Friday, December 11, 2009

ACNE AND VITAMINS


If you keep your skin clean and moisturized but still have acne, there’s a good chance that the cause of your acne is inside your body. Your acne could be caused by hormones, or it could be caused by poor nutritional health. Many recent publications show that improving your diet, making sure your food is being digested properly, drinking plenty of water, and taking nutritional supplements can reduce the negative effects of many skin problems, including acne.

Vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and probiotics (healthy bacteria) are used by our bodies to perform every function, including digestion, cell formation, fighting disease, and growth. Scientists are encouraging everyone, starting in early childhood, to take a daily multivitamin because most of us do not get enough nutrition from our daily diet. Many foods now come fortified with extra vitamins and minerals because of this deficiency in our diets, but a good vitamin supplement is often still needed to ensure complete nutrition.

When your body doesn’t get the proper nutrition, your skin suffers. Your skin is an organ, just like your liver or heart. Many toxins are expelled from the body through the skin, and sometimes, due to a nutritional deficiency, your skin can’t properly excrete toxins or fight bacteria and therefore begins to look irritated or reacts with acne breakouts and skin infections.

Many skin ailments need to be treated with medication, but there’s no denying that increasing the resources available to your organs and skin cells through proper nutrition can help your skin perform its tasks properly. Below is a list of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and probiotics that can help the skin function normally.

Vitamin A (beta-carotene)
How it Helps Reduce Acne : Strengthens protective tissue of the skin, helps reduce sebum production, helps body maintain and repair skin tissue, helps your body get rid of toxins and free
radicals (antioxidant). Produces similar effects to isoretonin and retinoids without the side effects, can reduce acne outbreaks and scars. Vitamin A deficiency can cause acne. Other Uses : Needed for healthy teeth, gums, bones, skin, hair and nails.

Vitamin B1* (Thiamin)
How it Helps Reduce Acne : Necessary for protein, carbohydrate, and fat metabolism, supports hormonal and nervous systems.
Other Uses : Energy production, digestion and metabolising food.

Vitamin B3* (Niacin)
How it Helps Reduce Acne : Necessary for protein, carbohydrate, and fat metabolism, supports hormonal and nervous systems. May help outer layer of skin retain moisture, reduce inflammation.
Other Uses : Enzyme formation, converting and metabolising energy from food.

Vitamin C*
How it Helps Reduce Acne : Boosts immune system, improves absorption of Vitamin E, speeds healing. Antioxidant. Used in production of collagen (connective tissue in skin).
Other Uses : Aids the absorption of iron.

Chromium
How it Helps Reduce Acne : Helps your skin heal infections, helps prevent breakouts.
Other Uses : Related to blood sugar regulation.

Vitamin E
How it Helps Reduce Acne : Important for skin repair, slows cellular aging. Antioxidant.
Other Uses : Protects the body from free radicals. Prevents polyunsaturated fats from being oxidized.

Magnesium
How it Helps Reduce Acne : Thought to play a major role in hormone balance.
Other Uses : Required for catalytic action of some enzymes.

Probiotics
How it Helps Reduce Acne : “Good bacteria” that aid in digestion, prevent skin infection.
Other Uses : Can prevent constipation and some impacts of stressrelated illnesses.

Selenium
How it Helps Reduce Acne : Needed for skin elasticity, boosts action of other antioxidants, can reduce acne scarring.
Other Uses : Plays a role in functioning of thyroid gland.

Zinc
How it Helps Reduce Acne : Helps body absorb Vitamin A and regulate levels of Vitamin E, boosts immune system, antibacterial agent, assists in healthy skin gland functioning.
Other Uses : Needed for formation of proteins in the body.

*Water soluble, excreted in urine and not stored in body, should be taken as daily supplement.


The nutritional supplements listed above can help the body in many ways, and can help reduce acne both directly and indirectly. As we all know, the factors like hormone imbalances and poor digestion that lead to acne can also be caused by stress, and a healthy diet can help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, therefore reducing breakouts indirectly.

Ask your doctor which vitamin supplements are best for you. Here at American Vitamin Store, we recommend “The Greatest Vitamin in the World” because it has 100% daily value of each of the supplements listed above in an easy-to-digest formula with organic ingredients. It doesn’t contain the dangerous synthetic ingredients and unnecessary fillers that other vitamins use. With the opti-blend delivery system, whole food blend, and stabilized probiotic blend in addition to 35+ other vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, The Greatest Vitamin in the world has everything needed to help improve your skin, and more!