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Dec. 26, 2023 – “Eczema is my constant winter companion,” said Ali Zagat, 42, of Philadelphia. Once cold weather arrives, so do dry, red patches on her hands and painful cracks on her knuckles and fingertips. “I have sensitive skin and eczema in general, but when the air is dryer and it’s cold outside, it gets worse.”
There are clear reasons for this, said Julia Tzu, MD, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Dermatology at New York University School of Medicine. “Our skin is constantly fluctuating with the environment. During wintertime in the Northern Hemisphere, the humidity drops sharply and the temperature goes down — it’s (an extreme drying) condition, so your skin is losing lots of water.”
All Kinds of Trouble
Zagat’s experience isn’t unusual — research has found that as the temperature dips, eczema patients seek treatment more often. And people who live in cold climates are much more likely to have it than those who live in warmer areas. More than 31 million Americans have eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, in some form.
Other skin conditions tend to flare up in winter, too. Cold and wind can trigger the redness of rosacea, for instance. And seborrheic dermatitis, a scaly rash (called dandruff when it’s on your scalp), gets worse with cold. In one study of several thousand people with psoriasis, more than half had more trouble in colder months.
Amy Kelly, 44, lives on a farm on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. She’s had psoriasis since childhood and knows to expect the worst when the weather turns frosty.
“At its worst, my psoriasis gets so itchy, I wind up compulsively scratching to the point where it bleeds,” she said. “And when scratching breaks the skin, it stings, too.”
All these issues share a similar root: Winter wreaks havoc with your skin barrier.
“The skin barrier is essentially a fortress that seals your body,” Tzu said. As the top layer of your epidermis, the barrier includes waxy ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids, which help to seal in moisture and keep out environmental irritants. When the surrounding air is extremely dry, as often happens in winter, it can strip the skin barrier’s natural moisture.
What Makes It Worse?
Unfortunately, some of the things we do in response to winter weather can trigger more problems:
- Indoor heat, so necessary for comfort, sucks moisture out of the air, and eventually your skin.
- Hot water, which seems like a simple way to warm hands and body, has a drying effect. Think about how well hot water helps clean greasy dishes. On your body, that means dissolving part of the skin barrier.
- Rubbing vigorously with a towel dries you off quickly, but it also tears at your skin barrier.
- Hand sanitizer,
