can u absorb vitamin minerals through your face?

[Rawling]

If you made a face mask out of crushed cucumbers can your face absorb the vitamins/ minerals from it? or only when u eat it?

[pamparred]

Yes, you can absorb vitamins and minerals through your skin. Take for instance Vitamin D. Your best source for that is the sun. Also, your skin is the largest organ in and on your body.

That is also why I don't use sugar scrubs, I use salt scrubs instead. Sugar can be absorbed through the skin and in some cases affect blood sugar levels.

[Rawling]

so what could you use aside from cucumber in a face mask? or would it be better to do a few things individually... like a salt exfoliant wash first then a honey wash afterward or the next day...then the next day a cucumber mask?
has anyone heard of a holistic dermatologist?

[Anastazia]

I remember as a girl my mom teaching me to do masks out of strawberries one week, avacado the next, & to moisturize with olive oil, followed by a hot cloth...had the prettiest skin, I was always told, & only an occasional pimple that time of the month, if I'd given in to my chocolate cravings!

Yogurt's supposed to be good, too...

{...it only takes half a straberriy to do your face, so every time I ate them, I gave myself a a mask, & anyone else in the vacinity!}

~Anastazia~

[girl81]

Yes, you can absorb vitamins and minerals through your skin. Take for instance Vitamin D. Your best source for that is the sun. Also, your skin is the largest organ in and on your body.

That is also why I don't use sugar scrubs, I use salt scrubs instead. Sugar can be absorbed through the skin and in some cases affect blood sugar levels.

Then that would mean you can absorb calories through your skin. :confused:

[menat]

Yeah, but if sugar scrubs are bad then so are salt scrubs which could put a lot of sodium in your body and cause high blood pressure?

Sugar and Salt are both bad in that case. Especially the excessive amoutns of sugar and salt we use in order to make a scrub.

[rawstrength]

Yeah, but if sugar scrubs are bad then so are salt scrubs which could put a lot of sodium in your body and cause high blood pressure?

Sugar and Salt are both bad in that case. Especially the excessive amoutns of sugar and salt we use in order to make a scrub.

Well, we don't absorb ALL of the sugar/salt used in a scrub, otherwise there would be no sugar/salt left when we are done scrubbing ;) .

[menat]

This skin absorption debate has always perplexed me. Some scientist say that using natural foods in skincare or using the water from a soaked vitamin won't be absorbed into the skin, because the molecules are too big unlike using skincare products where they claim to make the molecules smaller.

However, if that was true then who is that many external and topical poisons, or product chemicals. used in hair dyes and hair perms and relaxers can be found in the blood stream or coating a small film on the brain?


How can the skin not absorb natural and homemade skincare products, but all the bad junk can be seen in the blood stream? Too what extent can skin absorb things?

It makes me wonder if the scientific community and dermatologists are lying to us in order to make us by skincare products due to this lack of so called molecule absorption "rate".

[souldanzer]

How can the skin not absorb natural and homemade skincare products, but all the bad junk can be seen in the blood stream? Too what extent can skin absorb things?


The skin will still absorb those natural products (it's actually what most people want) it's just that the ingredients are meant to be GOOD for you as opposed to poisonous chemicals.

The skin can absorb some substances/molecules and some not, it is rather specific depending on size and if there is a fitting transporter protein or gate in the cells of the skin. This is why new products have to be tested (often on animals :( ) before they are being sold to find out the impact of the ingredients on the body.

Souldanzer

[Nurse in the Raw]

The epidermis (skin) contains no blood vessels, and is nourished by diffusion from the dermis.

Example with medication:
The moisture in your skin dissolves the medication in the adhesive layer. To do that, the medication has to be soluble in water. Because the concentration is greater in the adhesive layer, it travels to the lesser-concentrated area and dissolves into the sweaty moisture. From there it is transferred to your blood stream, again by the greater-to-lesser concentration principle, and then goes throughout your body after being absorbed through capillaries.

Fick’s Law of Diffusion. This law describes the interactions of several factors, including the diffusion coefficient of the drug, the partition coefficient of the drug, the concentration of the drug applied, the surface area of the skin over which the drug is applied, and the thickness of the epidermis itself.

So what you put on your skin has to be water soluble, molecularly sound AND it has to be applied in such a concentrated amount so as to be absorbed through several layers of skin, muscle, ligaments and capillaries. That's why they say only "trace" amounts actually make it through your skin unless it is a medication, such as a patch that contains a vehicle of absorption.

Sugar and salt cannot be absorbed through the skin.

[rawstrength]

Nurse in the raw - can chlorine be absorbed through the skin? Do we really need shower filters to protect us from chlorine in tap water?

[Nurse in the Raw]

In trace amounts but more than that, chlorine is re-vaporized in a warm/hot shower, inhaled into the lungs, and transferred directly into the blood stream. If you have city water, you need to get a shower filter.

[rawstrength]

In trace amounts but more than that, chlorine is re-vaporized in a warm/hot shower, inhaled into the lungs, and transferred directly into the blood stream. If you have city water, you need to get a shower filter.

:eek: yuck. Would cold showers help?

[Nurse in the Raw]

Probably.....but chlorine is also very drying to the skin and strips away the natural oils and good bacteria on your skin.

Thank heavens we hit an underground spring and don't have to bother with municipal water.