Acne is something that has plagued most of us at one time or another. Especially in our teenage years when we wanted it the least. I mean, it’s right there, on our face – the most obvious, unexposed part of our body that we just can’t hide! So cruel!

So we know what it is – basically hair follicles become blocked with dead skin cells and oil, creating this pussy bump, that then gets full of bacteria, and then gets really red and irritated.

But what can we do to get rid of this?

Well, to know this we need to know the cause. Chinese medicine has a few answers and it depends on a few things. Is it teenage hormonal acne, adult hormonal acne or period induced acne.

To Raccutane or to not Raccutane? This is a serious question.

Well, I wouldn’t, but that’s just me. I can’t tell anyone to not use a chemotherapy drug that was designed to kill cancer cells but was dumped in the 70’s by the company Roche because it is terratogenic, which means it will highly likely (and has) cause birth defects in a pregnant woman. Also, it has been constantly linked to bowel diseases such as Crohn’s and collitis. In 2009 Roaccutane was again pulled off the market due to mounting court cases of sufferers of bowel disease however continues to be prescribed. Not to mention that it has and incredibly long list of side effects, of which let’s look at what will likely happen to greater than 10% of users: eye irritation, anemia, dermatitis (isn’t it meant to help your skin?), arthralgia, back pain and reversed (in a bad way) cholesterol levels. Given all that and thousands of stories on the internet, please make up your own informed decision, but one last thing if you’re still not sure. It’s actually a derivative of Vitamin A – maybe there’s a benefit to standard vitamin A, but let’s look at that later.

Chinese herbs..

Here is an example of a formula that can help: Fang Feng Tong Shen Wan. But it will only help the person it is suited to at the right time with the right diagnosis. So you may look up Amazon and see 70% people love it, 30% of people didn’t like it and ‘nothing happened’. So this is perhaps more interesting, let’s look at what might be causing your acne in the first place and how we might manage it holistically.

Is it really inflammation?

Well, if it’s red and irritated yes it is most likely. But do we need to rush in with the fire hose and blast away at this crazy over-active immune system, or are we better served to think about this immune system for a moment and wonder why it is over-active. Maybe we missed something. I mean, if a warning light comes on the dash board we don’t just cut the wire, we investigate. And if there’s a pebble in our shoe, we don’t just take a panadol hopefully? We look for the problem up stream and deal with it there.

Lymphatics

There is a reason that acne appears in different areas constantly on different people, lymphatics comes into play here.

Do you remember falling over and grazing your arm and some clear, yellowish oozy liquid comes out? That is lymphatic fluid, which flows around the body, outside the blood vessels, to carry white blood cells (immune system) and help with cell communication, providing nutrition and cleaning. Lymph is a very important transport and delivery method of our immune system, and It flows without a pump. If lymph becomes stagnant it can fester, swell and cause problems. The body then struggles to resolve the blockage as inflammation builds up in the surrounding tissue. This is but one aspect of acne.

Digestive Imbalances

Digestive problems are incredibly common these days, given a fast paced lifestyle where we work multiple jobs, eat in a rush and eat food that is not always ‘healthy’, or is ‘healthy’ but is devoid of good nutrition from poor farming practices.

Many skin disorders begin with a gut issue, where inflammation of the gut cannot be eliminated via the stool and urine, therefore goes down the path of elimination through the skin via lymphatics or the liver is overloaded with excess hormones or toxins from different sources and again dumps it in the stool or lymphatics. The most common pathway here is the gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). the GALT where the majority of our immune white blood cells are waiting to be released by whatever it deems as an invader.  This may take the form of bacteria, yeast, virus or food based such as gliadin from wheat and lectins from lentils. This again will overwealm the immune system and create inflammatory issues in the body that need to be expelled, sometimes through the skin.

Leaky Gutn 

What the hell is that!? Well, basically it’s when your gut lining is damaged from poor bacterial ecology, a food sensitivity/allergy etc, that then damage the cells in your intestine that are normally tightly packed together and serve as a barrier and filter to larger particles of food and bacteria etc. They basically filter through all the nutrients, fluids etc, except when they get damaged and shrink, then the junctions and gaps open up and let these particles that are normally filtered, into your blood stream. So these particles are now entering your blood stream and your body is amounting an immune attack on them because they just shouldn’t be there- this then causes another cascade of events, including skin issues as the body mounts an inflammatory immune response.

Hormone Imbalances

Hormone fluctuations especially before a woman’s period, more often than not indicate an involvement of an over burdened liver. The liver is responsible for the clearing out of all organic-based substances from the blood, which includes medications, car, paint and petrol fumes, alcohol, even fructose, especially in those that do not digest it well. Interestingly in Chinese medicine when we treat hormone related acne, we use a formula targeted to treat the liver and reduce inflammation.

Chronic Low-Grade or Latent Infections

Chronic infections in the body at other sites, such as in the lungs, gums or bladder for example all put a strain on the liver and the immune system, thus creating an excess and build-up of inflammatory chemicals that effect the skin.

Diet

Oh yes. The part that everyone dreads. Now they’re going to tell me to stop all the things that I love; Chocolate, Diet Coke,
Coffee, Chili. Well, yes probably, because many things in many peoples diets will make acne worse.

Diet is often the hardest part of the therapy to approach for many different reasons. And I understand because I also hate giving up on the things that I like. But it’s important, and I definitely will not tell you to cut something out of your diet on a whim, I will always back it up. Having said that, the changes will only bring more energy, better skin, a better mood and longer life. That can’t be that bad!

I find the most important thing here is mind-set. If you see it as loosing something from your diet, you are set to fail. If you truly see it as gaining better eating habits and vitality, things start to fall into place.

Back to Chinese herbal medicine & Acupuncture

There are many Chinese herbal formulas that we use, and all will be tailored exactly to your body type to return balance to your body, to aid it’s healing. We also use different styles of acupuncture. We use classical points from main stream Chinese medicine, but we also use a method of acupuncture called, master Tung style. Master Tung was a very interesting Chinese man that passed away some time ago. His family had an amazing tradition of passing down their secret points from father to son over generations that spanned 2,000 years. That’s 2,000 years of recorded trial and error and experience. They were never allowed to teach outside of the family until Master Tung actually took on some students late last century and the teachings made their way to the west. Here are some of the points we use to regulate liver function and calm the skin.

Herbal medicine and Chinese medical diagnosis

Three Types

1.Non-inflammation
-red skin
-whitehead (damp-heat, heat predominant)
-blackhead (damp-heat, damp predominant)

2. Inflammation
-papules
-nodules (Qi & Blood stagnation)
-pustules (Phlegm & Blood Stasis)
-cysts (Phlegm & Blood Stasis, more blood stasis)

3. Chronic
-Scars
-Pigmentation (Blood Stasis)
TCM Pattern Differentiation

1. Heat in the Blood in the Lung Channel

Papules with areolas around, black heads
Pi Pa Qing Fei Yin modification
[Sang Bai Pi, Pi Pa Ye, Huang Lian, Huang Qin, Da Huang, Zhi Zi, Zhi Mu, Jing Jie, Chan Tui, Mu Dan Pi, Huo Xiang
Pustules/toxic heat: Zi Hua Di Ding, pu Gong Ying, Bai Hua She She Cao, Jin Yin Hua, Lian Qiao

2. Damp Heat in the Spleen-Stomach

Skin oily, pustules, blackheads, bad breath, dry stools or constipation
Tongue: yellow sticky coat
Pulse: fast, soft
Qing Pi Chu Shi Yin + Yin Chen Huo Tang modification
[Zhu Ling, Fu Ling, Bai Zhu, Cang Zhu, Huang Qin, Yin Mu Cao, Mai Men Dong, Ze Xie, Gan Cao, Lian Qiao, Yin Chen Hao, Zhi Ke, Da Huang]

      3.  Phlegm Accumulation and Blood Stagnation

Chronic with nodules/cysts/scars, prolonged course of treatment.
Hai Zao Yu Hu Tang modification
[Dang Gui, Chuan Xiong, Qin Pi, Chen Pi, Kun Bu, Hai Zao, Chuan Bei Mu, Ban Xia, Lian Qiao, Du Huo, Gan Cao, Chi Shao, Dan Shen]

4. Stagnation of Qi and Blood

Red or Dark red eruptions on the face that persist for several years. In women, eruptions are usually aggravated during menstruation and are alleviated after periods.
May also include irregular menses, menstrual clots and abdominal pain. In men the complexion may be dark red or purplish-red.
T: dark red or with stasis marks
P: deep, thready & rough
Treatment Principles: Move Qi & regulate the Blood, relieve toxicity and dissipate lumps
Herbal Treatment: Liang Xue Qing Fei Yin Jia Jian
[Sheng Di (30g.), Jin Yin Hua (30g.), Yin Chen Hao (30g.), Bai Hua She She Cao (30g.), Mu Dan Pi (10g.), Huang Qin (10g.), Chi Shao (10g.), Tao Ren (10g.), Yi Mu Cao (12g.), Zhe Bei Mu (12g.), Lian Qiao (12g.), Zi Hua Di Ding (12g.), Zhi Mu (6g.), Pi Pa Ye (6g.)]

General Modifcations:
For menstrual irregularities or increased severity of eruption prior to period: + Yi Mu Cao, Wu Yao, Xiang Fu, Yin Yang Huo, Bai Shao, Dang Gui

This is just a general rule of thumb. Of course when we want to modify, according to skin experts in Chinese herbal medicine, herbs such as Bai Hua She She Cao in higher proportions (24-30g) are included to clear stomach heat. Ku shen especially for itch, Tu fu Ling and Yin Chen Hao to drain damp heat out of the skin. When the redness and erythema is quite bad, we may add Ye Ju Hua, Chi Shao and Shi Gao. Teenagers generally have ‘damp heat in the lung and stomach channels ( cheeks, chin and forehead) so these herbs are important. As the treatment moves on and gets better, we want to start working on the blemishes by adding blood moving herbs such as Dan Shen, Dang Gui and Shan Zha.

TCM can be as fast or quicker than harsh drugs, and does not have the complications of being extremely drying and damaging to the body’s yin (moistening essence).
Length of treatment & what to expect

Reduction of redness will usually reduce first within 2-4 weeks, concurrently by reduction of pustules also in 3-6 weeks. If there are complicated conditions where there is PCOS for example, the course of treatment will more realistically take 6-12 weeks and cystic acne with scarring also 4-12 weeks.

Generally what happens in a treatment is that we perform a thorough diagnosis of your condition, create a treatment plan including dietary advice, perform acupuncture weekly and prescribe herbal medicine and occasionally supplements, creams and washes.

Things you can do at home

• Stop all processed foods and those that contain sugar, fructose and preservatives.
• Milk is a good one to cut out. Especially if you are of Asian or African decent. Many have sensitivities to the sugar and protein found in milk and milk products such as cream, ice-cream and yohgurt.
• Shop around the ‘outer walls’ of the supermarket, avoid most of the stuff in the middle.
• Eat as many different colored veggies as you can with each meal
• Cut out soft drinks and sugar in your diet
• Avoid alcohol
• Vitamin D if you’re low
• EPA/DHA fish oil
• Zinc if you’re low (can use zinc taste test or blood test)
• Swap coffee and tea with herbal teas, especially chamomile, green tea and chrysanthemum.

Acupuncture combined with lifestyle and diet changes can offer treatment for various conditions including Acne, hay fever, sinusitis, weight loss, pelvic pain, rectal pain, infertility, morning sickness, period pain, general pain and many more.