The Formula for Skin Safe Success

Unless you're under the care of a nutritionist or physician, meet the RDAs for antioxidants with food rather than supplements. But if for some reason you suspect you can't meet the RDAs through diet alone, take one multivitamin/mineral supplement per day. Or take one all-in-one antioxidant vitamin supplement per day.

Some researchers say that the RDAs for antioxidants are much too low and should be raised. But other experts say there's no evidence to support taking more than the RDAs. People tend to think that if a little is good, a lot should be much better. But that's not always true.

What's more, taking vitamins can't compensate for bad skin-care habits. Antioxidants won't protect skin from excessive sun exposure, not using sunscreen or getting a sunburn.

Caution: Never take excessive amounts of vitamins A and E. These vitamins are stored in body tissue and can be toxic. Also, excessive amounts of vitamin C can damage the kidneys.

Do Vitamin Creams Work? Here's the Rub

Can you rub away wrinkles as easily as rubbing in a moisturizers? Most dermatologists say over-the-counter creams formulated with antioxidants don't work.

Adding antioxidants to skin creams sounds reasonable enough: If taking antioxidants by mouth can help prevent age-related damage internally, then applying them directly to the skin should help prevent external damage. But experts say that most over-the-counter products don't contain enough of the vitamins to be effective. The amounts used in research experiments are much larger. What's more, vitamins are chemically unstable and tend to break down when added to cosmetics. The technology is not there yet to deliver enough vitamins into the skin to protect it from free-radical damage.

There is one vitamin-based cream found to erase wrinkles and prevent new ones from forming - Retin-A, available by prescription.