Your skin is the largest organ on your body, made up of several different components, including water, protein, lipids and different minerals and chemicals. If you're average, your skin weighs about six pounds. Its job is crucial: to protect you from infections and germs. Throughout your life, your skin will change constantly, for better or worse. In fact, your skin will regenerate itself approximately every 27 days. Proper skin care is essential to maintaining the health and vitality of this protective organ.

• Faulty diet- Refined foods like white flour, sugar and products made with them, tea, coffee, and soft drinks deplete energy, bring about wrinkles, unattractive skin and premature aging.
• Lack of healthy blood- Healthy blood adds a glow to the skin and keeps it well-nourished, moist, and free from dryness and roughness.
• Inadequate cleansing- Very often, our skin looks superficially clean; but they really are not. Dirt and dust particles can hide in the pores of the skin and clog sweat and sebaceous glands. Proper cleansing not only removes all the dust, dirt and make-up, which accumulate during the day, but also stops the oil-secreting sebaceous glands from getting clogged.

Many skin infections like Scabies and ringworm spread through a lack of personal hygiene. Clothes and other personal items belonging to an infected person house the fungus or virus that causes the skin infection. When these objects are shared, it can lead to the spread of the infection. Poor personal hygiene too can provide bacteria or fungus with the ideal environment to flourish. Reusing the same pair of socks repeatedly can cause a person to contract athlete’s foot. It is therefore, important to follow proper hygiene practices on a regular basis. However, it is important to note that there are also several skin diseases like Melanoma and Hyper pigmentation that are unsightly but are not caused by poor hygiene.

Naturopathic remedies for acne include Vitamin E, Vitamin A, brewer’s yeast, and benzoyl peroxide cream. Keep skin clean with hot and cold compresses. Diet is also important. Eat high-protein food and fish. Drink plenty of water. Avoid oily foods (such as pizza), saturated fats, dairy products, processed sugars, and caffeine.

To treat psoriasis, first wet the skin, and then rub in some Vitamin E, mineral oil, or Vaseline petroleum jelly to keep the moisture in. Do this a couple times per day. Avoid perfumed off-the-shelf moisturizers. Diet is also important when treating psoriasis: drink more water, drink vegetable juice, eat fruits and fish, and take a Vitamin D supplement. Reduce the stress in your life and get more restful sleep.

To prevent athlete’s foot, wear cotton socks with powder inside to absorb moisture. To treat it, soak feet in hot water with 20 drops of tea tree oil to kill bacteria. Take zinc, vitamin B, vitamin E, and vitamin C to boost the immune system. Garlic, an antifungal which also boosts immunity, can be used to treat a yeast infection. Also try tea tree oil and lavender extract, and echinacea. In addition, acidophilus capsules bring balance to the intestinal tract.