Coconut oil

[Jay76]

Does anyone use Coconut oil and olive on their skin..instead of other lotions?

[Matt_OZ]

Hi Jason, I'm not sure what part of the body you're talking about using the oils on, I'll assume you mean just the whole body in general.

I have used olive oil when my face was drying out really badly from lots of winter rides on my MTB. Olive oil works well but is quite thick and doesn't smell so great. It can be quite soothing though.

My wife uses coconut butter (I get it for her from the Body Shop) as a moisturiser for her hands and legs to smooth them out from her BJJ training, she thinks it's very good.

When I was studying naturopathy I found out that one of Australia's (and probably one of the world's) leading experts in natural skin care advocates the use of sesame oil as she says it's closest to the sebum produced by the human body. I used it quite a bit when I had very dry skin and it helped a lot. I also use sesame oil on my massage clients as it is much smoother than canola (also known as rape seed, it's the cheapest and most common oil used by massage therapists). I even find the sesame oil to be better than high quality almond oils. One of the other really cool things about sesame oil is that ayervedic practitioners believe it's a great choice of oil to calm and soothe the nervous system (and it's pretty safe to say almost everyone could do with that these days).

Hope you find the info useful. Please let me know how your results are if you give these ideas a try, it would be great to know your experiences.

Have a great day,
Matt :D

[Jerry_D]

I use olive oil on my face for dry skin (it also helps cut down on shaving irratation) -- but since Matt has given me tons of good advice in other fields I'll now try sesame oil.

thx Matt!

[Matt_OZ]

Wow, thanks for the kind words Jerry, it's great to see your presence here.
Matt :D

PS Hopefully we'll both be CST's soon, that will be cool!

[Jay76]

Thanks guys.

Anyone use natural foods to make their own products? I made my own shampoo the other day. I juiced 2 oranges and put them in a blender with an avacodo, olive oil, coconut oil and aloe vera straight from the plant..Good stuff :)))

[Connie Brown]

Well this isn't about lotion but I am curious.

What do you think your dry skin is from? How's your intake of EFAs and is it from food or supplements?

I have fair skin that gets dry easily and I am also curious about keeping skin soft "from the inside out" . And I like to get it from food.

Any tips welcome.

[Jay76]

WE WANT TO LIVE
AAJONUS VONDERPLANITZ

He advocates thats its raw fats in the diet that keep the skin soft. Raw butter, honey, olive, coconut oil.

I have been doing this mixture, takes a while, but works. I take really hot showers, so I think thats the main reason why. My EFA's should be fine. I eat Grass fed Beef and take Cod liver oil.

[Matt_OZ]

Inside outwards is definately the way to go, we were trained to see the nutritional habits as the solution and the topical oils are more or less there as bandaids or "a little something extra".

EPA/DHA is a great place to start and so are the other oils and fats that Jason mentioned, olive oil is hard to beat but be sure it's extra virgin, all the others are useually denatured to large degree.

My skin is always good now that I figured out the nutritional and lifestyle solutions. For me that was...

1. Much less dairy (basically none). If I ever have any it's just icecream as a treat each week (which isn't too bad as the protein content is low) or a dash of biodynamic-organic milk.

2. Good fats, especially olive oil and a few DHA/EPA caps morning and night.

3. Make sure I sweat hard at least 5 days per week. This is the step that made by far the most improvement. My skin was very dry while I was recovering from a car accident where I couldn't do much of anything vigorous for a couple years. As I was able to get out and do more exercise my skin improved hugely. Strong, strong correlation between the sweating and the skin being good for me.

Till next time,
Matt :D

[rbibbs]

Skin's your biggest organ system by size, and nowhere near as simple as it looks. Skin produces oils, solvents/detergents, and salts to maintain its condition. Even antibiotics!

Diet, activity, and genetics produce such a variability in skin condition and its reaction to 'treatment' that there isn't 'one' solution. Chlorine in city water is very hard on skin. There are filters to remove it from your shower (they diminish the flow rate however). It's "whatever works for you". I had to chemically design my own formula to deal with my inherited condition, and it only makes it 'manageable'.

So like, try ANYTHING. The formal procedure is, putting a dab of what you want to try on your inside upper arm and waiting 24hrs to make sure you're not going to have an allergic reaction to it. Also, even if something makes your skin condition improve BUT it's aesthetically reprehensible (stinks or makes you feel sticky/oily/dirty) you won't be likely to use it long-term.

[Matt_OZ]

Great to hear from you Rick, was planning on emailing you tonight as I haven't seen you about for a while.

Great to have you around mate,
Matt :D

[rbibbs]

(Off-thread)

Thanks Matt! I don't have the kind of time free for online that I used to-- working, covering all the domestic bases, shifting my timebase by 3 hours. And I'm hardwired to needing a lot of sleep, what with my Mach-3 metabolism. I'll still pop in when I can mate. 8)

Rick

[Connie Brown]

As usual, mucho interesting replies.

Water, EFAs, no dairy, clean food, good oils, check.

I could use some more sweating. Make that, "glow".

thanks again all.

[Matt_OZ]

:lol: ha,ha, that's right, I forgot. Men sweat and women glow! :wink: :lol:

Matt :D

[Jay76]

1. Much less dairy (basically none). If I ever have any it's just icecream as a treat each week (which isn't too bad as the protein content is low) or a dash of biodynamic-organic milk.

Hmmmmmm

I only eat Raw organic butter and Milk ????

Raw OK??

[Matt_OZ]

Wow, raw is even better if you have a good quality source.

[Jay76]

Actually I had to put a stop to Dairy and have butter once in a while. Even raw..it produces to much Mucus in my system for me..

[Matt_OZ]

Me too buddy, I'd hoped that I'd be able to tolerate a little yoghurt and some good milk but I still that my skin reacts to it (slight eczema on elbow). I have also found the same thing with most protein powders, the only ones I can have with comfort are Designer Whey, GlycerLEAN and Optimum 100% Natural Whey (hence they are the only ones I sell).

Always good to hear from you,
Matt :D