Dry Skin Causes and Remedies: The Ultimate Guide
Dry Skin Causes and Remedies: The Ultimate Guide
Living with dry skin is extremely uncomfortable. Some people naturally have dry skin. Others develop dry skin due to environmental factors. You may experience dryness on just about any part of your body, but the most common areas affected are the arms, legs, and abdominal area.
By understanding some of the top causes of dry skin you can avoid and treat this condition.
Dry Skin Causes
Many conditions can cause dry skin, but here is a list of the most frequent causes of dry skin:
If you love spending time under a hot shower while practicing for the next Idols auditions, we have some bad news for you. An extremely hot shower will dry out the natural oils in your skin. Without sufficient amounts of these natural oils our skin can lose some of its protective cover and become more easily damaged.
Many mainstream soaps are full of chemicals that dry out the skin.
Scrubbing your skin with a coarse sponge strips the skin of its natural oils and increases dryness.
When the humidity levels in the air decrease, the air becomes drier and negatively affects the skin. Humidity levels are usually lower during the fall and winter months causing the skin to feel more dry.
Turning up the thermostat in the winter dries out the air. As moisture is stripped out of the air, the skin also becomes drier.
As one ages the body’s skin pores produce less oil. The skin also becomes more thin and parched.
Certain clothing material, detergents, and perfumes irritate the skin.
Lastly, dry skin can be a sign of chronic diseases like diabetes.
Dry skin can affect anyone at any age, during any time of the year. If you’ve identified any of the above causes affecting you, you’re one step closer to figuring out how to improve your skin quality.
Treatments for Dry Skin
The following dry skin remedies can alleviate the condition. You may need to make just a few changes in your life to make a huge difference. As always, you should also consult with a medical professional.
Change Your Washing Rituals
Avoid excess washing since it depletes the skin’s natural oils:
Avoid harsh soaps. Instead use a glycerine/oil-based soap.
Avoid hot baths or showers and prolonged exposure to saunas.
Try to bath every few days to help prevent washing away the skin’s natural oils especially during the fall and winter months when the humidity level in the air is low.
Moisturize Your Skin
This will put some moisture back into your skin:
Gently dry your skin with a soft towel after your shower. If you rub too hard, you’ll strip your skin’s natural moisture.
Apply oil to your skin within three minutes after the shower. The best oils to use include refrigerated flax, coconut, sunflower, or olive oils. Try to moisturize the skin three to four times a day especially during the winter and fall months.
For extremely dry skin patches apply petroleum jelly or Calmoseptine ointment.
Increase Hydration
These tips will help you hydrate your body, from the inside out:
Sip hot water mixed with lemon, a pinch of salt, a pinch of baking soda, and half a teaspoon of turmeric every 30 minutes throughout the day. Try to drink three to four bottles of this mixture per day.
Drink fresh leafy green vegetable juice daily.
Avoid dehydrating drinks such as carbonated and caffeinated beverages. Examples of this include coffee, black tea, iced tea, chai tea, and soda drinks. Also, avoid sweet drinks such as energy drinks, Vitamin Water, V8, Gatorade, and fruit juices. Alcohol is also off limits.
Maintain a Balanced Diet
A balanced diet provides vital nutrients to the skin.
65% of your diet should consist of vegetables, especially greens.
20% of your diet consists of small beans such as lentils, moong, split peas, and seeds such as refrigerated flax seeds (2 tablespoons per day) and pre-soaked chia seeds. Have wild fish, free-range poultry, or eggs a maximum of 2 to 3 times per week.
15% of your diet can consist of whole grains, including quinoa, barley, brown rice, millet, and barley. Try to avoid excess wheat and white flour.
Stick to having warm meals made of fresh REAL food. Ideally meals should include oils, seeds, or avocados since these healthy oils help absorb nutrients from food.
Avoid these foods altogether if possible:
All forms of processed sugar. Sugar can be found in processed and pre-packaged ready-made foods, dry cereal, granola or protein bars, chips, crackers, sweet drinks, candy, baked goods, and bagels.
Refined flour.
Artificial sweeteners.
Alcohol.
Caffeine, which can be found in coffee, black tea, iced tea, chai tea, hot chocolate, soda, and energy drinks.
Dairy products, except butter, especially in the evenings.
Meat and fish in the evenings.
Wheat, corn, and soy in the evenings.
Other Dry Skin Remedies
Use a humidifier in your bedroom to replace moisture in the air.
Exercise for one hour every day during daytime.
Herbs for Skin Care
Calendula is a natural moisturizer, and it has restorative properties suitable for all skin types. It’s also an anti-inflammatory, so under the guidance of a trained herbalist it can be used to relieve a variety of skin conditions.
Chickweed also relieves inflammation, and the cooling sensation helps to sooth itchy or sore skin.
Chamomile, like chickweed, is an anti-inflammatory with numbing, calming properties, but it also helps to reduce redness and visible irritation.
Lavender, another anti-inflammatory, soothes redness and skin irritation, but it’s also particularly useful for its antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. These inhibit bacterial inflammation or infection, and help to prevent the skin from aging prematurely.
Marshmallow’s healing, moisturizing, and soothing properties help with chafing, sores, or wounds, and help to keep skin soft and supple. And on the subject of treating wounds, Yarrow has wonderful healing properties for wounds, and provides relief for soreness, patchy, itchy, or otherwise irritated skin.
Plantain, like marshmallow, is another antibacterial and anti-inflammatory that helps to speed healing from injury. In certain cases, it too can be used to relieve itch and pain, depending on the cause.
Rosemary is extremely vitamin-rich, with antioxidant properties. It stimulates circulation, and helps bring nourishment from subsurface layers to the skin’s surface.
Sage, another herb with a very long history, is more astringent. It won’t be good for every skin type, but it’s a great cleanser, tightening pores and stimulating the skin’s surface. For those with combination skin, it’s a great herbal tool.
Arnica is a very powerful herbal remedy for a variety of conditions. A topical pain reliever and anti-inflammatory, it improves blood circulation and encourages lymphatic drainage. This latter property makes it especially useful for reducing fluid accumulation in joints and muscles.
Apple Cider Vinegar isn’t normally considered for its topical uses, but that oversight isn’t warranted. It helps to regulate the skin’s pH, restoring the protective acid mantle and removing excess oil.
Sunflower Oil is high vitamin E content, decreases skin inflammation, regenerates damaged or aging skin cells, and moisturizes dry skin. Similarly, Avocado Oil, high in antioxidants and possessing strong anti-inflammatory properties helps keep skin taut, strong, smooth, and protected against certain kinds of environmental damage.
Jojoba Oil has a chemical composition very similar to skin’s natural sebum, so it can help to regulate the production of oils. It is also rich in Vitamin E. Lightweight compared to other oils, it easily penetrates the outer layers and is absorbed quickly into the skin.
Olive Oil, with plenty of vitamins A and E, helps to moisturize and ‘plump’ the skin. It also helps to relieve dry, itchy, inflamed, or irritated skin, while nourishing the outer layers.
Dry Skin Causes and Remedies: What if the Dry Skin Persists?
If you occasionally experience dry skin, it can easily be managed by making the above changes to your lifestyle. But if you have a condition such as dermatitis, you need to seek medical treatment. Without treatment, it will only get worse.
Dry and itchy skin isn’t something you should have to live with. If your dry skin persists, contact the nation’s top integrative functional medicine physician, Dr. Payal Bhandari M.D. for help. She will get to the bottom of what is causing the rash and customize your treatment plan to permanently help the rash disappear forever.
AUTHOR
Dr. Payal Bhandari M.D. is one of U.S.'s top leading integrative functional medical physicians and the founder of SF Advanced Health. She combines the best in Eastern and Western Medicine to understand the root causes of diseases and provide patients with personalized treatment plans that quickly deliver effective results. Dr. Bhandari specializes in cell function to understand how the whole body works. Dr. Bhandari received her Bachelor of Arts degree in biology in 1997 and Doctor of Medicine degree in 2001 from West Virginia University. She the completed her Family Medicine residency in 2004 from the University of Massachusetts and joined a family medicine practice in 2005 which was eventually nationally recognized as San Francisco’s 1st patient-centered medical home. To learn more, go to www.sfadvancedhealth.com.