After you learn about the roles of Vitamins A and B in the previous article, improve your hair and skin conditions while you know more about the roles of Vitamin C, E and K in benefitting your skin and hair care.

VITAMIN C

Vitamin C is a very important vitamin helping maintain the integrity of the skin and hair. Vitamin C is an acid and is called Ascorbic acid in scientific terms. Now, this vitamin is water soluble which means it is washed out from the body easily. Vitamin C cannot be stored in the body and thus, it needs to be consumed regularly to do what it needs to do. One time over consumption is not going to help.

How does Vitamin C work?

Vitamin C works as an antioxidant which means it removes the potentially dangerous or damaging oxidative substances from our body. Now can you imagine how important this is? Well, very important, in case you had a doubt!

Apart from working as an antioxidant, it helps to maintain the integrity of the tissues holding them together. It also helps in building collagen. Like I said before this needs to be done regularly that is why the body needs to be fed Vitamin C regularly.

Benefits of Vitamin C on the Skin:

Vitamin C is an obvious anti-aging vitamin.

It also works to lighten pigmentations and evens out skin tone. Science has also proved its efficiency in reducing pore size. It works well as a sunscreen too. So basically we have vitamin C working for the skin to prevent and reduce wrinkles, blemishes, evens skin tone and lightens complexion. What more could we ask for?  It sure helps in maintaining the right weight, if the benefits were not too good already.

There you go- the one vitamin you absolutely need to consume for that flawless glowing skin.

For the hair:

Vitamin C helps to maintain the integrity of the hair too, thus preventing breakage. It also helps in eliminating oily scalp and dandruff from the hair. Therefore it helps in achieving optimal scalp and hair health. It is responsible for giving the hair a natural lustre and smoothness.

Consumption: Vitamin c is present in citrus fruits such as lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, etc. It is also present in bell peppers, dark green leafy vegetables, berries, broccoli etc.

The optimal daily dose of vitamin c that would be required by a normal adult body is 60mg. This amount is present in around one small lime.

VITAMIN E

Vitamin E consists of a 2 groups of compounds the most common one being tocopherols.

Like vitamin A, vitamin E is also a fat soluble vitamin and therefore is stores in the body for longer periods of time. It plays a role in maintaining healthy immune system and responsible for keeping various disease causing bacteria, viruses and fungi at bay.

Functions of Vitamin E for the skin:

Vitamin E plays a role as an antioxidant. This means, that this vitamin is capable of protecting the cells from harmful radiations and other pollutants. Thus, it acts as an important factor in anti- aging.  It is shown to be useful in preventing tissue damage and also helps to repair them.

Vitamin E being a great a great antioxidant acts as an excellent moisturizer.

Role of Vitamin E for the hair:

Vitamin E provides nourishment making the hair shine and repairing conditions like dry damaged hair, split end etc.

Sources of Vitamin E:

Vegetable oils, nuts, margarine, sunflower seeds, spinach, broccoli etc are rich sources of Vitamin E.

Daily dietary consumption:

An average adult should ideally consume around 15mg of vitamin E per day which is equivalent to a handful or around 80gms of almonds. Please remember the requirements vary with age and conditions such as pregnancy, lactation etc.

Vitamin E doesn’t require external capsule or medicinal supplementation as such.  It is best used externally as oils which may also be present in the capsule form. You can break open the capsule, mix the contents with your daily moisturizer or night cream and apply for its optimal repair and protect features. VITAMIN K

Vitamin K is the last vitamin I would be talking of in the vitamin series.

Vitamin K is naturally produced by the gut bacteria and is actually a vitamin helping in blood coagulation.

How is Vitamin K beneficial to the skin?

Vitamin K helps in healing of bruises and scars. It is also known to help in de pigmentation of certain stubborn skin conditions. That is why, here’s a quick mention of this Vitamin.

Dietary source: Dark green leafy vegetables.

Make sure you keep these vitamins in mind in your daily food intake. Remember the Japanese saying-‘If it is safe to eat, it is safe to apply’.

Stay beautiful!