Vitamin E can work wonders, leaving skin looking younger and maintaining overall body health. Perth Woman encourgaes you to bring out your inner celebrity by enlisting Vitamin E to keep you looking ready for the red carpet. Plus, Vitamin E comes in yummy little packages, so there's no excuse not to.
Imagine that you are really famous, everywhere you go you are hounded by fans and the paparazzi. You spend most of your time trying to avoid the bombardment of flashing cameras and people wanting to be near you. Eventually you would become exhausted; you would lack the energy to even bother opening your front door. How do most celebrities combat this?......They hire personal security, a bodyguard (personally I wouldn’t have chosen Kevin Costner……I’m more of a Johnny Depp fan myself)
While you are imagining (close your eyes if it helps….or if you’re bored already) picture the cells of the body as celebrities. They have an important job to do and they can be constantly bombarded by external influences that deplete and destroy them. Vitamin E is Johnny Depp, a real bodyguard!! Vitamin E’s principal function is to maintain membrane integrity in the cells and it is one of the major antioxidants for the human body. An antioxidant is necessary to combat the detrimental effects of free radical damage.
Now don’t let the term free radical fool you, whilst I appreciate it that it sounds like a great name for a cool, laid back activist (someone who was at Woodstock and drives a rainbow coloured Kombi) nothing could be further from the truth. A free radical is an unstable molecule that does not have an even number of electrons, so they are always searching for an extra electron they can grab from somewhere else to become stable. We need a certain number of free radicals in our system for normal, healthy metabolism however many of us produce too many. In the human body excess free radicals can cause unnecessary damage. Free radicals are termed free because they drift around until they stabilize, and radical because they are not choosy and there are a wide variety of molecules from which they can take an electron.
The big problem with free radicals is that the damage continues in a domino like effect. When a free radical has stolen a molecule from somewhere, the other molecule, say a piece of a cell wall is now also missing an electron and has become another free radical. This domino effect can inflict major havoc on healthy tissue.
Free radicals are created by day to day metabolic activities, environmental pollution, cigarette smoking, and poisons like cleaners or herbicides.
Antioxidants are free radical scavengers – they step in and prevent free radicals from stabilizing themselves. Just like our bodyguard will confiscate the camera and stop the riff raff getting onto the red carpet, Vitamin E will ward off the free radicals and prevent them from damaging and destroying our healthy cells.
Immune deficiency diseases such as MS, ME, allergies as well as some forms of cancer are thought to be more prevalent today as a result of excess free radicals. This kind of cellular damage accelerates the ageing process causing those dreaded wrinkles and age spots.
After the age of 25 our sebem levels drop and our skin tends to become drier. After the age of 50 (the new 40!!) the number of elastin fibres in our skin begins to decline radically (that pesky word again) and our skin starts to lose its natural elasticity. Bags under the eyes start to appear (hard living will do it much earlier) and collagen, the skin’s support structure, starts to become twisted and matted causing wrinkles and lines. Fortunately we can minimise collagen damage and in some cases even help to repair it. The main causes of collagen damage are exposure to ultraviolet light and free radical activity This is why exposure to strong sunlight can cause premature aging.
Externally to combat free radical damage, the best source of antioxidant is a vitamin E cream. A moisturizer containing wheatgerm or avocado oil will provide vitamin E to the skin’s surface. Both oils are good natural sources of vitamin E.
The most effective way to protect your skin, however, is to nourish it from the inside. Every cell in our body has been made up from the nutrients (and the rubbish!!) that we eat. The better we eat, the better the state of our cells.
Internally the only form of Vitamin E that is actively maintained in the human body is alpha-tocopherol and this is the form that that is found in the largest quantities in the blood and tissues.
The best food sources of alpha-tocopherols are oils such as wheat germ, avocado, olive, safflower, sunflower and peanut. Nuts, whole grains and legumes are also quite good sources.
Now I heard that intake of breath when I mentioned oils, many people who are weight conscious try to avoid fats at any cost. This is a critical mistake; some fats are really important to our health and vital for brain function. (and no, this is not a license to eat fried, fatty food!! I’m talking about the natural healthy fats in their whole, pure and unadulterated form) It’s important to realize that many people who are limiting their fat intake may also be limiting their vitamin E intake.
If you don’t like any of the foods that are rich in vitamin E then a good supplement will ensure that you are hiring the right bodyguards to protect your celebrity status.
By Jane McCaffrey
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