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Vitamin E is an antioxidant nutrient having several health promoting properties. This fat-soluble vitamin is well known in the beauty arena and is used as a main ingredient in many cosmetic products such as creams, lotions, sunscreens, skin brighteners and anti-aging moisterizers.

Vitamin E is also available in the form of dietary supplements. Now it is added to some commercial foods and comes into the market labelled as fortified with vitamin E.

Actually vitamin E is the combined name of a group of eight fat-soluble vitamins known as tocopherols and tocotrienols.

Fundamentally beauty lies in the appearance of your skin and vitamin E can do the magic for you.

 

Use of Vitamin E in Skin Care

In dermatology, this  antioxidant vitamin has been in use for more than fifty years. According to a research published in the British Journal of Nutrition, vitamin E contains bioactive  compounds that have beneficial effect on skin health, and these compounds  are metabolized and presented to the entire skin tissue in an active form, when it is orally consumed.

It acts as a free radical scavenger and protects the skin from various deterious effects caused by solar radiation..

Experimental studies suggest that vitamin E has antitumorigenic and photoprotective properties. As it is absorbed by the epidermis layer of the skin, and is beneficial for sun protection and treating sun burn.

 

Use of Vitamin E in Hair Care

Studies show an association between oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation index and hair loss. Hair loss or alopecia is a common problem faced by many people. Clinical trials demonstrate that supplementation with tocotrienol (a compound belong to the vitamin E family) capsules increases hair number in people suffering from alopecia.

 

How To Use Vitamin E

Generally people use vitamin E in different ways depending on their problem. It can be used as a dietary supplement or applied to the skin, hair or nails topically in the form of oil or gel.

Vitamin E oil is topically applied to address conditions like wrinkles, fine lines, rough skin, crowns feet, dark circles around the eyes, brown spots, acne scars and dry lips and scalp problems. These conditions can also be prevented by topically applying vitamin E the skin.

 

Potential Health Benefits of Vitamin E

Vitamin E has several other potential health benefits. Studies related to the role of vitamin E in human health and some diseases shows that :

• High plasma levels of vitamin E are associated with a reduced risk of AD (Alzheimer’s disease} in older people.
• Its supplementation significantly enhances both cell-mediated and humoral immune functions in humans, especially in the elderly.
• Vitamin E improved the antibody response to various vaccines in healthy subjects
• Vitamin E can enhance the immune response to a specific antigen.
• Viitamin E stimulates the body’s defences and increases phagocytic functions. It also has a pronounced effect in infectious diseases where immune phagocytosis is involved.

 

Possible side effects and Precautions

As vitamin E deficiency causes certain adverse health conditions, its overdosing may also lead to vitamin E toxicity (Hypervitaminosis E ).  So, orally taking vitamin E in high doses is possibly unsafe.

It may cause nausea, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, fatigue, weakness, headache, blurred vision, rash, bruising and bleeding.

Since vitamin E can act as an anticoagulant t, it can magnify the effects of certain drugs such as anticoagulant medications and aspirin which can cause severe problems in ill patients.^[

Hypervitaminosis E may also counteract vitamin K, leading to a vitamin K deficiency.

For these reasons, it is very important to stick on to the correct dosage guidelines to keep the intake of vitamin E supplement within the daily recommended allowance.

The best practice is to consult your physician if you consider starting oral supplementation of vitamin E. In this way you can take the correct dosage as per your needs and individual health conditions.

 

Source::

Vitamin E in dermatology   Mohammad Abid Keen and Iffat Hassan

Effects of Tocotrienol Supplementation on Hair Growth in Human Volunteers   Lim Ai Beoy,¹ Wong Jia Woei,² and Yuen Kah Hay^1,*

 

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