TYLER, Texas — Like clockwork, people head to the doctor for their yearly checkups, but it’s not just what’s on the inside that matters. The skin is the body’s largest organ with so many functions, including protecting people from bacteria, viruses and the sun’s harmful rays.
In this Wellness Wednesday, Dr. Jennifer Holman, a board certified dermatologist with U.S. Dermatology Partners in East Texas, explained the best way to protect the skin barrier and those ceramides in the top layer of the skin.
“It’s a barrier to help protect everything that’s on the inside and to keep all the bad things out, both dirt bacteria that we don’t want inside of our body, all those kind of things,” Holman said. “And when that barrier becomes impaired, the skin can’t do its job of both keeping the things safe inside and keeping the things that we don’t want inside out. And so that’s going to manifest itself sometimes as cracked skin, dry skin, eczema.”
Holman said the number one thing she tells people who have skin ailments is to have a sensitive skincare, such as a Dove soap and Cetaphil. She added she prefers creams and ointments over lotions, especially if a person has an impaired skin barrier.
“If you can get that on your skin within the first couple of minutes of getting out of the bath or the shower, that really helps maintain and keep that skin barrier healthy because that water doesn’t evaporate and take out those natural ceramides after your bath or your shower,” Holman said.
It’s not just about what you’re putting on top of the skin, but what someone is feeding their body can also impact skin health.
“I have a lot of folks that come to me and they say, ‘I’ve got acne. Do I need to be giving up gluten, those kind of things?’ Well, there are some skin conditions that are tightly linked to specific foods. But overall skin health, it really tends to figure out, like, ‘what are you sensitive to?’ Each of us as individuals, our guts are a little bit sensitive to different things,” Holman said. “And so there’s a ton of skin conditions that flare when you eat or drink, things that your body may be sensitive to. And so rosacea, acne, psoriasis, eczema, all of those things can flare if you’re eating things that you’re sensitive to.”
Holman suggested a healthy diet full of antioxidants like fruits and veggies, skipping ultra-processed foods and drinking lots of water.
But her number one skincare tip first and foremost is sunscreen! It protects people from cancer and aging prematurely.
“When it’s cold, when it’s cloudy, when it’s foggy, people don’t think as much about their sunscreen. We’re exposed to UV radiation on a daily basis just walking in and out of our car, and both from a cosmetic and a medical benefit,” Holman said. “We know that UV radiation is a carcinogen. It’s an easy way to minimize your risk or to decrease your risk of skin cancer by putting on a SPF every morning. And if you’re really out in the sun or exposed to water, you need to reapply about every two and a half to three hours at least at 30 (SPF).”
Holman also talked about the latest advances in regenerative medicine, anti-aging and the skin microbiome. Check out her full interview on CBS19+ in the video linked here.
