Key to Youthful Skin is FREE!

The true secret to younger skin is free, or almost free. This is Dr. Steven Andrew Davis, Speaking of Health. It’s as close as your faucet, refrigerator, or convenience store. The primary element that keeps skin looking healthy and supple – is water. About 70% of our skin is water, though as we age, water begins to leave the outermost layers of the skin, allowing it to dry out, crack and crinkle. Add a life-long dose of sunlight, or a harsh, cutaneously-unforgiving cold, dry climate, and the crinkles become wrinkles.

If the problem is water loss then, why is not the solution merely more water? Because water applied to the skin simply is not totally absorbed. To make matters worse, both men and women can inadvertently hasten dehydration of the skin by using astringents, masks, strong soaps, or exfoliants which remove the skin’s own natural emollients. The best solution thus devised is the use of occlusive emollients to retard further water loss from the skin. But the subject of moisturizers ushers in a whole new array of high-tech ingredients ranging from fats to acids to esters to phospholipids to sterols. It’s a maze of claims and counter-claims with products suitable for one person seeming not to work for others.

The fountain of youth? It’s still a dream for many but, as the case with any working fountain; it begins with water coming up from within. For a copy of this script, access our web site, speakingofhealth.com. Speaking of Health, I’m Dr. Steven Andrew Davis, for CBS News.