Vitamins, Water, and Acne

The biggest study of nutrition in a decade, conducted in the Netherlands, found that fats are not necessarily bad for acne, that sugars are not necessarily bad for acne, and high-protein diets without enough fat tend to dry out the skin and make it susceptible to clogging. I reported these findings in an earlier article. But what about vitamins? Here there were also some real surprises.

Vitamin A seems to protect against acne. The body can make vitamin A from beta-carotene. Higher beta-carotene levels, however, tended toward slightly increased production of sebum and slightly decreased hydration and suppleness of the skin. Vitamin C seemed to increase sebum production and decrease hydration of the skin, but only slightly. Vitamin E in the form of alpha-tocopherol, however, was linked to increased production of pore-clogging sebum more than any other nutrient considered in the study. Doubling consumption of vitamin E increased production of sebum nearly thirty times.

There were also some surprises about phytonutrients. Lycopene, the generally beneficial plant chemical found in tomatoes, tended to decrease the production of sebum (an undesirable effect) but had almost no effect on the hydration of the skin (a desirable effect). Beta-cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin, phytochemicals found in sweet corn, tended to increase the hydration of the skin, softening it, but only in men. On the other hand, they increase production of pore-clogging sebum, but, again, only in men. Calcium, found in dairy products, raises the pH of the skin and makes it less hospitable to the bacteria that cause bacteria, but the study only found this effect in men.

And what about water? Water dilutes the acidity of the skin. It raises skin pH, probably just enough to slow the growth of bacteria. In the study, fluid consumption increased the hydration of the skin, but the researchers made no effort to persuade participants in the trial to drink more water. One interpretation of the findings of the Dutch study is that drinking just another half a cup (120 ml) of water a day might produce a very small but measurable improvement in the health of the skin. This study simply does not tell what greater increases in fluid consumption could do for skin health.

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