Got Acne?
Chinese Medicine May be the Answer
By Alexa Gilmore, LAc. I
n our last article we talked about the 6 steps to healthier skin through Chinese medicine. If you missed it, check out the online issue from August to get a basic understanding of why
you might consider Chinese medicine for your skin disease. Today we’re going to get more specific and talk about what Chi- nese medicine can do for you and your acne. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, acne is the most common skin disorder in the United States. It affects nearly 85% of people at some point in their life, and nearly 40% of adolescents have acne or acne scarring by their mid teens. Those are big numbers, even bigger when you consider that $2.2 billion annually is spent on Western medical treatments.
What is Acne? We all know acne when we see it, but what is it, exactly?
Acne starts when oil and dead skin cells clog up your pores. Pores are home to your hair follicles, so, excepting the palms of your hands, soles of your feet, and a few other small areas, your body is covered in pores. Pores are also the opening where your body’s natural oil is released to the surface of the skin (this oil is called sebum and is produced in the sebaceous glands). This is a useful system and keeps your skin nicely moisturized, as long as it’s functioning properly. Problems arise when stress, medica- tions, or hormonal imbalances prompt the sebaceous glands to overproduce sebum. Excess oil mixes with dead skin cells and clogs up the works, bacteria enter the picture, and there we have the telltale whiteheads, blackheads, and cysts we all recognize as acne.
Development of Acne
From the perspective of Chinese medicine, there are ad- ditional factors that contribute to the development of acne. Chinese medicine has recognized and treated acne for centu- ries, with traditional names including “pink/white thorns” (fen ci), “lung wind thorns” (fei feng fen ci), and “wine thorns” (jiu
24 Essential Living Maine ~ September 2014
ci). In treating acne, the modern practitioner of Chinese medi- cine understands that the pores are clogged. We understand that bacteria are often involved. We understand that stress and hormones likely play a role, and we understand the importance of keeping the area clean. However we also have the benefit of an altogether different ap- proach to human physiology that allows us to look at acne from a perspective unavailable to a Western doctor, dermatologist, or aesthetician. And the benefit of that different perspective is that it gives us different treatment options—options that may finally get to the root of your acne, once and for all. You might hear us talk about things like Lung heat, Yang Ming heat, Ren and Chong vessels not being regulated, fire toxin, phlegm heat, and blood stasis. These terms might sound cuckoo to you, or profoundly “unscientific.” I get it, I really do. But these “cuckoo” terms are part of a large, complex, time- tested, extraordinarily elegant system of understanding and explaining the inner-workings of the human body. Not one that’s less scientific than the Western understanding, just one that’s dif- ferent. The usefulness in these terms lies in the way they match up with a treatment plan in the hands of a skilled practitioner. Certain symptoms in a patient might indicate what we call “blood heat,” others a “heat in the Lung” (capitalized purpose- fully as the Lung in Chinese medicine represents more than the lung as an organ). Practitioners will match these patterns with a treatment plan to clear blood and Lung heat. When the treat- ment matches the pattern, symptoms improve. Your lesions tell us a lot. Where are they located? Just on
your face or also on your chest, shoulders, and back? What color are they? How frequently do new breakouts occur and how quickly do they resolve? How greasy does your skin feel? Does it itch? Are the lesions tiny and right on the surface or are they big, deep, and cystic? Are they painful? We also want to know the details of your sleep, your digestion, your mood, your temperature, your bowel habits, and your menstrual cycle. We are not just treating skin; we are treating a person who has skin. All of you matters.
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