B Vitamin Hype: With Ambitions of Fighting Acne, Rosacea and Tumors, What Can This Vitamin Really Do For You?
B Vitamin Hype: With Ambitions of Fighting Acne, Rosacea and Tumors, What Can This Vitamin Really Do For You? by: Naweko San-Joyz Vitamin B is no small time player in the high stakes game of the beauty. Just take the case of pellagra for example. Pellagra is a life threatening skin disease characterized by dementia, diarrhea, and dermatitis that results from a niacin (B vitamin) deficiency. In the early 20th century in the United States pellagra plagued thousands of people in the South and Midwest. The condition was thought to be contagious until investigators discovered the underlying nutritional deficiency. Even today, the importance of vitamin B is cultivating new roles in the world of beauty. Dermatologist Leslie Baumann, MD forecasts topical vitamin B and its multiple derivatives as key ingredients in future anti-aging products. For example, one derivative of the B vitamin niacin, nicotinamide, has been shown to improve the ability of the epidermis, the upper-most layer of the sk...