A patient came into our teaching clinic yesterday and reported how she was doing with her terribly dry and itchy skin and scalp. She had been desperate a month before.

He had been advised to take fish oil several times a day. His improvement was excellent but not completely resolved.

My first thought was to include a shower filter that would remove the harmful effects of chlorine.

The main cause of dry skin is due to:

• diet
• ambient

Watching TV right now is killing me with all the commercials for lotions and creams. They are mostly all bunk beds. Why not remove the cause of dry skin instead of putting a Band-Aid on it every 4 hours?

I have to say that treating the symptoms instead of treating the cause is one of my biggest annoyances. So easy to do and many of us don’t do it. WHY??? I guess we are programmed to find relief instead of resolution. Relief is faster than resolution most of the time. We Yankees are so interested in making short-term money with minimal effort. Put in a little more effort and get more benefits.

Find the resolution, will you?

If one’s diet lacks essential fatty acids such as flax oil, borage oil, evening primrose oil, or fish oil, their skin is likely to become dry and irritated. Add essential fatty acids to your diet.

Whether one’s environment consists of harsh cleansers, solvents, alternating wet and dry, chemicals, or just plain chlorine, dry skin can become a problem. Eliminate environmental problems if possible.

Of course, there are countless other nutrients for the skin, such as vitamin A, vitamin C, zinc, biotin, proline, MSM and others, but an important component of healthy skin can be achieved by consuming oil of fish and the use of chlorine filters.

A great liquid fish oil that tastes like lemon can be found in Carlson’s Fish Oil. My son loves it and so do I, and that says a lot, since I’m not much of a fish lover. If he prefers capsules, look for cold-water fish oil capsules, as they are essentially free of heavy metals.

A chlorine shower filter is a good idea, as chlorine destroys proteins and removes fat from the body, inside and out. Ideally, filtered water or a countertop drinking water filter for the home would also be purchased.

I have been using the water filters in my house for about 6 years. I noticed a big difference in my scalp and especially after shaving. My face isn’t super dry anymore, in fact I don’t even use shaving cream anymore, just soap and water in the shower. My wife no longer applies buckets of lotion after every shower.

There are numerous chlorine filters for drinking water on the market. What you need to look for is how much it costs to run them per gallon. If a unit is only $20.00 initially, that’s great in the short run; however, if the filter needs to be replaced every 2 months and costs $20 each, it adds up quickly. If you get lazy and don’t change the filter as recommended, you are doing more harm than good. Why? The filter begins to discharge what it has been filtering for the last 2 months and the bacteria begin to establish a base camp. Have you ever noticed that your filtered water has started to taste strange? Replace filter.

When our patient returns, I’ll let you know how her dry skin is doing. It may take a while, but I’ll remember to post your update.

Enjoy eliminating the cause of your dry skin! Applying lotion day after day month after month can’t be fun. It takes four weeks for a healthy new layer of skin to appear, just 4 weeks. So in 6 weeks you’ll probably be lotion free.

Chlorine shower filter [http://www.healthegoods.com/product/new-wave-enviro-premium-shower-filter/bath-and-shower-products] benefits are noticeable in about 3 days; some people notice the difference after the first shower. Of course, it depends on how much chlorine is in your city’s water and how sensitive you are.