We all know we need vitamins, but how do they function in our bodies? Our bodies need a variety of nutrients such as vitamins and minerals to keep us feeling good.  One of these key vitamins is vitamin E.  This vitamin is good for your overall health, but is especially good in relation to healthy skin.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant. Antioxidants fight the effects of free radicals.  Free radicals are produced from the environment through pollution, smoking, the foods we eat, the chemicals we ingest, and the simple process of aging.  

Antioxidants neutralize these free radicals before they can do damage.  This is especially important because free radicals can wreak havoc on your body, and are responsible for causing conditions like heart disease and cancer.

You can get vitamin E in lotions and cream for direct contact with the skin. It is good for treating scars, stretch marks, and helping keep a good moisture balance in the skin all year round, especially in the winter.

Supplements give you concentrated Vitamin E to benefit the entire body.  Vitamin E is also found in foods like nuts, seeds, wheat germ and vegetable oils.  The best form of vitamin E to get is alpha-tocopherol in its alcohol form, and not as acetate.

The best source for vitamin E is food.  Be careful here, though.  Processed foods can cause the loss of vitamin and minerals including vitamin E.  You should eat foods in their natural form with as little processing as possible for maximum benefit.

Why is vitamin E so important to the body?  For one, it is a fat-soluble vitamin, meaning that it can incorporate itself into the cellular wall, not get washed out of the body like B vitamins can (they are water soluble).

Vitamin E protects body cells from breakdown and thus the breakdown of other body tissues.  It also protects vitamin A while it does its job in the body.

Continued in Part II.