Vitamins for skin tightening are important, both in skin care products and supplements.
Here is a guide to vitamins, herbals and other nutrients that repair skin damage, rebuild collagen, and add firmness and moisture to your skin.
Some specific skin vitamins to know about:
— Vitamin E is an antioxidant, protecting the skin from the oxidation damage that is a major cause of skin aging. Vitamin E prevents other fat-soluble vitamins from being destroyed by oxygen. It also reduces inflammation. Vitamin E in its natural form is d-alpha tocopherol: If the ingredient on a product label begins with “dl” rather than just the letter “d,” this is a synthetic form of vitamin E — and not nearly as effective.
— Vitamin B5, also called D-Panthenol or pantothenic acid, is one of several B vitamins that are essential to skin repair and growth. It protects the skin naturally against sunburn, relieves existing sunburn, and enhances natural tanning.
— Coenzyme Q10 may be the most important skin antioxidant. A vitamin-like substance, it is present in every cell of our bodies. The amount of CoQ10 in our cells is reduced as we get older, or if we are under stress.
UV rays from the sun (particularly UV-A rays) destroy CoQ10. But sunlight is also beneficial to the skin and is essential for good health; it enables the body to produce abundant Vitamin D. To maintain high levels of CoQ10 in your skin, you should get CoQ10 in easily-absorbed form in both your skin care product and food supplement.
— Carnosine is another key nutrient. Take at least 50 mg a day in a supplement to both prevent and stop glycation, a little-known process that destroys healthy proteins — like collagen, causing wrinkles and loose, sagging skin.
— SAMe (S-Adenosyl-Methionine), is another natural chemical found in all living cells. SAMe as the best methylating agent known to science. Poor methylation causes aging eveywhere in our bodies, including the skin. SAMe should be part of an anti-aging program, including skin tightening. Look for 30 mg of SAMe in a supplement, which must be enteric coated, to prevent damage of SAMe by stomach acids.
You should not have to get skin vitamins in separate tablets, one for each vitamin. Nutrients work best in combination. For that reason, a good skin cream will contain both vitamin E and CoQ10, because they work best in synergy with each other. In the same way, a supplement should contain a combination of vitamins and other nutrients, including all those I’ve mentioned. (Most do not even come close; don’t let that discourage you.)
See my website for more suggestions on skin creams and supplements containing these powerful vitamins for skin tightening.
Kathryn Lane is a longtime health and nutrition researcher. The best skincare products she has found have never been the most expensive or the most heavily advertised. Her website names them: http://www.health-and-skin-site.com/
