Suffering from Dry Skin? Let’s Break Down Why!
Emily Chau, Acupuncturist
Winter is a time of dryness, with indoor heating and more time spent inside comes flaky skin, dry hands, and dry feet. This year, you may have even noticed the chapped hands earlier with our extra vigilance to wash and sanitize our hands. scaly skin is an annoyance, at worst it can be painful and affect your quality of sleep. So how can we combat this seasonal problem?
Addressing external dryness can be done relatively quickly by drinking more water and using a humidifier in the room you spend the most time in and/or your bedroom. Additional things you can do are to exfoliate your skin regularly with a body scrub and moisturize after bathing.
In Chinese medicine, dry skin can be caused by external or internal factors. External factors like the lack of moisture in the air can cause moisture from our bodies to evaporate more quickly. Dryness can also occur when our body does not bring enough moisture to the of our skin. Moisture is circulated in our bodies by Blood and Qi (energy). In the winter, Blood and Qi go deeper into our bodies to maintain our core temperature. When this happens, we can be more prone to dry skin since there is less moisture brought to the skin .
A neat trick I use to care for my chapped hands and bring moisture to my skin is to moisturize my hands with cream or an ointment before going to bed and putting on a pair of cotton gloves/mitts or socks while sleeping. The cotton covering keeps the moisturizer from rubbing off and keeps my hands warm and blood circulating to the fingertips. In the morning, my hands are soft and supple. Regular cardio exercise and body brushing are also helpful to encourage circulation in the extremities and of the skin.
If those tricks don’t work, you may have internal dryness. Signs of internal dryness may include itchy skin, chapped lips, eczema, constipation, retention of urine, or loss of hair. Internal dryness occurs when there is not enough blood or fluids in your body or there is not enough Qi/energy to circulate the blood and fluids. If this is the case, additional nutrition, herbs, or acupuncture may be necessary.
This recipe for steamed Asian pear works great for mild cases of internal dryness. It’s simple to make and delicious even if you don’t have dry skin.
Steamed Asian Pear (serves two)
Ingredients:
1 Asian pear
2 tsp honey
Directions:
- Peel and cut pear in half, removing core.
- Place pear halves in heat-proof bowl or deep plate and put a teaspoon of honey in each empty core.
- Place bowl or plate in pot with 1/2 inch of water. Steam for about 10 mins or until pear is soft.
- Remove bowl or plate from pot and eat pear with juice produced.