Vitamin E Scar Healing - Does Vitamin E Fade Scars

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin and displays many antioxidant properties. It also has properties that are essential for the growth of hair, nails, and skin. It is also believed to heal and fade scars, that otherwise may be difficult to get rid of. Although, nothing related to vitamin E scar healing has been proven yet, many advise using it to heal and fade scars.

Does Vitamin E Fade Scars?
Vitamin E is considered to be a home remedy for scar healing. However, there is no clinical evidence to prove that vitamin E does fade scars. Some claim that consuming vitamin E can accelerate the process of scar healing, but topical vitamin E application does not show any positive effect on scarring. It is also known to heal wounds faster and it may make old scars disappear. Scars are tissues that consist of collagens, produced by fibroblasts. Vitamin E is known to reduce the generation of collagens, and it also prevents the growth and multiplication of fibroblasts, thus speeding up the process of wound healing. Various studies have been conducted, to study if vitamin E has any effect on scars. Most of them proved that vitamin E had little or no effect on scarring, especially in the case of topical vitamin E application for scarring.

Topical Vitamin E Scar Healing
Topical vitamin E is used for acne scar healing as well as surgical scar healing. In a study conducted by 'Dermatologic Surgery', it was observed that topical application of vitamin E, to scars, had no effect on its appearance or healing. In fact, in some cases, the use of topical vitamin E, actually worsened the wounds and some patients also developed contact dermatitis. Some also claim that topical vitamin E application does not reduce scars, but softens them by decreasing the strength of the strands that form collagen, making the scar more pliable. Many advise applying vitamin E oil to the scars, by tearing open a capsule. Some people can also develop skin rashes as a side-effect to the topical use of vitamin E. More and more dermatologists are discouraging their patients from using topical vitamin E for scar healing, as they may end up developing more complications instead of healing the scars.

Consumption of Vitamin E for Scar Healing
Consuming vitamin E in the form of supplements or in the daily diet, can be much more helpful in scar healing than the topical application of vitamin E. Foods that are a rich source of vitamin E include almonds, olive oil, wheat germ oil, hazelnuts, spinach, etc. Vitamin E can be consumed in the form of supplements that are available as alpha-tocopheryl acetate, a form of alpha-tocopherol. A daily intake of 30 IU of vitamin E per day, is recommended.

Most of the studies have concluded that vitamin E does not exhibit much effectiveness in fading or healing scars, and its topical use for healing wounds is also being increasingly discouraged. It did not exhibit favorable results, even when used in a combination with silicon sheets for scarring. Other methods for healing and fading of scars, should be used to avoid the side-effects caused by the use of vitamin E.