Skin Care Tips: Dry Brushing

Skin is the largest organ of your body, responsible for eliminating up to 2 pounds of toxins and waste every day. This accounts for about 1/4 of all the body’s detoxification needs. Skin requires 1/3 of all your blood to function properly. Your skin is so important that it is sometimes referred to as the “third kidney.” Because skin is so important to the natural detoxification of the body, keeping it healthy is good for your liver and kidneys, which have less of the burden of cleansing your blood of toxic substances that assault us every day due to pollution, stress, etc.

You may have noticed it is difficult to treat skin conditions by taking medicine orally: that’s because nutrients reach your skin last, and it is often difficult to get enough nutrients or medicine that are orally ingested to the outer reaches of the skin. Therefore, nutrient deficiencies often appear first in your skin’s appearance. That’s why skin creams and topical application is so important when treating many skin conditions.

Therefore, it is important to care for your skin properly. Consumers spend over 1 billion dollars a year on skin products, to reduce wrinkles, moisturize and treat acne, among other things. One often overlooked method of treating skin conditions and keeping skin youthful is the simple, age-old technique of dry skin brushing.

Dry skin brushing has shown to have many benefits because of its ability to remove old, dead skin cells from the surface of your skin.  Your body is always generating new skin cells to replace old, dying cells. What often happens, especially in the case of acne, is that the old dead skin cells get stuck in your pores and cause infections in your pores, which is what acne is. Dry skin brushing is one of the best ways to keep your skin clean, smooth and healthy, giving you a more “youthful” appearance.

Skin Brushing Reduces Cellulite

The vast majority of women suffer from some form of unsightly cellulite, those little dimples in the skin that form mostly on the thighs and buttocks. This dimply cellulite is the result of fats, proteins and other waste products not excreted properly from the body and which accumulate under the skin.

Your lymphatic system is primarily responsible for clearing toxins out of the body through the skin, protecting against disease-causing micro-organisms. Another important function is absorbing fat and fat soluble vitamins from the digestive system and bringing them to where they are needed in the body. The lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump like your heart to function; it relies on the natural circulatory effects of breathing and movement. That’s one reason exercise is so important to staying healthy.

When it doesn’t function efficiently, problems occur do to the excessive accumulation of toxins under the skin’s surface and in the blocked pores. Dry skin brushing is one of the best ways to stimulate the lymphatic system by massaging and cleansing the lymph canals, helping your body eliminate the toxins that cause fat buildup and acne.

It only takes a few minutes a day and you don’t need any special equipment. Just a soft, natural hair brush. Always brush in a motion towards the heart, as you don’t want to push the toxins under the skin to your body’s extremities where they are harder to eliminate. Brush daily, and soon you’ll have healthier skin and a healthier body.

It is a simple practice that will only take five minutes while in the bath or shower. But those five minutes could just be the secret to looking and feeling younger.