Vitamin A is Not As Bad For Stretch Marks As What People Think

There are two stands regarding the use of vitamin A for stretch marks. Some believe that it can only worsen the marks. While some believe that it helps in mark removal. This article focuses on the latter, specifically on how vitamin A can help in reducing the appearance of stretch marks.

What is Vitamin A?

Vitamin A, or retinol, is popularly known as the vitamin that contributes to a healthy vision. It is also anti-xerophthlamic, meaning it prevents the coverings of the eyeball and linings of the eyelids from drying up.

However, only a few people know that it also contributes to the overall health of our skin. What vitamin A really does is that it stimulates the rhodopsin's regeneration. Rhodopsion is a pigment found inside our retina. This thus implies that vitamin A has a hand in the regeneration of new cells. What this tells us is that vitamin A can help our skin cells regenerate and is thus capable of making our marks go away or fade.

In most women, their stretch marks appear during their pregnancy. This is because the skin on their abdomen expands in order to accommodate the growing baby inside. Because of overstretching, stretch marks start to form as the dermis and epidermis breaks and develops little tears and wounds. These wounds then turn into scars after the skin has healed. These long and thin scars are what we normally call stretch marks.

It has been found that the appearance of stretch marks may improve when our skin regenerates cells. However, this regeneration is typically insufficient and happens at a slow rate. The result is that the marks become a permanent fixture on our problem areas.

How Does Vitamin A Function?

Vitamins are antioxidants that fight free radicals, which can contribute to skin aging and sagging. They also enhance our overall health. Vitamin A can reduce the severity of marks, and it can accomplish this in three different ways.

- First, vitamin A blocks ultraviolet radiation from penetrating the outer layer of our skin. There are two forms of ultraviolet radiation that are known to cause damage. The first is UVA, which is related to skin cancer. The other is UVB, which causes sunburn. When our skin absorbs UVA and UVB, its ability to heal decreases. Vitamin A stops UVA and UVB from doing further damage to skin with existing marks.

- Second, vitamin A can bring about the regeneration of epidermal cells, or skin cells. When our skin cells are encouraged to regenerate, new and healthier skin will take the place of our unsightly stretch marks. This way, the severity of the marks will be decreased. It may even lead to a total elimination of the unwanted scars.

- Finally, vitamin A regulates the growth of our cells. When this happens, our skin would continue to produce smoother and healthier surface.

Where to Get Vitamin A?

Vitamin A comes from fruits and vegetables, such as squash, carrots, and green leafy vegetables. You may also use mark removal creams and other products out in the market today that has vitamin A as one of its ingredients.

Stretchmark-s.com is a health resource dedicated to providing factual information about Stretch Mark Treatments. This free resource including topics: "Eradicate Stretch Marks and Boost Your Confidence", "Can Stretch Marks be Totally Eliminated?" and more. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wong_Darren