Your skin is the largest organ in your body. It protects you and keeps you warm. It also stops infections from entering your body and helps to stave off sickness. This health e-letter is going to give you the best four vitamins to boost your skin’s natural health. These four vitamins were recently put to the test under some very difficult circumstances and came through with flying colors.
The test involved a clinical trial performed at Columbia University in New York. There, researchers travelled all the way to Bangladesh, where an estimated 30 million of the people have been exposed to high levels of arsenic from drinking groundwater. The World Health Organization has called the arsenic poisoning via well water in Bangladesh the “largest mass poisoning of a population in history.” The study sought to determine the effects of the B-vitamins group (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, and cobalamin) and antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E on arsenic-related skin lesions.
The researchers performed a cross-sectional study using data from the Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS), 2000-2002. A total of 14,828 individuals meeting a set of eligibility criteria were identified among 65,876 users of all drinking wells in the area of Araihazar, Bangladesh; 11,746 were recruited into the study. Skin lesions were identified in the participants during pre-screening and confirmed with further clinical tests.
The research team found that riboflavin, pyridoxine, folic acid, and vitamins A, C, and E significantly lowered the risk of arsenic-related skin lesions. Not only that, but this group of vitamins also helped to erase the negative effects of ingested arsenic.
How effective were the vitamins at reducing risk? Keep in mind that arsenic is poisonous, but that one of its compounds — arsenic trioxide — found in drinking water, is 500 times more toxic than pure arsenic. Pyridoxine reduced skin lesion risk by 46% and vitamin C reduced the risk by 68%. The research team concluded that intakes of B-vitamins and antioxidants may reduce the risk of arsenic-related skin lesions in Bangladesh.
Follow the researcher’s health advice and boost your intake of B-vitamins and the antioxidant vitamins to protect the health of your skin.