I won’t win any prizes by telling you that water is incredibly important to our health and wellbeing. I mean, we certainly don’t drink it for the taste! However, as well as playing an integral part in digestion, blood circulation, absorption and excretion, it is also vital to keeping your skin looking its best.
Our skin cells need water just like every other cell in our body. Water enables our skin cells to function properly by delivering much-needed nutrients and providing a vehicle for chemical reactions to take place. Without water our skin cells couldn’t function and the results would impact on the health and appearance of our skin.
Here are some of the benefits of water for our skin:
Hydration
If you don’t drink enough water, your body will start taking the water from your skin cells to ensure your other organs and blood have what they need to function. This will leave your skin looking dry, flaky and more prone to wrinkles. Keep well hydrated to ensure your body has all the water it needs and your skin cells remain plump and hydrated. Water in your skin also increases its elasticity. Elasticity is one of the key characteristics of more youthful skin and makes it less prone to wrinkling.
Stress
Short exposure to cold water can have a relaxing effect on the skin and reduce stress levels. Stress is a major contributing factor to dull, tired looking skin. Take a cold shower to keep your stress levels down.
Skin conditions
Drinking water and locking moisture into your skin with creams is a great way to manage skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema, which are exacerbated by dry, damaged skin cells. Applying cold water to your skin also closes your pores. This reduces the chances of them becoming clogged by oil and dirt, which can lead to acne outbreaks.
Cleanses
Water transports anti-oxidants and other nutrients into your skin to fight off and repair the damage caused by free-radicals and other harmful chemicals. Free-radicals are formed through sun exposure and can damage skin cells leading to sunspots, wrinkles and blemishes.
Water also helps to flush out harmful toxins from skin cells just as it does across your whole body, including the circulatory and digestive systems. Ridding your body of such toxins is important to maintain optimum skin health.
Reduce inflammation
Cold water also reduces redness in the skin by inhibiting blood circulation close to the skin’s surface. Cold-water compresses can also be used to reduce under-eye inflammation and puffiness.
How to get water into your skin
You should try and drink between 6-8 glasses of water a day to ensure your body is getting all that it needs. Remember, if your body is short of water, it will be your skin that suffers first.
Lock in moisture directly by applying moisturizers to your skin after you shower or bathe. Creams with hyaluronic acid are also very good as they absorb a lot more water than traditional moisturizers. Here is my favorite Hyaluronic Acid Serum.
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