How to Keep a Healthy Skin at Home

Our skin is our first and best defense against viruses. It is the protective barrier between the outside and the inside of the body, preventing the invasion of external aggressors like bacteria, viruses and other harmful substances. That’s why it’s important to keep your skin healthy. When its condition is compromised, your body becomes vulnerable to foreign pathogens or infectious agents.

Not only does a healthy skin barrier protect you from external aggressors, it helps prevent moisture loss to keep skin supple and hydrated. When there is moisture loss, dehydrated skin cells shrink up, causing the skin to look unhealthy and lifeless. Hydration gives skin a soft and elastic feel, and applying moisturizer creates a barrier on top of the skin, sealing in all of that hydration and preventing it from disappearing. An effective way to boost hydration is with the use of skincare ingredients known as humectants, which attract water and draw it into skin cells. Oats, for example, contain humectant properties that keep skin feeling soft and hydrated. To moisturize skin, seek out emollient ingredients. Emollients help diminish water loss and make skin feel smooth and soft.1

Constant disinfection is definitely necessary especially nowadays, but increased frequency of washing and sanitizing is causing dry, irritated skin. It disrupts the skin barrier function. In this time of over disinfection, we need to strengthen our skin’s first line of defense – our microbiome​. Your skin microbiome (also called skin microbiota) is an ecosystem of bacteria on the skin's surface. It works to guard you against pathogens that could affect your skin and overall health. A balanced microbiome helps keep your skin’s health and immunity; it makes your skin look and feel healthy.2 Excessive washing and sanitizing can upset that balance. Maintaining your skin’s optimum pH supports its natural defenses and helps it do its job of protecting the body, making it more resilient and less sensitive.

Sensitive skin can be induced by stress. It elicits generation of free radicals that breaks down your skin barrier, making your skin more susceptible to inflammation. When stress increases your body's production of cortisol (a.k.a. the stress hormone) and disrupts your skin barrier, it allows irritants to get in and moisture to get out. This often acts as a trigger for skin conditions like dryness and eczema.3

Choosing the right products for your skin could make or break its ability to be an effective barrier. It is best to use products that are clinically proven to improve skin microbiome balance, for a stronger skin barrier​. AVEENO® Skin Relief has prebiotic ingredient that helps to maintain a healthy skin pH with extra wash and sanitization on your skin​. AVEENO® Skin Relief Body Wash has a fragrance-free formula that gently cleanses and moisturizes to help soothe itchy, dry skin. The unique formula contains soothing oatmeal, to help moisturize and relieve dryness. Emollients replenish moisture for softer, smoother, healthier-looking skin--even after you rinse. Use AVEENO® Skin Relief Lotion immediately after each hand wash to prevent skin dryness and roughness. It is rich yet fast absorbing and can last through hand washing​.

Achieve a healthy skin with these two easy steps:

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1https://www.aveeno.com/skin-mind-balance/skin-happy/hydrating-vs-moisturizing-what-know-healthy-happy-skin
2https://www.aveeno.com/skin-mind-balance/skin-happy/why-your-skin-microbiome-so-important-your-health
3https://www.aveeno.com/skin-mind-balance/holistic-health/8-surprising-health-benefits-yoga