Dry Skin

It is that time of year, the weather turns cold and your skin gets scaly.  I don't know about you, but this year as soon as there was a little nip in the air my hands became so dry that no amount of moisturizer in the world could keep them moist.  I even turned to my deep repair cream from Mychelle Dermaceuticals.  Nothing!  So I asked myself, why are my hands this dry?  Normally you look at hydration, I have that covered.  Then fats am I getting enough?  Yes.  So then I looked at my Essential fatty acid balance.   Omega 3: Omega 6 well in my diet I get in a lot of Omega 3s in the form of chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, and walnuts.  These also have Omega 6 fatty acids and using food they should be in the proper balance.  Well, I threw off my balance by supplementing EPA/DHA (omega 3) because I read that Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids share the same conversion enzyme 6-delta-desaturase (D6D) which makes the conversion pathways competitive.  Omega 6’s are more biologically active which gives them an edge over Omega 3s to promote inflammation.  Some instances that can interfere with D6D activity: trans fatty acids, alcohol, low levels of B6, magnesium and zinc.

I don't eat a lot of oils or processed foods so except for my nuts and seeds now I was probably not getting enough omega 6.  So I started supplementing with Borage oil, within a few days the dry skin was gone! 

So if your hydration is good and you are getting enough fats, check your essential fatty acid ratio that might be the reason you have