Taking a bath is familiar to ordinary people, but it is a necessary life skill for everyone. But the seemingly simple bath, wash right is another matter, especially for the elderly, if you repeatedly step on the thunder of these two bathing errors, will bring unexpected harm to the body.

Recently, I treated one such elderly patient. The old man's skin is covered with small fine lines, especially on the calf, which is particularly obvious, painful and itchy.

I asked the old man what was going on, it turned out that before the old man was hospitalized, the old man's son specifically gave him a bath center "seriously" took a bath, and arranged for the old man to rub his back. As a result, the old man suffered from crackle eczema.

Clinically, there are many people who have misunderstandings about bathing like the old man's son, and some patients even suffer from serious skin diseases because of improper bathing.

There are two big mistakes in bathing, the first is to rub, the second is to wash.

It starts with the structure of the skin. The most surface layer of the skin is the stratum corneum, the normal stratum corneum is inactive, and the cells in the stratum corneum contain keratin . It helps reduce water evaporation, and can even absorb water to keep the skin moist, with physical, chemical, biological protection, is a very good barrier.

However, if we usually do not pay attention to excessive washing, especially if we often use nylon shower towels to scrub, the skin's natural moisturizing protective layer of sebum will be washed away, resulting in skin cracking like a field without water and vulnerable to external stimulation. Especially the elderly, the body metabolism is slow, sebum secretion is relatively lacking, bathing too often is more likely to lead to dry skin, itching.

I suggest that the most important thing to take a bath is "moderate", the elderly can be washed once every 5 to 7 days, young people can be washed once every 2 to 4 days, but it is recommended to clean armpits, anal circumference, privacy and other parts with water every day to maintain personal hygiene. Do not use body wash, soap and other body wash products, rinse with water. It is advisable to control the time at about 10 minutes. Don't overheat the water.

 

People who have the habit of rubbing ash can change the nylon bath towel to gently rub with their hands or soft towels, so that they can clean the skin, but still remember not to do it too often.

Apply moisturizer immediately after taking a shower, and before the moisture on the surface of the skin is completely dried, apply moisturizer promptly to keep the skin hydrated. Here is a small secret recipe, open clot plus 10 times the water, moisturizing effect is also very good.

 

In short, in order to have good skin, especially the elderly, it is necessary to avoid physical stimulation and chemical stimulation, physical stimulation refers to rubbing, hot, scratching, etc., chemical stimulation refers to the excessive use of various body cleaning products, otherwise the cuticle is completely destroyed, the skin barrier is gone, and a series of skin problems such as allergies and infections will follow. Some people even suffer from eczema as a result, and long-term severe eczema can lead to atopic dermatitis, which causes great suffering to patients, especially the elderly.

If there is itching of the skin, suffering from eczema, dermatitis, etc., you need to go to the hospital to find a doctor for standard treatment.

Author:

Standing member of Dermatology Branch of Chinese Geriatric Society

Zhang Shoumin, Dermatology department of Henan Provincial People's Hospital

(The opinions expressed are those of the author. Some pictures in this article are from the Internet, if there is infringement, please contact to delete)