The Importance of Your Skin

About Your Skin

When we consider our skin we often consider the aesthetic aspect. Great skin gives us a confidence boost and can make us happier about ourselves. But there are other aspects of skincare that are often not considered when choosing products to put on our skin.

The skin is often largely underrated when it comes to considering our health. We think of the health of our heart, our kidneys, and what we consume through our mouths. But what we often forget to consider is that the skin is the largest gateway to our body and what we put on our skin does get absorbed and with great effect. This article tries to help you understand the different roles that your skin plays.

Healthy skin reflects a healthy body

When you apply toxins and harsh chemicals to your skin you can create a condition of skin constipation. Your skin cannot breath freely and your body has a hard time expelling toxins from the body through your skin. You can check the ingredients of your products against cosmetics databases to make sure that what you are putting on your skin is not going to adversely affect your health.

Here are a couple of Internet based cosmetic databases for you to search:

• http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com

Responsible Skincare means Responsible Skin

There are many responsibilities that are tasked to your skin. If your skin is kept healthy then it can perform these tasks more effectively and ultimately help keep you healthy.

Your skin:

• Acts to protects your internal organs fron injury and infection
• Helps to detoxify your body through perspiration
• Both absorbs and excretes nutrients and toxins through the pores
• Has a thermoregulatory effect by controlling heat transfer through the skin
• Both produces and stores the vitamin D that it synthesizes from exposure to the sun (this vitamin is crucial to a health immune system)
• Contains many receptors that send information to your brain so you can react to certain situations
• Protects you from dehydration

If you wont eat it dont apply it

Consider some of the products that you put on your skin. Would you put this same ingredient in your mouth? I think the answer for most of us is a definite no. Yet many of these skincare ingredients are metabolised by the skin and can enter directly into the bloodstream and body tissues where they may potentially cause health problems.

Key ingredients you should avoid

The following ingredients have been singled out for their detrimental effects on the body. Make sure your skincare does not contain any one of these.

• Mineral oils, paraffin, or petrolatum - Petroleum products that coat the skin like plastic, clogging pores and creating a build-up of toxins, which in turn accumulate and can lead to dermatologic issues. Slows cellular development, which can cause you to show earlier signs of aging. Suspected cause of cancer. Disruptive of hormonal activity.
• Parabens - Widely used as preservatives in the cosmetic industry (including moisturizers). Studies implicate their connection with cancer. They have hormone-disrupting qualities (mimicking estrogen) and interfere with the body’s endocrine system.
• Phenol carbolic acid - Found in many lotions and skin creams. Can cause circulatory collapse, paralysis, convulsions, coma and even fatal respiratory failure.
• Propylene glycol - Used as a moisturizer in cosmetics and as a carrier in fragrance oils. Shown to cause dermatitis, kidney or liver abnormalities, and may inhibit skin cell growth or cause skin irritation.
• Acrylamide - Found in many hand and face creams. Linked to mammary tumors in lab research.
• Sodium Laurel Sulphate (SLS) or Sodium Laureth Sulphate (SLES) - Found in car washes and engine degreasers not to mention most personal care products! SLS works to dry out the skin, easily penetrates the skin, and allows other chemicals to easily penetrate. Combined with other chemicals, SLS becomes a “nitrosamine” which is a potent class of carcinogen. It has also been linked to hair loss. SLES is sometimes disguised with the labeling “comes from coconut” or "coconut-derived”.
• Toluene - Harmful if swallowed or inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Made from petroleum or coal tar and found in most synthetic fragrances. Chronic exposure linked to anemia, lowered blood cell count, liver or kidney damage, and may affect a developing fetus. Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) contains toluene. Other names may include benzoic and benzyl.
• Dioxane - Found in compounds known as “PEG,” “polyethylene,” “polyethylene glycol,” “polyoxyethylene,” “polyethoxyethylene,” or “polyoxynolethylene”. Exposure to Dioxane can result in liver and kidney damage and death. Inhaling low amounts can cause eye and nose irritation. The compounds are usually contaminated with high concentrations of highly volatile 1,4-dioxane, easily absorbed through the skin. Dioxane’s carcinogenicity was first reported in 1965 and later confirmed in studies including one from the National Cancer Institute in 1978. Dioxane is easily removed during the manufacturing process by “vacuum stripping”. Warning: It is a synthetic derivative of coconut. Watch for hidden language on labels, such as “comes from coconut”.