Which Vitamins Are Good For The Skin?
It has been known for a long time that vitamins play an important role in keeping the skin healthy and thus making it attractive and glowing. This property of vitamins is attributed to the antioxidants in them. The skin needs nutrients and studies indicate that if vitamins A, B, C, E and K are taken in the required amounts, they perform wonders.
Could you please explain a little?
Certainly, let have a quick look at the vitamins and what they do:
Vitamin A: This vitamin is a must for the maintenance of the skin. It also comes in handy when the epithelial tissues get damaged. Epithelial tissues can be roughly translated as the “visible skin”.
Sources: egg yolk, oysters’ milk and foods that are rich in beta carotene are excellent sources of vitamin A.
Vitamin B: Deficiency of vitamin B leaves the skin dry and scaly. This vitamin helps the body convert calories into energy for various metabolisms which keep the skin moist and smooth.
Sources: Red meat, fish, brewers yeast, eggs, bananas are good sources of this vitamin.
Vitamin C: There is a structure just beneath the skin which maintains it. In medical terminology, it is called collagen and vitamin C helps keep the collagen healthy.
Sources: Citrus fruits (lemon, oranges), strawberries, tomato, green peas etc.
Vitamin E: This vitamin reduces the production an enzyme which is known as ‘collagenase’. The collagenase breaks up into a substance called ‘collegen’ which causes the skin to wrinkle and sag. Thus Vitamin E slows down the aging process of the skin. Spending a long time in the sun drains the skin of its vitamin E.
Sources: Vitamin E is abundant in salmon (a fish), legumes, almonds and leafy vegetables.
Vitamin K: For the normal coagulation of blood, vitamin K is very important. It also produces certain proteins which are good for bone mineralization and a good and healthy skin.
Sources: The important sources are lettuce, spinach, butter, lentils and dry soybeans.
This is somewhat general, but I’ve got an oily skin. What should I do?
Here is what persons with dry or oily skin can do:
Oily Skin:
Skin gets oily because of internal reasons. In these cases the skin produces oil in excess. In these cases vitamin A and vitamin B-6 could be helpful.
Vitamin B-6: The strange thing about vitamin B-6 is that, the body can’t store it. It has to be continuously supplied because it gets out of the body every time one urinates. It helps form red blood cells and thus affects the skin.
Sources: Vitamin B-6 is found in nuts, eggs, meats, fish, cereals and beans.
Dry Skin:
For people with dry skin, vitamin A is recommended. It comes in two forms: retinol and retinyl palmitate, both of them are convertible to retinoic acid which is to be applied to the dry skin and thus it is found in many skin creams.
