Top Ten Skin Tips

Best Psoriasis Skin Care Tips

Let’s look at the top ten skin tips when it comes to psoriasis. There are many different ways you can treat your skin when you have psoriasis, but here are some of my favorite skin care tips. Drugs and petrochemical based skin care preparations aren’t the only way to care for your skin when you have psoriasis, there are many diferent natural approaches, including natural skin care creams, ointments, lotions and various moisturizers you can use, besides many different lifestyle changes. These will all help to make your skin feel and look a lot better, without fear of any long-term side effects. Try these tips to calm psoriasis flare-ups, remove scale, promote healing, and soothe itchy, inflamed skin.

1. Protect your skin from your fingernails. It is very easy to scratch your skin when you have lesions, because you don’t even think about it and subconsciously scratch when it is itchy. When you are awake, it is easier to catch yourself scratching. But did you know that people scratch themselves at night in bed too?

2. Wear gloves at night in bed. As strange as it sounds, if you have quite severe lesions, wearing light cotton gloves to bed at night can stop you from waking up with weeping and irritated wounds in the morning. If you notice psoriatic lesions on your arms, wear suitable clothing that makes it hard for nail on skin contact. If you wear tank tops or loose short sleeves, it is too easy to scratch.

3. Keep your fingernails short. This may seem logical, but I often find patients with psoriasis with long fingernails. Longer nails will mean that it becomes easy to scratch your skin and break the surface, leaving you more prone to infections and scarring. Itching with short nails will help and prevent infections.

4. Don’t let your skin get too dry. if the skin is dry it becomes itchy, dry, and scaly. It is one of the most overlooked triggers. Keep your skin moisturised to control flare-ups and keep your psoriasis at bay. Apply moisturisers after showers, bath, or you have been spending a lot of time submerged in water. Water actually sucks moisture from the skin, adding a moisturiser will lock in the moisture and keep your skin well hydrated. If you feel a skin itch coming on, try not to scratch but instead try to moisturise the area instead and see if that helps. A wet wrap can really help relieve some of that pain and inflammation associated with your psoriasis. Simply wet a cotton face cloth and place it on the skin lesion for a few minutes to feel instant relief. Aloe vera gel, fresh or a commercial product, can feel fantastic when added to this cloth. Try the cloth treatment FIRST before scratching, you may be pleasantly surprised.

5. Moisturise your skin using natural products. One of the key ways to keep your skin in top shape if you have psoriasis is to moisturise it, and the best moisturisers are natural products and are in addition they are low in their allergenic potential as they are made without any ingredients which could cause an immune reaction like those chemical concoctions doctors and skin specialists often prescribe. Be careful using chemically derived products as recommended by your medical doctor, dermatologist or drug store (pharmacy) because most are made from petroleum derived raw materials. Moisturizing your skin will help to prevent needless breakouts. Moisturize and apply lotion to your skin on a regular basis to keep that dry skin at bay.

6. Change your diet and follow the Psoriasis Diet. It is important to incorporate plenty of fresh produce into your diet. Eating fresh and healthy will help to give the body the right nutrition it needs, and will ensure that your skin is nourished and supplied with most of the essential nutrients it needs to rebuild healthy tissue. Proteins such as fresh fish and fresh nuts such as Brazil and walnuts all contain essential fatty acids which the skin cells need to reduce inflammation, lock in the moisture, keep out the dirt and bacteria as well as optimize their appearance and function.

7. Spend some time in the sun. Sunlight can help some, but be careful not to over do it. Sunburn can make your problem worse. Best time to be in the sun is before 10.00am and after 2.00pm. Only stay in for short periods of time.

8. Wash your skin with a specially formulated mild “non-soap” cleanser that contains only herbal ingredients that are organically grown and hypoallergenic. Commercially produced soaps and shampoos are not good for those with psoriasis and your are best to avoid them. Try goat’s milk soap or a soap containing coconut oil. I advise my customers to become a “label reader” as this is vitally important. Choose only a specially formulated therapeutic body cream for the much thicker patches psoriasis often forms. It should be a very thick cream with a very rich emollient level. It should also contain the vitamins C, A and E as well as soothing Chamomile, Comfrey and Calendula Herbal Extracts and Shea Butter.

9. Wear natural fibers whenever possible. I have noticed that psoriasis patients appear to fare the best when they wear cotton or natural fibers like merino wool (sheep) or hemp fiber close to their skin. Wearing artificial materials like nylon or nylon/cotton blends can increase skin itching because these materials can’t “breathe” as well as the more natural fibers can, particularly with underclothing like singlets and briefs.

10. Urea cream is one of the best psoriasis creams to use. The urea we are talking about is not the urea found in fertilizers, as some may think. Urea is a compound naturally found in every cell in the human body and has been proven in various clinical medical studies to be of an anti-fungal and anti-microbial nature. Urea cream promotes fast healing of conditions that are so well known to be associated with psoriasis, namely dry cracked split and irritated skin. Research has shown that urea has fantastic hydrating properties and can increase the skin’s water content over 95%, much more so than any other natural substance known. Urea is non-toxic, non-allergenic, colorless and odorless. A good quality urea cream gives your skin the ability to attract and hold moisture from the atmosphere, pushing it back into your skin’s cells. Ask your doctor or skin specialist for the best urea cream they have, and combine the usage of this wonderful healing agent with the other suggestions to optimize the outcome of your psoriasis skin treatment regime.