Soap, excessive bathing, and seasonal weather patterns probably have the biggest influence on our skins health as they, quite simply, dry out the skin. Dry skin is a precursor to inflamed skin, like the various forms of eczema.
Now that we are midway through autumn, many of us are experiencing dryness. “Dryness you say? It has been raining almost everyday here on the pacific west (wet) coast!”. Yes, dryness. Even though there may be an increased amount of rain, those large drops of water do nothing to hydrate your skin. The actual air in between those rain drops is actually quite cold and dry, having only a very small amount of the fine mist (water vapour) necessary to keep our skin moist. This is a fact that will continue right through winter.
The other extremely drying event that happens during this season is that we run our indoor heating. Forced air furnaces, electric radiators, and wood stoves dry out the air. In fact they can dry out the air so much that the indoor humidity becomes dangerously low, less than 30% (The recommended range is 30 to 60%, too low can lead to nosebleeds and dry skin). Many people do well to not only moisturize often throughout the day, but also to have an indoor humidifier. When I lived in the country and used a wood stove for our heat, we always kept a kettle full of water on top of it. This served to keep the indoor air moist, but also provided a quick source of hot water for tea!
As I mentioned in past articles, you can never really moisturize enough, particularly if your skin is already on the dry side. 5 to 6 times a day can be perfectly fine. Just ensure that your moisturizer has a natural base like cocoa, coconut or shea, so that it can occlude the skin to keep moisture inside, but also allows your skin to properly breathe.
Wishing you health,
Dr. Trevor Erikson
Copyright © 2019 Dr. Trevor Erikson