How Vitamin E Fights Aging Skin
As Hulk Hogan once said, “To all my little Hulkamaniacs, say your prayers, take your vitamins and you will never go wrong.” We all know the importance of vitamins in our daily diets – for many of us the phrase “take your vitamins” has been engrained since childhood. However, we’re rarely told how important they are for our skin.
Of course all vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, and K) play a role in the health of our skin, but today let’s focus on vitamin E. This powerhouse antioxidant helps fight the signs of aging caused by damaging free radicals.
What It Is
Vitamin E is actually made up of eight antioxidants: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols (alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-). It is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means it can permeate cells, allowing it to really flex its antioxidant muscles.
Tocopherols are found in a variety of sources including grape seed oil, soy oil and corn oil. Similarly tocotrienols come from a variety of sources, but palm fruit oil delivers the most potent dose. You can also get a healthy serving of vitamin E from the following foods:
- Eggs
- Fortified cereals, whole grains and wheat germ oils
- Meat and poultry
- Nuts and nut oils
- Fruit and leafy greens
While incorporating these foods into your diet will certainly help improve overall health, directly applying vitamin in to your skin allows for the best results. Of course getting your tocopherol fix by smearing oil on your face won’t quite produce the desired results. So how can you get results and what exactly are the results?
How It Works
Everyday we are subject to free radicals that wreak havoc on our skin. These are formed in the body during normal metabolism as well as exposure to environmental factors including the sun, pollution and smoke. Vitamin E essentially intercepts these free radicals, preventing the destructive chain reaction (breaking down cells which results in aged skin) from occurring.
The more exposure our skin has to free radicals, the more our natural vitamin E content decreases. This accelerates oxidation and cellular destruction, and thus our skin starts to show the signs of aging. Yes, you can blame those wrinkles on pollution…well, partly.
Look for vitamin E (tocopherols or tocotrienols) in skin care products like skin corrective serums, eye firming formulas and skin strengtheners.
For products with tocopherols and tocotrienols, check out the REDMethod's Radical Redux and Eye Firm.