The Most Effective Methods to Relieve Your Acne

Author: Brian B. Carter, MS, LAcbr
Source: articleage.combr
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The number one natural beauty tip I can give you is to take your
health seriously. In Chinese medicine, we know that natural
external beauty is a reflection of inner health and well being.
Often, the solution to external beauty problems is an internal
one. That means foods and herbs. In the case of skin problems,
herbs can be use to create creams or wraps and applied directly.

In Chinese medicine, we treat problems like acne, blemishes, and
other skin problems, hair loss, and premature graying of the
hair. Some of this you may need to see a Chinese medicine
herbalist for, but some of it you may be able to deal with
yourself. Im going to give you natural beauty tip after natural
beauty tip to help you do just that.

Natural Beauty Tip #1 – Eyes Lacking Luster What does it mean?
You can see it in babies and young children – bright, glowing
eyes. Our oldest Chinese medicine classic (written between
200-500 B.C.) states that the essence of the internal organs
ascends to the eyes. The Bible says something similar, Your
eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in
wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. Clear and
glittering (shining) eyes indicate vitality of mind and essence.
Dull, clouded eyes reflect a disturbed mind, and weakened
essence – this often happens in people with long term and deep
emotional problems.

How can you fix it? Well, first of all, if you have some
emotional problems, work through it with a professional- either
a counselor, therapist, or someone within your religion. This is
one part of getting to the clear, vibrant personality that
shines through in bright eyes. It may take a while to get there.
Second, you can take herbs and eat foods that benefit the eyes.

Probably the best Chinese herb for the eyes is lycium fruit (gou
qi zi). Other herbs are black sesame seeds (hei zhi ma), and
privet fruit (nu zhen zi). Good foods for the eyes include
shepherds purse, undried raspberry (fu pen zi), and animal
liver.

Natural Beauty Tip #2 – Bags Under Your Eyes Bags under the eyes
indicate Kidney-system (root energy) deficiency, blood
stagnation, or allergies. Respectively, the solutions are to
increase energy and minimize overwork; get more movement and
circulation; and find the allergy cause, eliminate it, and take
anti-allergenic herbs and foods.

The Kidney-system energy is limited. If you overwork, have too
much sex, or use more energy than your digestive system can
produce, youll dip into this limited energy fund. This can lead
to more than circles under your eyes- you can end up with
premature aging and hair loss, impotence and infertility, and
ankle, knee, and lower back problems. If thats your problem,
try to practice moderation, eat better, and take supplemental
herbs and foods like black cohosh, Chinese chive, mutton,
walnut, oysters, pork, dried rehmannia (sheng di), Chinese yam
(shan yao), and horny goat weed (yin yang huo).

Blood stagnation can mean sharpn stabbing pains; clots and dark
blood in the menstruation; irregular menstruation; and hard
spots in the abdomen. If you have this, try celery, rose, yellow
soybean, seaweed, mung bean, corn, eggplant, cucumber, and
hemlock parsley (chuan xiong).

For allergies, get both IgG and IgE done for both external (skin
test) and food allergies (blood test). If you find something
substantial, avoid it! For food and herbs, try garlic, fresh
ginger, royal jelly, chicken, beef, chestnut, astragalus (huang
qi), kudzu vine (ge gen), and welsh onion (cong bai).

Natural Beauty Tip #3 – Acne This is literally too much heat -
your face has become a volcano just to let it out! Try mung bea,
seagrass, seaweed, Chinese hawthorn (shan zha), Jobs tears (yi
yi ren), and purple sage (dan shen). Avoid spicy foods, greasy
foods, and fried foods. Try some raw vegetables, too.

Natural Beauty Tip #4 – Dry Skin Moistening herbs and foods are
soy, spinach, asparagus, millet, barley, salt, seaweed, apple,
tangerine, pinenut, persimmon, peanut, pear, honey, oysters, and
clams. A seaweed facial wrap would be nice, too!

Natural Beauty Tip #5 – Eczema Try guava, clam, irish potato, he
shou wu, wild chrysanthemum, mugwort, Jobs tears (yi yi ren),
and asian dandelion (pu gong ying). Avoid spicy foods, greasy
foods, and fried foods.

Natural Beauty Tip #6 – Psoriasis Try turnip root leaf, vinegar,
grapefruit, black plum (wu mei), cloves (ding xian), and dang
gui (aka dong quai).

Natural Beauty Tip #7 – Prematurely Graying Hair This can happen
for two reasons- either you have a root energy (Kidney system)
deficiency (for more information and solutions, see the Kidney
deficiency information up under natural beauty tip #2), or you
have what is called hot blood. The second one happens with
bleeding, nosebleed, skin ulcers, and urinary difficulties. For
hot blood, take black soybean, processed dried persimmons,
processed rehmannia (shu di huang), and dried rehmannia (shu di
huang).

Natural Beauty Tip #8 – Premature Aging This is another
Kidney-system deficiency.

Try walnut, chicken, duck, he shou wu, Chinese ginseng, deer
antler velvet (the deers arent harmed! Lu rong), astragalus
(huang qi), lycium fruit (gou qi zi), horny goat weed (yin yang
huo), caterpillar larva fungus (dong chong xia cao), and red
date (da zao).

References: Sionneau Gang. The Treatment of Disease in TCM:
Volume 2. Lu. Chinese Herbs with Common Foods: Recipes for
Health and Healing. Pitchford. Healing With Whole Foods.
Maciocia. The Foundations of Chinese Medicine.br
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Author: David Klein
Source: isnare.com

Acne is a common skin condition that is characterized by many symptoms, such as pimples, blackheads, and whiteheads. Almost everybody develops acne, no matter what ethnicity, age group, or gender. Studies have determined that acne commonly starts around the age of adolescence, where young men and young women are going through rapid hormonal changes in the stage of puberty.

How does one get acne? According to sources, this occurrence is not usually caused by food, but the symptoms, like pimples, whiteheads, and blackheads, can be aggravated by certain types of food. Just a short description of the skin: the surface is called the epidermis, with trillions of tiny openings called pores. Below that layer is the dermis, which contains oil glands or sebaceous glands, hair follicles, and sensory receptors. Acne happens when the sebaceous glands overproduce oil, which can remain within the pores when dead skin cells or hair follicles block it. Pimples are raised bumps on the epidermis which are filled with pus or oil.

There are many ways by which acne can be treated, but as studies have shown, there is still no definite way of preventing the symptoms from coming back. A lot of researches say that acne is more genetic in nature, as some persons actively secret more oil from their glands than others. Keeping the skin clean, and washing it regularly with mild soap and warm water maintains its integrity. Also, when you have pimples, avoid popping or squeezing them as this can create a scar or a skin infection. There are creams and other skin products that are popular in the market, but there is a majority of acne victims that choose to use Chinese herbs for treating the problem.

Dating back thousands of years, Chinese medicine has long used products from nature, such as plants and fungi, for curing certain conditions. The effectiveness and success of such remedies have been the focus of hundreds of medical studies, which is why at the present, thousands of these Chinese herbs have been integrated into modern medicine.

What are the Chinese herbs that are often recommended for treating acne?

1. Root water

Root water is a Chinese herbal product obtained from the forests of China. It is very potent in fighting off skin blemishes. Root water is composed of root herbs and alcohol. It is supposed to be applied on the skin with the use of a cotton ball. Root water is known to force the skin to renew facial tissues. As such, it is best used with water-based skin moisturizers because it can dry the skin if used regularly for one to two weeks.

2. Anti-acne capsules with Chinese Herbs

If you go to a Chinese pharmacy and ask for a treatment for acne, they are more likely to produce a Chinese Herb capsule. These capsules contain only the most natural Chinese herbal medicine like Yi Yi Ren, Fu Ling, Huang Bai, Mu Dan Pi, Chi Shao, Huang Lian, and Gan Cao, among many others. The combination of these Chinese herbs could work wonders on your acne-infested skin.

3. Acupuncture

Acupuncture is one of the oldest traditional Chinese procedures used in treating diseases. It involves the use of needles pricked on certain parts of the body to produce the healing effect. For acne, acupuncture is used so that heat will go out of the body. Chinese medicine believes that heat is the primary cause of acne. There are different sources of heat that needs to be released so the needles have to be placed on both local and distal points of the body. Points such as the large intestines and spleen are focused on.