Vitamin C, vitamin E, and the mineral selenium all have good track records as antioxidant nutrients that help skin cells maintain their vitality. We realize that vitamin E is sometimes used topically to soothe the results of sunburn, but what we're talking about here is not sunburn treatment, but sunburn prevention, and the ability of vitamin E to help prevent our skin cells from becoming SBCs (sunburn cells).
On our website, you'll find ratings for all of the World's Healthiest Foods that are rich in these two vitamins. For vitamin C, we would strongly encourage the addition of bell peppers, broccoli, papaya, Brussels sprouts, and strawberries to your meal plan. For vitamin E, at the top of our list would be sunflower seeds, almonds, olives, and dark green leafy vegetables.
For selenium protection, we'd highly recommend mushrooms and many different types of fish, including cod, shrimp, tuna, snapper, halibut, and salmon. Buying wild (versus farmed) fish would be a huge plus, because pesticide and antibiotic residues in farmed fish can take a toll on your antioxidant supplies and partly (but never totally) offset the benefits of these fish for sunburn protection. And for all of the plant foods above, certified organic foods are your number one choice for this exact same reason.
Phytonutrients
When it comes to DNA damage and other skin cell changes caused by UVA sunlight, you'll find some of the World's Healthiest Foods to have some superstar phytonutrient components. Raspberries and blueberries would be skin support stand-outs because of their ellagic acid content. (Cherries would also be highly recommended in this regard, as well as for their supply of the flavonoids isoqueritrin and queritrin). Also in the fruit category would be oranges, lemons, and limes with their skin-cell protective amounts of limonene.
Green tea would fall into a category all its own, since its epigallocatechins directly block DNA damage from UV light in studies involving human skin cells. You'll find a detailed profile of green tea and its health benefits on our website, with reference to many cutting edge research reports.
Since UV sunlight changes to human skin cells have been stopped in laboratory settings by the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, you'll also want to make sure that lutein-rich and zeaxanthin-rich foods are part of your sunburn prevention meal plan. These two carotenoids are also carefully profiled on our website.
The dark green leafy vegetables, including kale, spinach, collard greens, and turnip greens are best-bet foods for these carotenoids. Broccoli, corn, peas, Brussels sprouts, and romaine lettuce are also good choices here.
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial involving 54 healthy adults, supplementation with the probiotic, Lactobacillus johnsonii (La1), for 6 weeks prior to solar-simulated UV irradiation was found to "accelerate the recovery of skin immune homeostasis."
While UV-induced phenotypic maturation of Langerhans cells was not prevented among subjects who consumed the probiotic supplement, by day 4 post-exposure, the allostimulatory capacity of epidermal cells was completely recovered among subjects who consumed the probiotic supplement, "correlating with the normalization of CD1a expression within the epidermis."
These results suggest that oral probiotic supplementation may help speed up healing of the skin after UV exposure.
Astaxanthin is my antioxidant of choice for preventing sunburn without lethal lotions. It works wonderfully for me and helps the spots and condition of your skin as well.
__________________ "Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music."
This is such an expensive one. Do you have an economical source for astaxanthin?
__________________ "The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org
Do a quick search for specials at iherb.com & vitacost.com,.....they all run different specials every week and the sale prices are usually about 11.00 a bottle or so.
P.S. BECAUSE this is so good for your skin and a sunTAN is really skin DAMAGE, this stuff actually HEALED my tan and its ALL GONE!! UGH good and bad!! And I was really brown-brown and its gone. It usually doesn't fade until Nov. I look now like I did in March. So it does a great job on your skin. I'm now taking 6 mg. 3x day.
__________________ "Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music."
‘Surprising’ results from a recent study have prompted Israel’s LycoRed to file for patent protection for its Lyc-O-Mato tomato extract and skin health.
The study found that supplementation with the tomato extract protected skin from UV radiation damage by decreasing sunburn, as well as reducing the depletion of Langerhans cells following exposure to UVA/UVB.
“Sunburn cell formation is indicative of photo damage to the skin, and second, depletion of Langerhans cells negatively effects the important immune protectant function of the skin,” explained Zohar Nir PhD, VP of new product development for LycoRed.
“The fact that oral supplementation with an antioxidant-rich, natural tomato extract can help protect the health and immune integrity of the skin, has significant ramifications for the way we look at skin care,” added Dr Nir.
The Israeli firm has been taking steps in the niche market of cosmeceuticals as consumers seek products which help boost their appearance.
One of the newest trends in nutritional foods is the emergence of the "beauty from within" segment, which is predicted to become a strong niche over the next few years.
Now LycoRed has filed for international patent protection. Dr Nir told NutraIngredients-USA.com that the company has applied for a Patent Cooperation Treaty, which enables it to file globally within 18 months.
The ingredient is a carotenoid composition of lycopene, phytoene, phytofluene, and optionally vitamin E, that protects the skin from the damaging effects of UV radiation.
Study details
According to LycoRed, subjects were supplemented by either Lyc-O-Mato capsules (10mg lycopene per day), or a placebo, for ten weeks. Following exposure to UV radiation at the end of the study, it was found that subjects in the tomato extract group had a sunburn cell count six times lower than in the placebo group. There was also evidence of reduced depletion of Langerhans cells, said the company.
Diet for Sun Protection
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