Your Skin and Dehydration

Skin is the largest organ of the human body, and our bodies are mostly made of water. Skin is a key indicator of overall health. It retains vital moisture, regulates temperature, and acts as our first line of defense against infection. Besides all that, healthy skin is beautiful, and the centerpiece of our outward appearance. Healthy skin is hydrated skin – here’s a bit more about why.

Skin is ~70% water by weight, and that water is clearly a crucial component of the skins appearance and function. In fact, our skin contains a complex system of proteins called “aquaporins” that are specifically designed to allow water to move from the bloodstream into the skin and between the various layers of the skin. But all of that is useless if we aren’t properly hydrated in the first place.

Everyday our bodies shed water through sweat, breathing and urination - and we lose even more when the air is dry, when it is hot outside, and when we exercise. When our bodies lose water, our skin does too, leading to visible dryness, and a serious disruption of the skin’s functional properties.

Most of us are familiar with the outward manifestations of dry skin. Stiffness, coarseness, loss of form, sunken eyes, wrinkles (dehydration has a strong association with wrinkle formation later in life).

When skin is dehydrated, the proteins and fats that are built to keep moisture in the skin don’t work as well. This leads to us losing even more moisture through the skin, and creates something that dermatologists call the “dry skin cycle”. At that point, moisturizing lotions only address the symptoms. The real problem is holistic dehydration, and the solution demands rehydrating from the inside out.

DripDrop is a great way to provide our skin with the perfect blend of electrolytes for ideal hydration. The balance of electrolytes in DripDrop helps the body keep water within the tissues rather than just losing it in the urine - this means that the proteins and fats in the skin designed to hold onto moisture will actually see the water molecules that we consume when we drink DripDrop. When those proteins and fats hold onto water, our skin is full, elastic, beautiful, and functioning at its best. So next time you think about buying a moisturizing cream, ask yourself whether or not you are properly hydrated in the first place. Beautiful skin – like beauty itself - comes from the inside.

Krieg, Thomas, and Monique Aumailley. “The extracellular matrix of the dermis: flexible structures with dynamic functions.” Experimental Dermatology. 20. (2011): 689-695.Print.

Boury-Jamot, Mathiey, Jean Daraspe, and Frederic Bonte. “Skin Aquaporins: Function in Hydration, Wound Healing, and Skin Epidermis Homeostasis.” Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology. (2009): 205-218. Print.

Rawling, Anthony, and Paul Matts. “STRATUM CORNEUM MOISTURIZATION AT THE MOLECULAR LEVEL: AN UPDATE IN RELATION TO THE DRY SKIN CYCLE.”Journal of Investigative Dermatology. 124. (2005): 1099-1110. Print.