Are your hands getting irritated from washing so much? Try this...

No matter whether you're gathering your information from cable news or straight from your doctor, the best way that they'll tell you to protect yourself from Coronavirus and COVID-19 is to wash your hands. As many of us here in Minnesota already know, washing your hands, washing the dishes and simply using cleaning agents on your bare hands in the dry Minnesota Winter will do a number on your skin. And now we're washing them even more? On top of that, alcohol based hand sanitizers (the only kind that really work against COVID-19) also dry out your skin.

The result...we're left with dry, itchy, red and cracking hands that can really put a damper on your daily life. For me, the itch is bearable, but the the cracking at the corner of your fingers and finger nails is THE WORST!

So here are a few tips to help us all in our time of need...

Moisturize, duh...

Let's get this one out of the way right away, use lotion and moisturizers on your skin and use it regularly. We're talking multiple times a day to combat both the weather and your actions of disinfecting. Look for ingredients such as lanolin, isopropyl palmitate, glycerin, sorbitol and squalene among others to get the good stuff!

Install a humidifier...

Think about it, it only makes sense. Insert moisture into the air of your living spaces and your skin will soak it up. Just make sure you maintain it, clean it and don't leave water sitting in it for long periods.

Wear gloves...

In general, wearing gloves will protect your hands from the elements of whatever cold weather we continue to have. You can also find moisturizing gloves or wear plastic bags with lotion on your hands at night to soak up all the possible goodness you can get.

Whatever you do, don't stop washing your hands. Protecting yourself from the coronavirus is much more important and dealing with dry hands might just be a temporary side effect of that.