Ensuring adequate intake of essential vitamins and minerals can complement your topical skin care routine-promoting healthier, more beautiful skin from within.
Intake vitamins and minerals to get health and beauty skin :
1. Vitamin C
Due to its role in collagen synthesis and its antioxidant properties, vitamin C is a crucial nutrient for healthy skin. In healthy skin, vitamin C is found at high levels in both the dermis and the epidermis, but studies show that as we age those levels decline.
Environmental pollutants can also decrease vitamin C levels in the skin.Vitamin C’s functions in skin health include limiting the photodamage caused by UV exposure by providing antioxidant protection against the free radicals caused by UV light.
Vitamin C also supports wound healing by promoting collagen synthesis and a healthy anti-inflammatory response at the site of the wound. Higher intakes of vitamin C have also been associated with less dry skin. Studies show that oral supplementation with vitamin C increases levels in the skin.
It’s important to remember that unlike other mammals, humans cannot manufacture the vitamin C they needwe need a regular adequate intake from diet and/or supplementation.
As a water-soluble vitamin, vitamin C cannot be stored by our bodies, and it is rapidly depleted whenever we are under stress, traveling, or short on sleep, etc.
As a water-soluble vitamin, vitamin C cannot be stored by our bodies, and it is rapidly depleted whenever we are under stress, traveling, or short on sleep, etc.
2. Vitamin D
Vitamin D’s functions in skin health include regulating the process by which your skin constantly renews itself, whereby new cells from underneath the epidermis replacing the outer layer of skin cells that are shed over time. This process of epidermal proliferation and differentiation is essential to maintaining healthy cell growth, wound healing, and healthy skin function.
Our primary source of vitamin D is exposure to the UV radiation in sunlight. But since nowadays many of us wisely use sunscreen to protect our skin, many of us may not be getting enough vitamin D. In fact, many doctors now consider vitamin D deficiency to be an epidemic. So if you regularly use sunscreen, you may want to consider supplementing with vitamin D.
3. Zinc
About six percent of all of the zinc in your body is found in your skin, where it plays a number of important roles in healthy skin, including stabilizing cell membranes, participating in skin cell differentiation, and serves as an essential cofactor for several enzymes.
Ensuring adequate intake of zinc and other minerals is crucial to skin health, as mineral deficiencies often manifest as skin issues. In today’s world full of processed foods and refined flours, many people are deficient or borderline deficient in minerals, so taking a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement is a wise choice for just about everyone.
4. Selenium
Selenium is found in skin cells as an essential component of antioxidant enzymes that protect skin cells from harmful free radicals and the damage they cause. Making sure you get enough selenium can thus help protect your skin from UV damage and free radical damage by boosting the antioxidant defenses of your skin.
Ensuring adequate intake of selenium is crucial to skin health, since many people in today’s world are deficient or borderline deficient in minerals. But it’s important to take a well-balanced supplement if you do choose to supplement, since both selenium deficiency as well as excess are linked to skin issues.
5. SOD
SOD (superoxide dismutase) is a powerful antioxidant enzyme. Our bodies have evolved to produce SOD as our primary protection against the constant onslaught of free radicals and the oxidative damage to our cells and tissues that free radicals cause.
Free radicals can be generated in the skin both internally (during necessary metabolic processes) and from external sources like UV light radiation, ozone, and air pollution. SOD neutralizes the most common free radicals in the body (called superoxide radicals). In fact, each I.U. of SOD neutralizes billions of free radicals.
SOD is found throughout the epidermis and the dermis, but studies show that our SOD levels decrease with age, which has been theorized to contribute to the aging process of our skin. Since skin is our largest, most readily-exposed organ to the environment, it is highly susceptible to free radical damage. Supplementing with SOD may help protect our skin from that damage as we age.
SOD is found throughout the epidermis and the dermis, but studies show that our SOD levels decrease with age, which has been theorized to contribute to the aging process of our skin. Since skin is our largest, most readily-exposed organ to the environment, it is highly susceptible to free radical damage. Supplementing with SOD may help protect our skin from that damage as we age.
