Acne; those pesky bumps and lumps most women experience in response to their hormones becoming unbalanced, sweat, dry skin, poor diet and pollution.  Whilst we are grateful for filters that help hide our imperfections, we decided it’s about time you lived in the skin you deserved.  We’re here today to help you along and closer to this goal!

We are all scrambling around frantically trying to find something that will instantly clear them up and leave our skin looking flawless, or something that will at least ease and minimise the nasty little critters or when worst comes to worst, at least cover them up and stop anyone from noticing them (filter wins again!). However; pimples are a sign that something is a little out of whack internally and we need to dig deeper than just finding a topical solution.

I, myself experience the annoyance of pimples that pop up when I’ve eaten the wrong thing, or allowed myself get run down after filling up my calendar and not getting adequate sleep to allow my body heal itself over night. When this happens too often our bodies aren’t able effectively make the new cells to repair the damage that occurs from daily activities like exposure to pollution and chemicals. It puts extra strain on our systems and our skin and hormones tend to be the things that suffer.

Diet and the digestive system are particularly important when it comes to skin issues as all the nutrients needed for building new cells comes from the nutrients we absorb in the gut. If our gut is compromised, we won’t be absorbing or assimilating these essential nutrients. Adding into our diet things like probiotics, either through supplementation or probiotic foods such as preserved veggies; kimchi, sauerkraut or kombucha help to continue to top on our gut health.  But also ensuring we are getting enough good fats like avocadoes and eggs and lots of protein rich foods are included to help our hormones along a little too. Another amazing thing that you would hear us bark on about in the clinic is bone broth or gelatin, which is amazing at healing the gut and providing us with necessary nutrients to help heal skin.

Experiencing congestion and pimples, especially white heads and blocked pores could alternatively be the body’s inability in filtering and absorbing the fluids correctly thus is causing a build up of phlegm and “dampness”. We can help the body in flushing this out by drinking Chen Pi tea, aka hot water with mandarin peel, which is in season throughout winter and can also help us with phlegm and mucous brought on by a cold or the flu – read more about that here in my last blog.

Another amazing skin remedy we have started utilising in the clinic is the magical Pearl Powder – a Chinese herbal ingredient that you can use to make a face mask.  It works to help the skin heal topically, to reduce inflammation, redness, pus and combat the growth of bad bacteria which can lead to infected pimples that hang around and spread. This means not having to rely on antibiotics and putting nasty, harsh chemicals on our skin. Winning!

And of course we can’t forget our absolute favourite secret weapon in treating acne and skin conditions – Acupuncture! Acupuncture is an incredible way to help the skin heal and prompt the body to work to its best capacity. We can use acupuncture to help brighten and encourage blood and qi to go to the skin and enable the skin to glow and heal and look amazing!  Not only is it wonderful to treat acne, but also scaring.

Definitely come into the clinic to have a chat and a treatment so that we can assess how these tips may help your skin problems and teach you the most effective way to use it in combination with acupuncture!

One of Edwina’s most favourite things to treat is skin.  Come in and experience her treatments to really get to the core of your skin issues and clear things up in time for summer!  To arrange an appointment you can call us on 03) 96867454 or email reception@thepagodatree.com.au.