First, get this clear: there is almost never just one reason for adult acne, there are several and they’re as much beneath your skin as they are on it.
You’ve often heard people say acne is caused by bacterial growth, or skin pores being clogged with impurities and excessive sebum. These are not causes, but symptoms of acne – stuff that happens to your skin when it gets predisposed to acne due to an imbalance in your doshas or Ayurvedic body types.
If you want to win the fight against acne, you need to understand these underlying causes. “If you don’t change the chemistry within your body that is causing the problem, acne can become a life-long battle that requires chronic use of antibiotics, in addition to expensive and harsh products on your skin,” saysDr. Kulreet Chaudhary, MD in her very informative blog-post here.
According to ayurveda, there are three doshas, or mind/body types – Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. An imbalance in the doshas causes disease. Acne typically involves an imbalance in all three doshas, which is why you need to approach it through multiple modalities.
An imbalance in Vata results in impaired digestion and accumulation of toxins. An imbalance of Pitta affects the blood and liver allowing for inflammation. Excess Kapha, which controls the production of sebum, results in clogging of the pores. This combination of impaired digestion, accumulation of toxins, inflammation, and over-production of sebum creates the perfect environment for the overgrowth of bacteria resulting in chronic acne.
So in order to tackle your acne problem, in addition to topical Ayurvedic skincare you need a three pronged approach to change your lifestyle:
Improve your digestion: Dr. Chaudhary recommends the following
- Eat warm, soft, cooked foods.
- Avoid raw vegetables and salads.
- Drink beverages at room temperature or warm.
- Avoid cold drinks and frozen desserts (such as ice cream, popsicles, frozen yogurt, etc.)
- Reduce light, dry, crunchy food.
- Reduce spicy, sour, fried, and fermented foods.
- Reduce yogurt, alcohol, coffee, vinegar, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and cheese.
- Drink ¼ cup of organic aloe vera juice in the morning on an empty stomach. Aloe vera juice is a natural way to remove toxins from your body, especially the liver and blood.
If you have cystic acne, drink this twice a day, in the morning and bedtime, for 3 months. Remember to drink all liquids no colder than room temperature, so add a little bit of warm water to make the refrigerated aloe vera juice the right temperature. If you can’t tolerate the taste of aloe vera juice, add ¼ cup of pomegranate juice, which is also a great way to detox the liver and blood.
- Take the ayurvedic herb guggul, 75-150mg a day. Guggul is a widely used ayurvedic herb that helps to remove toxins from the body and improve digestion.
- Use turmeric in your cooking or as a supplement. Turmeric powder is a spice that is commonly used in Indian foods. It has anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties. The easiest way to take turmeric is to add a pinch of it your food, but you can also take one tablet with meals.
- Do aerobic exercise3-4 times a week. The increased circulation and sweating naturally removes toxins from your body.
1. Keep your pores clean. Cleanse face daily with an oil free Ayurvedic cleanser such as the Just Herbs Silksplash Neem Orange Redydrant Facewash. This is an ideal rehydrant foaming Ayurvedic cleanser with the natural goodness of neem, Chandan (sandalwood) and honey. It gently removes the last traces of dust, grime and make-up residue, yet retaining the inherent moisture of the skin.
2. If you’d like some exfoliation too, alternate Silksplash with Livelyclean Honey Exfoliating Face Cleansing Gel. It provides gentle exfoliation with Arjuna, Symplocos bark and jojoba meal, banishes impurities from the clogged pores.
3. Next, use the Just Herbs Advanced Ayurvedic Pimple Treatment. This is a synergistic blend of biologically active Indian herbs to regulate the excess flow of sebum, control the growth of bacterial population and the associated inflammations (redness). It effectively flushes out every trace of bacteria, grime, and excess oil from clogged pores thus preventing the formation of black or white heads and the consequent pore enlargement. { Read a detailed review of this product here }
4. Once pimples subside you need to still take care of your skin to make sure new ones do not pop-up. Just Herbs’ Neempure Arjun–Nutmeg Skin Purifying Neem Packdoes just that.A soothing pack with astringent properties of Arjuna, anti-inflammatory properties of Neem and antimicrobial action of the flower heads of Sphaeranthus Indicus this product is effective is healing wound and acne pathogenesis. It works deep down to heal the skin from within thus preventing pimples, black heads and skin eruptions. Effectively sloughs away dead epithelial cells, polishes uneven texture and Nutmeg helps heal and fade acne marks.
All the above can be bought here. Also check out our specially curated Ayurvedic Pimple Treatment Kit.
Should you have further questions, feel free to get in touch with our Ayurveda experts by clicking on this link.