Stretch Marks and Vitamin A – Is It A Match Made In Heaven?
Vitamin A is most likely familiar to you from mom’s admonition to eat your carrots so that your eyes would be healthy! It is true, vitamin A is directly linked to healthy eyes and eyesight and as such it is vital that you ingest your daily dose of this vitamin via the food choices you make. You already know that carrots are a good source of vitamin A, but did you also know that lemons, sweet potatoes, spinach, apples, cantaloupes, eggs, meats, and fish are also rich in this substance? Considering the vast sources for vitamin A, it is next to impossible to not ingest sufficient amounts, yet if your diet is lacking in variety, and if you do not believe that you do take in at least 700 micrograms per day, you may wish to look into supplementation.
Yet be careful! While a lack of vitamin A will lead to eye-health related problems and even a failing immune system, and overdose – generally considered to be in the neighborhood of about 2,900 micrograms – will actually lead to symptoms of toxic system shock, such as muscle cramps, cramps of the abdomen, nausea and even vomiting, diarrhea, and sleeplessness.
While thus far vitamin A was considered for its usefulness in eye health, ambitious marketers have begun to tout the efficiency of this substance in preventing the skin’s absorption of UVA and UVB rays. In addition to the foregoing, these same marketing slogans claim that vitamin A will cause skin regeneration, thus in effect creating the impression that a damaged dermis may be healed by removing the scar tissue and thereby recreating the skin from the inside out.
This is sadly not the case. When eaten, vitamin A derived from animal sources will indeed assist in the formation and maintenance of healthy skin – yet it is the skin that is inside the body, also known as epithelial tissue. Thus, stretch marks cannot be healed or prevented with the ingestion of large quantities of animal derived vitamin A, but instead this very over-supplementation may lead to the aforementioned toxicity symptoms.
On the other hand, derivatives of animal derived vitamin A, such as tretinoin, when applied topically together with a high quality cream or lotion will have indeed great impact on your skin. Not only will it add to the supple appearance of the skin because of the increase in collagen it triggers, but it is a vital component in the prevention of stretch marks for this very reason. Even after stretch marks have already reared their ugly heads, vitamin A derivatives applied to the skin can signal the availability of the an environment suitable for cell regeneration and thus the visibility of stretch marks will be actively diminished as the underlying tissue is regenerated. Beta carotene, which is the vitamin A derived from plant sources, does not factor into the skin care debate. Thus, prior to purchasing any skin care product claiming it contains vitamin A, make sure that you are buying the correct vitamin A! If you do, you will find that this substance will greatly affect your skin for the better.
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