Vitamin A & Your Skin: Acne, Wrinkles & More

The skin is no exception to the basic nutritional requirements of the body. Without adequate intake of key vitamins, minerals, and other macro/micronutrients, the skin experiences disease.

Due to this basic physiological fact, “fortified” skincare products are increasing in popularity. Of the many crucial vitamins necessary for healthy, youthful skin, vitamin A is perhaps one of the more important ones. This is because vitamin A is regulates the skin in many ways, is easily depleted by stress and a nutrient that is lacking in most people’s diets. 1

Both the consumption of, supplementation and topical application of a biocompatible vitamin A offers benefits that range from improved skin conditions such as acne and psoriasis to anti-aging and protective effects against stress and environmental toxins.

Today, we want to share with you exactly how vitamin A benefits the skin, as well as some of the mechanisms behind its ability to treat acne, wrinkles, inflammatory skin conditions and more.

The Many Roles of Vitamins in Skin Wellness

1. Anti-Aging: Studies have found that topical retinol (vitamin A) can improve fine wrinkles associated with natural aging. Vitamin A works inducing glycosaminoglycan production (example being keratan), which increases skin moisture and collagen production. By increasing skin matrix synthesis, retinol-treated skin is more likely to withstand the stress of aging and therefore appear more youthful. 2
   
2. Anti-Acne: The mainstream view of adult acne is that androgens excess cause oil glands to overproduce sebum. This leads to clogged pores that breed bacteria, accumulate dirt and toxins, leading to inflammation and the formation of pimples. However, this is a pathology that has been disputed often. Other more physiologically rational theories involve elevated estrogen and prolactin as possible causes of acne. Like cortisol, these hormones are elevated under stress. In fact, estrogen can cause chronically elevated cortisol by acting on the adrenal glands, leading to not just excess cortisol but also elevations in aromatizable adrenal steroids such as testosterone and DHEA/DHEA-S. However, other studies have found that people with adult acne tend to have lower levels of androgens like DHEA and testosterone, leaving the problem of acne mostly unsolved. Something most researchers can agree with though is that onset acne in adulthood is often a sign of a systemic disease rather than a localized disease. From our research and understanding, there is no one cause of acne. Research clearly demonstrates that increase in androgenic hormones cannot by itself explain acne development. But something common amongst all people with acne is some degree of hypothyroidism, a progesterone deficiency and elevations in prolactin. Studies show that people with hyperprolactinema tend to have acne, and once the hyperprolactinema is treated, the acne goes away. Prolactin increases sebum production, and progesterone and thyroid hormone regulate normal sebum production. So it seems that the rational route of treatment involves the regulation of these hormonal imbalances. Sure enough, vitamin A is an effective treatment for acne because of its effect on thyroid, progesterone and prolactin. Vitamin A is needed for the synthesis of thyroid hormone and progesterone. It also happens to lower both estrogen and prolactin. If you have severe acne, try taking between 5,000 – 25,000 Its of a retinyl palmitate or acetate. We also strongly suggest a topical application of LUSH, which has .25% solution of pure retinal palmate and may help treat acne. 3,4
   
3. Skin Regeneration: When the skin tissue is wounded or injured physically or by stress, aging or inflammation, vitamin A plays key roles in proper regeneration and tissue remodeling. Vitamin A stimulates epidermal turnover, increases the rate of re-epithelialization, and restores skin tissue structure. Retinals have the unique ability to reverse the the inhibitory and damaging effects that the bodies “anti-inflammatory steroids” have on wound healing. In other words, vitamin A supports normal and healthy tissue remodeling, which may be imperfect resulting in scar tissue if a person is lacking vitamin A. For example, vitamin A increases proliferation of epidermal and skin cells known as keratinocytes and fibroblasts. It also decrease levels of degrading matrix enzymes known as metalloproteinases. These are enzymes that can break down proteins, such as collagen. This process occurs under stress and can lead to collagen loss, which can lead to non-healing wounds. In fewer words, through a number of mechanisms supports rapid and healthy skin generation and wound healing. This is beneficial not only for healing pimples, acne, sun burn and other skin lesions but for ensuring the skin regenerates on a normal basis, persevering its youthfulness. 5
   
4. Skin Immunity: The skin has an immune system, preventing infection and destruction caused by pathogens and toxins. Vitamin A plays a key role in the proper regulation and function of the immune system of the skin, and body as a whole. In fact, populations where vitamin A availability from food is low, infectious diseases are much more prevalent. Vitamin A deficiency impairs our innate immune system by inhibiting normal regeneration of mucosal barriers damaged by infection, and by diminishing the function of important innate immune cells such as neutrophils, phagocytes, and natural killer cells. Bacterial infections can cause acne and many skin problems. If you have ever had a tooth abscess or infection, you might have noticed that you developed skin problems, which vanished when the infection was treated. Interestingly enough, an infection increase your requirements for vitamin A, since it plays a key role in the production of anti-infectious immune function. Whether you would like to prevent yourself from experiencing a bacterial infection, or have had one, or you would simply like to ensure your skin’s defenses are strong, adequate vitamin A is essential. The topical application of vitamin A may also help to reduce bacterial-induced acne and other skin issues. LUSH is a rich-source of bioavailable retinal, you can learn more about it HERE.
   
5. Anti-Estrogen: As mentioned, vitamin A opposes estrogen. This is beneficial for numerous of reasons. For starters, estrogen inhibits the cellular receptiveness of thyroid hormone and blocks the secretion from the thyroid gland. Since thyroid hormone is necessary for sebum production and skin immunity, excess estrogen can cause skin problems. Also, estrogen stimulates prolactin, which as we discussed, causes acne. However, estrogen also causes the oil glands to atrophy, so often times women who take contraceptive pills notice that they do not get acne, since the lack of oil production doesn’t support bacterial growth so well. This; however, is a solution that may lead to long-term issues such as fertility issues, hypothyroid and although may support acne-free skin, can age the skin faster. Instead of birth control for acne, we suggest improving thyroid health and taking vitamin A, which will increase progesterone in the skin, supporting the differentiation of the skin cells, reducing the likelihood of keratin from clogging the glands.

Tips for Supplementing Vitamin A

Retinol is important and necessary for the human body. It is essential for normal growth, differentiation and maintenance of skin tissues, hormone synthesis, and influences reproduction. In human skin, there are two retinoid receptors, which can be activated by retinol and its metabolites. 6

In the right dose, vitamin A (retinol) can perform necessary and beneficial effects on the skin but it must be in the right dose. Stress, excess sunlight, and having a high metabolic rate increase the requirements for vitamin A. If you exercise, live in a sunny place or are undergoing any stress you will need more vitamin A; between 10,000 to even 100,000 IU. However, if you live in a more cloudy climate, have a slower metabolism and are not as active, you will need much less. In fact, taking too much vitamin A when not needed may suppressed thyroid function. 7

For basic function, people require 2400‒3000 IU vitamin A per day. The average person; who is likely somewhat hypothyroid, will likely need only 5,000 units per day.

It is very important to get vitamin A in retinol form; such as retinyl palmitate or acetate. These are the bioactive forms of vitamin A that do not require the liver to expend energy converting carotenes (plant vitamin A) into retinol. Hypothyroid people have less efficient livers, so carotene is usually poorly converted. Not too mention, the conversion rate is little (roughly .2%), so you need large amounts of carotene, which can cause issues like carotenemia.

That being said, if you for whatever reason(s) choose to not eat quality animal foods, and do not want to take a supplement – so long as you eat enough carotene and are getting plenty of vitamin B12, you should be able to be able to convert the carotene that’s in your food.

Before you go crazy with vitamin A, remember that since vitamin A is highly unsaturated, I can suppress the thyroid if taken in excess. We suggest taking a smaller daily topical dose through the use of LUSH, in combination with the principles laid out in our Perfect Thyroid course for reaping all of the benefits of vitamin A. This includes but is not limited to reducing estrogen, regulating the turnover of skin cells, and making the skin cells function longer before flaking off, clogged pores, bacterial infections, etc.

As you will learn in the Perfect Thyroid Course, foods such as grass-fed cream and butter, eggs from pasture-raised chickens and liver from grass-fed cows are good sources of vitamin A. We find that when people from the course supplement with a desiccated thyroid supplement or take Thyro+ and eat liver once a week, along with 2 egg yolks daily that their acne and dandruff (and many other problems) go away quickly.