Why are certain vitamins such as C and E applied to the skin in the form of serums? Why isn’t having vitamin C enriched food enough?
In: Biology
The body is not uniform in terms of the chemicals found in certain locations. Some bits of the body have more and less of certain things than others. When you consume nutrients, they enter the body through the small intestine and their first stop is the liver. From there, they may be stored or modified, or distributed via the bloodstream to other parts of the body. Consumed vitamins tend to be distributed evenly between cells, because the body can’t preferentially send it to some places over others. That’s generally fine in most cases because you’re just using these vitamins to stay healthy. However, if you want to try and use vitamins to prevent physical signs of aging, then you really want to be maximising the vitamin delivery to the skin. For that, it would be more efficient to apply the vitamin directly to the skin, which for the same amount of vitamin would put a lot more in the skin and comparatively less in other cells. Topical creams are not an appropriate substitute for dietary vitamins, because vitamins are needed for more than just skin health, but there is evidence that extra vitamins in creams can improve skin quality more efficiently than extra vitamins in diet.
Having vitamin C-enriched foods is plenty to ensure normal bodily function, but if you’re a big pharmaceutical company wouldn’t you want to sell an overpriced, unnecessary product to people who care about appearing youthful if the science was just enough on your side to make it not technically false advertising?
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