RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SKIN CONDITION IN WOMEN 307 acid (ALA) was inversely correlated with some of the negative moods in all participants DHA was inversely associated with fatigue scores (Table IV). In participants in their 50s and 60, ALA was favorably associated with moods (Table V). DISCUSSION One of the most striking fi ndings in this study was the highly signifi cant correlations between pigmentation in the forehead and negative mood scores among the participants in their 20s (Table III). No signifi cant correlations between these parameters were found when all participants were combined. As described in the Results section, skin conditions were heavily affected by age however, this age effect was variable from person to person and is probably particularly so among those in their 30s to 50s. It is likely that the effects of age on skin conditions have not fully appeared in the 20s group or are still too small to detect compared with the older groups. Consequently, other effects such as mood are thought to be more infl uential and noticeable in the 20s group. Comparison of pigmentation between the forehead and other face areas deserves some discussion. At fi rst, there was no correlation in pigmentation between two areas at all (r = -0.07). The correlation with negative mood scores in the 20s group was also com- pletely different between the forehead and other areas (see Table III). In contrast, AA was signifi cantly correlated with pigmentation in the other face areas only. It is not very clear why there were substantial differences between the forehead and other face areas. One reason could be the location of the forehead. Stress hormones and sunlight that possibly do more harm to the forehead than the other face areas might synergistically increase forehead pigmentation. However, the foreheads of most participants were covered by their front hair, and therefore, this reasoning appears insignifi cant. Table IV Regression Coeffi cients Between Fatty Acids and Mood (n = 131) Stress (SACL) Depression-dejection Fatigue Tension-anxiety Confusion α-Linolenic acid (ALA) -0.24 -0.20 ns -0.17 -0.19 p = 0.007 p = 0.02 p = 0.048 p = 0.04 Docosahexaenoic acid ns ns -0.18 ns ns p = 0.046 Only signifi cant correlations ( p 0.05 after adjustment) are shown. ALA was also marginally associated with anger-hostility scores (r = -0.17, p = 0.06). Other fatty acids were not signifi cantly correlated with mood scores. Adjusted for age, smoking, and drinking. ns: No signifi cance. Table V Regression Coeffi cients Between α-Linolenic Acid and Mood Among Those in Their 50s and 60 (n = 31) Stress (SACL) Arousal (SACL) Confusion ALA -0.61 0.52 -0.55 p = 0.0002 p = 0.003 p = 0.002 Only signifi cant correlations ( p 0.0125 after adjustment) are shown. Other fatty acids were not signifi - cantly correlated with mood scores. Adjusted for age, smoking, and drinking.

JOURNAL OF COSMETIC SCIENCE 308 The forehead is located in front of the forebrain. When the brain works hard especially during stress it must be cooled from the forebrain (selective brain cooling) (18,19). In men forehead sweating was shown to be maintained during exercise even when dehy- drated (20). We recently found that water retention in the forehead skin of women at the start of the menstrual cycle was positively correlated with the degree of stress (unpub- lished data) this relationship was not found in the cheek areas. Furthermore, the ben- efi cial effects on stratum corneum hydration and transepidermal water loss of an oral contraceptive containing chlormadinone and ethinylestradiol were shown to be different between the cheek and the forehead (21). Consequently, it is likely that the skin on the forehead is different from the skin on the cheeks, making the former particularly vulner- able to stress and negative mood. ALA is generally thought to be cardioprotective and anti-infl ammatory (22). Only a few documents have reported a relationship between ALA and mood/behavior/personality. Suzuki et al. (23) found that the odds ratios of depression in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients were about one-half in the highest quartile of daily ALA intake compared with the lowest. Moreover, Conklin et al. (24) observed an inverse correlation between serum ALA concentrations and impulsivity in 105 hypercholesterolemic patients. In a pilot study, Joshi et al. (25) also reported that ALA and vitamin C improved attention defi cit hyperactivity disorder symptoms. Taken together, our fi ndings showing the negative cor- relations between RBC ALA concentrations and negative mood (Tables IV and V) appear to follow the same conclusion. In a cross-sectional study, Yoneyama et al. (26) found that serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were inversely related to the intake of ALA in 1461 women. In addition, Rallidis et al. (27) reported in a randomized controlled trial of 76 male dyslipidemic patients that dietary supplementation with ALA signifi cantly decreased serum levels of CRP and interleukin-6. The relationship between infl ammatory markers and mood has been well documented (28). Although it is diffi cult to prove that ALA caused lower scores of nega- tive mood from the present results alone, it is possible that negative mood was reduced through the control of infl ammatory reactions by ALA. We originally believed that n–3 and n–6 fatty acids exerted favorable and unfavorable effects on skin conditions, respectively. This idea depended on the relationship between essential fatty acids and infl ammation (4) and the indirect relationship with various favor- able effects of n–3 fatty acids on mood (5–7,9). Although we found only two signifi cant unfavorable correlations between skin conditions and AA, there were no signifi cant cor- relations between skin conditions and EPA, DHA, or ALA. The effects of n–3 fatty acids on skin conditions might be considerably small in participants who regularly consume a large amount of fi sh (17). In vitro experiments using cultured murine melanoma cells showed that ALA inhibited melanin production by more than 80% at 25 μmol/l (29). We could not fi nd any correlations between RBC ALA concentrations and pigmentation probably because of very low concentrations of ALA at the tissue level (there was only 0.2% of ALA in RBC PL fraction Table I). In all participants, both depression-dejection and fatigue (POMS) were signifi cantly cor- related with the total length of wrinkles (Table II). Grimacing as a result of a negative mood might increase wrinkles. There are a few intervention studies reporting the effects of fi sh oils on POMS scores. Antypa et al. (30) performed a placebo-controlled double-blind study of 54 healthy university