Skin cancer: Repair sun-damaged skin with vitamin A

If everything in life worked as efficiently as skin we'd have no worries.

Skin is your body's largest organ, and it's a marvel of nature. It protects you from bacteria, infection and dehydration while it helps distribute key nutrients throughout the body and converts sunshine into vitamin D. When your body overheats, skin helps it cool off. When the weather is cool, skin helps prevent heat loss. When skin is damaged, it immediately begins healing. Your skin is alive, it breathes, and it constantly regenerates itself.

Today we'll look at a couple of ways to take good care of your skin so you can help it take good care of you.

Childhood sunburn can lead to cancer
With the harsh conditions of winter upon us, what better time to answer this question from an HSI member named Barbara: 'I am a new member trying to learn how to treat keratoses with alternatives to retin-A, which my dermatologist prescribed.'

Actinic keratosis is a scaly or crusty spot on the skin, which occurs primarily on the face, ears, neck, forearms and hands. And it's no coincidence that these are the areas of your skin that get the most sun exposure, because keratosis lesions are the result of sun damage at an early age. All those sunburns you may have experienced as an adolescent or a teen come back to haunt you in the form of keratoses as you grow older.

Unfortunately, actinic keratosis is a precursor of the two most common types of cancer: nonmelanoma squamous cell or basal cell cancer, so it's very important to address keratosis in its early stage when treatment is fairly easy.

High doses of vitamin A heals sun-damaged skin
Retin A is a prescription drug derived from vitamin A, primarily used to treat acne. Side effects include burning, itching, blistering and peeling of the skin. It's not recommended for people with eczema or other chronic skin problems.

Rather than using a drug associated with vitamin A, a better choice for keratoses treatment might be actual vitamin A.

Earlier this year the journal Clinical Cancer Research carried a study conducted in a place where sun damaged skin is quite common: Arizona in the US. A previous study from the Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona (UA) showed that when 25,000 IU of vitamin A supplements were taken daily, risk of squamous cell skin cancer in patients with moderately severe keratoses was significantly reduced. So the UA team designed another study to test higher doses for both safety and efficacy.

Nearly 130 subjects with severely sun-damaged skin on their forearms were divided into four groups to receive daily doses of 25,000, 50,000, or 75,000 IU of vitamin A, or a placebo. Biopsies were conducted on the damaged skin of each patient before the study period began, and again one year later at the end of the study.

The effects of vitamin A supplementation were dramatic:

- Placebo subjects: 25 percent had less skin damage when their pre- and post-test biopsies were compared
- 25,000 IU subjects: 65 percent had less skin damage
- 50,000 IU subjects: 81 percent had less skin damage
- 75,000 IU subjects: 79 percent had less skin damage

No significant adverse reactions were reported in any of the four groups.

Glycoalkaloids may help damaged skin
A more direct method of arresting keratoses is the use of a topical treatment called glycoalkaloids.

Glycoalkaloids are chemical compounds found in an Australian botanical called the devil's apple plant. Historically, the use of glycoalkaloid-rich plants in addressing skin conditions goes back to the second century A.D.

As a treatment for keratoses, glycoalkaloids are thought to work by exploiting structural differences between healthy and sun-damaged skin cells. As skin cells are damaged, the cell walls become more permeable, allowing glycoalkoloids to penetrate into abnormal cells. Once inside the cell walls, glycoalkaloids release enzymes that apparently break down the cells from the inside out.

Unfortunately I am not able to locate a glycoalkaloid product to recommend to you. You may wish to talk to a qualified herbalist for more information.