What You Need to Know About Hard Water and Skin Issues
Many people suffering from ongoing skin issues aren’t aware that the primary cause could very well be hard water. While some dermatological issues are intuitively matched to water issues, such as unreasonably dry skin, other problems may surprise you.
Here are several key facts you need to know about hard water and how different compositions of it correlate with different skin issues.
What Is Hard Water?
In the most basic sense, “hardness” describes water with a high mineral and metal content, most often levels of limestone and chalk. If the amount of those and other materials are enough to cause buildup and needs treatment, it is no longer in the category of “soft” water, which has minimal buildup and leads to few, if any, health issues.
Is It Safe to Drink?
Often, yes, as long as pH levels aren’t too high. Your body needs some amount of minerals, to the point that pure, distilled water actually lacks some of naturally occurring content your body requires from water for optimal health.
Other contaminants in your water supply can lead to health issues, but the idea of minerals and some metals in your drinking water is actually a positive. This is one of the major reasons why a water softening service is a better choice for your health than switching to home distilling as an alternative for drinking water, since it removes dangerous or over-represented materials in your water without undermining the healthy qualities of safe drinking water.
What Can Hard Water Do To Skin?
Hard Water can potentially dry out your skin, causing an ashy appearance unless scrubbed clean (and the necessary scrubbing can also lead to further symptoms).
Less commonly acknowledge is the role hard water plays in acne. Even people who aren’t predisposed to acne can develop issues with it, due to common hard water mineral deposits like calcium and magnesium interacting with your hygiene products. This can create an almost unnoticeable film on your skin that is hard to wash away, leading to clogged pores and eventually full-blown acne.
Many studies also correlate various forms of eczema in children heavily correlate with hard water. Embarrassing, itchy, and sometimes painful patches of skin, wholly preventable by limiting the amount of mineral and metal content in your water.
For the worst of these skin issues, many people resort to expensive medical solutions, some of which have side effects. But the true culprit going undetected is hard water.
How To Mitigate the Effects of Hard Water
Most alternatives to using the municipal water as it comes out of your faucet are expensive, time-consuming, or both.
Distillation is time-consuming, and only helps with drinking water (and, as previously discussed, isn’t entirely appropriate as a long-term source of consumption). Buying filtered water solves the drinking problem, but not the bathing problem. Simple consumer-level faucet filtration systems only catch largest, heaviest elements of hard water; this is good for drinking if your water doesn’t have notably dangerous contaminants present, but again, does not solve the aspects that correlate with dermatological issues.
Passaic Bergen Water Softening specializes in testing the water that enters your Northern New Jersey home, diagnosing the problems, and installing solutions for the unique issues and deficiencies in your water supply.
Water will taste fresher, feel more natural to the touch, and no longer provide the medium for mineral deposit buildup. And most importantly, you will no longer suffer from the skin health issues caused by the film buildup that could be the cause of your personal skin issues.
Northern New Jersey homes are known for hard water issues. If you’d like to eliminate one of the prominent variables of skin problems that you or your loved ones suffer from, contact us today!
