Sage Advice Skin Care

THE IMPORTANCE OF ICE

HEAT AND HUMIDITY

False: Hot water opens pores and Cold water closes pores. (How many times did your mother tell you that one?)

True: Pores have no muscles and do not open and close.

Behind every old wife’s tale is a grain of truth.

Heat and humidity (St. Louis has the second highest rating in the U.S.) causes acne flare-ups because the skin “swells” from the cardiovascular system kicking in. When you get hot or exercise, two things happen at once. Your skin swells from the freshly oxygenated blood sent to the surface to feed the muscles that are “working” and then you start to perspire producing acids and salts to “cool” the body off. This combination of swelling skin with acids and salts irritates and dries the skin and can cause ZITS to get worse and become larger. (In Vietnam, many soldiers had acne flare-ups on their entire bodies because of the heat and humidity.) Read full story