When I was trekking through the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, I hardly recognized my own skin. It was as supple and plump as a child’s. No hint of rough skin. You see, it’s just about impossible to become dehydrated in a rainforest.
Unfortunately, we can’t all live in the rainforest. We live in much drier climates. And we spend most of our days indoors. That means artificial air conditioning and central heating. It takes a terrible toll on your skin.
In fact, more than 90% of the patients I see here at the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine have some degree of dehydration. It’s one of the primary reasons for tired looking skin and wrinkles. That’s why dehydration can quickly make you look years older than you really are.
Now, when I talk about dehydration I’m not talking about dry skin. They’re two different things. If your skin type is “dry” it means your sebaceous glands produce relatively little healthy oils. Having a dry skin type can be part of your genetic makeup. You’re generally that way for life.
Dehydrated skin on the other hand is a temporary condition. Even people with an oily skin type can be dehydrated from time to time. When that happens, your skin can feel itchy, tight and scaly.
Most people reach for a moisturizer to get rid of the dryness. But that may just make it worse. Here’s why.
Your Skin Needs Oil To Seal In Moisture
Your skin is made up of about 30% water.1 Most of that moisture is stored in the two lower layers of skin. The top layer – the epidermis – can’t draw down into those layers to take up moisture. The only way moisture travels up to the epidermis is when it’s carried there by new cells pushing up into the top layer.
Once those new cells bring moisture up, the epidermis must lock it in. Your skin produces a film of water and oil to seal in the moisture. It’s called the “hydro-lipid barrier.”
When the hydro-lipid barrier breaks down, water evaporates too quickly from the epidermis. And your skin becomes dehydrated.
Too much exposure to harsh winds or intense sun can strip the protective hydro-lipid barrier.
Your diet can also sap moisture. Dry processed foods, too much sodium, and excessive alcohol and caffeine will all leave you dehydrated.
Medications like diuretics, and cold and flu remedies will also dry out your skin.
What do you do? Using the wrong moisturizer can make dehydration worse. Here’s what really works.
How To Lock In Your Skin’s Moisture
I advise my patients at the clinic to follow a simple two-part strategy to banish dehydration.
First, drink water to moisturize your skin from the inside out. It insures that the deep layers of your skin have the moisture needed to produce new cells that hydrate the epidermis.
Second, ditch moisturizers that make dehydrated skin worse.
While drinking water is a good strategy for improving skin hydration, applying water to the skin is not. Many inexpensive moisturizers in drug stores contain a high percentage of water. That water just sits on top of your skin and quickly evaporates. It can leave your skin feeling worse instead of better.
Dehydrated skin calls for products that replenish moisture but don’t add water. That means your moisturizer must contain an emollient.
Emollients are ingredients added to moisturizers to seal in the skin’s natural moisture. Natural emollients include cocoa butter, shea butter, aloe vera, and yucca.
In my Pure Radiance products I often add hyaluronic acid as an emollient. HA is a natural compound found in every tissue of your body. It can hold 1,000 times its own weight in water so it won’t let precious moisture escape from your skin. And it puts back the water your skin loses with age.2
It can help give you that youthful rainforest skin.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
1. Barry M. Popkin et al, Water Hydration and Health, Nutr Rev. 2010 August; 68(8): 439–458. Pubmed 2908954
2. Price RD, Berry MG, Navsaria HA. “Hyaluronic Acid: The Scientific and Clinical Evidence.” J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg. 2007 Apr 25 Pubmed 17466613