Hey every­one! As you all know, I’m a huge fan of Ayurvedic med­i­cine (and Ayurvedic prod­ucts like Skin Apotheke) as a tool for skin care, and it’s an excel­lent com­pli­ment to anyone’s skin care knowledge.

Today I have a great guest post by Kris­ten Ma, author of Beauty Pure & Sim­ple: The Ayurvedic Approach to Beau­ti­ful Skin. Her book is an awe­some resource for Ayu­verdic tech­niques for skin care and beauty.

Keep read­ing and don’t miss the bot­tom of the arti­cle, where I announce an awe­some give­away for 3 lucky winners.

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The Three Faces of Eczema: Beauty Through Ayurveda (How to Beat Eczema & Dry Skin This Win­ter)
by Kris­ten Ma

With the win­ter weather approach­ing, our skin will get bat­tered and beaten by the ele­ments. This makes our com­plex­ions vul­ner­a­ble to dehy­dra­tion, irri­ta­tion, and a vari­ety of skin ail­ments. One of the most com­mon winter-triggered beauty con­di­tions is eczema. Unfor­tu­nately, it is one of the most mis­di­ag­nosed skin prob­lems due to the fact that it is also very misunderstood.

From a der­ma­to­log­i­cal per­spec­tive, we don’t really know what eczema is and have come to no con­clu­sions about its real cause. Usu­ally, a derm will send you home with a pre­scrip­tion for cor­ti­sone – which is a steroid that sup­presses your immune response and thins your skin over time. While this will calm the con­di­tion down tem­porar­ily, it does not take a long-term approach, leav­ing the root cause of your eczema untreated. It is also a con­fus­ing con­di­tion because it is expressed in so many dif­fer­ent ways. Some of us are red, some itchy, some flaky, and some have water blisters.

This is why when we look at eczema from an Ayurvedic per­spec­tive it helps us under­stand and find solu­tions for this skin aggra­va­tion. Ayurveda is an East­ern med­i­c­i­nal health sci­ence based on the con­cept of “dosha.”  This ide­ol­ogy dic­tates that we are made up of three doshas, which are ener­gies based on the ele­ments of Air, Fire and Earth/Water.  When one or more of these doshas becomes exces­sive within our bod­ies, they dis­play them­selves through dis­ease, dis­or­der and imbal­ance. So from an Ayurvedic view­point, what we really need to exam­ine is which dosha is out of balance.

Vata (Dry/Air) Eczema

Vata eczema is an indi­ca­tion that we have an excess of air and wind within our bod­ies. Like air, our skin becomes dry, flaky and thin (usu­ally shed­ding). This is brought on by a lack of oil in the skin as well as water in the body. Most of us expe­ri­ence Vata eczema in the heart of win­ter, when we find it most dif­fi­cult to rehy­drate and need nourishment.

This calls for inter­nal and exter­nal replen­ish­ment. Our skin needs com­fort and pro­tec­tion from heavy veg­etable oils and rich salves. Inter­nally, tak­ing omega-3 fatty acids are ben­e­fi­cial (flax seed cap­sules help tremen­dously – Note from Steph: while flax seed is help­ful and con­tains plenty of ALA, it does not con­tain suit­able amounts of EPA or DHA, and in that regard, fish oil is supe­rior) as well as avoid­ing dry foods like dense meats, breads, crack­ers and dried fruits. Increas­ing soups, stews, and water-rich veg­gies will not only help with mois­ture but also aid con­sti­pa­tion, which also con­tributes to Vata eczema.

Pitta (Inflamed/Fire) Eczema

Pitta eczema is aggra­vated by the fire dosha, and it flares up from an excess of this heat energy, prompt­ing red­ness that is often accom­pa­nied by a burn­ing sen­sa­tion. This type of eczema also needs hydra­tion, but not oil. Actu­ally oil must be strictly avoided. I have bro­ken out with Pitta eczema and applied oil to it, only to be greeted by raised welts the next day. Sim­i­lar to fry cook­ing, oil enables the increase of heat and this inflamed eczema needs calm­ing and cool­ing. Aloe vera gel, plant milks, and chamomile water is best. Inter­nally, it is impor­tant to exam­ine your diges­tion and acid­ity. Pitta gov­erns diges­tive fire, and when your diges­tion is poor and over­worked it can express itself as Pitta eczema. Also, avoid­ing acid-forming foods is very impor­tant. Acid is another form of Pitta and those of us who are nat­u­rally prone to high Pitta and inflam­ma­tion are also pre­dis­posed to hyper­acid­ity. One of my favorite ways to mit­i­gate this is by tak­ing turmeric cap­sules. Turmeric is a great anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial, and I have pre­scribed it to those who have Pitta-Kapha eczema, who can con­sume it orally along with dust­ing turmeric pow­der right to the affected area.

Kapha (Wet/Earth and Water) Eczema

Kapha eczema is also known as wet eczema. Kapha, the earth and water ele­ment, is the dosha that prompts water reten­tion, excess oil, and lethargy. It is heavy, moist, and dense (sim­i­lar to earth). Kapha eczema usu­ally occurs dur­ing the season’s change, espe­cially when we move into a wet­ter sea­son. This can appear in the form of a shiny, wet appear­ance or through water blis­ters. What really marks a Kapha influ­ence is the pres­ence of itchiness.

Tra­di­tional Ayurvedic med­i­cine actu­ally uses live leeches to suck the heated damp­ness from the body. *Shiver.* But if you’re like most peo­ple who don’t have leeches lay­ing around the house, I sug­gest keep­ing the area dis­in­fected. Nat­ural anti-bacterial ingre­di­ents like witch hazel and pep­per­mint water will soothe and ster­il­ize the area with­out over-drying. Kapha eczema should avoid oil – but this should only be done when there is an eczema out­break. When the out­break calms down, keep­ing the skin moist will sup­port its bar­rier function.

Inter­nally, turmeric is excel­lent for its antibac­te­r­ial prop­er­ties. But what is even more impor­tant is to eat a diet that decreases damp­ness. Fol­low­ing a Candida-reducing diet – avoid­ing sug­ars, fer­mented foods, dairy and yeast – eas­ily accom­plishes this. Aci­dophilus cap­sules also gen­tly help fight bad bac­te­ria within our bod­ies. But while I am advo­cat­ing fight­ing damp­ness, this does not mean avoid­ing water and hydra­tion. Damp­ness refers to tur­bid water, which is full of tox­ins, while fresh water and hydra­tion will help cleanse our sys­tems as well as on a cel­lu­lar level.

So while it is some­times dif­fi­cult keep your skin resilient dur­ing such dras­tic weather, don’t let eczema get you down. When you are more method­i­cal and holis­tic about its treat­ment, your skin, body, and spirit have no choice but to bal­ance them­selves out.

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The Give­away

Enter to win a copy of Kristen’s new book, Beauty Pure & Sim­ple: The Ayurvedic Approach to Beau­ti­ful Skin. There will be 3 winners.

HOW TO ENTER

1. Go to the Epic Beauty Guide Face­book Page.

2. Hit “Like.”

3. Leave a com­ment on the EBG Face­book Page about any­thing you like – a skin care tip, an idea or sug­ges­tion for a new arti­cle, a ques­tion, what­ever floats your boat. ;)

Three (3) win­ners will be cho­sen and announced on the Epic Beauty Guide Face­book Page on Novem­ber 9th. Good luck!

~Steph  x

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