Happy Friday! As we move into the middle of summer, I have been thinking about skin and cancer treatment.
Going through cancer treatment, especially chemo, can lead to exceptionally dry skin. Why, you ask? Chemo is charged with killing your fast growing cancer cells. Unfortunately, your skin is also fast growing, so the chemo can impact the growth of new skin. Because we shed so much skin each day, the chemo damaged skin can’t rejuvenate fast enough and we find ourselves with very dry skin. Last thing you want to do is make that dry skin worse, so let’s discuss a few do’s for dry skin today.
- DO drink tons and tons of water. With your skin not rejuvenating as quickly, drinking water will help put some moisture back into the dry skin that you have.
- DO take tepid baths and showers. Hot water will actually exasperate already dry skin.
- DO pat yourself dry with a towel. We have heard this before, but really and truly this time pat, don’t rub. Rubbing yourself with a towel could actually cause some scratches or abrasions on your already dry skin. Patting will absorb the water without damaging the skin.
- DO use fragrance free, chemical free moisturizers. As we know, dry skin is already damaged, so keep your moisturizes as pure and simple as possible, as any additional chemicals can irritate your already sensitive skin. We are a fan of Eucerin, pure and fragrance free.
- DO take extra special care of lips and hands by keeping lip balms and hand creams nearby. Hands and lips typically get dry without chemo, so when going through chemo they may feel the impact even more.
What special tips do you have for taking care of skin during cancer treatments? Send us a note and let us know, together we can all Be Radiant, despite this disease.