Everyone wants their face to have healthy, strong skin. Let’s detour from the typical conjecture in the pharmacy and instead travel to the Far East. Traditional Chinese Medicine is ancient and powerful, based on its own unique set of beliefs about the way our bodies work. Most important is “Qi,” the life force that runs through the body.
Issues of the skin, for example, come from within. Practitioners look to the face to see if any organs and systems are in disharmony, as this will show up as blemishes, wrinkles, rashes and other minor problems. Healthy skin begins first with the healthy circulation of blood. Here is what Chinese medicine says about the world’s most common facial problems:
- Occasional blemishes: Eating a fair amount of fatty and sweet foods can cause blemishes. These sorts of foods reduce the Qi in your digestive system, leading to inflammation, acid build-up and weak circulation. Along with blemishes, you might have difficulty concentrating and sluggish digestion.
- The answer is to cut down on sweets and fatty foods. In half is best. Certain herbs could help clear up blemishes and small rashes by cleansing the skin and blood at the same time. They include burdock root, yellow dock, dandelion and dried honeysuckle. The last one, drank in tea form, is called “Jin Yin Hwa” in Chinese.
- Rashes, Hives: Rashes and itchy skin caused by allergies could be treated with couple of herbal approaches. One good approach is to drink tea made with a handful of honeysuckle flowers and take capsules of dandelion as well. These are antibiotic herbs, as are two lesser-known Chinese remedies. If you have chronic rashes or hives, try taking four pills of Yinchiao Chieh Tu Pien or Lien Chiao
Pai Tu Pien. The latter is a good skin cleanser that could treat itchy, reddened skin. - Wrinkles: You could restore smooth skin, as wrinkles set in when your Qi is weakened. First you need to eat nutritiously. Second, try any of the following teas, believed to make your skin more brilliant and toned: chicory root, burdock root, red clover flowers, elderberries, rose hips, nettle, coltsfoot, and comfrey. These are all used dry. To send nutrients straight to your skin, add a few pinches of
cinnamon powder. - Aging Skin: Many items can cleanse and rejuvenate your skin because of the ingredients they contain. These are all excellent herbal tonics, according to Chinese medicine: nettle, alfalfa, red clover, comfrey, and gotu kola.