Healthy tips to protect skin in winter

It’s a well-known fact that our skin requires more care during the winter season than ever before. What happens to our skin during winter? During winter the skin’s barrier is disrupted due to the fluctuation in the air quality for e.g., cold air outside, hot air inside, and dry air everywhere. This kind of climate results in dry and itchy skin for everyone and worsens pre-existing skin conditions, especially in patients suffering from eczema and psoriasis.  

Dry skin loses its ability to carry out basic functions such as temperature regulations, gas exchange, protection against pathogens, and barrier function to maintain proper hydration. When this dryness becomes more severe, it can cause inflammation and superficial skin cracking, leading to unpleasant itching, stinging, and general discomfort. 

Here are a few tips:

1. Follow proper bathing measures 

• Use warm rather than hot water.
• Reduce bathing time; not to exceed 5-10 minutes 
  Use a gentle and fragrance-free cleanser.
• Avoid using a cleanser in large quantities to remove oil and dirt. Apply as much to form a thin lather rather than a thick lather.
• Wipe your body gently dry with a towel 
   

2. Apply moisturizer immediately after bathing

It is crucial to retain our body’s natural moisture levels by applying ointments, creams, and lotions (moisturizers). Therefore, to maintain and enhance this much-needed moisture of the skin, you need to apply a moisturizer within a few minutes of:

• Drying off after a shower or bath
• Washing your face or hands 

Choose an ointment or cream rather than a lotion 

Choosing the right moisturizer becomes crucial to avoid irritation and further damage to the skin, hence ointments and creams should be considered over lotions. When it comes to relieving dryness of the hands, use a non-greasy hand cream each time after washing your hands

Use lip balm 

Using a good lip balm helps your lips from cracking and peeling  

• Use only gentle, fragrance-free skin care products
• Some skin care products, such as deodorant soaps, are too harsh for dry, sensitive skin.  

Wear gloves 

Wearing gloves can reduce dryness, especially while:

• Going outdoors  
• Doing any task that requires you to get your hands wet 

Moisturizers are important as they perform several protective functions to maintain healthy skin. Here are a few benefits:

Moisturizing/Hydrating skin 

Moisturizers increase the skin’s water content, thereby causing hydration and smoothness of the skin surface. It also makes the skin surface soft and elastic. The moisturizing action of emollients is evident a maximum of 30 min–1 h after their use and usually lasts for 4 h.

Anti-inflammatory action 

Many moisturizers block the production of pro-inflammatory chemicals and thus have a soothing effect on inflamed skin

Antimitotic action 

Mineral oils present in the moisturizers have some antimitotic action on the skin which thus makes them useful in inflammatory conditions such as psoriasis

Anti-itching action  

Emollients reduce the inflammation-causing chemicals in the body thus reducing itching. Apart from the anti-itch effect it also has a cooling effect following the evaporation of water from the skin surface after using water-based moisturizers

Photoprotective action 

Moisturizers with sun protection factor are available for better skin health

Other benefits: 

• Improving patients: quality of life by maintaining healthy, smooth, hydrated skin. Such healthy skin plays a good role in our social life and psychological satisfaction
• Antimicrobial action: Act against skin surface microbes 
  Wound healing: Hyaluronic acid is known to play a role. 

An ideal moisturizer should:

• Reduce and prevent further water loss from the skin to avoid dryness
• Restore lipid barrier or natural oils to enhance the skin's moisturizing retention mechanisms
• Must have low or no allergic reaction, non-sensitizing, fragrance-free and non-comedogenic
• It should be absorbed immediately, providing an immediate hydrating effect