The number one natural beauty tip I can give you is to take your
health seriously. In Chinese medicine, we know that natural
external beauty is a reflection of inner health and well being.
Often, the solution to external beauty problems is an internal
one. That means foods and herbs. In the case of skin problems,
herbs can be use to create creams or wraps and applied directly.
In Chinese medicine, we treat problems like acne, blemishes, and
other skin problems, hair loss, and premature graying of the
hair. Some of this you may need to see a Chinese medicine
herbalist for, but some of it you may be able to deal with
yourself. I’m going to give you natural beauty tip after natural
beauty tip to help you do just that.
Natural Beauty Tip #1 – Eyes Lacking Luster What does it mean?
You can see it in babies and young children – bright, glowing
eyes. Our oldest Chinese medicine classic (written between
200-500 B.C.) states that “the essence of the internal organs
ascends to the eyes.” The Bible says something similar, “Your
eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in
wonder and belief, your body fills up with light.” Clear and
glittering (shining) eyes indicate vitality of mind and essence.
Dull, clouded eyes reflect a disturbed mind, and weakened
essence – this often happens in people with long term and deep
emotional problems.
How can you fix it? Well, first of all, if you have some
emotional problems, work through it with a professional- either
a counselor, therapist, or someone within your religion. This is
one part of getting to the clear, vibrant personality that
shines through in bright eyes. It may take a while to get there.
Second, you can take herbs and eat foods that benefit the eyes.
Probably the best Chinese herb for the eyes is lycium fruit (gou
qi zi). Other herbs are black sesame seeds (hei zhi ma), and
privet fruit (nu zhen zi). Good foods for the eyes include
shepherd’s purse, undried raspberry (fu pen zi), and animal
liver.
Natural Beauty Tip #2 – Bags Under Your Eyes Bags under the eyes
indicate Kidney-system (root energy) deficiency, blood
stagnation, or allergies. Respectively, the solutions are to
increase energy and minimize overwork; get more movement and
circulation; and find the allergy cause, eliminate it, and take
anti-allergenic herbs and foods.
The Kidney-system energy is limited. If you overwork, have too
much sex, or use more energy than your digestive system can
produce, you’ll dip into this limited energy fund. This can lead
to more than circles under your eyes- you can end up with
premature aging and hair loss, impotence and infertility, and
ankle, knee, and lower back problems. If that’s your problem,
try to practice moderation, eat better, and take supplemental
herbs and foods like black cohosh, Chinese chive, mutton,
walnut, oysters, pork, dried rehmannia (sheng di), Chinese yam
(shan yao), and horny goat weed (yin yang huo).
Blood stagnation can mean sharpn stabbing pains; clots and dark
blood in the menstruation; irregular menstruation; and hard
spots in the abdomen. If you have this, try celery, rose, yellow
soybean, seaweed, mung bean, corn, eggplant, cucumber, and
hemlock parsley (chuan xiong).
For allergies, get both IgG and IgE done for both external (skin
test) and food allergies (blood test). If you find something
substantial, avoid it! For food and herbs, try garlic, fresh
ginger, royal jelly, chicken, beef, chestnut, astragalus (huang
qi), kudzu vine (ge gen), and welsh onion (cong bai).
Natural Beauty Tip #3 – Acne This is literally too much heat -
your face has become a volcano just to let it out! Try mung bea,
seagrass, seaweed, Chinese hawthorn (shan zha), Job’s tears (yi
yi ren), and purple sage (dan shen). Avoid spicy foods, greasy
foods, and fried foods. Try some raw vegetables, too.
Natural Beauty Tip #4 – Dry Skin Moistening herbs and foods are
soy, spinach, asparagus, millet, barley, salt, seaweed, apple,
tangerine, pinenut, persimmon, peanut, pear, honey, oysters, and
clams. A seaweed facial wrap would be nice, too!
Natural Beauty Tip #5 – Eczema Try guava, clam, irish potato, he
shou wu, wild chrysanthemum, mugwort, Job’s tears (yi yi ren),
and asian dandelion (pu gong ying). Avoid spicy foods, greasy
foods, and fried foods.
Natural Beauty Tip #6 – Psoriasis Try turnip root leaf, vinegar,
grapefruit, black plum (wu mei), cloves (ding xian), and dang
gui (aka dong quai).
Natural Beauty Tip #7 – Prematurely Graying Hair This can happen
for two reasons- either you have a root energy (Kidney system)
deficiency (for more information and solutions, see the Kidney
deficiency information up under natural beauty tip #2), or you
have what is called ‘hot blood.’ The second one happens with
bleeding, nosebleed, skin ulcers, and urinary difficulties. For
hot blood, take black soybean, processed dried persimmons,
processed rehmannia (shu di huang), and dried rehmannia (shu di
huang).
Natural Beauty Tip #8 – Premature Aging This is another
Kidney-system deficiency.
Try walnut, chicken, duck, he shou wu, Chinese ginseng, deer
antler velvet (the deers aren’t harmed! Lu rong), astragalus
(huang qi), lycium fruit (gou qi zi), horny goat weed (yin yang
huo), caterpillar larva fungus (dong chong xia cao), and red
date (da zao).
References: Sionneau & Gang. The Treatment of Disease in TCM:
Volume 2. Lu. Chinese Herbs with Common Foods: Recipes for
Health and Healing. Pitchford. Healing With Whole Foods.
Maciocia. The Foundations of Chinese Medicine.