Brushing Skin Views

• Health & Personal Care

Skin is considered to be the largest organ of elimination. Alternative practitioners use skin brushing, the technique of very gently brushing the skin with a soft, natural bristle, dry brush to help skin do its job. It's believed to enhance elimination by removing dead skin cells and enhancing the circulation of blood and lymph.

Your skin is the body's largest organ and the body's first line of defense. It makes sense, then, that what we do to it and what we put on it affects other organs in the body. Dry skin brushing is one of the simplest, cheapest, easiest things that you can do to help cleanse and detoxify your body. It actually does more than just invigorate, stimulate and exfoliate your skin and give it a healthy glow. It also benefits your lymphatic system.

Even if you do exercise and get massage, skin brushing will enhance and speed up the body's release of toxins by also encouraging exfoliation, blood circulation and new cell growth. This is especially true when you are doing any sort of cleanse with the goal of detoxifying. The brush you choose should have soft natural bristles, and a long handle to get to the hard-to-reach places. Always brush your skin dry, just before bathing, and keep the brush dry, except to rinse it once in a while with plain water.

Why not just do the brushing in the shower with some soap, and get it all done at once? There are several reasons: Brushing wet skin causes stretching and is not as effective for exfoliation as brushing your skin when it's dry. Also, soap alone does not remove dead skin as well, even with a washcloth. Besides, most soap these days (unless made from only natural and organic ingredients) contains harsh unnatural ingredients that smell clean but will be absorbed by your skin. Fortunately, there are numerous natural soaps available online and in stores these days that are quite easy to find. A few of my favorites are Simply Divine Botanicals, Pangea Organics, and Terrasentials. When dry skin brushing you would only need to use these natural soaps in those places where you are really need it...(genitals, soles of feet, armpits, really dirty spots.)