Winter skincare tips to stop the itch
Hydration is key - but what kind of hydration? Read on to find out!
Is your skin starting to feel like the picture above? Dry cracked and sore? Are you wondering what you can do besides putting on creams and lotions?
Winter Skincare Tips for Lymphedema Warriors
Hey there! Is your skin feeling a bit like the dry, cracked landscape of winter? Don't worry, I've got you covered with some simple, budget-friendly tips to keep your skin hydrated, healthy, and loved this season.
Embrace Dry Brushing
Start your day with a gentle dry brush to slough off dry skin and get your lymph and circulatory systems moving. It's like a warm hug for your body in the morning! Keep your dry brush handy by your bed for an easy morning routine. Not only does dry brushing help to remove dead skin cells, but it also stimulates blood flow and promotes lymphatic drainage, leaving your skin feeling revitalized and refreshed. For more tips on dry brushing, check out my previous blog post here.
2. Indulge in Soothing Salt Soaks
Swap out hot showers for warm salt baths or soothing hand/foot soaks. Our lymph is a blend of dissolved salts and nutrients, water, fats, and proteins. We need magnesium, potassium, calcium, and sodium for our cells to function. Look for salt soaks that include a variety of healthy salts like magnesium flakes, epsom salts, sea salt, and/or Himalayan pink salt.
Other ingredients
Oats can be skin softening and nourishing, and flowers that can be a lovely addition like Lavender for its relaxing benefits or rose petals for their heart loving/heart opening benefits. Calendula is one of my favourites for its sunshine like and lymph-loving qualities. Love showers? Try alternating between hot and cool water to boost circulation and soothe tired muscles. The warm water not only helps to hydrate the skin but also relaxes the body and mind, providing a much-needed moment of relaxation during the chilly winter months. After your soak or shower, treat your skin to some nourishing oils for double hydration and repair.
3. Give Your Skin Some Rich Love
When you are doing your daily skincare checks before you put on your compression and at the end of your day after you remove your garments, reach for luxurious oils and body butters to protect your skin from the harsh elements of winter. Make it a nightly ritual to check in with your skin, moisturize, and unwind before bed. Self touch provides healing, connection, and grounds our spirit. Your skin will thank you in the morning too! Rich moisturizers like oils and body butters, are closer to the pH of our skin which likes to be around 4.5, to keep our acid mantle strong, and our skin microbiome healthy. Watch out for creams that claim to be hydrating and pH balanced. This means they will have a pH around 7, which is too high for our skin microbiome to stay healthy and diverse. Simple is best, and why our ancestors have used oils like almond, sunflower, avocado, and olive for skincare for thousands of years. Wondering which oil is best for your skin, or want help creating a healthy skin care routine? Reach out. I would be happy to help.
4. Hydrate Inside and Out
Hearty Borscht soup - great for our skin, lymph, liver, and heart.
Click the link to try out the recipe.
Combat winter's dry air by hydrating from the inside out. Enjoy soups, stews, and hydrating foods like squash, pumpkin, root veggies like beets. Keep warm with herbal teas and salt water baths to replenish your body's moisture. Staying hydrated is key to maintaining healthy skin, as it helps to flush out toxins, regulate body temperature, and improve overall skin texture and appearance. We are over 90% water beings, literally walking body aquariums. So, keeping ourselves hydrated is key to joint movement, muscle relaxation, clear thinking, clear eyes, good hearing, and healthy digestion. Lymph has so many important roles in the body!
5. Activate your Agni with warming spices
The cold weather can slow down our digestion, making us more prone to indigestion, catching colds and other infections. Keeping our digestive fire strong, is a key to staying healthy no matter what time of year it is. To support our digestion in the cold weather, we can add warming spices like black pepper, ginger, garlic, chilli pepper, wasabi, horseradish, mustard, turmeric. Enjoy my recipe for a Golden Latte, to have a warm mug of sunshine on a cold day.
One of the favourite things I made this winter was a jar of ginger honey! I don’t have a picture to show you yet (we ate the whole jar already!) but here is a how I made it.
In Ayurvedic medicine, honey…
HOW TO MAKE GINGER INFUSED HONEY
Ginger is very warming in nature, which makes it excellent for breaking up mucus and stagnation in the body. So, including ginger in your diet could be helpful to managing your lymphedema as well as help when you have a sore throat or cough. Because it’s warming, taking ginger all year long and for everyone, isn’t the best approach. Our weather and temperatures ebb and flow with the seasons, and so do we. Work with a herbalist or Ayurvedic coach to find out if it’s appropriate for you.
Fresh ginger root, peeled, chopped
Raw, liquid honey
DIRECTIONS:
Peel the ginger root with the back of your spoon or a peeler, chop it into pieces. The more surface area the flesh of the root has to contact the honey, the stronger/richer the flavour will be.
Take a glass mason jar, that is 1c (250mL), or 2c (500mL) and fill it 1/3 to 1/2 full with chopped fresh ginger. Don’t pack it in, just place in the jar gently.
Next, pour honey over top to completely cover and fill the jar. Seal with a lid. Let infuse for 2 weeks. Take the lid off each day at the beginning to stir and let the bubbles escape. Seal again. Turn the jar over every day (make sure your lid is tight!), to saturate the ginger. You will notice that the honey will become more runny and it might bubble slightly. This is a process of fermentation from the fresh ginger root.
NOTES: 1) When I made this in November, the honey took on the taste of the ginger almost immediately, but got stronger over the 2 weeks of infusion. 2) If you loved this recipe, try it with garlic cloves following the same process. It’s delicious drizzled on meats, tofu, veggies, or eaten by the spoonful!
WAYS TO USE: To enjoy, you can enjoy the honey in tea, or by the spoonful. You can also nibble on the fresh ginger, to chop it up and add to recipes that call for fresh ginger, like sauces, stir-frys etc. It’s quite delicious and only take a few minutes to make!
6. Love on some plant babies!
Plants can bring us joy, lighten our mood, combat depression, AND boost our indoor air moisture and oxygenation! In the winter time, this can be so supportive of our myth and overall well-being. Other ways to boost indoor moisture include:
Humidifier,
Indoor water fountain,
Leaving the bathroom door open after a bath/shower,
My favourite - a pot of water with herbs/spices simmering on the stove. Add some citrus slices, and a stick of cinnamon for a warming scent, or a couple springs of rosemary, spruce or pine needles. It will clean your air, which helps keep our lymph clean, awaken your senses, and will boost your mood!
Your turn
Which of these tips were new to you? Which ones will you be trying out this winter? Tell me below and share your thoughts with the community!
Amy
xo
