Dry, Dry, Dry!

It's that time of year again....for dry skin.  Your skin is the largest organ of your body and has to deal with many drying elements from the outside world.  Soaps can dry out your skin, towels that you dry off with wick moisture from your skin and the dry environment is pulling moisture from your body, too.

 

But let's not just blame those external factors because internal factors play a major role, too.  Not taking in enough water or eating foods/drinking beverages/taking medications that steal moisture from your body are likely to cause dry skin and dry eyes.  

In the Nebraska summer, we have more humidity in the air than I would like.  In the winter, there is so little moisture in the air and that can create havoc for most individuals outer protective layer, the skin.

I like to think of dryness and your skin this way:  If you are in a dry environment, then your body is providing that environment with moisture from your skin, so you are becoming more dry.  If you are in a humid environment, then you can pull moisture from that environment to hydrate your skin instead of losing it from your body. 

 

Dry skin and dry eyes often share a relationship.  If you have dry skin you have an increased likelihood of having dry eyes.  When I shake hands with my patients, one of the things I am doing is detecting how dry their hands are.  If I notice they have dry hands, I will definitely ask about dry eye symptoms.

 

Ask yourself how dry are your hands, your lips, your feet and your eyes.  Imagine how stressful it is for your body to deal with all of this dryness.  There is so much repair that your body has to contend with when your body/skin/eyes are dry.  Your kidneys have to work overtime when your body is dry because your kidneys need water to filter your blood.  Dry skin causes microscopic cracks and these breaks in your protective skin can expose your body to viruses and bacteria. Your eyes want to be lubricated and when your body is lacking water, the quality and the quantity of tears is minimized so your eyes can get irritated and dry.  Give your skin, your kidneys, your eyes and every cell of your body a break. Moisturize yourself!

Also, many medications and systemic conditions can cause dryness, so talk to your medical doctor about excessive dry skin and make sure there that medications you are on or other medical conditions are not contributing to this issue.

My recommendations for reducing dry skin/eyes include:

 

1. Reduce salt intake.  Look at food labels and appreciate how much sodium is in packaged foods.  Retrain your palate to enjoy the taste of food without the addition of sodium.  Salt pulls out moisture from tissue (dehydration), that's why it works so great for making beef jerky. 

2. Reduce caffeine intake. Diuretics, like caffeine, steal moisture from your body by pulling fluid     from your body and thus increasing the amount of liquid you urinate. 

3. Look into taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements (fish oil, flaxseed, chia seed, krill). 

4. Ramp up water intake ( CLICK HERE to view how much water intack you should be taking in based on your weight). 

5. Increase your intake of foods that have a high water content (fruits and vegetables).

6. Put a humidifier in your bedroom.  Increasing the moisture in the room will allow your skin to absorb the moisture instead of having your skin provide moisture for the room.

7. If you are a smoker, then this is another reason to stop smoking.  Smoking, among other things, dries out your skin. 

8. Reduce alcohol consumption.  Alcohol is also a diuretic, like caffeinated beverages, so it steals moisture from your body.

9. Reduce the use of hand sanitizer which is very drying to your skin and instead use soap and water.  Reevaluate what soaps you use at home and work.  We make our own hand soap and I find it much less drying than those you purchase at the store.