Tuesday 25 October 2011

Looking After Your Skin: Part 2

Last week I looked at the functions of the largest organ of the human body, the skin. This week and next, I’ll look at the many ways we can keep this vital organ in optimum health. The secret of gaining good health of anybody’s system is to do any treatments for it on a regular basis; an occasional approach will never give any lasting benefit.
   To keep the skin in good condition, two methods of treatment are necessary: detoxification and aiding circulation to the skin.
   Detoxification treatments should be done on a regular basis - daily, if possible. The methods that work mainly on the skin function and detoxification include skin brushing and the Epsom Salt bath.
   Skin brushing is best done before you shower or bathe and while your skin is still dry; it need take only a few minutes - five, at most. Once you decide to start using skin brushing to improve your skin and health, you should also make up your mind that it will become a daily routine. And because it makes you feel so good (never mind looking good), very soon you’ll feel as lost without it as if you’d forgotten to brush your teeth!
   Select from a bath-nit or loofah or a natural bristle body-brush. You should start brushing gently. At first expect what is called a “red reaction,” which shows that your circulation is responding to the stimulation you are giving it. The action of brushing needs to be circular, “creeping” and firm, but not irritating. Circular motion helps avoid rubbing over one area too much: at first once or twice over the same area is adequate. The “creeping” movement has the effect of moving over the whole body without lifting the brush. Avoid breast tissue and be very gentle on the inner thighs.
   Again it is emphasised that you should start slowly and gently. After a week or so of skin brushing, the skin becomes less tender and you can increase the vigour of your brushing.
   Epsom Salt baths are one of the most effective methods of detoxification, especially useful for a sufferer of rheumatic complaints. There are a number of contra-indications: anyone with cardiac conditions or diabetes or anyone with a skin condition that is “open,” like weeping eczema.
   Method: Place 1 lb. of commercial Epsom Salts (available from any pharmacy and most health shops) plus one quarter lb. to one half lb. of sea salt into a warm bath. Stay in the bath for not less than 10 minutes and not more than 20 minutes. Keep the water as hot as you can bear. When you get out, do not shower; just towel yourself dry and get into a pre-warmed bed. You’ll sweat heavily and sleep even more heavily. Have water by the bed to drink. In the morning take a shower and apply a moisturiser to the whole skin.
   It is not recommended that you take an Epsom Salt bath more than once a week, and once a month is probably the ideal for general detoxification purposes and stimulation of skin function.
   Next week I’ll again explore methods of treating your skin, this time the use of your shower and herbals oils.  

David Foley
MNIMH, MRCHM Medical Herbalist

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Looking After Your Skin - Part 1


This week and next, I will look at the care of the skin. Your skin is not just an envelope which surrounds you - it is a powerful and vital organ, in fact, the largest organ of the human body. The skin acts like a “second lung” through which the body eliminates a great deal of waste material - at least, it does when it is healthy. Your circulatory system carries metabolic wastes, which are being constantly produced as by-products of the normal body functions along tiny capillaries to the skin where they pass out of your through skin pores. In fact, the skin plays a major role in keeping our bodies “harmonised.”
   This process of elimination can be assisted by stimulating the circulation to the skin surface and keeping the skin surface clear so that the skin’s pores don’t become blocked. The skin surface is made up of “dead cells” which are shed all the time. But when these dead cells become covered with small dirt particles and oils (which we produce ourselves), the process of elimination can become blocked or slowed, leading to blemishes, pimples and blackheads.
   There are several easy ways to use water to stimulate the circulation to the skin, so that wastes are delivered more efficiently, and to help clear away the obstructions caused by dead skin cells and debris on the surface, thus opening up the pores and enabling them to function more efficiently. Other benefits of regularly treating the skin (it’s no good doing this just now and then) with hydrotherapy include improved tone and the breakdown of any fatty deposits lying below the skin (cellulite). Clearing cellulite depends on improved circulation and drainage of the tissues, and water treatments help to achieve this wonderfully.
   Your overall health will also benefit when your skin is working efficiently because your level of toxicity drops, thereby putting less strain on the other organs of elimination such as the liver, kidney, bowels and lungs. Minor problems such as chronic catarrh can improve or vanish with open channels instead of blocked ones: when the skin does its job properly, there is less need for other means of removing toxins, such as excretion through the mucous membranes. Any tendency to unpleasant body odour will also improve dramatically with hydrotherapy treatments because bacteria on the skin surface which can cause body odour will have less chance to operate and, at the same time, sweat deposits will be cleared away more efficiently.
   Another spin-off of helping your skin to do its job properly is that you will have more energy available and greater vitality, as toxic deposits are removed from the system. Of course, the skin itself will also look and feel better with regular skin hydrotherapy.
   Another amazing quality that skin has is the fact that, while it is a protective envelope, it will allow some passage through itself in both directions. So as well as eliminating wastes, it will also allow nutrients and herbal essences in. By using special mixtures of nutrients and salts, as well as essential oils from plants, you can have a profoundly beneficial influence on the way your body works.
   Another aspect of the skin - from a traditional Chinese world-view - sees it connected emotionally to sadness. By touching and caring for our skin, we become less sad. In times of grief, therefore, it’s important to treat the skin.
   Next week I’ll look at the different methods that can be used to treat our skin.