Coconut for Skin
Coconut oil for skin care is the all-time effective way for natural skin treatment. It has been traditionally used by Pacific Islanders for several decades.
They
live in the island, the place with abundant coconut palms. Most of the diets are
based on each part of coconut palms, including coconut oil.
The amazing coconut palms give them many health benefits. For example, the mother rubs the first born baby's skin with coconut oil from the day one. And they do it everyday until they die! Why?
Because they believe in coconut oil that it protects the skin from sunburn damage and other infections.
Think about it... They dive to catch fish and other sea animals for eating.
They do activities outdoor under the tropical hot weather all the time.
However, they have no trace of skin cancer and other signs of
premature aging and skin diseases
Why Coconut Oil for Skin?
1. Antioxidant
Coconut oil nutrition has many excellent properties. One of the most interesting properties is the powerful antioxidant.
There are three powerful antioxidants in coconut oil:
- Vitamin E: There are both tocopherol and tocotrienol. However, tocotrienol is 40-60 times more powerful than tocopherol found in common cosmetics.
- Phenol
- Phytosterol
They help reduce the number of free radicals in your body.
If you have too many free radicals, your body cells and tissue will likely be destroyed. And you may have many health problems later.
Free radicals actually cause premature aging. Your skin will become dry, sagging and has some wrinkles and liver spots. Even worse, you may have skin cancer if left untreated.
Sadly, we can't avoid getting free radicals. They are in everywhere.
Breathing, eating, smoking, stress and lifestyle changes can also cause free radicals in your body.
All you need to do is to minimize the number of them as much as you can.
How to do it?
Well, you need lots of antioxidants to help reducing the number of free radicals. The easiest way is to take coconut oil and apply coconut oil for skin everyday.
The powerful antioxidants in coconut oil REALLY help delay the aging on your skin. Plus, the nutrients in coconut oil also make your skin glow, fresh and healthy.
2. Antibacterial Agent
Coconut oil mainly composes of medium-chained fatty acids (MCFAs) such as
- Lauric acid (48-53%)
- Capric acid (7%)
- Caprylic (8%)
- Caproic (0.5%)
They will become antibacterial agents when you take coconut oil into the body. Triglycerides of these fatty acids will be broken down to Monoglyceride.
Virus 
photo
courtesy of Sarej
This is what makes it so powerful in killing bacteria, fungi, yeasts, viruses and protozoa.
In addition, they give you the immune system boost as well.
So, applying coconut oil for skin helps you reduce the risk of acne, eczema, rashes, diaper rash, ringworm, and psoriasis.
Moreover, it really helps healing yourstretch marks as well :-)
3. Natural Sebum
Over 50% of medium-chained triglycerides (MCTs) in coconut oil are similar to the natural oil produced by our body. We call it "Sebum".
Sebum is essential to our skin health. It creates a powerful skin protective layer fighting against many harmful microbes such as bacteria, fungi, germs, yeasts and viruses.
So if you apply coconut oil for skin, you will be adding more strength to this antimicrobial layer. Sooner, your skin will become soft and smooth.
Coconut oil moisturizer is excellent to soften your skin for
longer than many skin care products out there.
The Benefits to Your Skin
Again, I would highly recommend Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) as it gives you the most benefits out of the others.
This is because VCO is made from fresh, organic coconut, without any chemicals and heating process.
So, the essential nutrients still remain, unlike those refined, bleached and deodorized oils (RBD) that give you little benefits.
Let's see the benefits you'll get from applying coconut oil for skin:
Young Skin
With the powerful antioxidant in coconut oil, your skin is mostly protected from free radicals.
It also helps accelerate removing the external dead cells while pushing fresh new skin cells out.
This helps delay the aging condition. So your skin looks younger.
Soft and Smooth Skin
MCFAs in coconut oil are similar to sebum under your skin. They absorb into your skin very quickly. So your skin becomes soft and smooth longer. It is one of the best skin moisturizers ever found on earth.
Most of the skin care products MAINLY contain water and some little mineral oil (or sunflower oil).
When the water absorbs into your skin, it makes your skin soft and smooth. The water sooner evaporates, and your skin returns to be dry, sagging and wrinkled.
Blemish Treatment
Lauric acid will turn into the antibacterial agent called monolaurin. It fights against the disease that causes brown and freckle-like spots, liver spots, and other blemishes.
The antioxidants deal with free radicals causing skin damage from sun exposure. This really helps you having a fresh and smooth skin without any blemishes.
Skin Disease Treatment
Simply apply coconut oil for skin to protect and treat skin diseases.
For example, psoriasis and dermatitis such as eczema, inflamed rash skin, acne, ringworm, and other skin infections.
Sunburn
Treatment
photo
courtesy of wikimedia.org
Coconut oil prevents you from inflamed and burned skin due to long exposure to sunlight.
This is because it has a good antioxidant.
You can apply coconut oil on your skin before going out to the beach.
The oil will protect your skin from sunburn to a great extent.
If you got sunburn and want to heal it, gently rub your skin with coconut oil. It helps relieve the pain. Within a few hours, you will be getting better.
Coconut oil is light and isn't sticky like the typical sunscreen.
Additionally, it is cheaper than the sunscreen so that you can afford it :
How well does it work as the sun protection?
I would tell that it depends on which kinds of the oil you take.
If you take the unsaturated oil like soybean oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, corn oil, canola oil, etc., you can have sunburn very easily.
Although you have taken coconut oil for weeks or months, your skin will get burned easily if you did take the unsaturated oil before. Why?
Because the unsaturated oil does collect into the skin cells, and it can be burned very easily from sun exposure.
Tanned Skin
Want to get tanned skin?
Well, simply mix coconut oil with the Sunblock lotion. And then, apply it all over the body before going out to the beach.
Doing this way, you can have the best Sunblock while your skin is gradually becoming tanned.
Good Lip Balm
Did you have the painful cracked and dry lips?
If you did, simply use coconut oil as a lip balm. I always use it during the winter, and it really works. Since then, I never have the painful cracked lips anymore.
Why does it works?
It is because coconut oil is rich in natural moisturizer and the good nourishing of Vitamin E. The moisture layer does coat your lips to prevent drying and cracking. It works longer than typical lip balm.
Just try it out and you may forget the painful cracked and dry lips forever, especially in winter.
Insect Bites and Stings Treatment
I usually apply coconut oil for skin to relieve the pain from insect bites and stings. I rub coconut oil on the spot where I get hurt for 5 minutes. Before long, I can feel better. The inflamed swollen red wound begins going down.
Thanks to coconut oil.
Skin Cancer Treatment
The powerful antioxidant in coconut oil can cope with a serious problem like skin cancer and melanoma.
The medium-chained fatty acids absorb quickly into the skin cells.
It helps strengthen the connective tissues and fight against the disease that is the primary cause of skin cancer.
Dr. Bruce Fife (2006) indicates that coconut oil has a potential to treat melanoma and skin cancer as well.
Let's Try It Out
So, now you know about the benefits you'll get from applying coconut oil for skin. To wrap up, coconut oil absolutely has an edge over the other oils and those expensive commercial skin care products in the market.
Just give it a try on using coconut oil for skin.
I believe you'll love it if you do.
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