This isn’t an easy topic to write about nor is it an easy topic to find information about since it’s quite complex.
Healing Scars
’s a popular belief that rubbing vitamin E oil onto your acne scars can help them heal, and reduce their visibility. Ointments and creams that contain vitamin E claim to clear every type of scar can be found on store shelves across America. However, a different study found that children with surgical scars who used vitamin E three times a day didn’t develop keloids, or extra scar tissue over the wound.
There’s little proof that vitamin E oil can help heal scars. However, it’s possible that ingesting it through food or as a supplement can help your body heal in other ways. Supplements for healing Some research suggests that vitamin E supplements can be effective for people with severe damage to their skin.
For example, vitamin E protects the body’s tissues from free radicals, which can damage cells and accelerate aging. Both functions are vital to healin.
What Is Vitamin E?
Vitamin E has a wide range of benefits, including keeping the eyes healthy and strengthening the immune system.
Some people believe that vitamin E reduces the appearance of scars, but most of the evidence for this is anecdotal.
What The Research Says
Vitamin E is a popular treatment for burns and scars. An older study from 1999 looking at vitamin E’s effect on scarring found that almost one-third of participants had allergic reactions to the vitamin.
In total, 90% reported either an allergic reaction or that the vitamin did not affect their scarring. However, the vitamin may benefit other skin conditions. Learn about which home remedies might help treat scars.
As long as a person is not allergic to vitamin E, they can use a moisturizer that contains this ingredient. However, it is unclear if moisturizers containing vitamin E would offer special benefits. How long it takes for a scar to fade can depend on the initial injury’s size and depth.
Hypertrophic scars may continue to thicken for 6 months before fading over the next few years. In people with darker skin tones, scars may be red, violet, or dark brown.
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C term for a group of tocol and tocotrienol derivatives.
Since the discovery that vitamin E is the major lipid soluble antioxidant in skin, this substance has been tried for the treatment of almost every type of skin lesion imaginable. Methods: Fifteen patients who had undergone skin cancer removal surgery were enrolled in the study. After the surgery, the patients were given two ointments each labeled A or B.
Patients were asked to put the A ointment on part A and the B ointment on part B twice daily for 4 weeks. The physicians and the patients independently evaluated the scars for cosmetic appearance on Weeks 1, 4, and 12. The patients’ and the physicians’ opinions were recorded.
Results: The results of this study show that topically applied vitamin E does not help in improving the cosmetic appearance of scars and leads to a high incidence of contact dermatitis. In 90% of the cases in this study, topical vitamin E either had no effect on, or actually worsened, the cosmetic appearance of scars.