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Healthy Skin, Naturally
Chinese medicine includes acupuncture, herbal medicine and massage. It uses a natural approach to maintain health, prevent and treat disease, and has anti-aging properties. But how does Chinese medicine help you maintain beautiful skin?
Chinese medicine's anti-aging benefits relate to its maintenance of the health of your internal organs, which makes the skin look younger.
Our skin consists of two substances collagen and elastin. As we age, these two substances will degenerate due to internal and/or external factors. The genes we inherit impact intrinsic (internal) aging creating wrinkles, creases, folds and furrows. The skin's components can break down by exposure to the sun, gravity and chemicals in make-up. These environmental influences are extrinsic (external) factors that affect the skin's health.
Whether your skin problems are caused by external or internal factors, the fundamental theory behind the Chinese medical approach is the same the skin's color and smooth texture depend on you being healthy. And health in Chinese medicine depends upon a balance of Yin and Yangtoo much or too little of either affect your skin. That means if you are internally healthy and your qi and blood are plentiful, you will have healthy, younger looking skin.
Chinese medicine views the skin's health as depending upon the relationship of five organs the lungs, spleen, heart, liver and kidneys, with each dependent upon another the lung on the spleen, the spleen on the heart, the heart on the liver, the liver on the kidney and the kidney on the lung. Any one organ dysfunction can cause skin function disorder. For example, a TB infection would cause the skin to change to a pale or red color; chronic diarrhea would turn the face pale and yellow; and chronic hepatitis turns the skin blue and dark black.
Aging skin is caused by internal physical changes. For example, older people have much less body fluid than a baby does, which makes the skin dryer and thinner. Chinese medicine attributes this to Yin deficiency in the body and different organs. Yin is liquid protein that is a component of skin cells and organs. That is why when people get old, the skin becomes thinner, itchy (thinner skin exposes nerves), and drier. Also, wrinkles and aging spots (liver spots) develop, the skin is easily bruised and hair is lost. Different symptoms require Chinese medicine to improve the Yin of different organs. This helps to beautify the skin, reduce the effects of aging, and treat disease.
