More and more often, we “feel uncomfortable in our skin”. We eat unhealthy, experience stress, have conflicting emotions alternating in us, we get excessively vaccinated and take chemical drugs nonstop (pharmaceutical…).
Maybe we can suppress and hide some problems inside ourselves. Our skin, however, shows them warts and all. Eczema, acne, psoriasis and other problems usually will not be slow in coming. How to deal with this from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)? Let us now turn a few pages of millennial wisdom.
There is no smoke without fire, and in skin problems, the “focal point” of the problem is most often our unhealthy lifestyle. Organism reacts to it by overheating. However, imaginary steam tends to rise and leave our bodies. The natural valve is our skin. If we “blow off steam” slowly but for a long time, the problem may not be immediately apparent. However, this is the starting point of chronic skin problems (“incurable” eczema, etc.). If we are already a “pressurized pressure cooker”, there will certainly be a significant escape of steam - an acute skin rash.
In ancient Greek, eczema is typically associated with the words “boil, seethe”. So what recipe should be chosen so that any skin problems disappear like smoke in the air?
To make skin problems disappear
Eating habits
Ideally, we should eat well, moderately, regularly and variedly. It sounds easy in theory, but few adhere to it in practice. And not all food packaging and restaurant menus that assure us of the “guaranteed quality” of food correspond to its actual content (quite the contrary).
From the perspective of TCM, eating fat, grilled, fried and hot meals (especially from large kitchens and fast food restaurants) brings Moisture and Heat into our bodies. It is an unhealthy form of “compost”, where food “decays” in us, creating an (un)suitable breeding ground for skin and other diseases. Heat itself gives rise to inflammation and the skin usually turns red (like a hot metal plate). In the case of Moisture skin spots appear and the skin suppurates. Similarly, from the diet (as well as from medication and vaccination), Hot Toxin penetrates into our bodies. Our skin is then covered with blisters, which suppurate and their yellowish and sticky texture looks like honey. Sugar is also “withering fire” and in all its forms (especially hidden - in drinks, pastries, ...) it can even more “inflame” the already overheated organism.
Emotional imbalance
Stress is a good servant, but a bad master. In the short term, it enables our body and mind to concentrate, to exert all our strength and to do our best (e.g. in sports performance). But if we are exposed to it for a long time, there is a permanent emotional imbalance in our body. Sooner or later, it will transform into Heat, which will nest in the blood and subsequently cause, among other things, skin diseases. At the same time, Heat creates Inner Wind, which tends to turn into a wind storm. In fact, it is manifested by itchy skin and the more we scratch, the more the internal (itchy) fire blows.
How to deal with stress and unbridled emotions? Answer to this and also other questions can be found in the article Emotional Problems from the TCM perspective.
Electric smog
Today, we are more and more surrounded by visual smog – a plethora of billboards, advertisements and hoardings are attacking us literally in every corner. What is not so “glaring” is the smog caused by computers, tablets, mobile phones and other electrical devices. Taken all in all, it is the radiation from these “modern necessities” that feeds the fire in our already overheated body and promotes Heat in the body and a stronger presence of Hot Toxin in the blood. Every day, many of us have to work with such electric polluters, but we should protect ourselves from them at least in our sleep. So sleep in a room with the computer turned off and the cell phone at least two meters away from the body.
How to outsmart eczema?
However, if we have to set out a few main principles and procedures, wet is generally recommended to treat wet. So if your skin is wet, a compress of agrimony is recommended (you can find it in pharmacies, but also at herb doctor or right in a meadow or garden). Apply it several times a day to the affected area for approximately a quarter of an hour until the condition calms down (dries).
In general, we should avoid creams that contain chemical and preservative ingredients, which paradoxically tend to worsen the problem and cause further inflammation. All recommended creams are 100% natural, with the strictest quality assurance according to Demeter certification.
Similarly, aloe or marigold ointments are helpful in dry redness and itching. The skin is pleasantly cooled and greased with e.g. sea buckthorn Indulona. Last but not least, in both forms of eczema (dry and itchy or hot and wet), do not be afraid to be exposed to the silver wind. Not only accept it to the fullest, but also rub it into the affected areas, or apply a compress.
