Skin Health Tips
Read these 19 Skin Health Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Healthy tips and hundreds of other topics.
Benefits of Honey
Honey has historically has been used to help soothe and heal minor burns and wounds. RAW HONEY is recommended for burns, especially.
Honey's secret? The sweet stuff draws moisture to the surface of skin where it is applied. ONLY suggested for minor scratches or burns, insect bites and little ouchies. Punctures, cuts and deep burns need to be treated by your physician who may also endorse honey.
Thyme Astringent
Thyme can be used to make a good astringent for acne or other break-outs. Boil a sprig of fresh thyme (or a pinch of dried) in 2 cups of water for two minutes. Leave to infuse for five minute. Add the juice of half a lemon and rinse the skin with this several times a day. Refrigerate unused portions.
Oatmeal baths can relieve itching
Your skin is the largest organ on your body. Rashes, eruptions, and itches are indication the skin is helping your body remove toxins or other problems. For itching, you might try an oatmeal bath.
Use oatmeal soap which can be purchased at craft or specialty shops. If you can't find any, while you are at the craft shop, pick up a block of glycerin soap. This can be melted down in a double boiler or the microwave. Add pulverized oatmeal (put dry oatmeal flakes into the blender and turn it into a coarse flour.) to the melted glycerine soap. It will be set up in a few hours and ready for a shower.
OR: mix some pulverized oatmeal into a small amount of baby wash and use as a shower gel.
OR: Bring two quarts of water to a boil. Add 1/4 cup of oatmeal. Remove from heat and allow the oat meal to steep till cool enough to touch. Then, strain the oatmeal out of the water. Dilute the water five to one and bathe with the water or pour it into a bathtub of warm (98%) not hot, water for a bath.
I make soap and have added oatmeal to the soap for relief from poison ivy rashes. It can help, but stay in touch with your physician if rashes don't go away. Getting relief from itching is only treating a symptom.
Itchy Hives / Urticaria
Urticaria, also known as hives, are raised, very itchy lumps or patches on the skin surrounded by inflamed areas, often appearing on the limbs and trunk. An attack of urticaria normally lasts for an hour or so but, in some cases, the disorder becomes chronic or recurrent. A major cause of urticaria is allergic reaction
For prevention: try to determine the substances that cause allergic reactions in you and avoid them as best as you can.
Take incidents of hives VERY seriously and consult your physician when they begin to become recurrent.
Relief for Skin Irritations
I have found that an ointment made with chickweed or calendula petals helpful for relief and healing of skin eruptions.
A simple mixture of either herb with clean water will make a solution to apply to disturbed skin.
Creams made from calendula petals are often available at sources for baby products
Skin tells of other problems
Are you suffering from mysterious rashes, eruptions and itching that are hard for your physician to identify? Remember your skin is the largest organ of your body and itching indicates the skin is trying to maintain health in your body.
For a solution, try to think of recent changes in your environment. Have you begun eating large amounts of one food? Have you changed detergents? Has your water source become contaminated? Have you been exposed to toxins?
The answers to these questions may solve the mystery of your misery. In other tips, there are some suggestions for topical treatments which may help the itching while you are seeking a solution.
Black tea for your itch!
Resins in the leaves of poison ivy, sumac or oak can cause allergic rashes. Right after exposure, avoid touching other areas of the body, especially around the eyes and spreading the resin. Wash the skin thoroughly to remove the irritating oil, using soap and lots of water. BLACK TEA BAGS work well for itches. Just dunk a bag in a scant cup of hot water for several minutes, cool, then apply the tea bag to the rash. The tannic acid will contract inflamed tissue and relieve itching.
Facial Steam
Make a bowl of boiling water.
Put your face over it about 2 inches with a towel over your head and the bowl to keep the steam in.
This is a quick way to open pores for deep clean.
Chickweed relief for itching
A bath with tisane or tea made using chickweed can bring relief to itching from insect bites and itching which can accompany mysterious rashes or skin eruptions. Chickweed is considered a refrigerant or a cooling herb and is very good at soothing itching misery.
I like to use a balm made with chickweed as the primary herbal ingredient.
cayenne pepper to block to the pain
Cayenne Pepper (capsicum.spp)contains pain blocking capsaicin. When applied to the skin, capsaicin interferes with the body's perception of pain by depleting the body's pain messenger, known as substance P. While the condition causing the pain remains, the perception of pain is blocked. CAUTION: Wash hands thoroughly after using a capsaicin cream and avoid touching the eyes or mucous membranes. Do Not Use Capsaicin Cremes on BROKEN/INJURED Skin.
Coconut Oil for your skin
Coconut oil is the most easily absorbed oil by the skin and hair. Its great for dry and flaky skin. Try rubbing some on some dry patches.
Boils - prevention
*Bathe or shower at least once a day to keep your body clean.
*Avoid scratching an itch, as infection may set in if the skin breaks.
*Apply antiseptic lotion (e.g., cetrimide or acriflavine) on broken skin to prevent infection.
*Wash your hands or any other part of the body with soap and water if it comes into contact with an oozing boil.
ECZEMA - prevention
Eczema is a skin rash or inflammation characterized by blistering, cracking, itching, oozing, redness, or scaling. The skin often becomes thick and discolored due to constant scratching. Eczema is common, recurrent, and sometimes persistent, but it is not contagious. Most affected children usually outgrow the condition by puberty.
Try to determine the substances that cause allergic reactions or skin irritation in you and avoid them as best as you can.
Wart Prevention
Avoid skin contact with another person's wart. Do not use the footwear of a person with a plantar wart.
Do not walk around barefoot in public showers, locker rooms, poolside, and on moist soil.
Wrinkle Serum
Wrinkle Serum -
For the eye and neck areas
1 1/2 tsp. glycerin
2 TBS. apricot kernel oil
2 TBS. sesame oil
30 drops jojoba oil
3 drops nerioli oil
2 drops ylang-ylang oil
2 drops spearmint oil
Combine the oils in an amber jar preferably with a dropper top. Shake well and apply one drop and massage around the eye area, careful to not get into the eye. Use more generously in your neck area.
Apply every night.
DIY facial mask
After you clean your face, apply honey and leave it on for two or three minutes until sticky. Then, gently press in and snap out your fingers on your face. The honey will clean out your pores, so they seem to shrink and you can more easily get blackheads out.
Dry/cracked fingers and hands
Switching soaps can fix this problem. Anti-bacterial soaps can often aid in the splitting of hands and fingers. Using regular hand soap will help. Other possible solutions include glycerin, petroleum jelly, medicated chest rubs, and creams and lotions containing vitamin E and lanolin.
Unknown Skin Rashes
Many people get skin rashes and are unable to figure out the cause. Creams, lotions and medication don't always work. The most common cause of skin rashes is over looked. Most physicians think of detergents and soaps but not the actual fabrics as being skin irritants. Wool, polyester and acrylic are known for causing itchy skin and rashes. Cotton is natural and easy on the skin!
| Guru Spotlight |
| Christina Chan |
