Health-Conscious Series #3: Be Healthy with Vitamin E

Defy your true age. It’s self-fulfilling if your friends will say you look half your age. Why do you stay young-looking after all those years? What’s your secret? You are beautiful inside and out! Well, let’s give credit to Vitamin E.

Skin Deep

Beauty is often described as the outer appearance of a person. Now, beauty is not only conceptualized as the physical aspect but also the total state of feeling good of our inner self. Hence, beauty also means health.

However, as we fight everyday stress in the environment and in our lifestyle, even the health-conscious can succumb to the rigors of these challenges. So, in order to avoid looking haggard, it is recommended by family doctors to take an anti-aging supplement. That is Vitamin E.

Vitamin E 101

Vitamin E is an antioxidant that protects our cells from free radicals. Free radicals are highly unstable molecules produced either internally (by our bodies, as in breathing or eating) or externally through our exposure to environmental pollutants such as smoke and ultra-violet (UV) rays radiation from the sun.

The damages caused by free radicals are most visible on the skin, making it dry and causes premature aging. Inside, they attack our healthy cells and can cause lifelong damages like the increased risk of cancer, coronary heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other serious illnesses.

Vitamin E Benefits

As an antioxidant, Vitamin E is our body’s first line of defense against free radicals. It prevents wrinkles, dry and dull skin and premature aging; thereby keeping our skin healthy and beautiful.

Vitamin E’s functions also include helping our different bodily organs to stay in top shape (liver, muscles, heart and lungs) and maintain a healthy immune system and improved nerve functions.

It needs food intake to help our body produce Vitamin E. Food items that should be included in our diet are green vegetables, whole grains, nuts (peanuts, pistachios, walnuts, almonds, etc.), sunflower seeds, and vegetable oils (olive oil, virgin coconut oil for our salads).

Nuts should be eaten raw to get the full nutritive values of these food items. Green vegetables should be steamed or half-boiled in order to get Vitamin E to the fullest.

Vitamin E supplements (d-Alpha Tocopherol) can be bought from local pharmacy or super mart, either in capsules or facial moisturizer or lotion.

It’s not a promise of an ageless life, but Vitamin E will be our main agent in reducing the effects of stress not only in our skin but inside our body.