8 Ways Coconut Oil Can Help Heal Your Skin
Try coconut oil to heal wounds, burns, and other skin conditions naturally…
Coconut oil has been touted for having all sorts of amazing health benefits, but one benefit you may not be aware of is how good coconut oil is for your skin. In fact, coconut oil can be used for all sorts of skin conditions, from dry skin and eczema to healing cuts and other wounds. Several studies have found that applying coconut oil to cuts, scrapes, and burns may help speed healing, reduce pain and swelling, and lessen scarring. Due to its anti-inflammatory effects, coconut oil may have a soothing and healing effect on sunburns as well.
Coconut oil is widely available today and usually quite affordable, so it’s worth keeping a jar around for whenever you might need it as a skin-healing agent. It does not need refrigeration, and as long as you keep it in a relatively cool place, it should keep quite well for quite a while.
A quick note on quality: It’s best to purchase organic and virgin coconut oil for the best purity and quality, and there are some reported issues with coconut farming and environmental degradation, so if you can spend a couple of extra bucks for regeneratively raised or sustainably farmed coconut oil, this is the best option.
Here are just a few of the ways in which coconut oil can be used to heal your skin, according to multiple research studies:
- In animals, wounds treated with virgin coconut oil healed more quickly than untreated wounds. The coconut-oil treated wounds also showed a significant increase in pepsin-soluble collagen and increased antioxidant enzyme activities.
- Burns treated with coconut oil had significant improvements in burn wound contraction – or the body’s efforts to close up the wound – as well as a significantly decreased period of epithelialization, meaning new tissue growth that covers a wound to heal it.
- Coconut oil was found to be more effective than silver sulfadiazine cream at treating diabetic ulcers.
- The monolaurin in coconut oil can make it an effective antibacterial and antifungal treatment. Both bacterial and fungal infections can slow down the ability of wounds to heal.
- Coconut oil was found to be just as safe and effective as mineral oil for treating dry skin.
- Coconut oil decreased the severity of mild to moderate atopic dermatitis in pediatric patients.
- Coconut oil in the form of cultured coconut extract provides better barrier functions for the skin and has an anti-inflammatory effect after skin is exposed to ultraviolet radiation.
- Coconut oil can even help protect the skin from the damaging effects of the sun’s UV radiation.
Read more at GreenSmoothieGirl.com…
