January 04, 2019
Today, your most common skincare questions will be answered by our CSO, Dr. Michele Burklund.
Are you wondering if air pollution can affect your skin health?
Are you debating if you should wear sunscreen in the winter?
Are you interested in skin brushing but don’t know enough about it?
Do you want to know what ingredients you should avoid in skincare?
Have you heard about the skin microbiome and what is does?
If you want your questions to be included in our future FB live sessions write a comment below. We would love to hear from you!
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Right below, you will find the transcript of this video.
Transcript:
(00:00) – Dr. Michele Burklund: Hi everyone? My name is Dr. Michele Burklund here at Puriya and welcome today. So I am here with you on Fridays to answer your questions, and talk about a lot of amazing subjects in wellness. So we have some great questions to answer today. So, for those of you who don’t know me, most of what I do is actually behind the scenes. So I write the medical literature, I do a lot of research, and I put together some great formulations too. But we have a lot of education. And part of what we do here at Puriya is we value education. We wanna empower you, and give you amazing tools. So, I have some great questions to answer this week, all about skincare. And I wanna remind all of you there is a description of this video, and in that we have a link to our e-book on clean living. And so much of what we talk about in so many different topics are in that it’s a great resource for all of you. It’s free. So when you sign up for our newsletter, you get this e-book on clean living.
(01:04) – DB: And I always reference it. I’m gonna be referencing it today too… On our skin brushing question. So I just wanna remind all of you about that before we get started. And don’t forget to follow us here on Facebook Live, so you can know what we’re talking about each week, and we have a lot of great interviews planned too with different leaders in the natural health field. So, just wanted to remind all of you before we get started. The first question that I’m going to be talking about today is, Can air pollution actually affect my skin? And the question is yes. And the answer to the question is yes, it definitely can, although this is a hard question, because you have so many variables. It depends on the place you live, your lifestyle, and many different variables, from the UV radiation, to smoke, to ozone. So, so many different things. But yes, air pollution can damage your skin, because there’s so many different chemicals in the air right now, from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, I know that’s a huge word, volatile organic compounds.
(02:10) – DB: So all these different things that’s not part of nature, and shouldn’t be in the air, but can really affect our skin, from smoke, and ozone, and particulate matter. All of these different things increase oxidative stress in our skin. And so oxidative stress creates free radicals. And what happens with that is it can lead to damage to the skin barrier, and predispose it to different conditions. So, a lot of… What’s interesting… Let me see if I can pull up this study too. I was reading this great study… There we go. And it’s titled The Effects of Air Pollution on the Skin, and then it reviews all these different articles. And basically, what it found was that air pollution can increase the risk of different skin conditions, including Psoriasis, Acne. Lead to premature aging, and also increase the risk for atopic dermatitis, and Eczema. So, something… Even the air can affect our skin, and the goal is to balance that, to neutralize that.
(03:15) – DB: And how do we do that? Well, we do that by eating lots of antioxidants. So blueberries are one of my favorite foods, but phytonutrients, antioxidants can help neutralize that. And also, topically, you can apply antioxidants to your skin. So some of the most studied ones include Vitamin C, green tea, and Vitamin E. So the take home message is, yes, there’s so many different things that can affect our skin in the air, and there’s many things we can do to neutralize that, from what we put into our body, and where we choose to live. Living in a cleaner environment… I know I was living in China for a while, and it can have a huge effect. Something that a lot of Americans take for granted is how clean the air is here. But wherever you go, the goal is to get closer to nature, right? Eat plant-based foods, because that helps our bodies on many different levels, and also think about what you put on topically too. Okay. So let me take this study down.
(04:20) – DB: The next question is, Why does my skin seem to get drier in the winter? And there’s many different things that cause your skin to get drier in the winter. Central heating, right? You go in from the ice cold, and then you go into the home and with all that central heating, which is a great modern convenience. It actually can dry out your skin. So, your skin goes from an extreme cold to an extreme hot, which is a lot of stress on it, and there’s also more windy conditions. So you have dryer air, windy conditions, and then drastic changes from hot to cold a lot. And also, diet can also play a role too. In the winter your diet can change, and that can affect your skin. So in the winter, definitely up your moisturizer. And what I’ve always told of a lot of patients too, is to try oil cleansing. And I know that sounds strange, oil and cleansing together, but it’s a very gentle way, in that you mean instead of using a cleanser to wash your face, actually, try oil, because it helps balance the skin microbiome too, and it doesn’t create the cycle of taking oil away from your skin and then having your body trying to replenish it. So, oil cleansing can actually be very helpful right now, and also food. So increasing your food of Omega-3 fatty acids can help give you that natural glow in the winter too.
(05:51) – DB: Okay. I love this question. This is a very important question I’m going to be answering next. And it is, Should I wear sunscreen during winter months? And there’s two very common myths that people tend to believe, and they’re two things. If there’s clouds, or if it’s cold, the UV rays must be low, and there’s no need to wear sunscreen. And this is absolutely false. So I’m gonna give you a quick refresh here. There’s two different types of UV rays. There’s UVA and UVB. And UVA is also called the long-wave. What it does is it penetrates the skin deeper, and it’s typically responsible for a lot of the signs of premature aging. That’s the one that can be damaging ’cause it goes deeper into the skin. Then we have UVB. And that’s a short-wave length. And it doesn’t penetrate into the skin as much, but that’s typically in the summer. You’ll noticed that more when you get a sunburn because it goes shorter into the skin, okay? So in the winter months, UVB isn’t around as much.
(07:01) – DB: So you might not notice your skin getting tanner or you don’t get those typical signs of, “Oh, I think I’ve been out in the sun too much.” But UVA is around. And that is the more damaging one that can penetrate deeper into your skin. So with that said, it’s very important to protect your skin even in the winter months because you still have those damaging rays. So don’t believe just because there’s clouds or because it’s winter and it’s cold, that you’re not getting sun exposure to your skin because you are, and you’re getting UVA. So when we talk about sunscreen, and we’ve talked about this. We’ve had entire topics on sunscreen, but I just wanna remind all of you that we support here clean, non-toxin sunscreens and ideally something like a zinc oxide with non-nano particles. And that is the gold standard for something clean, natural and healthy for your body too.
(08:01) – DB: We can talk a lot about that, but I wanna stop right there because that’s an entirely the other topic. But the take-home message is, yes, please wear sunscreen in the winter. The next question we have is, “What is skin brushing, and what are the medicinal benefits of it?” And some people have heard about this. Some people might have no idea what I’m talking about when I say skin brushing. And this is actually in our e-book. So when you see the description in this video, we’re gonna have a link to it. And this gives you an entire diagram of how to brush your body ’cause there’s a very specific way and the medicinal benefits of it. So skin brushing helps exfoliate the skin. It helps remove the dead skin cells. It helps open up the pores. It enhances the lymphatic drainage because you’re brushing in the way the lymphatic system is moving. And at this same time, it’s supporting the venous system.
(08:55) – DB: It’s helping with the blood flow by stimulating the blood flow at the same time. And when you stimulate the blood flow, you also increase the nutrients to the skin. You bring more oxygen to that area. And then it could also just improve the tone of the skin. So skin brushing is just a very easy, very simple thing that can have the great effects on your skin. But there are several things you need to know when you are doing skin brushing. First of all, you don’t press hard onto your skin. It’s very light. And you always go up. So you start actually brushing on your feet and your legs, and you brush upwards and towards the center of your body. So you brush in the way that your venous flow. The way your blood goes back into your body. And so you brush upward on your legs. You brush towards your stomach. You brush up. I want you all to look at this diagram ’cause it’s extremely helpful in really getting a visual for what you do. But at the same time, your lymphatic system is very light.
(09:58) – DB: It’s on the top of your skin. So you’re just helping assist that. And you wanna be very gentle to your skin. So you don’t need to brush hard. You just brush very light on your skin, and that can actually really help exfoliate that area and stimulate the lymphatic flow to help drain faster. So I highly recommend all of you try it and see if it’s something that works for you. The next question is; I have really sensitive skin. Are there specific ingredients that I should avoid?” And first, I always wanna recommend patch testing. So even if there is an ingredient that is for the most sensitive skin, every single person is different. So always do a little patch test on your skin, and see how you respond. So here at Puriya, we have a lot of ingredients on our do-not-use list, from nano particles to parabens, sodium lauryl sulphates, synthetic fragrances, formaldehyde carriers, mineral oil, silicon, petroleum. So many different things, mercury skin lighteners. We could go on and on about ingredients we don’t use, but also each person is very different and very sensitive.
(11:16) – DB: And even the most sensitive products, you could have a bit of a reaction too. So always, always test a small area and see how you respond. And also here at Puriya, we understand that everybody’s skin is different. So we actually have 180 day return money back guarantee that if our products don’t work, if you have a reaction to them, you can return them, no questions asked, because everybody’s different. And we wanna make sure that this is a product that is going to work for you and that you can trust us and we’ve formulated these products, based on lots and lots of studies and people who have sensitivities. But if it doesn’t work, go ahead. There’s absolutely no risk. So I wanna remind all of you about that too. Okay, and the last question for today is, “I’ve been hearing a lot about the skin microbiome. And can you tell me more about this and why it’s so important?” And this is kind of like the new research in skin care. So, over the last decade the gut microbiome has been extensively studied, and it’s still extensively studied.
(12:26) – DB: There’s so much we’re finding out and in so many different conditions. But your skin has its own microbiome, it’s own ecosystem that’s just as unique. And research is finding out the skin microbiome can help support the skin barrier, help with the skin’s pH. It also helps produce nutrients and essential skin lipids. So our own skin microbiome and our gut microbiome are very important to our health. And what they’re actually finding, and research is still at the beginning phases of the skin microbiome, is that different bacteria prevalences, diversities, is actually linked to different conditions, whether it could be psoriasis, eczema. So it’s a very interesting time in learning more about this skin microbiome. And also so many things can affect it. So from your genetics to your lifestyle, even if you live with pets. All these different things can affect your in microbiome.
(13:25) – DB: So this is a very exciting time. And it’s important, it’s a very important part of the body. And we’re definitely learning more on exactly how it affects conditions and how we can work with it to make those conditions better. Okay, I believe these are all the questions we have for today. And we talked about a lot. We talked about pollution and how it can affect your skin and what we can do to neutralize that. We talked about the importance of bringing sunscreen in the winter and those sneaky UVA rays that are always around. And we have to remember that. We talked about upping your moisturizer in the winter and focusing more on omega-3s to keep that glow all winter long. We also discussed skin brushing. And I wanna remind all of you to check out our e-book which has a great picture of exactly how to do it, what ingredients to avoid and your skin microbiome. So, lots of great things. And I will leave you with this. And I want all of you to have an amazing weekend. Get out in nature. Find time for yourself to rebalance and relax. And I will see you soon. So take care. Have an amazing weekend. Bye.