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 RISING WOMEN EXPERT
ADVICE...
Why is Vitamin A so important to have in the skin care
products that you use?
Vitamin A is a “cell communicating” ingredient, which helps skin function
more normally. Where antioxidants work by intervening in a chain-reaction
process called “free radical damage”, cell communicating ingredients have
the ability to tell a skin cell to look, act and behave better (like a
normal, healthy skin cell would) or to stop other substances from telling
the cell to behave badly or abnormally. This is exciting news because
antioxidants lack the ability to “tell” a damaged skin cell to behave more
normally.
Years of sun exposure cause abnormal skin cells to be produced. When damaged
cells form and reproduce, they are uneven, flat and lack structural
integrity. As a result of these deformities, they behave poorly and cause
aging skin and all kinds of other skin problems. This is where the cell
communicating ingredients come into play. Cell walls are not easy to
penetrate. However there are places on the keratinocyte cell wall where
vitamin A can enter into the cell. These are called “retinoid surface
receptors”. Every cell has these receptor sites. They are the cell’s
communication hookup sites. When Vitamin A is absorbed into the skin, it is
broken down by enzymes and becomes retinoic acid. In this form, it can
attach to the receptor site and tell the cell to start doing the things a
healthy skin cell should be doing. If the cell accepts the message, it then
shares the same healthy message with other nearby cells, and so on and so
on.
Once inside the cell, Vitamin A can produce the following changes:
- It affects the genes of the cells so that they grow and look more normal.
It also increases the growth of the basal layer, thus thickening the skin.
- Not only does the skin get thicker; it also heals faster because the cells
are growing faster.
- It affects the fibroblast cells, the most important cell in the dermis,
for the production of collagen. Healthier collagen is formed and unhealthy
collagen is removed.
- It increases the secretion of natural moisturizing factors allowing the
skin to retain more water with some puffing out of the wrinkles.
- The blood supply to the deeper layers of the skin is improved, which means
that more natural foods and oxygen are delivered to the skin.
Leslie Stephens is a skin care specialist at The Healing Bridge. For a
free consultation, call 403.313.7123.
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