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Skin Brushing for The Perfect Body!

What another fantastic weekend of celebrations! Whether you are a Royal Family lover or not there were a lot of happy (and merry!!) people around last Friday and I thought William and Kate looked amazing and were faultless throughout. Kate and her sister Pippa’s perfect figures were talked about at great length, but from what I have read in National newspapers they have worked really hard to get the best bodies and complexions by eating the right foods and working out daily. So, good for them for putting in so much effort, and as we could all see it was certainly worth it!

One of the best ways I know to help you get fab looking skin on your legs, bums, tums and arms so you can look your best this summer is skin brushing. This technique should be used if you are male or female as the skin is an important root of elimination, eliminating about 10% of our metabolic waste which is why the Chinese call it the third lung.

In order to understand why skin brushing is so helpful it’s useful to understand a little about the physiology of the skin. Sebum is an oily secretion produced by the sebatious glands, tiny ducts adjacent to hair follicles. Sebum is secreted into the follicle, from which it spreads over the hair and skin. The main role of sebum is to waterproof the skin and hair. Sweat is a salty, watery solution produced by sweat glands and as sweat and sebum mix up on the skin surface they form a protective layer called acid mantle.

It is this stale acid mantle that is particularly helped as skin brushing clears it, allowing fresh elimination to take place from the body and ensuring that pores do not become blocked. I talk about this a lot in my seminars, and I always think this is an important thing to remember that the lymphatic system does not have a pump like the blood has the heart, so skin brushing helps to stimulate the lymphatic system to enable toxins be removed from the body. After all it is the build up of toxins and acids within the body that create disease, so it is vital to keep the flow within the body to remain healthy. Life is constantly moving and that is how our bodies should function too. Never standing still or stagnating.

Skin brushing removes dead skin cells on the surface allowing the skin to breath and also improving the texture and appearance giving you a more conditioned look and feel. Skin is extremely absorbent, like a large sponge, and care also needs to be taken when using anti-persperants as they can clog up the lymph under the arm and allow the introduction of heavy metals like aluminum into the body.

Skin brushing is a great way of making changes to give you better health and if you do it daily you will need a non-synthetic bristle that can be found in most good health stores. It is helpful as it has along detachable handle so you can reach your back. Always brush from the feet and down from the neck towards the heart, not away from it. Start at the soles of the feet, and then brush in small strokes up the feet, ankles, calves, thighs and buttocks. Then brush up the front and back of the torso as far as the heart.  Work up the hands and arms and then down the neck, chest and upper back to the heart. Avoid brushing the face, as the skin is too sensitive and only brush gently over the breast area.

Denise Kelly is a BANT (British Association of Nutritional Therpaists) registered Naturopahic Nutritional Therapist.

She writes Nutrition Programmes for a variety of organisations and has a private practice in Chichester, West Sussex. Denise is founder of K4 Fit Kidz.

If you would like to learn more about Denise and her services please visit www.denisekelly.co.uk or phone +44(0)1243 528040.

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