Vitamins & Nutritional Supplements for Leg Ulcer

Antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and glutathione are depleted in healing skin tissue. One animal study found that vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) applied to the skin shortened the healing time of skin ulcers. Another animal study reported that administration of oral vitamin E before skin lesions were introduced into the skin prevented some of the tissue damage associated with the development of pressure ulcers. A controlled human trial found that 400 IU of vitamin E daily improved the results of skin graft surgery for chronic venous ulcers. No further research has investigated the potential benefit of vitamin E for skin ulcers.

Animal research has suggested that vitamin C may help prevent skin ulcers, and in a preliminary study, elderly patients with pressure ulcers had lower blood levels of vitamin C than did ulcer-free patients. Supplementation with vitamin C (3 grams per day) increased the speed of healing of leg ulcers in patients with a blood disorder calledthalassemia, according to a double-blind study. And while a double-blind trial of surgical patients with pressure ulcers found that supplementation with 500 mg of vitamin C twice a day accelerated ulcer healing, a similar double-blind trial found no difference in the effectiveness of either 20 mg per day or 1,000 mg per day of vitamin C.

An older preliminary report suggested that large amounts of folic acid given both orally and by injection could promote healing of chronic skin ulcers due to poor circulation. No controlled research has further investigated this claim...