What your skin says about you

If your skin just a casing for the rest of you, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as useful and important as it actually is. As an organ itself (your body’s largest organ), your skin is there to protect you from all kinds of nasties such as bacteria and other foreign bodies but it also has a number of other very important roles to play:

– It regulates body temperature. – It delivery sensory information to your brain: pain, pleasure, hot, cold. – It will give you warning signs that everything isn’t as it should be internally.

There are many diseases or issues that can be been in/on the skin before you feel there maybe an issue so understanding your skin and keeping an eye on how it looks and feels is very important. Just as you should check for lumps and bumps, you should also check that your skin isn’t looking any different to how it normally does. Spending those few minutes each week giving yourself a once over, could save you a lot of time, pain and discomfort in the long run.

Here are some of the signs to look out for where your skin is telling you something isn’t right:

Yellow skin, Orange Hands & Feet…
What it means: The yellow tinged skin of carotenemia can be the result of an underactive thyroid gland. This increases the levels of beta-carotene in the blood which is why your skin will start to look a yellow/orange colour. When there’s a thyroid problem, the gland doesn’t metabolize the vitamins as quickly, so beta-carotene accumulates.

Dark Red Lines on Your Palms…
What it means: A palm-reading mystic might have her own interpretation, but to a physician, a deepening of the pigment in the creases of the palms or soles is a symptom of adrenal insufficiency, an endocrine disorder.

Raised, Dark Blue Leg Veins…
What it means: Some of your veins are no longer working properly when you see ropy, blue-to-purple lines snaking up your legs. These are otherwise known as Varicose Veins. They can just be a more annoying from a cosmetic point of view or they could end up being more serious than that and cause pain, cramping, and difficulty walking. Veins rely on one-way valves, like shutters, to keep blood circulating; when they stop working, blood leaks back into the vein and pools there.

Brown Spots on Your Legs…
What it means: This could be the first sign of Diabetes. Damage to the capillaries and small blood vessels that are characteristic of the disease will cause them to leak when traumatized, leading to brown discoloration known as diabetic dermopathy.

A Burning, Itchy Rash…
What it means: Clusters of small, itchy blisters that show up repeatedly on the forearms, near the elbows, the knees, the buttocks, the back, or the face or scalp. All of these are symptoms of celiac disease, or an allergy to gluten.

Pale Skin & Blue-Tinged Nails…
What it means: This could be as a result of Anemia or some kind of blood disorder. Anemia can be the result of iron deficiency, chronic blood loss from bowel disease, or ulcer disease. Iron-deficient anemia is often seen in people over age 70 who no longer prepare nutritious meals for themselves.

A few years ago I wanted to learn more about the skin and how it can really show you what’s going on inside your body so I put myself onto a Diet & Nutrition course. This course covered Nutrition, Aromatherapy, Reflexology and Massage. I had no idea how much I would learn about my skin and just how in tune your skin is with the rest of your body. For example, did you know that your hands & feet will tell you all you need to know about what’s going on in your body. Because each zone on your hands and feet is said to correlate to a different organ, a callus or dry patch of skin indicates toxicity in that corresponding part of your body. As a result, if you have a callus on the part of your foot that corresponds to the lung area, a reflexologist may interpret that as an indication of a lung condition or other respiratory issue.

So it really is important to take care of yourself both inside and out. Your skin is your best friend and should be treated with the best care possible. Even when it comes to picking the type of skin creams you use, everything you do will have an affect on your skin’s health.

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