Re: Does vitamin E when placed on skin help heal scars?

Aloha, Ruth,

     As a nutrition scientist, my scientific intuition told me that vitamin 
E does little for healing scar tissue and that wearing vitamin E-containing 
lotion doesn't do much for the skin.  BUT, to be sure, I checked some the 
latest research on the vitamin E/skin topic on the web through the Grateful 
Med data base .  Just as I thought, I found several 
current research articles that stated very clearly that, for humans, in 
almost all (90% in one paper) of the cases studied, vitamin E put on the 
skin as ointment after skin surgery did not benefit the cosmetic outcome of 
scars.  In fact, the application of the vitamin E-containing ointment 
actually was detrimental to the cosmetic appearance of the scar (Baumann 
1999, in Dermatology Surgery).  I found some other articles about work done 
with non-human animals in which the evidence for benefit was really 
'iffy'...or other articles about human research in which the authors would 
not clearly state that there was any beneficial effect ("remains unclear").
     So, I guess the best I can say is that there is no strong evidence to 
support the 'old wives' claims' that vitamin E helps heal scars.  Maybe 
what IS happening is that, since vitamin E is lipid/fat soluble, it is 
really the fatty solvent that is making the skin seem more supple and 
smooth...and the scar appears to be less distinct.
     Remember, however, that vitamin E IS a nutrient (fat-soluble vitamin) 
taken internally.  What we are discussing above is vitamin E applied 
topically (on the skin). Vitamin E functions as an anti-oxidant in the body 
and keeps certain very reactive compound from destroying cellular 
structure, such as the membranes around the red blood cells and other 
tissues that can be 'oxidized' by 'free-radicals.'  Vitamin E functions by 
stopping the chain reactions that these free-radicals can cause at the 
cellular level.  For the vitamin to act as an anti-oxidant, however, it 
must be taken internally, as far as I know.
     Thanks for asking such an interesting question...and for giving me an 
excuse to do some digging on the web.

Dian Dooley