Acne and Pimples: Top 7 Factors to Healing Acne, Pimples & Other Skin Conditions with Chinese Medicine

Treat the gut: leaky gut and parasite issues are in fact a big deal in the treatment of face health and skin health through Chinese Medicine. This approach is not well known or widely used in Western or conventional treatments. Conventional treatments focus mostly on topical skin treatments: skin and face creams, antibiotics and steroids which of course affect the digestion, kill off the good bacteria and can make the acne and pimples worse. When the digestion gets worse the face and skin get worse and it becomes one aggravating and frustrating, even embarrassing vicious cycle. So improving your digestion is an important step to improve face health and skin health and to reduce acne, pimples and other skin problems.

Improve your Diet: a simple first step is to determine if you are more Yin or more Yang. A lot has been written about general diet for the management of acne, pimples and other skin problems, for example avoid greasy foods, eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, go on a detox diet, but in Chinese Medicine we are much more specific. We hold the same general principles but why is it important to determine if you are Yin or Yang? Because then you can be more aware of the foods that are right for you and therefore be more effective in reducing acne, pimples and other skin conditions. If you’re more Yang for example you would want to avoid hot spicy foods because they would exacerbate the heat toxin that is already in your body creating the skin condition of acne or pimples. If you are too Yin you would want to avoid cold or damp foods, which contribute to different skin and face problems.

Reduce Heat Toxins: in Chinese Medicine there are various forms of heat such as heat in the liver, heat in the stomach or lungs, heat in the blood and damp heat. Different kinds of heat can result in different kinds of skin and face problems.

Healthy Breathing: oxygenates the blood, improves circulation and lymph flow and helps the body, face and skin to detoxify so that acne, pimples, psoriasis and eczema symptoms can be reduced. Tai Chi, Chi Kung, Yoga breathing, – these are all good ways to improve the circulation to your skin, help your body detox impurities from the skin, get that heat toxin flushed out and acne and pimples on the skin cleared up

Avoid toxic skin products: these can contribute to the heat toxins in your body and skin and contribute to acne and pimples on the skin. Even in “organic” skin products you can find petrochemicals and preservatives that don’t just irritate your surface skin but also get absorbed through the skin into your body. So read the labels and become skin care savvy. eg avoid methyl and propyl parabens, vaseline, and excessive use of skin creams that might have a petroleum base. Household and garden chemicals, household cleaning products can also create heat toxins which affect your skin health.

Release old Trauma: areas of your body where you have had accidents can be weaker than the rest of you and therefore be more susceptible to skin problems. Any area of trauma or emotional distress creates what we call “stagnation” in Chinese Medicine and contributes to heat toxins in the blood. This can manifest as skin problems such as acne, pimples, psoriasis or eczema.

Emotions: in Chinese Medicine bottled up emotions build and create heat just like old trauma, so make sure you de-stress as much as you can, to reduce the chance of acne and pimples on your skin and face.