the-vitamin-skin-patches-spruiked-on-social-media-might-not-be-for-you-222280https://theconversation.com/a-patch-a-day-why-the-vitamin-skin-patches-spruiked-on-social-media-might-not-be-for-you-222280
Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
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Tags: 
Social media, Adhesive, Ibuprofen, Vitamin D deficiency, TGA, Excipient, Caffeine, Nicotine, Scurvy, Vitamin, COVID, Sleep, Skin, Ginger, Risk, B3, Safety, Menopause, Nutrient, Water, Therapeutic Goods Administration, Patient, Medicine, Oil, Immunity, Tablet, Malnutrition, Taurine, Dietary supplement
Geotags: 
AUSTRALIA
Summary
Key Points: 
  • Vitamin patches are trending on social media and advertised in posts and podcasts.
  • With patches marketed for sleep, detox, immunity and hangovers, they are being talked up as near magical fix-all stickers.

What are vitamin patches?

  • Vitamin patches are adhesives designed to deliver vitamins or nutrients to your bloodstream directly through the skin.
  • Patches promising an energy boost offer caffeine, taurine, gluconolactone, green tea extract and vitamins B3, B5 and B6.

Do they work and are they safe?

  • Vitamins are generally approved as listed medicines, meaning the ingredients have been assessed for safety but not for efficacy (whether they do what they promise).
  • However, there are no items listed as vitamin patches on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.
  • Ordinarily, to be absorbed through the skin a chemical needs to be lipophilic, meaning it likes fats and oils more than water.
  • So, the form in which the vitamins have been produced and supplied will dictate whether they will get into the skin.
  • The health condition called scurvy is thought to occur when daily vitamin C intake drops lower than 7 milligrams per day.
  • The recommended daily intake of vitamin C is around 45 milligrams per day – more if a woman is breastfeeding.


Read more:
Is TikTok right – will eating three carrots a day really give me a natural tan?

Why not just take a tablet?

  • One selling point used by the marketers is that patches are a “cleaner” form of vitamins.
  • A vitamin in tablet or gummy form will contain inactive ingredients called excipients.
  • But many patches don’t list all their ingredients – just the active vitamins – so this claim can not be tested.

Should you buy them?


As there are no vitamin patches approved by the TGA in Australia, you should not buy them. If at some point in the future they become listed medicines, it will be important to remember that they may not have been assessed for efficacy. If you remain curious about vitamin patches, you should discuss them with your doctor or local pharmacist.

  • He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, a member of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association, and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
  • Nial regularly consults to industry on issues to do with medicine risk assessments, manufacturing, design, and testing.
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