Overview
Vitamin A is an important nutrient that can be found in orange and yellow fruits and vegetables, as well as in leafy greens and other nutrient-dense foods.
As an antioxidant, vitamin A can help fight free radicals and make your skin and overall health better.
Vitamin A acne benefits also help stop inflammation, which is one of the main causes of acne vulgaris.
When it comes to using vitamin A to treat acne, formulas that are put on the skin show the most promise. These are also known as retinols or retinoids.
But, before taking vitamin A supplements to treat acne, you should talk to your doctor. They can make sure that the supplements won’t mess up any other medicines or supplements you may be taking.
Does taking vitamin A help with acne?
The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) says that Vitamin A acne benefits include antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties can help treat and stop inflammatory acne. That’s cool! Now, let’s take a closer look at how it’s able to do that.
What Vitamin A can do for acne
Eating foods that have a lot of vitamin A in them naturally makes your skin healthier from the inside out. Vitamin A is most often used to treat acne with topical formulas like creams and serums that contain vitamin A.
Vitamin A is good for the skin because it can reduce inflammation, protect against free radicals, cut down on sebum production, and speed up skin cell growth. This can make scars and signs of aging less noticeable.
Because of these Vitamin A acne benefits, it is one of the best and most sought-after ingredients in many skin care products for the whole face, eye area, and neck.
How does vitamin A help with acne?
Before it makes sense to know how vitamin A works, we must first understand what acne is. Acne is a “condition of the pores” that most people have because of their genes. This means that the way the pores work or act is passed down from parent to child. But acne doesn’t always have the same causes. What gave your mom or dad acne might not give you acne.
This is also why your best friend may eat the same foods as you and have many other things in common with you, but not get acne when you do. They didn’t get acne from their parents because they didn’t do the things that cause it.
How do you treat acne with vitamin A?
The best ways to use vitamin A to treat acne is to include Vitamin A rich foods into your diet. As we’ve already talked about, there are foods and supplements you can eat and take every day to naturally increase the amount of vitamin A in your body. You could also use medicines that go on the skin. Let’s look at these two ways in more depth.
People used to say, “You are what you eat.” This is true for a lot of things in our health, including acne. Acne is caused by an imbalance in hormones that can’t be “cured.” However, it can be reduced and dealt with. When we don’t eat well, our bodies have to find a way to get rid of some of the bad things we’ve eaten. Our pores are one way it gets rid of them. These are the foods with the most vitamin A:
- beef liver – 31,718 IU per 100 g
- chicken liver – 13,328 IU per 100 g
- butter – 2,500 IU per 100 g
- beef kidney – 1,578 IU per 100 g
- cream – 1,470 IU per 100 g
- eggs – 520 IU per 100 g
- whole milk – 200 IU per 100 g
Since vitamin A dissolves in fat, your body needs to store it. Be careful not to take more than 10,000 IU (international units) per day. If you take more than this amount, it can hurt your body. Also keep in mind that if you have a slow metabolism, your body won’t be able to turn carotene into vitamin A as easily as it would for someone with a fast metabolism.
Putting vitamin A in topical treatments for acne is a good way to get better results faster. These kinds of medicines are changed forms of vitamin A that you can put on your skin directly. They are called retinoids.
If your acne won’t go away and seems to be getting worse, you might want to see a dermatologist. Your dermatologist can give you a prescription for a vitamin A cream based on how much you need it. First, your dermatologist will look at your skin pores.
After the exam, your acne will be given a level from 1 to 4, where 1 is mild and 4 is very bad. Most acne that is just a few whiteheads, blackheads, or other small spots can be treated without a prescription.
Acne medications and treatments that you put on your skin will work quickly, but not overnight. These medicines kill bacteria on the skin, make the skin less red, and reduce swelling. Your face needs to be cleaned every day, just like the rest of your body. Dirt, oil, sweat, and other things in the environment can get into your pores and clog them up again.
You’ll need to be consistent with your hygiene routine and follow the directions for the medicine exactly. Make sure you don’t forget to use it for a day or two. The medicine needs to treat the blemishes and control the oil on your skin all the time.
Before you wash your face, you will rub a pea-sized amount of the retinoid cream all over your face. When you first start using retinoid creams, they can make your skin red, peel, or flake, and make your acne worse. If it gets too annoying, you can use it every other day instead. During this phase, your skin is getting used to the medicine, so just keep doing it every other day.
Contact your dermatologist if you have any side effects like burning, stinging, tingling, or swelling. You might have to stop using it until your doctor finds a medicine that works with your skin.
When you are using Retin-A medications, you should try to stay out of the sun as much as possible. When you take these kinds of medicines, your skin becomes too sensitive to light. During this time, try to stay away from outdoor lights as much as possible. If you have to go out in the sun, make sure to cover your skin with clothes and other items that protect it. Sunglasses, a scarf, a hat, a long-sleeved shirt, pants, and sunblock are all good ways to protect yourself from the sun.
In Conclusion
Vitamin A acne benefits are not the only ones. If you get more vitamin A, it will help your eyes, your immune system, and your level of inflammation. Carotenoids in vitamin A also help protect against macular degeneration, which is the main cause of blindness in older people.
Your immune system gets the help it needs from extra vitamin A. It helps to control the genes that cause sickness and disease, and the antioxidants in beta-carotene work to fight a number of these illnesses.