Mini Series - Vitamin A Myths #3

MYTH #3 - Vitamin A is toxic

This is one of the most common myths and often arises from confusion about the Recommended Daily Amounts (RDA) for oral consumption. The RDA is the minimum amount needed to prevent diseases such as rickets and scurvy, NOT the maximum. According to the European Food Safety Authority, the upper tolerable level is 10,000 ius daily, and experts argue that it should be much higher.
Dr Fernandes is a strong advocate of supplementing with vitamin A. “When we apply vitamin A to the skin, only a fraction of it penetrates down to the level of the dermis and even the most sophisticated modern tests have barely been able to detect any vitamin A in the bloodstream even when very high doses are applied”, he says.
“I feel nervous if I don’t apply it every day via my Environ^® creams, and feel more assured if I take 40,000 – 50,000 ius of vitamin A daily”, he adds. “It works with our DNA to determine how skin cells behave, how they differentiate into specialist cells and how they mature, not just in our skin but throughout our whole body… It is fundamentally the most important molecule in addressing sun damage and anti-ageing. There is nothing else like it”.

Environ Vitamin A Treatment

Lorraine Perretta, Head of Nutrition at the International Institute for Anti-Ageing (IIAA), agrees that taking vitamin A orally is key. “It’s important to feed the skin internally as well as externally. Unless you eat liver a few times a week, you will find it very hard to get adequate vitamin A levels from your diet, so I’d recommend at least 5000 ius a day.”
 
Adapted from a post in the September 2017 IIAA Bulletin

Know your Vitamin A with Environ Skincare

Know your vitamin A.

Although there are several forms of vitamin A, they are all ultimately converted into retinoic acid, which is the one that does all the work.

1. Retinyl Palmitate, Retinyl Proprionate and Retinyl Acetate
These are known as retinyl esters and are the milder, more stable fat soluble forms of vitamin A which are active but still easily tolerated by skin. This is the form of vitamin A stored in our liver, our skin and cells all over our body. 

2. Retinol
This is the alcohol form and is used to transport vitamin A in the bloodstream. It’s highly active so although it does achieve excellent results it can also be quite irritating on skin, sometimes causing it to peel. You should only use this as part of the Environ® skincare programme once the skin has become accustomed to high levels of retinyl palmitate and acetate within the step –up system.

3. Retinyl Aldehyde
This is the form of vitamin A which is essential for night vision. It is sometimes used in skincare because it is only one metabolic step away from retinoic acid and can make the same changes to the skin, but is less irritating. However, once it’s applied virtually all of it is converted into retinyl esters and only a tiny fraction becomes retinoic acid.

4. Retinoic Acid
This is the metabolically active form of vitamin A which works on the DNA of the cell’s nucleus. It is a drug and only available on prescription

What form of vitamin A is in Environ’s Youth EssentiA^® and Skin EssentiA^® ranges?

These Environ^® ranges use the milder forms of vitamin A to avoid retinoid reactions and to enable skin to become accustomed to increasingly high levels.

• Retinyl palmitate is used in Environ^® Skin EssentiA^® Vita-Antioxidant AVST Moisturiser 1-3

• Retinyl acetate can be found in Environ^® Skin EssentiA^® Vita-Antioxidant AVST Moisturiser 4 

• Environ^® Skin EssentiA^® Vita-Antioxidant AVST Moisturiser 5 contains both.

• The Youth EssentiA^® range features retinyl proprionate in levels 1-4, but Vita-Peptide C-Quence Serum 4 also includes retinyl palmitate.

Vitamin A is the key

Adapted from a post in the September 2017 IIAA Bulletin