Beauty Tip of the Day—The Wonders of Vitamin E
What is Vitamin E?
Vitamin E, or tocopherol, is a fat-soluble vitamin that naturally occurs in eight different forms of compounds (tocopherols and tocotrienols). Vitamin E in the form of alpha-tocopherol is often used in skin creams and lotions for its ability to retain moisture. It acts as an antioxidant to protect your cells from oxidation and neutralized free radicals, which can harm cells, tissues and organs. Vitamin E is also thought to help speed up the healing process for injuries such as scars and burns.
Dietary sources of vitamin E:
• Liver
• Egg yolk
• Avocado
• Spinach
• Broccoli
• Peanut butter
• Wheat germ
• Whole grains
• Margarine
• Nuts—pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts
• Oils—canola oil, cottonseed oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil
Vitamin E protects vitamin A and essential fatty acids from oxidation within the cells and prevents the breakdown of body tissues. As an antioxidant, vitamin E helps protect skin cells from UV light, pollution, medications, and any other substances that promote free radicals.
What does it do for my skin?
Anti-Aging—the antioxidant powers of vitamin E fight off free radicals, while minimizing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. It can also help prevent the appearance of age spots.
Scars—helps soften scars by reducing the strength of collagen strands and making them more flexible.
Sunburns—there’s some controversy regarding this one. While vitamin E does help with sunburns, the question is whether it works as a preventative method or if it can only help after a burn has already developed. Vitamin E lotions are thought to protect the epidermis, or outer layer of the skin from early stages of ultra violet light damage when used around 30 minutes before exposure. In healing sunburns, vitamin E’s antioxidant abilities help shorten the recovery time.
Skin problems—products containing vitamin E can help reduce the appearance of stretch marks. Also, vitamin E cream is often used to treat skin diseases such as psoriasis, erythema, eczema and other skin issues.
Skin cancer—the antioxidants in vitamin E help reduce sun damage, thereby aiding in the prevention of skin cancer.
What to look for:
When searching for a topical form of vitamin E, be sure to check the labels. If you see “alpha-tocopherol acetate” that means that it is the acetate form and not the alcohol form (alpha-tocopherol). The acetate version isn’t as effective as an antioxidant and does not provide as many benefits as the natural alcohol form.
—Nolan
Do you have any thoughts on vitamin E? Comment and share them with us!
It’ s really hard to understand that eating chocolate is sometimes okay for you. Does that mean that you can have 12 chocolate chip cookies for dessert? Or a bag of m&m’ s for a mid- day snack every day? Noooo! What it does mean is that the occasional treat CAN be healthy for you (antioxidants) but only if you choose wisely.