The epidermal barrier
Did you know that your largest organ is your skin?
Our skin works 24/7 to protect us from factors that can cause imbalance and harm us in our daily lives. We all know that healthy skin is in vogue. Whether you are making a quick stop at the drugstore, scrolling through IG, or catching up with friends, the latest skincare trends and products are literally everywhere.
“At The Questionnaire, we know that skin education is the real secret to healthy skin, so we wanted to start this journey by focusing on our most important barrier: the epidermal barrier.”
Recently I came across a great paper from a renowned dermatology journal that covered a topic that appeard to be very basic: The Epidermal Barrier. The epidermis is our outermost layer of the skin which functions as our body first defence and that is when we speak about the epidermal barrier.
Well, it is not basic, because understanding the components, like it’s proteins and their functions, helps us physicians and pharmacologists understand the causes of skin imbalances, so that we can create targeted treatments.
I also thought about my allies who suffer from eczema (these dry itchy patches on your skin). Understanding the epidermal barrier will help you too! I am going to break down the basics so that you can look out for some key ingredients you want in your daily moisturizer .
Function of the epidermal barrier
-permeability barrier
-antimicrobial protection and immune response function
- Protection against UV-Light
-antioxidant barrier
So what is healthy skin?
… a little more than a sun kissed even skintone with no pimple or redness:
Per definition, healthy skin comprises a smooth texture, no flaky skin, elasticity, the ability to respond to shearing forces (cold weather, small injuries) without being too fragile.
Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) describes the water loss through the layers of our skin (transepidermal). It is influenced by factors that are caused by our bodys (so called endogen/internal factors) and other factors which come from the environment (exogen/external factors).
If we now look at skin conditions such as atopic dermatitis which key feature are chronic eczema and is commonly associated with asthma and various allergies (in German better known as Neurodermitis – we will cover this topic soon) we can say that they have a higher transepidermal water loss compared to "normal"skin. This is often caused by a lack of production of ceramides (a key protein) and/or genetic mutations in other types of proteins, all of which play a big role in ‚locking in moisture ’ and protecting our skin against environmental toxins.
The limits of self repair mechanisms
We all have self repair mechanisms, some of which are easy to recognize, like wound healing. Nevertheless at times we undergo stress, experience climate change, that impacts our skin’s ability to repair itself, leading to skin irritation and can cause allergic reactions.
These are the signs:
Xerosis (dry skin)
Eczema ( dry itchy patches)
Itchiness: Mostly because of over dryness and easy vulnerability.
Since we @ The Questionnaire strive to be inclusive and think diverse I also want to briefly touch up on what the authors of the article found out about differences of the epidermal structure when comparing skin of different ethnicities:
-They found the lowest ceramide ratio in African when compared to Caucasian and Asian skin. Asian skin had the highest!-
Fitzpatrick skintype IV-V, which is a classification on the skin photosensitivity scale ( I always burns, VI is the darkest skintype and never burns) showed lower PH levels, an enhanced integrity of the outermost layer of the epidermis after trauma e.g. having a wound) and a more rapid barrier recovery.
Another important takeaway from the article was that darker skin tones have lower ceramide ratios which make it super important to maintain a good, consistent skincare routine. You may have guessed a key ingredient to look out for in your products, especially if you suffer from dry skin: Ceramides
WE LOVE :
Ceramide (repairs barrier), Glycerin, Hyaluronic acid, and Niacinamide. Take a l
ook at the skincare section to see some examples.
Remember Ceramide and Glycerin containing lotions and daily moisturizing can help you reduce the amount of needed topical steroids when you are suffering from eczema.
Source for this blogpost was the following article: Understanding the Epidermal barrier in healthy and comprised skin: Clinically relevant information for the dermatology practitioner, James Del Rosso et al.,2016.
