Normally dry skin care is something one need not worry about. It happens due to natural causes generally. And can be remedied generally easily. Skin is the first protective layer for your body and its various organs. It breathes just as we breathe. It opens up when the heat is high, and closes when it is cold. In other words, it helps the body to maintain the right temperature. Unfortunately, unlike other reptiles, we cannot shed our skins! Yes, we do. After we are born, slowly the babyish skin is slowly replaced by new skin. That’s why those wrinkles on a baby’s face immediately when it born, and you find small pieces of skin coming off.

Your age, the weather conditions in which you live, time spend outside on the hot or wet or cold streets, determine your skin’s dryness. Yes, and do add to that the kind of soap you use for bathing. If you have dry skin, your skin would give you a feeling of tightness, shrunken, rough feel, may cause itching, peeling, scaling, cracks appearing, change of color and sometimes bleeds from the skin.

A fact which is often forgotten is that we tend to have drier skin than in summer. It is also true in extreme hot weather say above 42 or 44 degrees C or about 110 F. In these conditions, the humidity, i.e. percentage of moisture in the area would be low. That makes your body to control your body temperature, either by closing down its pores, or by opening it up. Air-conditioning, central heating all keep you cool, but it affects your skin, because of the lack of adequate humidity. This can be remedied by keeping a humidifier which should ideally maintain a good humidity level, say 50 to 60 per cent.

A common reasons which generally occurs, and which causes dry skin, can be having high fever (hyperthermia), severe diarrhea, vomiting, etc. These cause loss of valuable body fluids and water. Feverish people tend to shy away from water drinking. But they must to replace the lowered liquid level in the body. Sip, don’t drink. Remember it was said that the skin keeps the body from harm from temperature and cold weather? Well if you have a very high body temperature, and are not responding to common fever lowering drugs such as paracetamol, the physician would recommend most probably, that you should be hydrated by asking the nurse or even you at home, to keep putting water at room temperature, and using a cloth, dipped in that water, and pat you down, especially in the hands and the legs, focusing on the palms and the foot. Even if the patient does not like taking water, dehydration has to be prevented. The WHO has come up with a common and easy to make and use at home. It is known as ORS (Oral Rehydration Solution) that is nothing but a glass of water, a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar put in and stirred, and given to the patient.

You require medical advice you have open sores or you are constantly scratching, itching does not go away, your skin is peeling off or you find scales forming. It is highly recommended that you see your Physician as soon as you can.

Why this is stressed is that these symptoms may be the cause of an underlying disease, such as the one mentioned above – hypothyroidism – and other conditions, such as eczema, Psoriasis, scales, bleeding from some areas, etc. Leaving them alone and not caring when these symptoms are there would have adverse consequences.