vitamins

Want gorgeous glow on skin? Eat and apply the right vitamins

Are you eating all the right veggies and fruits but your face still lacks the luminescent glow? Believe it or not the skin care regime is missing some essential vitamins.

The aging signs can be reversed by the help of nutrients. Even if a balanced diet holds the key to a gorgeous skin , according to Mary Lupo, MD, clinical professor of dermatology, “the body delivers only a certain percentage of vitamins to your skin, no matter how much you ingest.” The diet does keep the skin superfine but it may not do the needful for the blemishes, under eye skin and facial marks. This means that we have to topically apply the vitamins in the skin to make it glow and look better.

Vitamin A- the age fighter

This is an important part of the night creams and OTC lotions. They contribute greatly to the removal of blemishes like brown spots and reduction of the wrinkles; they also help in smoothening the rough skin. They help in reducing age lines and thus make the person look younger. Make sure that you apply the cream at night as the sunlight works negatively on the vitamin and neutralize its action. The creams with retinoids may cause irritation and redness so apply in very little quantities, every alternate day in the beginning.

Vitamin B3 to reduce redness

The skin is protected by an outer barrier made up of fatty acids and ceramides. This helps the skin retain moisture and ward off substances that cause skin irritations. So if the skin is sensitive and prone to dryness then use Vitamin B3 creams for reducing skin redness and keeping the skin hydrated. It also helps in minimizing the dark spots if used in morning and night. Mixing a retinoid cream with niacinamide or Vitamin B3 provides great anti aging benefits.

Vitamin C- the all around vitamin that keeps age at bay

Skin care benefit is maximum from the creams that show a concentration of more than 5% of vitamin C and are stored in air tight containers. Vitamin C helps ward off the sagging skin by making it firm and also helps in treating brown spots. Discolorations and fine lines lighten up tremendously with the regular use of Vitamin C.

Moisturize the skin with Vitamin E

Generally all after sun products and the sunscreens contain this Vitamin and help the skin retain the hydration and also quell dryness. It helps neutralize the harmful and damaging free radicals keeping it less dry and inflamed. It’s best used before heading out to the sun and also after sun exposure. Vitamin E in the skin is destroyed by UV light or sun exposure so just pick the right cream and slather it on generously.

Vitamin K for brighter eyes

Brighten the under eye skin with creams containing Vitamin K. The capillaries below the eyes are very fragile and the blood in them sometimes leaks into the skin causing the dark eyes. The Vitamin helps in lighten the under eye skin by lightening the melanin. Generally the Vitamin K is complemented by the retinol, says Dr. Baumann, “the retinol may enhance K’s ability to penetrate skin and knock out darkness.”

Source: the med guru

Kids’ Vitamins Often Exceed Recommended Doses

Young children who take vitamins may be consuming much greater levels than recommended of the nutrients, a new study suggests.

For the research, scientists reviewed the labels of nearly 200 dietary supplements marketed for children in two age groups: younger than 12 months, and 1 to 4 years old. The researchers determined the level of vitamins that children would consume if they used the product as directed. (Specifically, they looked at levels of vitamins A, C, D, E, K and B12, along with thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, biotin and choline.)

Most products contained vitamin levels much greater than those recommended for children in a single day. For example, dietary supplements for children ages 1 to 4 contained, on average, about 300 percent of the daily recommended levels of vitamin A, thiamin and riboflavin, 500 percent of the recommended level of vitamin C and more than 900 percent of the recommended level of biotin

Vitamin D was the only vitamin that was present at or below recommended levels for both age groups.

It’s too soon to know whether these findings are concerning, said study researcher Michael Madden, an assistant professor at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) School of Pharmacy. That’s because few studies have explored the effects of greater-than-recommended levels of vitamins on infants and young children. So in many cases, the maximum amount of a vitamin that’s safe for a child to take is not known, the researchers said.

For this reason, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends that young children not consume excess levels of certain vitamins, including vitamins K and B12, thiamin, riboflavin, folate, pantothenic acid and biotin. (Infants should not consume excess levels of most vitamins.) The IOM, part of the U.S. National Academies, is a national nonprofit that advised the nation on health.

There is also a concern that children’s bodies may lack the ability to handle excess amounts of certain vitamins, the IOM says.

The findings suggests that “much of the pediatric vitamin supplementation is not based on IOM recommendations and therefore represents wholesale over-supplementation,” the researchers wrote in the Jan. 27 issue of the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Some studies have also shown that dietary supplements may contain levels of vitamins that are different from what’s listed on the label.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says parents should speak with their pediatricians about whether their young child may need to take supplements. Toddlers who eat a balanced diet should be getting adequate levels of most vitamins and so should not need supplements, the AAP says. And very high doses of some vitamins, such as vitamin A, may even pose risks because they can accumulate in the body, the AAP says.

But some children may need supplements if, for instance, they have selective eating habits, and therefore don’t get adequate levels of vitamins through food, the AAP says.

In addition, the AAP recommends vitamin D supplements for infants, children and adolescents so that they consume 400 International Units (IU) of vitamin D per day.

Source: live science