WHITFIELD: For many people the winter months means dry skin. In this week's health for her, Elizabeth Cohen has tips on how you can help prevent it.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Winter can be a tough season, especially when it comes to your skin. Combine the cold temperatures outside with the warm temperatures inside, and skin can begin to crack and that's not good.</s>DR. GEORGE VERGHESE, MID-ATLANTIC SKIN: The cold weather is very difficult for us to help protect our skin because we lose nutrients, we lose moisture. There's essential oils that are, you know, built into our skin and out of those things are difficult to replenish during the winter.</s>COHEN: If untreated, dry skin can sometimes lead to dermatitis, which causes swelling and infection. Use creams and soaps with moisturizers to keep skin soft applying them when the skin is damp. Avoid those with alcohol or perfumes. Also keep away from taking long hot baths during the winter months.</s>VERGHESE: We need to stop taking those long hot showers that we really like. Make sure they're lukewarm water about 10 minutes that's the max you want to use and make sure after the shower or bath, is a good moisturizer.</s>COHEN: While patches of dry skin can appear anywhere, it's common on the arms, hands, lower legs and abdomen and also skin in the joint areas can become red and flaky. Make sure to check these areas and keep them moist. If they become seriously inflamed, it's best to see your doctor. With this week's health for her, I'm Elizabeth Cohen.
Preventing Dry Skin In Winter