Why Are Vitamins Good In Skincare?

The natural world is incredibly efficient, seemingly wondrously random and continuously seeking the most efficient way from A to B. The complexity of life we see today has had time to bear the fruits of these actions for millennia.

To us we are ever enamoured by the beauty, the connectedness and the complexity that is ever more startling because it is……. just so perfect and works with such precision so often so well.

For living things, us being no exception, vitamins are a group of molecules that are used over and over again for a huge amount of very important functions within their living selves. Crucially though our bodies do not make them.  They need to be sourced externally.

Over time we’ve learnt to supply ourselves with these compounds and reap the benefits of a body hence working very well.  It certainly will not work very well, or at all, without them.

While having important functions right through the body Vit A, Vit C, Vit E, Vit B3 and Vit B5 are also required heavily by the skin, yours, mine, his, hers.  Even my very black playful cat Hercules has the same requirement in his skin, though fortunate for him he has skin that never sees the full light of the day. He ,like most creatures, (excluding us, the guinea pig, the chimp and the fruit bat) makes all the Vit C he needs himself. 

Humans are a rare exception.

Vitamins are vital to our health and crucially our bodies do not manufacture them.  Their availability is wholly dependent on us consuming them in food. I’ve always thought it odd that we are instinctively oblivious to this.  Until the last 150 to 200 years many many people suffered disease and death as a result of vitamin deficiencies.  Indeed in many populations today this is still the case.  It is even the case in our modern society right here at home.  The rather worryingly situation is due to our predisposition to not eat well and in a modern world of feeding the masses, choosing cheap and quick or instant gratification of taste and verses a nutritious well prepared meal made from unprocessed ingredients. 

What happens if we do not get enough vitamins?

If a dietary intake is low the body will often shunt vitamins away from the skin to higher priority areas/organs.  Similarly skin can experience vitamin depleting events such as sun exposure, high sugar intake, high alcohol intake that may take 7 to 9 days to recover.  Oblivious we may not eat those  specific vitamin foods to replenish supplies in a timely manner meaning certain skin functions will be “on hold” until the right vitamin shows up OR a less desirable patch option may be employed even though the outcome is less desirous.

In the meantime our skin may just look a little off, not so bright, not so hydrated, not so smooth, perhaps the odd breakout, red patch or mild irritation.

Like taking supplements helps your body in times of deficiency, vitamins in skincare quickly bridge the gap so ALL crucial functions can continue on point, regardless 0f internal or dietary levels.

A biological system that can follow its correct chemical pathway day in, day out and be able to address all issues in a timely manner will be a healthier system than one that is always having to take 2nd best outcomes or address issues too slowly or too late.

It has been a good two decades now since we realized just how well the skin responds to topically applied vitamins.  Since then we got to see the outcomes of a skin that was always “fully stocked”.  It was quite a significant difference with a reduced occurrence of many skin abnormalities and disease.  The skin retained its clearness and smooth softness with less irregularities in colour and texture.  Since this became known the research into the uses and effects of vitamins on the skin greatly increased, exploded I would venture to say.  It has been most intriguing to me to witness this knowledge come to light over the decades and the greatly increased knowledge of skin chemistry mechanisms that has come with this knowledge.  

So do I think we should all be using them everyday? Yes, yes I do.  Does it matter which ones and which forms of them? Yes it does and for Vit C I have covered this in a much earlier Journal.  For the other vitamins that is another article and I would say quite a hefty one. For now know that this area is what I read at night.  It’s what I pack in my bag when we go camping in the mountains and what I think through while I swim those many laps in the pool (which unfortunately due to the chlorine is another vitamin depleting event for my skin).