Most people go to great lengths to have beautiful hair and nails. Some even pay huge amounts of money just to have that luscious mane and long elegant fingernails and toenails. However, keeping your hair and nails healthy and beautiful should not cost you an arm and a leg. Following a good supplementary management using vitamins will do just fine.
Vitamin A
According to the Disabled World website, Vitamin A helps to keep your hair smooth and shiny by producing a healthy sebum (oil from sebaceous glands) in the scalp. In addition, according to the eMedicinal website, a lack of Vitamin A can cause dry, brittle nails.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) describes two main categories of vitamin A– preformed Vitamin A, which comes from animals, and provitamin A carotenoid, which comes from colorful fruits and vegetables. Eating liver, beef, chicken, cheddar cheese or eggs and drinking whole milk or fortified skim milk will help ensure you get enough preformed Vitamin A. If you prefer having provitamin A carotenoid, vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, kale, peas and sweet peppers or fruits, such as cantaloupe, apricots, peaches, papayas and mangoes, are examples of sources you can devour.
Don’t forget to take multivitamins with Vitamin A in a form of tablet as supplement to your diet.
Vitamin B
Vitamins B6 and Vitamin B12 help prevent hair loss and gray hair. In addition, Vitamin B12 helps prevent fragile ridges and curved nails, according to the eMedicinal website.
Don’t hesitate to chow down on fortified cereals, salmon, turkey, chicken, potato, spinach, banana and hazelnuts to get your Vitamin B6. Eating clams, mussels, crabs, salmon, rockfish, beef, chicken, turkey, egg and brie will provide you with Vitamin B12.
According to Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, you can also get Vitamin B6, in a form of pyridoxine hydrochloride, incorporated into a multivitamin, Vitamin B-complex and Vitamin B6 supplements. Vitamin B12, on the other hand, comes in the form of cyanocobalamin and methylcobalamin found in multivitamin, Vitamin B-complex and Vitamin B12 supplements.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is a powerful antioxidant that can help in the formation, growth and repair of bone, skin and connective tissue. It can also help maintain your hair and nails. According to the eMedicinal website, Vitamin C deficiency can cause hangnails and inflammation of the tissue surrounding the nail. In addition, The Merck Manuals, an online medical library, states that severe Vitamin C deficiency can cause dry skin and hair.
Foods rich in Vitamin C include broccoli, papaya, chard, cabbage, spinach, kiwifruit, snow peas, cantaloupe, oranges, grapefruit, limes, celery, pineapples, lettuce, watermelon, fennel, bell peppers, kale, cauliflower, strawberries, lemons, mustard and turnip greens, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, zucchini, raspberries, asparagus, parsley and peppermint.
Another source of Vitamin C is in the form of dietary supplements containing ascorbic acid. Look for formulas that have flavonoids, which can help better absorb Vitamin C, according to the World’s Healthiest Foods website.
Photo Credit
- woman massaging her head and hair image by Daria Miroshnikova from Fotolia.com
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