What does Vitamin D have to do with Skin Care?
What does Vitamin D have to do with Skin Care?
Vitamin D is a chemical or hormone that affects many body functions. Vitamin D is made from precursors in the skin. It requires several steps in various organs to become active and useful.
One of the first steps in the pathway involves the interaction between ultraviolet light and the precursor building blocks of Vitamin D. One of the main jobs of active Vitamin D is to help absorb calcium from food. It has been known for over a hundred years that children who did not get enough sunlight became Vitamin D deficient. Children who lacked Vitamin D developed rickets and had weak bones due to poor calcium absorption.
Vitamin D may be important in how the skin matures or ‘differentiates’. This is one reason why a prescription form of a synthetic Vitamin D cream skin care product (brand name Dovonex) has been used to treat psoriasis, a condition in which the skin is turning over too quickly.
Editor’s Update
March 2009
The debate over how much Vitamin D is necessary to optimize health, and the best way to get Vitamin D, continues without firm conclusions.
What does seem increasingly clear, is that Vitamin D is important to healthy functioning of many organs, including our immune system, heart and bones.
Vitamin D may also play a role in reducing cancer growth, by slowing down excessive cell growth or proliferation, similar to the role topical Vitamin D plays in some psoriasis treatments.
The tanning industry is promoting artificial sunlight as a way to increase Vitamin D levels, a position most dermatologists agree is dangerous.
Excessive ultraviolet, both UVA and UVB, are recognized as triggers of skin cancer and aging skin damage.
How best to obtain sufficient Vitamin D then?
Some recognized means are through fortified food such as milk and orange juice, Vitamin supplements and through ’sensible’ sun exposure.
Sensible sun exposure means just a few minutes on non-facial skin, without burning or even inducing a tan.
Talk to your doctor about how much Vitamin D he or she recommends. Another source of information is the American Academy of Dermatology’s Position Paper on Vitamin D.