Importance of your skin's pH.

Written by Danny Siegenthaler


Natural Skin Care – The importance of your Skin’s pH

Our skin’s functions are too many to go through here in detail, however it protects our ‘insides’ fromrepparttar external environment, acting both as a barrier and a filter between ‘outside’ and ‘inside’.

The skin helps in regulating our body’s temperature, like when we have a fever or we’re physically working hard, we tend to sweat, which isrepparttar 134957 body’s way to attempt to lowerrepparttar 134958 temperature.

Our skin also protects us from harmful substances entering our body, and it eliminates many toxins. This takes workload off our Liver and Kidneys to filter out by-products from our body’s metabolism. The skin also breathes!

The pores of our skin are made up of a combination of oil and sweat glands (sebaceous and sudoriferous glands) helping to keep our skin healthy and elastic. An excessive sebum secretion is often associated with oily skin and acne. This is particularly common in adolescents asrepparttar 134959 increased levels of sex hormones stimulate sebum production and secretion. When in balance,repparttar 134960 combined excretion of oil and sweat fromrepparttar 134961 skin’s pores has a pH of about 5.5.

This slightly acidic layer, also referred to asrepparttar 134962 “Acid Mantle”, is our body’s first defence mechanism against bacteria invading it and is not a favourable environment bacterial growth to occur. This defence layer develops at puberty, which is why children are more susceptible to disease, viruses and fungal infections such are ringworm. The pH of children’s skin is closer to neutral (pH 7).

At puberty, however, we start to produce more hair on our bodies. Hair follicles have an associated sebaceous gland or glands which become active as hair growth increases, causing changes inrepparttar 134963 skin’s pH. The hormones that control sweat also become active andrepparttar 134964 whole surface of a teenager’s skin is totally different to that of a young child. This is our body’s way to increase our defence system.

The pH of normal, healthy human skin is somewhere between 4.5 and 6. However, this varies with age. Typically, newborns have a pH closer to neutral (pH 7) that quickly turns acidic in order to protect young children’s skin.

Inrepparttar 134965 late teens to early 20’s, our Acid Mantle is well developed and provides good protection against potentially harmful, external environmental factors. Our skin usually looks healthy, heals quickly when injured and seems to take care of itself.

With increasing age however,repparttar 134966 skin’s pH becomes more and more neutral, and thus more susceptible to bacterial growth. This reduced acidity kills fewer bacteria than before, leavingrepparttar 134967 skin susceptible to bacterial growth and infections. The skin weakens as a result and begins developing problems with increasing age. (Interestingly,repparttar 134968 pH value rises beyond 6 when a person actually suffers from a skin problem or skin disease.)

The aging process ofrepparttar 134969 skin causes biochemical changes in collagen and elastin,repparttar 134970 connective tissues underlyingrepparttar 134971 skin, which giverepparttar 134972 skin its firmness (collagen) and elasticity (elastin). The rates of loss of skin firmness and elasticity differs from individual to individual, depending on their genetic makeup, general health, over exposure torepparttar 134973 sun, skin care regime, or lack there of, and other factors.

Asrepparttar 134974 skin becomes less elastic, it also becomes drier;repparttar 134975 underlying fatty tissue begins to disappear resulting inrepparttar 134976 skin beginning to sag. Our skin is less supple, and wrinkles begin to form. At this stage, our skin is more easily injured, heals more slowly and tends to dry out more quickly. As outlined above,repparttar 134977 skin’s pH is important and maintaining a slightly acidic pH of around 5.5 is critical.

SUN DAMAGE: A MAJOR CAUSE OF WRINKLING AND PREMATURE AGING

Written by Valerie Goettsch


Most of us loverepparttar warmth ofrepparttar 134934 sun, but over exposure can cause significant damage to our skin. The sun's ultraviolet rays (UV) can cause our skin to dry out and lose essential oils and decades of tanning, burning and over exposure torepparttar 134935 sun may cause changes in our skin's structure.

Unprotected skin exposed torepparttar 134936 sun can gradually lose essential oils, making it dry, flaky and prematurely wrinkled. Repeated episodes of sunburn, although they appear to heal onrepparttar 134937 surface, can lead to permanent skin damage over time.

Excessive over exposure torepparttar 134938 sun can cause changes inrepparttar 134939 skin's collagen called photoaging. These changes can takerepparttar 134940 form of wrinkles and fine lines, decreased skin elasticity (sagging skin), or a thickened skin textured. UV radiation can damagerepparttar 134941 collagen that supportsrepparttar 134942 walls ofrepparttar 134943 skin's blood vessels, causing them to be more fragile. A symptom of this is easy bruising on sun-exposed areas such asrepparttar 134944 back of hands.

Overrepparttar 134945 years, repeated sunburns and unprotected exposure torepparttar 134946 sun can increaserepparttar 134947 risk of skin cancers including basal cell and malignant melanoma and other types of skin cancers..

Prevention isrepparttar 134948 key to avoiding photoaging and more serious skin damage. Here are some ways you can protect your skin fromrepparttar 134949 harmful UV rays:

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