oil

Skin Conditions [Show Notes]

 in Podcasts  tagged acne / blackhead / blackheads / candida / dry skin / eczema / histamines / hives / Michael Jackson / oil / rash / ringworm / stress / vesicolor / viral exanthem / vitiligo by

Dry skin

It is usually due to your skin not having enough of its own natural oils (probably strips from soaps, cleansers, chemicals).  Moisturizing lotions and creams are “greasy” to try and match the oil of your skin.  The oil make the skin waterproof – keeps water out, but also keeps water in (prevents evaporation)

Eczema – dry skin with an immune/inflammation component.  The deeper layers of the skin will release inflammation chemicals that irritate the other cells in the area and lead to redness, pain, and swelling.  It’s common for kids to have eczema but then grow out of it, but other conditions can cause eczema to flare (in my case, pregnancy).

Rash

Rash is one of the most ambiguous symptoms to try and figure out what the root cause is.  Rashes can be round or splotchy, symmetrical or asymmetrical, raised or flat, big or small.  Rashes are caused by some type of inflammation process (most commonly histamines).  Rashes are a sign that your body has been offended by something – either from the inside and then the chemicals reach the skin to cause rash, or from the outside that touched your skin and caused chemicals to be released.

*Hives – a very distinctive rash with raised, irregular borders that may be red, but can also maintain their “flesh color”.  Most commonly involve histamines, thus antihistamines (like benadryl can help them go away).  Can possibly be triggered by stress (the stress hormones cause a chain reaction of chemical release which may lead to hives).

*Viral exanthem – “exit rash”; a rash that kids will get when their body has finally beat a virus.  Some start at the top of the body and then moves down to their feet.  Others start on the torso or core and then move out to the extremities.  Antihistamines do not help it, but they rarely hurt or itch or bother the kid in any way.

Acne

There are different pores in your skin (sweat glands, oil glands, hair follicles).  The oil on your face helps to trap bacteria and dirt that could get deeper in your skin and possibly hurt you.  The goal of cleaning your face, is to cleanse off the “dirty” oil, but not all the oil (because the result is either dry skin or over-production).  So the dirty oil plus the shedding dead skin cells can clog up any of these pores.  Blackheads are specifically when hair follicles are clogged – and they look black b/c the melanin proteins that get built into hair can be seen.  Generally small blackheads and whiteheads are not painful, unless a lot of bacteria are involved and they begin to fester.

Cystic acne is when a larger area that involves multiple pore or hair follicles get clogged and infected with bacteria and then the spot can become swollen and painful (and unsightly).

Hormones regulate the oil production, that’s why puberty increases acne, stress increases acne, all of the transitions surrounding pregnancy can increase acne.  As long as you have hormones, you’re going to have a risk of acne.  Also, working in really dirty environments can increase the amount of dirt that could clog up pores.

Infections

Ringworm = tinea corporis (there’s no worm involved, it’s a fungus).  Classic circular rash that is red and flakey and possibly flesh-colored in the middle.

If it’s on your head (tinea capitis = cradle cap).  If it’s in your groin (tinea cruris = jock itch).  If it’s on your feet (tinea pedis = athlete’s foot).

Tinea vesicolor = the fungus causes the skin to lose pigment (this is NOT vitiligo, which is the death of melanocytes and they don’t grow back, Michael Jackson).

Candida is the yeast that is a part of your natural skin flora, but can lead to rash if it gets out of balance.

Bottom Line

If there is anything on your skin that bothers you, see your doctor!

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Music Credits:  “Radio Martini” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Hair Vitamins [Show Notes]

 in Podcasts  tagged antioxidant / Biotin / free radicals / hair / Iron / oil / omega-3-fatty acid / Vitamin B-7 / Vitamin C / vitamin E / Vitamins by

Disclaimer

If you live in a modernized country, the food that you eat will give you more than enough of the vitamins you need, because you have access to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, plus tons of food products are fortified with vitamins.  So rarely is someone deficient in a whole bunch of vitamins all at once.

Hand-drawn and colored sketch of the layer of skin where hair grows from, with labeled parts. Hair vitamins will reach your hair through the blood vessels depicted in this image.

Vitamins

  1. Biotin (Vitamin H – antiquated; Vitamin B-7) – a cofactor that works with your enzymes to help transport carbon dioxide – which is a waste product in your body.  Carbon dioxide is created in fatty acid production, amino acid metabolism, and gluconeogenesis (making glucose out of things that aren’t glucose).  Peanuts is a huge source of biotin.  Your natural gut flora make biotin for you!!  So apparently good for your whole body, not just your hair.
  2. Vitamin C – responsible for helping collagen production.  Most directly related to hair, skin, and nails.  Collagen allows cells to be stretchy and elastic and more flexible against abuse.  It also helps your digestive tract absorb iron (callback!).
  3. Vitamin E – is an oil-based vitamin and an antioxidant.  Lots of health fads scream at you about free radicals.  Free radicals are molecules that are waste products from different processes that end up with a non-neutral charge (so either positive charge or negative charge).  So if you remember chemistry, they prefer to be neutral, so free radicals want to steal charges to neutralize, and can sometimes steal it from your DNA and lead to major cell damage.  An antioxidant is a molecule that finds an oxidized free radical and donates a charge so that it’s neutral again (and the antioxidant is able to cope better with losing an electron or two without becoming radical itself).  Vitamin E focuses on the free radicals from fatty acid processes.  Again, good for your whole body, not just your hair.

Supplements

  1. Omega-3-Fatty acid – an oil, a fatty acid chain that goes into the production of your skin’s natural moisture.  Your skin needs its natural oil to trap up dirt and bacteria, as well as keeping the moisture from deeper inside your body from evaporating out.  So each hair follicle has an oil gland with it to keep the hair moisturized.  The new information about the importance of your hair’s natural oil has encouraged the “no ‘poo” movement.  This is more directly related to your hair, but a lot of other places in your body benefit from O3FA’s.
  2. Iron – responsible for helping your red blood cells to carry around oxygen.  This is most likely the only nutrient in this list that someone would need to truly supplement, mainly because iron deficiency can be caused by several things, some of which are genetic.  People with prolonged anemia have dull hair, skin, and nails.  Again, good for your whole body.

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Lice [Show Notes]

 in Podcasts  tagged chemicals / lice / nits / oil / pets / shampoo / tea tree oil / vinegar by

Myth #1: Having lice means that you’re dirty

Truth: Lice like clean hair.  When you shampoo, the soap strips your hair of its natural oil.  So while you think your hair is clean, it is also very grippy.  Thus, lice can hang on better to move around.
Solution: Don’t wash your hair – ha!  At least allow your natural oils to stay in your hair, or use a leave in conditioner or other product that makes the hair “slippery”.

Will dry shampoo attract lice if you’re not washing your hair?
Dry shampoo works like baby powder – it absorbs the excess oil and moisture, but doesn’t dry out the roots of your hair as soapy, foamy shampoos.

Jump on the no ‘poo bandwagon!

Myth #2: Live for a long time off your hair

Truth: Lice require a warm place and a blood supply for survival.  They like to hang out at the base of the head and neck and around your ears.  They may fall off on couches backpacks, and car seats, but they rarely survive there long enough to transfer to someone else.  It is mostly spread by head to head contact (sharing a bed, sharing a hairbrush).

Myth #3: Pets can carry lice

Truth: They are only spread human to human.  Other parasites that like humans (i.e. mosquitos, fleas, ticks) can be spread by pets, but lice cannot.

What to do?

The overuse of over the counter pesticide products that kill lice is encouraging them to build up resistance.  Critters, large and small, will change and mutate to ensure their survival.  This is why the news talked about them as “super lice”.

Good news:  They’re not resistant to vinegar.  Diluted vinegar is not harsh on your hair and doesn’t strip oils, but it can dissolve the glue that hold the eggs, or nits, onto the hair shaft.  This will allow the eggs to wash out or be combed out easily.

Tea tree oil is intended to suffocate them or repel them completely.  No proof that it’s really effective, but it can be mixed with the vinegar to help your hair smell better.

Some of the standard chemical products can be very strong and not intended to be used on children under a certain age.  Some of the chemicals work by disrupting the parasite’s DNA and neural system, humans are just way bigger than lice so it would take way more to hurt humans, but the risk is there.

Lice furniture spray – intended to be used on furniture that has long exposure (4+ hours) with the infected person.

If there are positive signs of lice, it may take more than one round of treatment and combing to get any new ones that hatch.

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Music Credits:  “Radio Martini” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/