Normal skin owes its soft, supple texture to its water content. For skin to feel soft, pliable, and "normal," its top layer must contain a minimum of 10 percent water Ñ and ideally from 20 percent to 35 percent. To help protect the outer layer of skin from abnormal water loss, the skin’s sebaceous glands produce an oily substance called sebum. Sebum is a complex mixture of fatty acids, sugars, waxes and other natural chemicals that form a protective barrier against water evaporation. If some internal or external factor depletes the skin’s layer of sebum, the skin loses water and feels "dry".
Dry skin is itchy and flaky and usually looks slightly more wrinkled than normal. Whether on our face, body, hands or feet, dry skin has a general uncomfortable feeling and tightness especially after shaving or washing. Dry skin looks older as its rough, dull surface does not reflect the light very effectively. It can peel, flake and look scaly and lined. Invisible (and in extreme cases visible) cracks and fissures can develop that can allow harmful bacteria and other irritants in.
Most of us will experience dry skin later in life. About 85% of older people develop winter itch due to dry, overheated indoor air. The loss of sweat and oil glands as we age can also worsen dry skin. Anything that further dries the skin (such as overuse of soaps, antiperspirants, perfumes, or hot baths,) will make the problem worse. Dry itchy skin can also be a symptom of a disease such as diabetes or kidney disease, so if dry itchy skin persists, see a physician.
Factors Influencing Dry Skin. Most cases of dry skin are related to one or more of the following factors:
Loss of existing sebum
This is usually due to lifestyle factors, such as excessive bathing or showering, excessive scrubbing of the skin while washing, or use of harsh soaps that dissolve the protective layer of sebum. In some cases, the result is a "total body" problem, especially among school athletes who shower several times a day. In other cases, commonly work-related, dry skin affects only the hands Ñ for example, in healthcare workers, food handlers, house cleaners, homemakers and others who frequently wash their hands.
Decreased production of sebum
One of the effects of ageing is that the number of sebaceous glands in the skin tends to decrease. With fewer sebaceous glands, less sebum is produced. With less sebum, the body’s ability to retain water is reduced. This inability to retain water is why older skin tends to be dryer, and itches more, than younger skin. Many older people suffer from dry skin particularly on their lower legs, elbows, and forearms. The skin feels rough and scaly and often is accompanied by a distressing, intense itchiness. Aging may also produce a decrease in blood flow to the skin causing a further drop in sebum production.
Environmental conditions can overwhelm the skin’s natural protective barrier, causing water to evaporate more skin quickly causing the shrivel, ITCH and CRACK. This can cause facial wrinkles to look worse than they are.
Low humidity caused by overheating during the winter and air conditioning during the summer also contributes to dryness and itching. This is an important reason for dry skin among people who live in sun-baked desert climates, especially in parts of the southwestern United States. Excessively dry indoor air can also cause dry skin and "winter itch" in the northern United States, particularly in people who use "forced air" heating systems.
The most common treatment for dry skin is the use of moisturizers. You want a moisturizer to accomplish two things for you: First to act as a barrier on the skin to reduce moisture loss to help stop the itching associated with dry skin and secondly to smooth over fine wrinkles that go along with dry skin.
All moisturizers work the same way-they trap water that’s inside the skin, as opposed to adding moisture from the outside. Moisturizers help seal things off and help keeps your own skins moisture from evaporating. Moisturizers are made of some combination of oil and water. The skin does not absorb moisture or oil from the moisturizer itself. The more oil you have, the more occlusive the moisturizer (and the greater the ability) to trap water underneath it. The more water it has, the lighter and easier to rub in. So use the heaviest lotion you’re comfortable with. The greasier it is, the better. The better job it will do at trapping moisture. Moisturizers have two basic types of ingredients to help prevent water loss most often used in
combination to help reduce dry skin. These are emollients and water-binding agents.
Emollients are supple, wax like, lubricating and thickening agents such as petroleum jelly and oils that are critical for making skin not feel dry. They coat and protect the skin, prevent water loss and have a softening and soothing effect on the skin. In skin care products these substances resemble those the skin manufactures for itself. Overall, emollients create the fundamental base and texture of a moisturizer and impart a creamy, smooth feel on the skin. They can be natural, like plant oils; manufactured, like silicones; or processed from a natural substance, like mineral oil.
Water Binding Agents (ingredients that attract water to the skin and help keep it there) and Natural Moisturizing Factors (NMFs) are general terms that refer to ingredients capable of keeping water in the skin or repairing the skin’s intercellular matrix (fundamental external structure). One of the primary elements in keeping skin healthy is making sure the structure of the epidermis (outer layer of skin) is intact. The intercellular matrix is the "glue" within the skin that keep skin cells together, helps prevent individual skin cells from losing water, and creates the smooth, non-flaky appearance of skin. Once skin is irritated, over cleansed, exposed to the sun, or dehydrated by air conditioning or heaters the integrity of the skin is compromised. That means the substances that keep the skin cells bound together to create the surface structure we see as skin (the intercellular matrix) have been depleted. This can allow irritation to penetrate deeper into the skin, allow bacteria
in and can compromise the skins’ immune/healing system.
While we have discussed the pro’s and con’s of vitamins and antioxidants elsewhere, there is now a growing body of research that shows antioxidants may have the ability to reduce or prevent some amount of the oxidative damage that destroys and depletes the skin’s function and structure, while also preventing some amount of solar degeneration of skin. All of this is beneficial for cell turnover, healing, and reducing dehydration. Vitamin A (retinyl palmitate and retinol), Vitamin C (Ascorbyl Palmitate and magnesium Ascorbyl Palmitate), and Vitamin E (A-tocopherol, Tocotrienol) are just some of the names of antioxidants you will see listed on skin care product packaging. In fact, the number of skin care products containing vitamins has more than tripled since 1991.
For daytime use a good moisturizer can do double duty by containing a well-formulated sunscreen to provide protection from the sun’s UVA and UVB rays. Any other ingredients are aimed at making a moisturizer have "better slip" (the way it feels) but don’t affect the way the moisturizer actually works.
While dry skin doesn’t wrinkle any faster than oily skin, dry skin does look more wrinkled because moist skin is plumper than dehydrated skin. A man with oily skin has his own built-in moisturizer (remember, that’s basically what moisturizers are: oils or oil-like ingredients and water), which helps the skin look smoother without the aid of a moisturizer. In many cases, a good moisturizer will begin to make your skin look softer and more supple within minutes. So a good all-purpose moisturizer can accomplish a lot. It can reduce the itching associated with dry skin and help smooth over fine wrinkles that go along with it. It can also smooth over wrinkles that have occurred due to photo-ageing, and finally a good moisturizer can prevent further
wrinkling from occurring by containing sunscreen agents that give complete UVA and UVB protection.
Once you begin to take care of your skin properly, the flakiness and itch of dry skin should improve within one or two weeks. However without proper care, dry skin can become a chronic problem. Preventing dry skin is as important as treating it. Once it’s dry, it’s more subject to getting even drier. That’s because dry skin is rough and irregular and has more surface area to lose moisture from than healthy, compact skin. Also, because the skin is a crucial barrier against infection, once the skin becomes dry or cracked, infection can sneak in more easily.
