Give Your Skin the Brush Off

Give Your Skin the Brush Off
Once again, Happy New Year!  Welcome to 2014!  It’s official: winter is here. January already has a wintry mix of snow, wind, frigid temperatures, harsh winds, and the typical dry air, which can wreak havoc on ordinarily healthy skin. It can be disastrous for already sensitive and dry skin. So what’s the cure?  I think I found a solution: brush off dry skin/ash with the ancient self-massage called Dry Skin Brushing.

I talked in an earlier post about the importance of protecting one’s skin all year. Today, I want to highlight Dry Skin Brushing, an Ayurvedic remedy that is an ancient natural healing technique that helps provide benefits to the skin on the outside as well as the inside.

Spa expert Ronel Corbin,  Senior Vice President for ESPA, provides some insight into dry skin brushing.  Dry skin brushing stimulates the body’s circulation and lymphatic systems.  Corbin says that many naturopathic doctors use dry brushing to help with bloating because massaging the lymph nodes helps the body shed excess water and toxins.

Dry brushing leaves your skin exfoliated and more readily able to excrete toxins through sweat, absorb nutrients you apply with lotions and oils, and help your lymph flow to keep your body healthy. It takes less than 5 minutes.

Ayurvedic texts recommend daily skin brushing to keep the urinary system working correctly, as the skin is known as the third kidney.  Properly conditioned skin will have fewer break-outs and other undesirable skin conditions. The historic theory is to move all toxins in your bloodstream and lymph toward your digestive system to eliminate them from the body.

Helpful Tips:

 Choose a brush with natural fibers.  A handle helps!
Brush skin once a day, ideally before a shower.
Use long, upward strokes toward the heart. Move from feet up to legs, from hands to shoulders upwards on the torso, and use a circular motion around the abdomen.

• Brush several times in each area, overlapping strokes.
• Avoid any broken skin.
• Brushing hard is unnecessary; a gentle exfoliation is better than a rough one.
• Drink plenty of water with lemon to help stimulate your lymphatic system.
• Clean the brush with soap and water.

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Some interesting facts about the skin:

• The skin is the largest and most important eliminative organ in the body, responsible for one-quarter of its daily detoxification.
• The average adult’s skin eliminates over one pound of waste products daily, most of it through the sweat glands.
• The skin receives one-third of all the blood circulated through the body.
• The skin is the last organ to receive nutrients in the body, yet the first to show signs of imbalance or deficiency.

As you consider a new, better you this 2014, don’t brush off this valuable information, which hopefully will help you enjoy healthier skin this winter and beyond!