Prescribed facial skin treatments for dry skin can vary for each individual, depending on several factors.  While some differences in people probably account for a huge effect in the treatments that work best for them, some others that may seem relevant do not.

Ethnicity, for instance, may seem like an important aspect to consider.  In reality, though, the variations for dry facial skin treatments between different ethnic groups is less than what it might seem at first glance.  The mechanisms for dry skin formation in all races are actually the same - it usually just appears more prominent for those with darker pigmentations.

If color doesn’t play a factor in the differences in facial skin treatments, then what does?

Skin Type. The four common facial skin types - normal, combination, oily and dry - require different levels of moisturization.  Additionally, the variance in facial skin treatments is heightened when you factor in sensitive skin, which usually affects up to 50% of female consumers in the cosmetic industry.

Age. Skin changes as we age and, as such, segmentation is encouraged when it comes to facial skin treatments for people in varying age groups.  Older individuals, obviously, will need more healing substances to care for the more pronounced damage their skin usually suffers through.

A few other factors can play a part in the facial skin treatments you should choose for your skin, with most of them involving highly individualized factors, such as your travel schedule and local climate conditions where you live.  As such, a brief consultation with a dermatologist is usually advised when trying to determine the best way to handle your dry skin.

Cosmetic skin treatments are an ever-growing industry.   Products for the well-being of skin comprise a considerable portion of the beauty market, which, itself, is a subset of the personal care industry.  Facial care accounts for over half of the global skin care spending, which, according to recent data is in the tens of billions of dollars.

Why It Keeps Growing

Beauty, more than ever, continues to be a valued quality in our society.  In fact, the emphasis on beautiful skin is probably more pronounced now than at any other time in our history.

With the emphasis on looking younger, more and more women are using cosmetic skin treatments to pull back the hands of time.  Wrinkles are diminished, skin becomes tighter and the texture softens in ways that manage to make age almost an inconsequential factor.

Even younger women are getting in on the action too, with a growing array of cosmetic skin treatments geared towards those who desire for ever more pristine, almost-glowing complexions.    As more of these cosmetic skin treatments hit the market and are shown to create positive results, the more that people will be using them in the near and distant future.

This is one industry that’s only going to keep growing for many years to come.

Clotrimazole is a common ingredient in over-the-counter skin creams. Recent results from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, now show that it is associated with major environmental risks.

“The pharmaceuticals and chemicals in everyday use form a mixture in the ocean that has a direct impact on the growth and reproduction of organisms”, says scientist Tobias Porsbring.

When Euorpean authorities assess environmental risks, they often do so for one chemical at a time. Recent research, however, shows that the hazardous chemicals that humans spread in the environment do not work alone. Chemicals, drugs and personal-care products that accompany wastewater often end up in the oceans, where they form a “cocktail” of chemicals. This “cocktail-effect” may be more harmful than the individual chemicals alone.

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In a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health, researchers examined a bank of tumor and blood samples collected from 70 patients with an aggressive form of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer. They discovered that six percent of those patients had mutations in MMP-8, an enzyme once thought to be an oncogene, which when mutated or expressed at high levels helps turn a normal cell into a cancer cell.

They took their study to the laboratory, injecting mice with cells expressing normal MMP-8. Those mice did not develop skin ulcers, one of the key measures of cancer aggression in melanoma. On the other hand, those mice injected with cells expressing mutated MMP-8 went on to develop ulcerations and tumors in their lungs.

As a result of the study, the researchers found that MMP-8, which is one of the most often mutated genes that code for matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) enzymes, actually serves as a tumor suppressor gene. As researchers noted, MMP enzymes play a key role in remodeling skin after a sunburn, cut or other wound. It has long been believed that the MMP gene family increases the risk of cancer, in particular breast, colon and melanoma cancers.

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Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine created the Health ABC Heart Failure Model for predicting risk of new onset heart failure in the elderly. Now that model has been strengthened by validating it in a separate library of patient data from an earlier cardiovascular study.

The results suggest the Health ABC risk model can be used to identify high-risk individuals for whom interventions can be targeted cost-effectively to prevent heart failure.

“This is a scoring system that could help individuals or their physicians understand their five-year risk for heart failure, using basic risk factors that are easily obtained at relatively low cost,” says Javed Butler, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine and director of heart failure research at Emory University School of Medicine.

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