Most of us make an effort to take care of our skin to some extent. We cleanse, exfoliate and moisturize, and even try to work in a facial now and then. But we often neglect or overlook one of the most important things we can do to promote glowing healthy skin—hydration!
As the largest organ in your body, your skin relies on plenty of fluids to do its job. In addition to making you look great, your skin performs multiple functions:
- Protection: Your skin acts as a barrier, providing protection from trauma, temperature changes, micro-organisms, radiation and chemicals.
- Regulation: Your skin serves to regulate body temperature via sweat and hair, regulates superficial blood circulation, and promotes fluid balance through perspiration. It also acts as a reservoir for the synthesis of Vitamin D.
- Sensation: Your skin provides an extensive network of nerve cells that detect and relay changes in the environment, sending feedback to your brain about heat, cold, touch, and pain.
How Dehydration Affects Skin
Your skin is hydrated from within, based on the amount of available fluids circulating through your body. It has to compete for fluids with muscles, blood cells, nerves and brain tissue to maintain optimal hydration. Dry skin is not necessarily a sign of dehydration, but rather lack of oil. Dehydrated skin on the other hand looks dull and saggy, and feels thin and lifeless.
To tell if your skin is dehydrated, pinch the back of your hand and pull upward, then release. If your skin snaps back quickly, it is well hydrated. If it is slow to return to its original shape, your skin may be dehydrated, a condition clinically known as turgor.
Think about the plump smooth skin of a healthy baby, free of wrinkles and elastic to the touch. By contrast, when your skin is dehydrated, it may look saggy and wrinkly, causing you to look tired and haggard.
All body tissues receive fluid through your blood steam, and a well-hydrated body is about 70% water. Water circulates within and among your cells, bringing with it nutrients and carrying away waste and toxins. Without the proper exchange of nutrients, water and waste, your cells cease to function and eventually die.
Apart from failing to drink enough water, other things contribute the dehydrated skin, including:
- Drinking alcohol and caffeine
- Perspiration
- Medications
- Dry central heat and air conditioning
- Poor diet, including too much sodium, too little healthy fat, too much sugar and not enough vegetables
- Cigarette smoking
- Drying skin care products to control acne
- Physical inactivity that reduces blood (and hence water) flow to skin cells
No matter how many skin care products you buy, or how much you try to avoid the sun, if you are dehydrated, your skin will suffer and so will your appearance.
Improve Hydration for Beautiful Skin
In addition to changing your lifestyle to include physical activity and a healthy diet, you can improve your skin’s hydration status by upping your intake of daily filtered water. As a rule of thumb, drink one ounce of water daily for every two pounds of body weight.
For a rapid intervention to bring your skin’s hydration level up to par while adding an extra large dose of skin-healing nutrients, micronutrient IV therapy offers an effective and immediate solution. In about an hour, you can infuse your dehydrated cells with cooling fluids and electrolytes, plus Vitamin C, B12 and other essential nutrients to give your skin a youthful radiant glow.
Skin Hydration Therapy in NYC
If your skin is looking dull, lifeless and saggy, help is just around the corner at Advanced Cryo NYC in the heart of SoHo.
Try our Natural Beauty micronutrient cocktail to give your skin, hair and nails a revitalizing dose of mega-nutrients and hydrating fluids. And be sure to ask about CryoFacial and other skin care treatments included in our expanding menu of therapies for younger healthier skin.
