If you are looking for an alternative facial treatment, you can choose from many skin care products that contain some form of vitamin C. This vitamin is vital to human health, and it produces many positive effects on the treatment of facial conditions like wrinkles, wounds and acne. Unlike many natural products, which do not have sound medical research to back up their effectiveness, researchers have proven the benefits and importance of vitamin C.
Features
In face treatment, the most common use of vitamin C is in the reduction and prevention of the fine lines and wrinkles associated with aging. Vitamin C helps to build or replace collagen, needed for skin suppleness. The aging process reduces the amount of collagen, and you can replace some of that necessary protein with the use of vitamin C. This vitamin also can help to treat wound infection and results in the reduction of redness and swelling from facial cuts and acne.
Function
Vitamin C helps skin by boosting the body's immune system, working as an antioxidant to reduce the presence of free radicals and increasing collagen production. You can achieve these properties both by ingesting vitamin C and by using topical products that contain the vitamin. The National Institute of Health recommends 75 milligrams per day for adult women and 90 milligrams per day for adult men. Because the body neither makes nor stores vitamin C, you can usually exceed this dosage slightly without negative effect.
Types
Vitamin C goes under several different names when used in skin care products. While certain natural products may list vitamin C directly, they also can name citric acid as an ingredient or may even tell you which fruit or vegetable supplied the vitamin C. The most common vitamin C ingredient is ascorbic acid, also listed sometimes as L-ascorbic acid, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, ascorbyl palmitate, sodium ascorbyl phosphate and tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate.
Warning
You should make an effort to increase your vitamin C intake if your diet and lifestyle indicate a lack of the vitamin. Symptoms of vitamin-C deficiency include dry and rough skin, slow wound healing, bruises, dry hair and swollen joints. However you choose to take in this supplement, you need to do so continuously, as the human body cannot store vitamin C over time and constantly loses it via urination. If you purchase topical vitamin C products, be sure to store them in a cool and dark place to prevent breakdown of the vitamin.
Expert Insight
Although scientists have known that vitamin C is essential for human health for almost a century, many of the reasons for its benefits have only recently been revealed. In 2009, Duarte, Cook and Jones published a study in Free Radical Biology and Medicine that showed vitamin C played a vital role in the repair of cellular DNA. The implications of this study point to vitamin C's future use in the treatment of skin lesions and cancers.
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