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Sometimes, it seems like caring for your skin is like a full-time job. There are all kinds of things that can affect the healthiness of your skin, and unfortunately, there may be a lot of things you’re doing on a day-to-day basis that are having a negative impact without you even knowing it.

As skin experts who have engineered cutting edge skin analysis machines, our team at Pro|Gen Probe knows a thing or two about skin health. If you’ve been having trouble with your skin not looking for feeling satisfactorily healthy, there are probably some things you can change that you weren’t even thinking about.

Here are some common things that have an effect on your skin health:

Not Wearing Enough Sunscreen

We’ve gotta give some credit to the ancient peoples of the world who lived and breathed in the sun for almost all of their days, because, as it turns out, the sun is absolutely terrible for your skin. It seems kind of unfair that we haven’t even evolved to be able to withstand prolonged exposure to our parent star, but it is what it is.

While sunlight and UV rays can have pleasant effects on our bodies, such as Vitamin D exposure, this can turn into diminishing returns real quickly. It’s not long before the negative effects of UV exposure start to counteract the positive ones. Among these are sunburn, premature aging, and risk of developing skin cancer.

For most people, it’s pretty common to apply sunscreen before an outdoor activity, such as going to the beach, playing at the park, and so on. But if you really want to give your skin the care it deserves, it’s best to apply sunscreen every two hours or so, even if your only outdoor activity consists of you walking to your car. This will make sure you’re protected at all times. Your body will thank you for it in the long run!

Diet

Diet plays such an important role in your skin health that we could write an entire blog about it. To keep things succinct, we’ll just touch upon some of the major dietary problems:

• Refined Carbs and Sugar: The mileage may vary from person to person, but generally speaking, refined carbs and sugar intake are no-nos for good skin health. It’s fairly common for acne breakouts to be correlated with junk food consumption. Humans aren’t naturally designed to be eating such empty foods, and skin can react in unfavorable ways.
• Dairy: Dairy consumption has been known to spike the production of certain growth hormones and insulin, which causes inflammation in your skin and more natural oils than usual. Oils like sebum are healthy for your skin (and hair), but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing — excessive amounts of oils can clog your pores and facilitate acne.
• Coffee and Caffeine: We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but please don’t kill the messenger. That’s right — coffee can actually impact your skin quite negatively if you’re drinking too much of it and not compensating with extra hydration. The biggest culprit is caffeine, so if you pride yourself on being a soda drinker instead, well, the result is still going to be the same. Caffeine likes to dry out your skin, so make sure you’re regularly consuming water and applying moisturizer.
• Not Eating: It’s not just bad food that damages your skin, it’s also the lack of food at all. Food supplies our body with essential nutrients which play a role in just about, well, everything. Your skin isn’t exempt. Your skin needs a consistent supply of nutrients for peak healthiness. When you starve yourself, you’re also starving your skin, and don’t be surprised if it starts getting a lot more dry.

Chlorine

Due to the summer season that is quickly approaching, we felt like it was important to mention this one. One of the best parts of summer is being able to jump into the pool on a hot day and splash around in nice, cool water.

While you shouldn’t just outright cancel your summer swimming plans, your skin will thank you if you’re extra cognizant about the negative effects of chlorine.

It’s important to remember what the main job of chlorine is — it’s essentially a powerful agent that’s meant to destroy any germs and harmful chemicals that enter the water. That’s all fine and good, but if it’s strong enough to eradicate most common germs in the water, you can bet that it’s not exactly great for your skin.

Chlorine clings to your skin, damages your melanin, has a bleaching effect, and dries it out. One of these things alone is bad enough, but all four together is a disaster. Want to negate the effects of chlorine? Be sure to take a a good shower afterward with soap in good supply.

Hydration

We mentioned the effects that a poor diet can have on the skin, and the same principles apply with water. A healthy amount of water hydrates your skin, and likewise, a lack thereof starves it, leaving it dry and flaky.

If you don’t drink enough water, now’s the time to start. But don’t do it for your skin — do it for your whole body. Dehydration wreaks havoc on your health in so many more ways than just drying out your skin. It affects your energy levels, your brain power and productivity, your health, your metabolism, and much more.

The general recommendation for daily water intake is about half a gallon, but you’ll want to adjust this number depending on your size and weight. In any case, if you’re not already drinking that much, start forming habits to get there. One good practice is to get into the habit of carrying around a water bottle everywhere you go. If you constantly make it a point to be sipping out of it, it will eventually become a subconscious habit.

Sleep Deprivation

Much like dehydration, sleep deprivation is a great way to wreak havoc on your entire body — not just your skin. Every single one of your biological systems benefits from a night of food sleep, and suffers when you’re not getting enough.

As far as skin goes, sleep deprivation is a no-no because it deprives your body of the ability to refresh itself. Your skin naturally cleans itself overnight as pores drain themselves and your upper layer is replaced with new skin cells.

This process doesn’t occur when you’re up and at it, and if you consistently fail to get enough sleep, it’ll start resulting in clogged pores, which turn into acne. No thanks!

Not Knowing Your Skin Needs

The biggest thing to remember about skin health is that it’s not exactly the same between any two people. Some folks have hard, durable skin that’s resistant to aging and dryness. Others have soft sensitive skin that seems to burn before they even make it to the car.

Skin health is influenced by countless different factors, which is one reason why skincare products don’t universally work for everyone — one product that works for your friend might end up in a nasty breakout for you.

That’s why, at Pro|Gen Probe, we’ve made it our life’s work to develop cutting-edge skin analysis machines which can examine your skin at a near-microscopic level. If you call your local skincare professional about skin analysis services, they may already have a Pro|Gen Probe machine that can give you a detailed and sophisticated readout of your skincare needs.

This is useful because it will allow a skincare professional to tailor a plan that specifically caters to your own unique needs. No more stressing about whether or not a product will react opposite to how it’s supposed to — skin analysis can give a very clear picture that makes it much easier to predict what will and won’t work with your skin.

Want to learn more about skin analysis machines so you can know what you’re in for if you go in for an appointment? Click here to learn more about our devices, and be sure to contact us today if you have any questions!