Lifestyle Choices

Everyone suffers at some time from dry skin. When your skin is dry, you reach for a moisturizer. But effective moisturizing involves more than just day cream or lotion.

When doctors look at dry skin under a microscope, they see that it is actually an accumulation of dead cells adhering to the skin’s surface. These cells are made of the protein, keratin, which can absorb water, changing from dry, tile-like flakes to smooth, plump cells. Natural, moist, supple skin depends upon the complex interaction of these surface cells with the environment, with water, with your body’s secretions, or with moisturizers you apply. (more…)

Does the performance of alpha-hydroxy acids match the promise? Yes, when formulated correctly, AHAs do indeed exfoliate the outer layers of skin to treat clogged pores and blackheads, to smooth fine wrinkles, and to remove dry surface skin. You, the consumer, however, are confronted with advertising for a myriad of products containing AHAs, all promising youthful, wrinkle-free skin. Not all preparations are effective. When choosing, there are three key factors to consider: (more…)

Dermabrasion is an extreme form of exfoliation. For this procedure, the doctor actually uses a rotating wire brush like a sanding instrument to remove the entire outer surface of the skin. The epidermis and the upper portion of the dermis (about one-quarter to one-third of the thickness of your skin) is usually abraded. (more…)

Birthmarks

It would be logical if all birthmarks were present at birth. This is not always the case. Some marks appear in the first few days of life but others can be delayed by months or years. In these cases it is thought that the fault resides in the skin from birth but only reveals itself when some other factor acts as a trigger. An example of this is the unusual problem called Becker’s nevus. It has the appearance, usually on the shoulder, of a large light brown patch, often with some coarse dark hair in it. It is first seen at puberty and is triggered by rising hormone levels. Salmon patches or stork bites derive their name from the old fable about babies being delivered down the chimney by a friendly stork whose beak has clasped the human bundle by the nape of the neck. These marks are seen in about a quarter of the population. Sometimes they are thought to have appeared in adult life but it is only that some new hair style or hair disease has revealed a patch that has really been present since birth. (more…)

Rain and snow are the original sources of all our drinking water. Raindrops are formed from the heavy vapor that arises from the sea. As the clouds pass over the land, they condense into drops of rain or flakes of snow. We are all familiar with the fact that a rainstorm clears the air, washing it clean and free from dust and smoke.

Raindrops are usually free from germs, although they may contain a little dust and perhaps a few harmless microbes. Trouble starts when the raindrops strike the surface of the earth. The rain that collects on cultivated fields, farmyards, and city streets may contain many different kinds of germs, some of which are harmful to man. Many of these germs found on the ground have come from the digestive organs of animals and human beings. These are the bacteria that often cause serious intestinal diseases.

But the trouble is not always with water that falls onto the ground. People who use tanks and cisterns must also be careful. Roof water may be almost as badly contaminated with germs that have found their way there by dust blowing up from the street. There is also the problem of germs from the droppings of birds. Tank or cistern water should always be boiled or sterilized. (more…)

It may surprise you to see such a common thing as air listed among the important treatments for external use on skin, but in many ways it may be the most valuable of all. It is also often the most neglected by women who tend to cover their skin day and night with heavy creams.

Although most of the oxygen your skin needs comes by way of the bloodstream, the skin also helps itself to as much as 2 1/2 percent of the body’s total oxygen from the air by direct absorption. Skin also directly eliminates almost 3 percent of the body’s carbon dioxide waste. Generally, this direct oxygen intake is used only by the epidermis, where it helps to break down nutrients for cell use at the basal layer and to eliminate wastes. (more…)

Masks are one of the mysteries of the cosmetic world. The manufactured kinds come in many varieties and are designed for several purposes. You have to pick the right one for the right purpose. Many women don’t. This is probably why they are often disappointed. Dermatologists disagree about their effectiveness. While some swear by them, others consider them little more than cosmetic security blankets. Chosen carefully,

I believe, a mask can be a boon to beauty.

A mask is designed to perform one of the mire specific tasks: to deep- cleanse, to tone, to stimulate circulation, to moisturize the skin, or to exfoliate—that is, to remove the outer layers of dead epidermal cells so the skin is refined and left more receptive to whatever treatment product you choose to put on it after. Most commercial masks contain a great amount of water, which makes their evaporation rate rapid and gives the skin a cooling and soothing feel. But this is of little more than psychological help to the user. The deep response to elements in a mask comes through the vascular network in the dermis, where active ingredients coupled with physical tension from the mask drying on the skin bring about increased circulation and help stimulate cellular activity. (more…)

Sometimes dermatologists use the antibiotic tetracycline, usually administered in doses of 250 milligrams twice a day. In many cases this has dramatically reduced the acne probably by altering the chemistry of fatty acids in the skin so that the sebaceous glands are rendered less active, as well as acting on the infection itself. But there are disadvantages to antibiotic treatment, too, particularly in growing teenagers, for it does inhibit protein synthesis in mammalian cells. It can also stain the teeth when used over a long period of time and of course disrupts the natural intestinal flora, which produce many of the body’s B-complex vitamins. (more…)

A living, breathing thing, skin is far more than just a superficial covering for your body. It is your largest organ. It covers a surface area of about 17 square feet and weighs between six and eight pounds. So complex is this stuff called skin that a piece of it with only the surface area of your thumbnail boasts a yard of blood vessels, twenty-five nerve endings, one hundred sweat glands, and over three million cells.

Lasting skin beauty is a question of lasting care, not spending lavishly on fancy creams and treatments. It is the everyday way you treat skin that matters year after year. But to know how to look after your skin you must first know something about it—what it is and isn’t, what it’s meant to do, and the many things that affect it for better or worse. For then you can see that its needs are met from day to day. In return it will give you what you desire: beauty that at the very least is skin deep. (more…)

Your skin is constantly giving up moisture, not just through the sweat ducts but through a process of transpiration in which water in the cells on its surface evaporates directly into the atmosphere. This is quite different from perspiring, which only happens to any marked degree when the body is warm. Transpiration occurs constantly. The lower the humidity in your environment, the more rapid will be the water loss and the greater the need to protect against it. And what most women don’t realize is that the humidity of the average centrally heated home or office is comparable to that of the Sahara Desert. Similarly, chemical pollutants, soaps, makeup, and anything that affects the hydrolipidic film decreases its effectiveness and leads to further dehydration.

I learned the truth of this for myself when I spent a month in a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas. There was no water to wash with, no air pollution, and no stress, for I was spending most of my days and nights in meditation. Neither was there a mirror. (more…)

You can wash your face with soap and water as often as you can wash your face with soap and water. That may sound silly but what it means is that if you wash often with no ill effect, then clearly no damage is being done. People with greasy skin often have pallid, rather coarse, thickened complexions and suffer from blackheads, whiteheads and spots. They need to wash regularly to keep pace with the production of oil and it really doesn’t matter what they use as long as the shiny surface is removed. They cannot change the underlying grease production rate unless they take tablets which will grossly interfere with the hormonal control of their body. It is no use using products that claim “deep down cleansing” or which “unblock clogged pores:’. These phrases are meaningless and no amount of soap has any effect on the blocked grease gland which is the forerunner of an acne pimple. Neither is it any use using ‘medicated’ soaps because a flourishing bacterial population on the surface of the skin is quite normal and is only temporarily reduced by washing. (more…)