Intake of adequate fluids become very important as the dehydrating effect of heating needs to be over come and excessive loss of moisture needs to be replaced.
Simple daily routines, such as bathing and towel drying, may actually promote dry skin. You may wish to modify your bathing routine to help preserve your skin's loss of moisture. Bathing provides the skin temporary moisture, but it removes the skin's ‘Acid Mantel’ and in the long run causes more moisture loss than gain, particularly if you use commercially manufactured soap, which by nature has a drying effect on the skin.
The correct skin care regime to counteract dry skin is crucial and the following steps are suggested:
- Do not wash, using soap, as it dries out your skin! – Instead, use an exfoliant, such as the ‘Skin Renewal Gel’ from Wildcrafted Herbal Products, followed by a cleanser (Wildcrafted’s Hydrating Cleanser is ideal) to keep your skin from drying out unnecessarily.
- Apply a toner to prevent loss of moisture from your skin – This step is often neglected by many, yet it is a very important step, especially if you have dry skin. Toning lotions, for example Wildcrafted’s ‘Milk of Roses Toner’ provides essential oils and herbal extract that help to close the opened pores and prevents loss of moisture.
- Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise. – This cannot be stressed strongly enough. Moisturising will not only nourish your skin, but it will help to reduce loss of moisture even further, thus preventing dry skin, as well as repair damaged skin. Wildcrafted’s Papaya Day Crème, for example is a good illustration of using essential oils and herbal extracts to re-hydrate the depleted skin and nourish it to help protect is from loss of moisture.
Dry skin can also be itchy and become very sensitive, resulting in eczema and dermatitis. The prevention of excessive loss of moisture to prevent dry skin is important to prevent further complication of dry skin.
Symptoms such as itching, flaking of the skin, cracking and scaliness all point to you having very dry skin and this requires attention. You will seriously need to look at the amount of water you are not drinking, as this is beyond just using a good skin care regime. Water needs to be consumed at 3 litres per day, no less, because that is what the body uses to maintain proper metabolism. So whether you are physically active or not, you will need to provide the body with at least 8-10 glasses of water every day to prevent your skin from drying out.
Of course if you are physically active, you will need to considerably increase this amount to replace the water loss through sweating.
Making sure you have sufficient mineral salts in your diet can also help to prevent dry skin. I am not referring to Table Salt, but the salts present in celery and other vegetables. As you probably know, sweat is slightly salty and these are the salts you need to replace. Celery is a vegetable high in mineral salts and should be included in your salads and sandwiches.
In conclusion, combining a high quality natural skin care regime with an adequate water intake and a diet high in vegetables, which contain mineral salts and trace elements will help you to combat dry skin.
Danny Siegenthaler is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and together with his wife Susan, a medical herbalist and Aromatherapist, they have created Natural Skin Care Products by Wildcrafted Herbal Products to share their 40 years of combined expertise with you.
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