You can’t hide acne! It’s just so in-your-face! So, it’s not surprising that those suffering with acne a dead keen to get rid of it. It can be painful and irritating as well as humiliating.
Fortunately, natural medicine works extremely well in skin conditions especially acne.
Most people know the usual things like avoiding chocolate and fatty foods, reducing junk food, drinking plenty of water and washing your face regularly. However, often, these alone aren’t enough. Improving your diet and using antibacterial facewash will help a lot but what happens when you’ve done those things and the acne is still there?
Well, that’s when you’ve got to look inside the workings of the body and use nature to get things working properly!
- The first thing to look for is healthy digestive function, particularly the liver. Our liver is the multitasking king! It is so busy making things, breaking them down, making things safe, converting things, storing things, etc, etc that it even generates an enormous amount of heat. However, with our challenging lifestyles these days, the liver is often over burdened and when this happens, toxins can spill over and end up getting released through the skin. Naturopaths call the skin, the second liver (or is it that the liver is the second skin!). Regardless, time and time again, I have seen skin complaints clear up through helping the liver to do a better job. The result is a cleaner liver, cleaner blood and therefore cleaner skin. Liver herbs and nutrients are recommended here.
- Along with healthy liver function, a good, strong gut is a necessity. Ironically, teenagers suffering with acne who are given antibiotics often perpetuate or extend their acne because of the damaging affects of antibiotics. Improving the integrity of the gut wall and promoting the growth of healthy gut bacteria helps to restore a healthy digestive system. This then allows the body to do it’s job properly and almost miraculously the skin will clear up. Gut repair nutrients like vitamins A, C and Zn plus selenium and glutamine are helpful. In addition slippery elm powder, soluble fibres, probiotics, prebiotics and adequate water intake are what I recommend here.
- Finally, while it might sound obvious, we really do need to have good bowel function every day for the skin to be healthy. A long transit time means toxins can be reabsorbed rather than eliminated causing all kind of havoc to both the eliminatory systems and the immune system. Ensuring adequate fibre intake and regular bowel movements is essential. Sometimes gentle bowel stimulants or laxatives are required but should only ever be used short term.
