By Kasara D’Elene  MA, LMHC

Summer—it’s that time of year when people are starting to show more skin.  But for many with skin disorders, summertime can be uncomfortable and embarrassing.

Your skin is actually an indicator of what’s happening within your body. How healthy are you on the inside?  It is amazing how much garbage people put inside themselves, how much emotional baggage they hold onto inside and how little they will do to help themselves when something like a skin issue appears.  Medical doctors typically give people medicine or drugs, which, of course, are toxic, weaken the liver and kidneys, allowing more toxins to be stacked up inside the tissues.  This usually doesn’t make the issue go away completely, it often just postpones it from getting worse at the time, but inevitably it will usually come back.

Are you ready to clean up your skin ailments?

Skin Basics
Our skin is the largest organ of the body, protects us from diseases and helps flush out toxins from our lymph system, usually in the form of sweat. It is important to give your skin room in your clothes to sweat properly, and breathe. Wearing tight clothing, or unnatural fibers doesn’t allow your skin to expand and contract naturally.  In addition, we absorb nutrients through our skin easier than through our digestive system. Putting too much of any damaging substances on our skin topically effects what and how our skin absorbs.

Skin issues usually fall into the following different categories:

Nutritional Deficiencies
Most people don’t eat optimally for their body, and this is where all healing begins.  Eating a diet with the proper amount of fruits, vegetables, meats, and grains is paramount to being healthy on the inside. One basic nutrient feeding our skin is essential fatty acids (EFA’s), which make our skin soft, pliable, and strong (often helping people with thin skin and sclera derma). EFA’s include Fish Oils, Flax Seed Oil, Olive Oil, Borage Oil, and Vitamin E.  One of the highest forms of essential fatty acids is emu oil, which can be purchased in capsules for internal use, or in small bottles for topical use.  Providing these important nutrients can help the skin repair itself and build new healthy tissues.

Supplements also help. Many customers come into our store, choosing to start taking our high-quality absorbable supplements. They tell us that their acne has cleared up, their hair is growing more and/or isn’t falling out any more, or that the rash they had before, is now gone. Your body needs nutrients to function, rebuild tissues and build new cells. Make sure your supplements are of a high quality without fillers, binders, preservatives, etc.  A chiropractor I once met told me that he calls cheap supplements or vitamins X-Ray tablets. Because when they take X-Rays of people, they can see the tablet still within the stomach or digestive system because it has so many binders, such as shellac that they don’t actually dissolve, but just pass on through the person, doing absolutely no good.  When taking high quality supplements, people usually don’t have to take very much, because their body actually can utilize what is available better.

Another helpful supplement is a mineral, silica, which supports each part of the body and for the skin. There are different forms of silica. The best is silica in a natural form, combined with other nutrients that nature intended. One of the best sources of this is Horsetail. Other herbs that are especially good for the skin are rosemary and lavender.

In addition, emu oil and lavender are particularly good for burns, cuts and scars as well.  There are numerous documents of people using these nutrients with wonderful results.

Another important thing for the skin are enzymes. Enzymes are a building block, helping us build new tissues and repair old ones. Several people I know have had white skin spots and were able to get rid of them using an enzyme spray topically. Taking them internally can help the skin immensely as well.

Glandular Imbalances
Some people have acne or other skin disorders, probably due to a “glandular imbalance.”   A body has many glands, and they all talk to one another, working together and supporting one another to keep you in homeostasis (balanced).  If one or more of the glands is stress, the other glands must work to help keep things in balance as much as possible. This is difficult if the body is not being provided with the proper nutrients to do the job correctly. Two of the glands that have the most effect on the skin are the liver and the adrenals.

The liver is the largest gland within our body, doing many functions within our body like purifying the blood, building new blood cells and acting as a chemical plant to help remove toxins from our body.  When the liver is not supported, people will often get liver spots or acne. Supporting the liver with an appropriate diet and supplements can clear these up usually within a few weeks or months (depending on your age).  It has been documented that it takes six weeks to rebuild the liver – but  only if the proper nutrients are provided for the liver to do so.

The adrenals are little walnut shaped organs that sit on top of our kidneys.  The adrenals are often called our “fight or flight” organ, because when we are confronted with something that stresses us, we either fight or run. This affects our skin in the form of hives. If your body gets overloaded with too many toxins, your liver sends a signal to your adrenals to flush!  Eating food that balances your blood sugar and feeds your adrenals properly, taking the appropriate supplement to support your adrenals and finding stress-reducing techniques can be invaluable.  So many of us are stressed which overworks our adrenals, causing them to flush.
Organisms
Organisms are responsible for many skin disorders including eczema/psoriasis, rosacea, moles, Shogren’s syndrome, itching, and shingles, just to name a few. Organisms can include bacteria, virus, fungus and/or parasite. In order to get rid of these issues, a bit of work is involved.

First it’s important to not feed the organism. Stop eating sugar, dairy, wheat, vinegar, mushrooms, and other foods. We have a complete list on our website. Sometimes when you stop feeding organisms they can cause infections elsewhere in the body. The most common we see are sinus and bladder infections. There are ways to prevent or kill these infections without taking drugs. Check with your health professional to find the most appropriate infection killers for your body.

Once you stop feeding them, you need to start killing the organism, or in some cases, just set up an inhospitable environment.  For example, many people with organism ailments are over acidic. Changing the pH or biological terrain within your body and organs can encourage these pests to leave you alone. Again, check with your health professional to find the best pH diet and/or organism killers that would be best for your body.

If you want to learn more about organisms, check out the August 2000 issue of Discover Magazine’s article about parasites. It will give you a whole new perspective about how these organisms have the capability to control our cravings and actions.

Excess Toxins
What touches your skin from the outside can also cause problems. Again, remember your skin easily absorbs whatever you put on it. What types of creams, lotions, antiperspirants, sprays, soaps, etc. are on your skin?  Are they natural or do they contain preservatives, giving your body more toxins? What types of detergents are your clothes washed in?  Do they contain perfumes, dyes or other chemicals that can strip nutrients out of your skin?  Are your clothes dry-cleaned? What types of materials are your clothes made of; natural or synthetic fibers that prevent your skin from breathing naturally?

In addition, breathing in harmful toxins from pesticides, gasoline fumes, and salon toxins can also be damaging. Once the fumes get inside our bodies, they have to find a way out somehow. If your other elimination systems aren’t working optimally, the skin may be the only way your body has to flush these toxins to keep the blood and interstitial fluid from getting overly toxic.

One of the best ways to eliminate excess toxins is a colon cleanse.  I have many customers who have been able to eliminate skin tags and other skin issues, just by cleaning out the colon and liver, allowing the small intestine cilia to absorb nutrients and send them other parts of our bodies, like the skin. This cleanse takes a heavy workload off of our liver, so it can handle other important tasks.

Cleansing Responses
Often when people start changing to a healthier diet, start taking good quality supplements, start exercising more, or find some powerful ways to reduce stress in their lives, they will start to have cleansing responses.  Boils, and rashes are a typical example of this.
Taking an extreme amount of nutritional supplements of inferior quality can be less than helpful  and can create toxicity from ingredients such as synthetics,  fillers, binders, colors, coatings, etc.  Starting on a small amount of high quality supplements, can produce outbreaks such as boils in the lymph system as the skin  flushes all the toxins. Over time this subsides and you can be healthier than ever.  For those trained to see the differences it is amazing to watch this change. It can be ‘seen’ in the iris (using iridology) and  results from fluid(s) testing.

One Final Remedy
One of the most inexpensive and best things for the skin is dry brushing. The late Dr. Bernard Jensen (the famous Chiropractor, Nutritionalist, and Iridologist) was a big proponent of dry brushing. You want to make sure you use a clean dry brush, not one that has been used in the shower and could have mold on it.  You can get good brushes at your local health food store.
Once you have a dry brush, brush all over your body towards your heart. This not only helps stimulate your skin, and remove dead skin cells, it also helps to stimulate the lymph system to flush, improve circulation and stimulate your immune system. You don’t want to brush so hard   that you turn red, but you also don’t want to be so soft that you don’t feel anything. This can be done as often as you want. Many health professionals recommend it on a daily basis.

Having healthy skin is an achievable goal for everyone. Start some of these basic steps today so you can have incredible skin in your future tomorrows. You’re worth it!
Kasara D’Elene is a Certified Herbalist with a degree in Science. She is owner & operator of Tru-Health LLC at 18001 Bothell-Everett Hwy.

Provided for informational purposes and not intended for self-diagnosis or treatment. Please consult the Health Practitioner of your choice to determine what will best assist you in your health.