Does Vitamin A Help Acne?

Acne is not something that most people typically welcome. It’s a nuisance, embarrassing, and uncomfortable… and no one wants to deal with it. While acne can be caused by many factors - diet, toxins, hormones, genetics - prescription medications aren’t the only solution.

If you’ve heard about vitamin A, chances are it concerns vision. It’s a fat-soluble vitamin essential for the optimal performance of all body systems - and it may be helpful for people struggling with acne and other skin conditions.

Because of its role as a powerful antioxidant, vitamin A might promote healthier skin by fighting free radical damage and inflammation - an underlying factor of acne vulgaris.

If you’re looking to treat acne with vitamin A, topical formulas appear most effective, but increasing your intake through diet and a supplementary multivitamin never hurts.

Vitamin A might be a good solution for anyone struggling with acne, so we’ve looked through the research, and we’re giving you everything you need to know about vitamin A for acne.

What Is Vitamin A?

Although commonly referred to as a single nutrient, vitamin A is a group of fat-soluble compounds that include retinol, retinal, and retinyl esters ^{1, 2}.

They’re required for several physiological processes, including health and maintenance of all surface tissues (skin, respiratory lining, gut, bladder, etc.), skin cell replacement, vision, immune function, growth and development, reproduction, and more. A vitamin A deficiency affects the entire body and is referred to as vitamin A deficiency disorder (VAD).

Before we dive into the details of how vitamin A can help acne and support skin health, it’s essential to understand the difference between the two types of vitamin A: retinol and carotenoids.

In animal foods, vitamin A is found as retinol, the “active” form of vitamin A ¹. These active forms are then converted to retinoic acid, retinal, and retinyl esters - these are the only forms of vitamin A that the body can immediately use.

Carotenoids are a class of over 750 naturally occurring pigments that are exclusive to plant foods and must be converted into retinol before being utilized by the body ³. Carotenoids are the pigments that give fruits and vegetables their characteristic green, red, or orange color.

As a fat-soluble nutrient, vitamin A is stored in tissues in the body and can be released for later use. Most vitamin A is stored in the liver as retinyl esters, which are broken down and bind to retinol-binding protein before entering the bloodstream ^{4, 5}. Once in the systemic circulation, retinol is free to elicit all its benefits.

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But just what are those benefits?

Health Benefits Of Vitamin A

Although we’re not going to dive into the specifics of vitamin A and its benefits, retinol has a long list of positive effects on the body, including:

• Supporting eye health and preventing macular degeneration
• May protect against certain types of cancer
• Promotes fertility
• Supports fetal development
• Boosts immune function
• Enhances skin health

Vitamin A And Skin Health

Vitamin A is well known for its role in eye health, but it also plays a significant role in skin health thanks to its powerful antioxidant properties.

It can benefit skin health by:

1. Reducing the appearance of wrinkles and sagging skin: Topical retinoids can help to reduce fine lines and wrinkles by promoting collagen production ⁶. They can also enhance skin elasticity by removing damaged or dysfunctional elastin fibers and promoting angiogenesis (forming new blood vessels).
2. Reducing hyperpigmentation and sun damage: Thanks to their antioxidant properties, a carotenoid-rich diet may help prevent sun damage, skin aging, and environmental damage, thereby improving skin color, tone, and texture ⁷. And because retinoids increase skin cell turnover, they may improve hyperpigmentation and sunspots.
3. May help treat psoriasis and other skin conditions: Vitamin A is common in topical and over-the-counter medications for psoriasis ⁸. Topical retinoid application can help reduce the formation of raised skin patches and mitigate cytokines and interleukin production contributing to redness and inflammation.

Besides these benefits, topical vitamin A supplements may also reduce acne - we’ll discuss this more below.

Can Vitamin A Help Reduce Acne?

Thanks to its antioxidant properties, vitamin A helps to prevent free radical accumulation that can lead to cell damage, which contributes to premature skin aging, fine lines, wrinkles, and sagging skin ⁹.

On top of aging, vitamin A may also help treat acne. However, the efficacy of vitamin A for acne depends on where it’s from and how it’s used. A diet rich in vitamin A can promote healthier skin from the inside out, while topical applications of vitamin A may directly treat acne.

Why is retinol so effective?

• Reduces inflammation
• Promotes skin cell growth to heal lesions and scars
• May decrease sebum production
• Smoothes skin
• Evens skin tone
• Fights free radicals to protect against environmental damage

While research supports topical vitamin A for acne, studies for oral ingestion are mixed. Older research suggests that oral vitamin A was ineffective in treating acne, but it did conclude that it prevented it from worsening ¹⁰.

A newer study found that oral vitamin A was effective in treating acne, but study limitations question its validity ¹¹.

Final Thoughts

With all that said, there’s not enough research to support the use of oral vitamin A in treating acne vulgaris, but there’s an abundance of the beneficial effects of topical vitamin A treatment.

However, skin health comes from the inside out, so increasing your intake of vitamin A-rich foods combined with a good-quality multivitamin like Performance Lab NutriGenesis Multi can do a lot.

Plus, you’re getting a 2-for-1 bang for your buck and loading up on other skin-supportive, anti-acne nutrients like vitamin E, zinc, selenium, and vitamin C.