The Healthy Living Lounge

Carole’s Note: This is a guest post by Jennifer Jefferies, speaker,naturopath and author of Seven Steps to Sanity.

Did you know you can reduce the burden on your kidneys by regular skin brushing? Sound a bit far-fetched?

The skin is the largest eliminating organ of the body. Stimulating it in a constructive way increases its rate of elimination of toxic waste products, which decreases the demands placed on the kidneys.

In each square centimeter of skin there are as many as three million cells, 15 sebaceous glands, 100 sweat glands, a meter of blood vessels, 3,000 sensory cells, four metres of nerves, 200 pain detectors, 25 pressure sensors for touch, two cold sensors and two heat sensors. In every square centimeter!

Each of these components has vital functions and brushing is the surest way of stimulating them and improving their efficiency. This type of stimulation is positive and does not lead to exhaustion like unnatural stimulants such as caffeine, tannins and alcohol will.

A brush is better than soap for removing dead cells:
Except when the skin is physically covered with dirt or grease, soap cannot clean it as effectively as a brush. Dry skin brushing removes the dead cells from the surface of the skin and because skin brushing contributes to cleansing the blood stream, it improves the skin everywhere on the body, although the skin that is brushed benefits the most.

Dry brush before your shower:
Brushing should be done once or twice a day, on rising before you dress and on retiring. If you are having a shower, skin brush before the shower so that the dead skin and other debris will be washed away.

Add essential oil to your brush or mitt:
Add a few drops of your favorite essential oil (mixed with a little carrier oil) to the dry bristles of a good quality natural fiber mitt (this is important as synthetics can damage your skin) and spend a few minutes brushing, working on each limb, the front of the trunk and the back.

The essential oil blend I personally use for morning skin brushing is my ‘Energize’ blend. It contains Grapefruit, May Chang, Black Pepper, Ginger and Palmarosa and energizes not only your skin but also your mind.

The really nice thing about skin brushing is that it warms the body up in less than a minute. In cold weather, the massaging effect instantly stops you feeling ‘freezing’ which is a much better way to start or end your day.

Thanks for Jennifer for a great guest post. Also remember to enter our monthly holistic living give-away which is Jennifers Seven Steps to Sanity on-line mentoring program.

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