Eating a nutritious diet offers many rewards, from helping to prevent diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, to improving your skin health. If you don't get all the vitamins and nutrients your body needs from your diet, vitamins can supplement what you eat. Taking oral vitamins might help improve your skin's elasticity and suppleness and could reduce or prevent wrinkles. Supplements should not be substituted for medical care, however. Consult your dermatologist for additional age-defying treatment options.
Certain vitamins offer skin-boosting properties that can rejuvenate aging skin. Some vitamins are classified as antioxidants, which means they help fight damaging elements in the environment, such as smoke, pollution and the sun's rays. Free radicals are elements in the environment that drain your skin of moisture and elasticity, and antioxidants help shield your skin from free radicals. Vitamins C, E and A are antioxidants.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C protects your skin from free radicals that build up over time and cause your skin to age, according to the National Institutes of Health. Vitamin C also can help restore skin damage, such as wrinkles and fine lines. It also boosts your immune system and can help keep your skin healthy by fighting infections and inflammation. Vitamin C does not occur naturally in your body, so a supplement can help ensure that you get enough each day. The recommended daily amount, or RDA, of vitamin C is 90 mg a day for adult men and 75 mg a day for adult women.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is also an antioxidant that lessens the effects free radicals can have on your skin. Without enough vitamin E, your skin can become dry and more prone to damage. Vitamin E helps your skin retain its elasticity as you age and can rejuvenate dry, aging skin. It can help prevent the loss of elastin in your skin from environmental factors, such as the sun. The RDA for vitamin E is 15 mg a day for adults.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A helps maintain and repair skin cells and can help repair sun-damaged skin, notes the University of Maryland Medical Center. Overexposure to the sun can deplete vitamin A in your skin and lead to wrinkles and age spots. The RDA is 3,000 IU for adult men, 2,310 IU for adult women. When taking vitamin A supplements, choose ones with the beta-carotene form of vitamin A instead of preformed vitamin A, advises the Harvard School of Public Health. Preformed vitamin A -- or retinol -- can be toxic in large doses.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Vitamin E; July 2011
- Harvard School of Public Health: Vitamin A
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Skin Wrinkles and Blemishes -- Treatment; December 2008
- National Institutes of Health: Vitamin C
- National Institutes of Health: Vitamin E
- National Institutes of Health: Vitamin A and Carotenoids
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