Nutritional Factors and Skin Diseases

Abstract

In experimental nutrition studies, a change in the hair coat and skin of animals has often been the first and most outstanding feature of a dietary deficiency disease. Unfortunately, these skin and hair changes are often nonspecific, and rarely permit the diagnosis of an isolated nutritional deficiency. These skin changes have appeared with poor diet, therefore, dermatologists have been much influenced by the use of special diets, vitamins, and minerals in nearly every conceivable dosage level and combination in an attempt to manage and treat skin diseases. The reason that accurate diagnosis is difficult under such conditions and many skin diseases are of unknown etiology, much of this form of therapy has been doomed to failure and has tended to place the role of nutrition in the therapy of skin disease in disrepute. There is a place for nutrition in dermatology as in medicine generally; it should be kept, however, in proper perspective. A brief review of the structure and physiology of the skin may be helpful in understanding the changes that take place in skin diseases. The skin is composed of three principal layers: (1) epidermis, (2) corium (dermis or true skin), and (3) the subcutaneous tissue.