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Why Some of Us Get Dry Skin in the Winter

Summary
Dry Skin (xerosis) is a condition which affects some individuals but not others. It occurs during seasonal change, and is more prevalent as an individual increases in age.
-In our globalized era, it is becoming more frequent as individuals migrate larger distances; for example to Europe or North America from warmer parts of the globe. (e.g. from Singapore to Geneva)
-The results of the study suggest that the reactive blood flow in response to cold (but not the blood flow at the resting state) is associated with dry skin conditions and is involved in skin homeostasis during seasonal environmental changes (Study from Tokyo, Japan)

Why this study is Important ?
-It tries to pinpoint the differences in adapting potential and shows that individuals with dry skin have impaired Rate of Recovery (RR) following clod exposure. Indeed a normal rate of recovery results in normal blood flow to the skin.

Why is the Blood flow to the skin important ?
-thermoregulation
-oxygen supply
-nutrition

How was the study designed ?
The authors compared:
-blood flow during the resting state vs when cold stress was induced
-vascular versus dry skin

 

 

Part 1: 56 female volunteers were included and measured skin blood flow on the leg and adjusted it with age.
Furthermore 37 females were followed over the seasons after being divided into 2 groups
High Recovery Rate (HRR)
Low Recovery Rate

Results show that visual dryness (dry skin) correlated with a poor RR. This observation was further observed in the LRR: correlated significantly in visual dryness when going from summer to winter.

Part 2: Then a local cooling test was done in 18 subjects on the face.
Results show that a good RR was correlated with good blood flow

 

 

Conclusions
The RR correlated negatively with the visual dryness score of skin on the leg, but correlated positively with water content on the arm.
-No significant correlation between the resting star of the blood flow and dry skin parameters were observed.
In both the face and the body, deterioration in skin dryness from summer to winter was significant in subjects with low RR.
-The RR correlated well with the responsiveness of facial blood flow to local cooling, suggesting that the RR is one of the index which represents microcirculatory function

Comment
-In our practice (in colder Western Europe), we often see people coming from warmer climates with a darker skin phototype.
-It would be interesting to see if there is a genetic component to this susceptibility or if dry skin is the result of a poor adaptation of unaccustomed skin.

 

 

P05-21-The recovery rate of skin temperature after cold stress but not blood flow in a resting state is related to dry skin conditions. Amano Y et al.* Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology 2016 – Sendai, Japan