Vitamin E: essential for the skin

Vitamin E is important for your entire body, but this vitamin is essential for your skin. Because of its positive influence on the skin, vitamin E is one of the vitamins for the skin. What components does this vitamin consist of, what do they do for the skin, in which skin care products can you find which components and for which skin problems is vitamin E particularly effective?

What is vitamin E?

Vitamin E is actually a collective name for eight substances with antioxidant effects:

These fat-soluble substances occur naturally in the oils and fats of plants and animals. People cannot produce the essential vitamin themselves, but they can store it in their bodies. The substances must therefore be supplied from outside.

What does vitamin E do for the skin?

Vitamin E protects the skin against damage to cell membranes, DNA and proteins caused by UV radiation, among other things. It also reduces the formation of free radicals that cause skin aging, prevents peroxidation of fats (an important cause of damage to the cell membrane), restores and strengthens the skin barrier and has an anti-inflammatory effect. Furthermore, vitamin E protects the fibroblast in the skin. These are the cells that produce collagen, glycosaminoglycans and the elastic fibers and glycoproteins of the skin.

It has long been thought that only alpha-tocopherol had this antioxidant effect. However, research by Jiang and Ames in 2003 shows that gamma-tocopherol is just as biologically active. For example, gamma-tocopherol appears to have a much better anti-inflammatory effect than alpha-tocopherol. Gamma-tocopherol also effectively reduces the harmful effects of ozone and nitric oxide. It is observed that delta and gamma tocopherols penetrate better into the cell membrane. High doses of alpha-tocopherol alone would even displace the gamma-tocopherols present in body tissues.

However, for optimal antioxidant activity, multiple tocopherols and/or tocotrienols are required. Tocotrienols are the lesser known components of vitamin E, which have even more powerful antioxidant properties. For example, research by Serbinova in 1991 shows that gamma-tocotrienols protect the skin against oxidation 40-60 times better than alpha-tocopherol.

Only a small portion of vitamin E ends up in the sebum and thus in the epidermis through food. Applying vitamin E to the skin is an effective way to increase the concentration of vitamin E in the skin cells. This can be done with an oil or cream that contains vitamin E.

Vitamin E oil

Vitamin E occurs naturally in oil-rich grains, nuts and seeds. Wheat germ, argan nuts, prickly pear kernels, rice grains and palm oil fruits in particular are rich sources of tocotrienols and tocopherols. Pressed into oil, wheat germ oil contains the most alpha and beta-tocopherol (150-255 mg/100g), prickly pear oil the most delta-tocopherol (90-104 mg/100g), argan oil the highest percentage of gamma-tocopherol (>600 mg/100ml ) and rice oil and red palm oil have the highest content of tocotrienols (74mg/100g). In addition, tocotrienols can be found in coconut oil and grapeseed oil. All oils also contain (some) other components of vitamin E.

Other vegetable oils that contain components of vitamin E are sunflower oil, avocado oil, olive oil, shea butter, safflower oil, cottonseed oil and hemp seed oil. However, vitamin E is only effective. in collaboration with fatty acids, which only remain intact when the grains, nuts and seeds are cold pressed. If the oils are obtained by heating or extraction, the components of vitamin E have little or no effect and the oil cannot protect the skin against premature aging and damage by free radicals.

Vitamin E cream

Anti-wrinkle creams and other skin creams with vitamin E usually only contain alpha-tocopherol and often a chemical variant. The effect of synthetic vitamin E on the skin is very limited. Moreover, a product must have at least 0.5% alpha-tocopherol added to it to be effective and it must not be just an ester of alpha-tocopherol.

Unlike natural alpha-tocopherol, the synthetic version can cause allergies, as can the excipients in the cream. Chemical vitamin E can be recognized by the addition DL on the ingredients list. Natural alpha-tocopherol is indicated as d-alpha-tocopherol. Cosmetics manufacturers are only obliged to include the general collective name for vitamin E (tocopherol and tocopherol acetate) in the INCI list.

Furthermore, other antioxidants, such as vitamin C, must also be added to the product to guarantee the effectiveness and stability of vitamin E. Vitamin E is sensitive to light and oxygen and must therefore be properly packaged to be effective. Vitamin E cream in a jar is therefore not a good idea because the vitamin oxidizes quickly when opened and closed. It is much better to make vitamin E cream yourself and package it in a tube.

When do you use vitamin E specifically?

• Sensitive skin: Vitamin E helps with allergic skin reactions and soothes sensitive skin.
• Dry skin: Because vitamin E strengthens the skin barrier, it helps with dry, rough skin due to transepidermal moisture loss.
• Wrinkles: Vitamin E promotes cell renewal and skin repair, prevents the breakdown of collagen and promotes its production, which keeps the skin supple and resilient and prevents the formation of wrinkles.
• Damaged skin: Vitamin E accelerates the healing process of abrasions, burns and superficial ulcers by fighting free radicals. It also stimulates recovery from slow wound healing. Because the damaged skin heals under more favorable conditions, there is less chance of scar formation.
• Pigment spots: The antioxidant effect of vitamin E can help prevent pigment spots caused by the sun and, in combination with vitamin C, lighten pigment spots and even make them disappear.
• Acne: Vitamin E has an anti-inflammatory effect and can therefore help heal acne. In addition, vitamin E can help reduce acne scars.
• Stretch marks: The skin-healing effect of vitamin E can help prevent stretch marks.
• Sunburn: Vitamin E has a healing effect on sunburned skin and burns. Applied to the skin, the vitamin reduces erythema (the red discoloration due to burning), caused by UVB rays and photocarcinogenesis.
• Eczema: Research shows that taking vitamin E reduces atopic dermatitis (eczema). It is also said to be effective against rashes, hives and psoriasis.