Build a Strong Ceramide Barrierand Fortify Your Skin's Health

Skin protects your body from extreme hot and cold, and helps control body temperature. By sweating, skin also rids your body of wastes and toxins. As your outside barrier, skin keeps your body safe from physical damage and blocks out bacteria and viruses.

Fatty substances, called lipids, give the skin the ability to perform these many functions. Cholesterol and fatty acids are two such lipids. The outer most layer of your skin contains a third lipid, called ceramide. Ceramide helps form skin's protective barrier, called the "ceramide" barrier. The barrier helps maintain overall skin health. All of these lipids also help keep your skin moist and smooth.

Damage to lipids and the ceramide barrier affects your skin cells ability to function normally. Your skin can become irritated and sensitive. A weakened barrier puts you at greater risk of infection and other skin diseases. You may also notice that your skin gets dryer. The dryness can increase the appearance of fine lines and make wrinkles appear larger and deeper.

What Harms Your Ceramide Barrier

Staying out of the sun is the best way to keep your skin healthy. Sunburn and sun tanning can breakdown your ceramide barrier. In fact, even contact with the air can damage barrier lipids. Both sun and air can reduce the ability of your lipid barrier to protect your skin and affect your overall health.

Talk with your doctor about skin conditions like the eczema rashes. Eczema can damage your ceramide barrier. Usually caused by allergic skin reactions, such as atopic dermatitis, eczema can cause itchy, irritated skin. Scratching the skin can make it red and further inflame and damage your skin.

Studies show that daily use of harsh soaps that dry your skin can harm skin lipids. Avoid detergents, perfumes or other beauty products that cause allergic skin reactions. Called "irritant" contact dermatitis, allergies usually cause red, scaling rashes that damage the ceramide barrier. On the other hand, a red, itchy rash with blisters can be a sign of poison oak or poison sumac. Called "allergic" contact dermatitis, the oils from these plants can also hurt your ceramide barrier.

Also, ask your doctor if health conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease, may affect your skin. Talk with your doctor about the side effects of medicines. For example, radiation treatments used to treat cancer can damage your skin and harm your ceramide barrier.

Keeping Your Ceramide Barrier Healthy

How do you keep your ceramide barrier healthy? Studies show moisturizers are essential for ceramide barrier health. Moisturizers help maintain barrier functioning, prevent damage, and break the dry skin cycle. Treating damaged skin now can also prevent further skin damage.

However, treatment for ceramide barrier repair and health requires more than a traditional moisturizer. Most moisturizers simply prevent the skin from losing water. In addition to keeping your skin hydrated, ceramide moisturizers contain essential lipids to help to rebuild your skin. Many people comment that barrier moisturizers also soothe burning and itching skin.

Barrier moisturizers are usually one part of a skin care plan. Your doctor may also suggest:

• Bathing in lukewarm waterhot water is more drying
• Avoiding contacts with known allergens and irritants
• Keeping your fingernails short to reduce damage from scratching
• Reducing the risk of overheating by wearing cotton clothing, and not wearing wools and synthetics that can cause skin irritation
• Using other skin care products or medicines to help keep your skin healthy

Selecting Ceramide Barrier Moisturizers

Talk with your doctor about skin irritation and potential ceramide barrier damage. Many barrier repair moisturizers are only available with a doctor's prescription. However, prescription medicines for barrier repair can be quite expensiveranging from $60 to more than $300. Find out how much of the cost is covered by your health insurance plan.

If the damage to your ceramide barrier is not severe, over-the-counter moisturizers can be a good option. However, before buying, ask your doctor about your skin care needs.

The ease of online shopping means ready availability of a broader range of products. Scientifically tested and proven barrier repair products offered include:

• CeraVe Skin Care Line Formulated with essential ceramides, CeraVe skin care products protect your skin. Additional skin-nurturing ingredients, such as vital humectants and emollients, help keep your skin hydrated. The CeraVe Skin Care Line includes:
  - CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, which gently removes dirt, oil and makeup without disrupting your skin's natural barrier. Use this cleanser if you have eczema, sensitive or very dry skin.
  - CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion, which moisturizes, restores and maintains your protective skin barrier. Use this product if your have dry, itchy skin.
  - CeraVe Moisturizing Cream, which hydrates, restores and maintains your skin's protective barrier. Use this cream if you are prone to eczema or severely dry skin.
  
• DERMAdoctor Wrinkle Revenge Rescue & Protect Facial Cream not only addresses anti-aging concerns with amino acid peptides, it actually helps to repair the ceramide barrier. This product is ideal for anyone with dry, damaged or compromised skin that is also concerned with addressing the signs of aging. Wrinkle Revenge Facial Cream contains Ceramide-2 and the essential fatty acid linoleic acid restore the ceramide barrier. This may not be a big deal when you're young, but come perimenopause, it's absolutely crucial to keeping skin irritant-free, hydrated and healthy. Thus the epidermal dullness and dryness are addressed while handling the midlife crisis going on deep within the dermis.
  
• Nouriva Repair Moisturizing Cream moisturizing cream aids in the restoration of skin lipids. The unique lipid content of Nouriva Repair Moisturizing Cream contains the three main lipids in the skin barrier: ceramides, cholesterol, and free fatty acids.
  
  Utilizing a nano particle delivery system, provides 24 hour hydration, which is ideal for the daily protection of the skin, for chronically dry skin, and re-hydrating skin.
  
  Through the restoration of skin lipid balance, rebuilds the damaged lipid barrier. In addition, it is non-irritating, fragrance-free, and non-steroidal.
  
• Cellex-C Mother & Child Skin Care - Aqua-Vernix Baby Moisturizer locks in your skin's moisture and rehydrates skin cells. The powerful lipid matrix safely covers gaps in your skin's barrier. Use this cream for dry skin repair. Cellex-C Mother & Child Skin Care - Aqua-Vernix Baby Moisturizer also safely heals your child's dry sky.
• PRIORI Advanced AHA Barrier Repair Complex with LCA Complex represents the latest in AHA scientific breakthroughs combined with recent technological advances in antioxidant research to deliver results with a competitive advantage to other AHA products in the marketplace. The key advantages are:
  • LCA Complex (Lactic Acid + MFAS)
  • Multi-Functional Antioxidant Sequence (MFAS)
  • Lactic Acid with Cellular Targeted Moisturization
  • Time-Released Liposome Delivery
  • Multi-Layer Skin Renewal

Thank you for reading this important information. We hope you have found this article informative.

BJ Gordon
DERMAdoctor Staff Writer

(Any topic discussed in this article is not intended as medical advice. If you have a medical concern, please check with your doctor.)

www.dermadoctor.com
Copyright 2000-2010, DERMAdoctor, Inc., All rights reserved.

Click here for permission to use this copyrighted content.