BLOG: November is Healthy Skin Month

The American Academy of Dermatologists (AAD) has officially designated November Healthy Skin Month. Your skin is not only the largest organ, but one of your body's most important. This month is a great time for you and your family members to implement some new habits to prevent skin damage, reduce signs of aging and guard against skin cancer. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, the onset of winter can bring about many problems with dry, scaly and itchy skin. Beyond treating dry skin, there are many things you can do to keep your skin healthy, glowing and protected all year long including: 

• Do self-skin exams regularly. The AAD has all kinds of information on how to perform your own exams to look for suspicious moles, growths or other changes to your skin. 
• Schedule a full body skin exam with your dermatologist. These should be done once a year, especially for teens. We're seeing an increase in melanomas particularly for young women. 
• Ban tanning beds permanently. There is no such thing as a safe or healthy tan. 
• Even in the winter, sunscreen is important. Choose a broad-spectrum sunscreen of at least SPF30 and reapply every two hours. 
• Apply topical vitamin supplements like Retinol. Topical Vitamin C and E are found in products such as SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic and can be used daily to prevent damage.

I encourage you to visit the AAD website for more information on skin care. For a full list of recommendations from our practice, visit the Dermatology Consultants website here

Dr. Saxena provides general information about skin care and dermatology on this blog. You should consult a dermatologist if you have  specific concerns or issues with your skin.