As the largest organ in our body, our skin does many great things for us. From containing our inner organs to regulating our body temperature, the skin is at the center of it all. With this in mind, it only makes sense that proper health requires us to properly nurture our skin both inside and out.
When it comes to the skin, a significant amount of its composition is water, with most people having, on average, 64% of their skin composed of water. Combine this fact with how easy it is to see skin quality, and it makes sense why the skin is often one of the first to give away signs of dehydration.
Dry skin is often what most people consider as a sign of dehydration, but the skin’s need for water extends far beyond needing it for smooth skin. A lack of hydration can have some significant visual impacts on the skin, such as duller skin where imperfections are more prominent or an increased risk of infection. However, a lot happens under the surface to explain why these visual appearances occur.
Let’s further explore the vital role water plays in skin health.
Balance pH Levels
While pH levels can range from acidic (1) to basic (14), skin is happiest with a pH that falls between 4.7 and 5.75. For reference, water has a pH of 7, which is neutral.
Skin pH levels are important because they help your skin combat damaging free radicals or harmful microbes. The slightly acidic level of skin’s natural pH is what allows it to have this effect on damaging compounds.
However, factors such as oil, sweat, cosmetics, genetics, detergents, and certain skin conditions can influence your skin’s pH. When skin pH becomes too high, it cannot adequately protect against bacteria and other microbes, causing a greater risk of acne.
Hydrating the body with water, which has a neutral pH, ensures that the ideal pH level of your skin is not altered. Water accomplishes this by reversing any alkalinity (higher than 7) pH that is affecting your skin. This is why washing your face thoroughly with water after using cleansing products is essential, as the neutral pH of water washes away any cleanser that might be causing skin pH levels to rise. However, hydrating from the inside also helps the skin maintain its ideal pH.
Reduce Wrinkles
Wrinkles themselves result from a decline in collagen due to age, which cannot be remedied through drinking water. However, drinking too little water can cause wrinkles to become more prominent since the skin is not as plump. This is because drinking water helps increase skin volume, and while this does not remove wrinkles, it makes them less noticeable and improves overall skin appearance.
Flush Toxins
Many toxins can affect your skin and damage it, with some of these found internally, including sugar, pathogens, and acid produced by cells. The body has many systems in place to remove these toxins, such as the kidneys, liver, and immune system. However, a key component of ensuring all these systems work as needed is water.
For example, the kidneys regulate fluid in the body, but if there is too little water, kidney stones or other problems may develop. When the kidneys cannot properly filter, this may affect the skin because of the buildup of waste products and excess fluid.
Improve Skin Quality
Water also has the ability to improve your skin itself. A study on the effects of long-term water intake found that drinking 9.5 cups of water each day resulted in altered skin thickness and density after just 4 weeks.
Thicker skin appears more youthful due to its ability to make imperfections less noticeable.
In addition, skin density is the amount of collagen and elastin, among other compounds, that make up the matrix of the dermis. When it declines, sagging and fine lines can occur, so water’s ability to increase skin density may help combat these signs of aging.
Increase Blood Flow to the Skin
Water plays a crucial role in promoting blood flow, which then equates to greater blood flow to the skin. These results were confirmed with a study showing that drinking just 2 cups of water increased blood flow to the skin.
Increasing blood flow to the skin allows the body to properly control its temperature. It also means more of the nutrients found in blood are delivered to the skin, which can lead to healthier skin that is better equipped to fight any type of infection.
Balance Oil Levels
Many people experience dry skin when they are dehydrated. In some cases, though, the opposite may occur, and the body instead overcompensates for dehydration by producing more oil. When this oil becomes trapped on the skin, blemishes and breakouts can occur. By staying hydrated, the body does not have to overproduce oil.
Regulate Body Temperature
The skin stores water in its middle layers, and when the body heats up, this water moves to the skin’s surface as sweat. As the sweat evaporates, it cools the body.
Scientists have suggested that too little water in the body can cause heat storage to increase as your body is not able to regulate its temperature as well, leaving you feeling overheated.
Water for Skin Health
Water serves as a crucial component of all cells in the body, including the cells that make up your skin. Because of this, drinking plenty of water ensures that enough water can enter the skin cells, allowing them to perform optimally and stay healthy.
Placing products on the skin, such as moisturizers, help to retain moisture, but the key to improving all aspects of your skin’s health is hydrating the body from the inside out.
To see the greatest benefit for your skin, it helps to make the water you drink work harder. With WEO, we amplify water’s hydrating properties through bio-health technology without changing its properties or pH level. This leads to greater hydration, and skin health, all through the water you drink.
References
The Water in You: Water and the Human Body | U.S. Geological Survey. (2019). Retrieved 22 October 2022, from https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-you-water-and-human-body#overview
Williams, S., Krueger, N., Davids, M., Kraus, D., & Kerscher, M. (2007). Effect of fluid intake on skin physiology: distinct differences between drinking mineral water and tap water. International journal of cosmetic science, 29(2), 131–138. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-2494.2007.00366.x
Rodrigues, L., Palma, L., Tavares Marques, L., & Bujan Varela, J. (2015). Dietary water affects human skin hydration and biomechanics. Clinical, Cosmetic And Investigational Dermatology, 413. doi: 10.2147/ccid.s86822
Wipke-Tevis, D. D., & Williams, D. A. (2007). Effect of oral hydration on skin microcirculation in healthy young and midlife and older adults. Wound repair and regeneration : official publication of the Wound Healing Society [and] the European Tissue Repair Society, 15(2), 174–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1524-475X.2007.00202.x
Sawka, M. N., Latzka, W. A., Matott, R. P., & Montain, S. J. (1998). Hydration effects on temperature regulation. International journal of sports medicine, 19 Suppl 2, S108–S110. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-971971
