Are vitamins absorbed via the skin? If so, does the amount in over-the-counter creams and moisturizers really make a difference to the skin? What about hair? Is Pantene, which touts a pro-viatmin formula, better for my hair than a non-pro-vitamin formula. What the hell does pro-viatmin even mean?
While I’m at it, can hair really be repaired? Do hair treaments really do anything. To answer this quesion, I guess we’ll have to define what damaged hair is.
I can’t stress enough that I’m not looking for anecdotal evidence. I really want to know if scientific studies have been conducted and what, if anything, was concluded.
The digestive tract notwithstanding, we are capable of absorbing many drugs transdermally (like nicotine - that’s why “the patch” works), including some vitamins. Vitamin E is often included in various transdermal drug delivery systems. They’re not putting it in there just for the hell of it.
We don’t absorb vitamin D from sunlight - exposure to sunlight causes our own skin to produce vitamin D.
It works differently and perhaps more slowly at first, and perhaps not as effective. But it does happen and in the case of vitamin e can be cumulative building up over time. Which of course can be quite beneficial for those dealing with skin problems. You get the internal and external (direct application) benefits of vitamin e.
Curiously the radioactive chemical tracers used to mark and track the samples expedited the transdermal process, but the samples without the radioactive markers showed up trans dermal none the less.
These radioactive markers are similar to the process of people drinking barium before a GI tract examination and are NOT required for taking vitamins trans dermal.
I never tried smearing peanut butter on my scalp, but I’m confused by all those shampoos that are full of vitamins. Am I supposed to smear that on my scalp, or take two teaspoons daily?
Wasn’t there a study that showed an increase in all-cause mortality from vitamin E supplementation? I’m not against vitamin supplements, but E would be my literal last choice among the major fat-soluble ones.
Not through the epidermis, but vitamin B types can be absorbed through a mucous membrane. Per physician’s directive, I’ve been taking liquid vitamin B complex for several years; you put a 1 cc dropperful under your tongue and hold it for a minute before swallowing.
My doc prescribed this (sublingual (lit. “under the tongue”) too. When I pointed out that I take a multivitamin pill, she told me that the B complexes are poorly absorbed through the digestive tract, esp. in pill form, and that sublinguals tend to lead to better blood levels of B-12 and the others.
