Skin disorders, such as rashes, dermatitis (itching), eczema, acne, athlete’s foot, canker sores, psoriasis, and other fungal disorders are widely and successfully treated with Chinese medicine.
Chinese medical theory limits all skin disorders to malfunctioning internal organs and meridians. For example, eczema may reflect an imbalance in the kidney, liver/spleen or lung meridians. The Chinese Practitioner must check the 12 pulses which represent the 12 basic meridians to determine which imbalanced meridians are the cause of the skin disorder. In terms of Wholistic Medicine, digestive and hormonal imbalances and a malfunctioning autonomic nervous system contribute to skin disorders.
Modern western medicine treats skin disorders topically with ointments and internally with histamines, antibiotics, and steroid hormones. Initially some of these medications may produce favorable results; however, since they have no effect on the root internal cause of the disorder, they must be used continuously in order to prevent a recurrence. In fact, long term use of antibiotics may upset the normal body flora and predispose the individual to other health problems such as candidiasis and yeast infections.
In terms of Chinese Medicine, causes of skin disorders not only include meridian or energy channel disturbances, but include such traditional diagnoses as “excess draft and wetness”, “heat in the blood”, “excess heat and toxins”, and in severe cases “blood stasis”. Various herbal combinations and acupuncture points are used. For example, forsythia and lonicera may be used for excess heat and toxins and moisture in a formula, whereas, salvia and rhubarb root (cooked for 1 hour) may be used in a formula for blood stasis. Lycium may also be used to strengthen the kidney meridian and moisten the skin when it is too dry.
Many times skin conditions also reflect an allergic condition. An individual can also do allergy testing to determine which foods and environmental allergens to which they are sensitive. When they avoid these foods for awhile, their condition improves much faster, especially when combined with acupuncture and herbal treatments.
Many skin problems are also deeply rooted in emotional issues such as fear, sadness, anger. Fear usually represents kidney meridian imbalances, while anger related to the liver meridian and sadness to the lung meridian; imbalance in any of these can cause an outbreak. Bach Flower remedies are often helpful in helping the person move through these issues. In many cases when an individual does counseling or meditation along with their acupuncture and herbal treatments, their progress goes much faster, as they confront the emotional issues which have played a part in creating their physical imbalance.
In short, Chinese Medicine is a very powerful healing method for skin problems as it strives to heal the root cause of the skin disorder so that the treatments may eventually be tapered off and discontinued as the symptoms completely subside. The individual then looks beautiful both inside and out.