Why your skin loves Vitamin C

Vitamin C, skin, collagen elastin

Most people are familiar with Vitamin C as a natural way to boost the immune system however Vitamin C has many other health benefits, including the promotion of healthy skin.

While there are many topical skin creams and moisturisers on the market that claim to rejuvenate the skin, Vitamin C serum is one of the few that is actually backed up by independent scientific research.


How does Vitamin C work?

Humans are one of the very few species on earth unable to produce their own stores of Vitamin C.  We are completely reliant on fresh fruit and vegetables to give us our daily requirement of Vitamin C, and if it’s missing, scurvy is the unpleasant result. While the old sailor’s curse is, thankfully, very rare today, Vitamin C still plays an important role in our overall health.

Vitamin C has been shown to:

  • Support the immune system and help prevent infections
  • Act as an anti-inflammatory agent
  • Assist wounds to heal
  • Help the body to absorb minerals such as iron
  • Repair body tissue such as skin, bone, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, blood vessel walls and teeth.

How is Vitamin C good for the skin?

Vitamin C bolsters the production of collagen in the skin and the formation of elastin – both essential to the underlying structure of skin, a little like the inner-springs in a mattress. Good collagen production increases the strength and firmness of your skin. Low levels of Vitamin C can result in poor collagen production which in turn destabilises the foundation of the skin resulting in lines and wrinkles. The dreaded saggy mattress effect

As a powerful anti-oxidant Vitamin C also protects the skin from ultra violet light damage caused by the sun. It works to limit the ravaging effects of free radicals. As we all know, sun damage is the leading cause of premature ageing in the skin.

Studies have also found that Vitamin C inhibits the production of melanin a major contributor of skin pigmentation.

How do we get Vitamin C?

Vitamin C is found in almost all fresh fruit and vegetables and in certain meats. Foods such as capsicum, green leafy vegetables, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, broccoli and berries contain particularly high levels of Vitamin C. So if you’re serious about boosting your levels of Vitamin C, make sure you include these foods in your daily diet.

National Custom Compounding produces a 20{648ff2b140dd79f8b10f01740237e66061b7c0f8b396ba52d99047c684c8722c} Vitamin C Serum which delivers a concentrated form of Vitamin C to the skin when applied to the face and neck daily. Our skin does a wonderful job of repelling almost all foreign matter, which is why many skin creams on the market simply do not work, however Vitamin C serum is one of the few that has actually been shown to penetrate the skin’s protective barrier.

Research conducted by Oregon State University found that when applied to the skin, “Topical application of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) will cross the epidermis into the underlying dermal layers”. The study also found that a 20{648ff2b140dd79f8b10f01740237e66061b7c0f8b396ba52d99047c684c8722c} Vitamin C solution results in maximum absorption by the skin. It sounds counter-intuitive but concentrations higher than 20{648ff2b140dd79f8b10f01740237e66061b7c0f8b396ba52d99047c684c8722c} were shown to result in reduced absorption and therefore are not recommended.

To learn more about how Vitamin C could make a difference to your skin contact one of National Custom Compounding’s friendly team members today.