ChiropractORS ARE best known for it's successful treatments of neck PAIN, Mid-BACK PAIN and low back pain.
But did you know we can help with acne too?
Are you in Bloomington, Indiana
and suffer with acne?
Have you tried natural remedies to no avail?
We can help!
Any skin condition is an expression of a body that is unwell.Did you know your skin is an organ?
Did you know it is an organ whose job is not only temperature control and protection, but also to expel toxins and waste?
To improve your acne, it is best to attack to three fold.
Nutritional advice for acne
1. Nutritionally (scroll down to learn more)
a. Drink plenty of water so the kidneys can excrete your waste (versus your skin which results in acne)
b. Avoid greasy and processed foods
c. Avoid chocolate (even organic, pure, sugar free chocolate)
d. Avoid coffee
e. Avoid sugar
f. Improve the health of your gut (your "inside skin")
i. If your gut is unhealthy, irritated or inflamed, it will express in your skin as acne
ii. To improve the health of your gut (and your skin) take Probiotics
* Probiotics "out eat" the bad bugs
* "Bad Bugs" infect the skin resulting in acne
iii. Take Colostrum (feeds probiotics and more)
* for more on Colostrum, click HERE
Skin care advice for acne
2. Skin Care
a. Wash your face with soap for sensitive skin
b. Apply Witch Hazel, then wipe off
c. Apply rose water
d. Spot treat with acne cream
e. Apply facial moisturizer for sensitive skin (preferably with UV protection in the morning)
REPEAT at night (minus the UV protection)
stress can affect acne
3. De-stress!!!!
a. Get enough sleep at night
b. Take vacations
c. Meditate or rest regularly
d. Take natural relaxing supplements (see below)
A reputable source for supplements:
Dr. Karin has created a list of supplements she approves of.
Click Here to check it out.
Want to see what we can do for you? Why wait?
to schedule with us.
ABOUT HERBS:
Valerian Root For Better Sleep
If you have difficulty sleeping, sleep deprivation may be contributing to your acne. Valerian root is a natural sleep aid. If you have difficulty sleeping, which can negatively affect your pain, valerian root may help. You can find it in pill form.
Passion Flower For Relaxation
Stress and anxiety can trigger acne. Passion flower can help you relax when you are feeling stressed or anxious, which can contribute to muscle tension. You can take it in the form of a tea, or for a stronger dose, you can take it as a tincture.
Caution!
As with any muscle relaxer or sleep aid, you should first try these remedies when you don’t have to drive, work, or do anything that you would not do while impaired. It is best to take these herbs at night to help you relax and sleep.
Other Herbs That May Help You Suffer from acne
Other herbs that may help with your acne are, curcumin (a natural anti-inflammatory from turmeric that is best absorbed with black pepper) and bromelain (a pineapple enzyme, another natural anti-inflammatory). I would not advise using these herbs without guidance from a practitioner who is well versed in herbal remedies.
THERAPEUTIC OILS THAT MAY HELP
Before using any topical therapeutic oil, check with your health care provider to verify it is appropriate for you to try, and do a spot test to make sure your skin will not negatively react to the essential oil.
Essential Oil Of Oregano For acne
Essential oil of oregano is a powerful anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial oil. It can be used for spot treatment, but be very cautious using it, as in it's concentrated form, it can burn the skin. Do not use without the guidance of a healthcare professional knowledgeable with essential oils. You can also take it internally in the form of capsules to help combat the "bad bugs" from the inside out. This is healthier than taking a daily antibiotic, which destroys the good along with the bad bugs. Read more about gut health and how it affects acne below.
Tea tree oil For acne
Tea tree oil is another powerful anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial oil. It can be used for spot treatment, but be very cautious using it, as in it's concentrated form, it can over dry the skin. Do not use without the guidance of a healthcare professional knowledgeable with essential oils.
Rosemary Oil For Acne
Rosemary oil acts as a refreshing astringent that balances and tones the skin. It helps open and clean the pose, and balancing oily skin types. Rosemary oil is anti-bacteria, which helps prevent future breakouts.
Essential Oil Of Lavender For Relaxation
Stress is a trigger for acne. Essential oil of lavender is a calming oil. Massage three to four drops of lavender oil into the chest. Combine this with some deep-breathing techniques, and feel your stress melt away.
Essential Oil Of Marjoram For Increased Blood Flow
Essential oil of marjoram opens up blood flow, which helps facilitate healing. Massage three drops into the area of the body where you are experiencing the acne. Before applying on any region, especially areas of sensitive skin (like the face), do a spot test to make sure your skin does not have negative reaction. You may need to dilute it was rose oil, or another carrier oil that does not clog your pores.
Essential Oil Of Cypress For Edema
Essential oil of cypress reduces swelling, which can cause pain and limit healing. Massage a drop or two of cypress oil onto the acne spots that are inflamed. Before applying on any region, especially areas of sensitive skin (like the face), do a spot test to make sure your skin does not have negative reaction. You may need to dilute it was rose oil, or another carrier oil that does not clog your pores.
MY ADVICE ON USING NATURAL REMEDIES
You can seek advice from a naturopath or another health practitioner who is well versed in herbs to find out if other herbal remedies would be better for your specific needs. However, like prescription medication, I am not a fan of relying on a surplus of pills, tinctures, etc. Natural or not, such treatments should be used sparingly so they work when you need them.
This is why it is important to have good practitioners on your healing team. It takes a village to help you obtain your optimal wellness!
Acne and gut health
We have an Amazon jungle in our lower intestines. In the last decade, sciences has started to learn how import this flora is to our general good health, especially the health of our skin. These bugs don’t just help us digest our food; they also help regulate our bowel movements and support our immune systems.
Without probiotics, our colons become a breeding ground for whatever nasty bacteria find its way to our colon. Like a petri dish, the colon is a perfect environment for bugs to grow, especially if it’s full of sweets (carbohydrates) for them to feed on. If the bad bacteria replenish before the good bugs do (which is what happens in a sugary environment), the bad bugs will take over. This, quite literally, results in a unhealthy gut. What does this have to do with acne?
When a gut becomes overwhelmed with bad bugs, it festers and inflames, causing a leaky gut.
Leaky Gut Syndrome
When the lining cells inflame, they activate the immune system. They also swell, causing the lining to stretch. When this happens, the toxic material can leak from the feces into the bloodstream. This is a case of true toxic waste literally poisoning you and leading to all kinds of health complaints (hence the diagnosis “leaky-gut syndrome”).
The stagnant fecal material can confuse the immune system, causing it to attack the body’s healthy cells. The body loses its ability to recognize self from non-self, resulting in autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune diseases can affect all parts of the body, including the skin (with eczema and psoriasis), the joints (with rheumatoid arthritis), and the nerves (with multiple sclerosis).
If the toxins overload the body’s ability to excrete them (when the kidneys can’t keep up) or neutralize them (when the liver can’t keep up), they are deposited in our tissues. The buildup of toxins causes aches and pains throughout the body, as in fibromyalgia.
In an attempt to sweep the problem under the carpet, the body hides the toxins in fat cells until our sewage system (the kidneys and liver) catches up. But if we never catch up, we hold on to those fat cells indefinitely, making it difficult to lose weight.
Constipation can also cause fatigue because the body needs a lot of energy to move the feces along, fight and/or neutralize the toxins that leak into the bloodstream, and feed the immune system, especially when the body may be malnourished because of a reduced ability to absorb nutrients.
What does this have to do with acne?
Leaky gut leaks toxins into the blood stream. One way to excrete these toxic particles is to sweat them out through the skin. Can you see how sweating out inflammatory toxins would lead to acne?
The solution to acne? Improve gut health.
· Drink plenty of water.
· Eat your fruits and veggies.
· Try Psyllium fiber, but with plenty of water. If you take Psyllium fiber and don’t drink enough water with it, the fiber can turn into a plug and bind you up further. More on this in Chapter 14.
· Massage your abdomen (as described in Chapter 22) and take your time on the toilet (as explained in Chapter 21). You might also try squatting when you’re constipated because that position is more efficient for having a bowel movement).
· Move and stretch your body (using the stretches and exercises in Chapters 24 and 25) to help wring the fecal material through the GI tract and out.
· Try doing a form of inversion to aid the parts of the intestine that normally have to work against gravity. (Chapter 25 has more information about inversions.)
· Relax and rest so your body can digest. (More on this in Chapter 21.)
But most importantly TAKE PROBIOTICS!
PROBIOTICS
GOOD BACTERIA ARE ESSENTIAL to the well-being of your immune system and therefore your skin. If you don’t have good gastrointestinal floral health, your immune system will suffer, leading to issues like acne. Having a healthy amazon of bacteria in your gut is imperative to your overall wellness and clear skin.
The best way to feed the flora in your gut is by eating a variety of vegetables and grains. But that’s not always enough.
Why Take a Probiotic Supplement? Can’t We Get Good Bugs from Food?
Unlike fruits and vegetables fresh from the garden, store-bought food is “dead.” It has been over-washed and over-pasteurized, removing the good bugs along with the bad. Then it’s transported long distances to your grocery store (so the food is half rotten by the time you purchase it). The fruits and veggies may have been coated with chemicals to preserve the look of freshness, but the nutrients have broken down while the plants sit in their crates during transport and on store shelves.
So even if we eat fresh produce from the grocery store, these foods don’t provide a significant source of probiotics (the good bugs in your GI tract). And because the nutrients have already started to break down, these foods don’t provide a steady replenishment of nutrients to feed us and our good bacteria (probiotics).
Additionally, many of us do not eat a wide enough variety of foods to sustain a healthy gut flora.[1] Marry that with taking antibiotics, which kill our good bugs, and you have a recipe for disaster.
The Contradiction of Taking Probiotics and Antibiotics at the Same Time
I believe if you have ever taken an antibiotic, or are currently taking an antibiotic for your acne, you are likely deficient in probiotics. You may not be symptomatic, but you are not well.
Antibiotics kill bacteria, including the bacteria that cause acne. This sounds good, right? Unfortunately, besides killing the bad bacteria, antibiotics also kill the much needed probiotics (the good bacteria) in our colon.
If you have to take an antibiotic, remember, it kills good bugs along with the bad. I recommend that you take probiotics (in the form of a supplement) while you’re on an antibiotic and after you’ve finished the medication to help replenish the good bacteria. A lot of doctors say not to bother taking probiotics while taking the antibiotic because the antibiotic will kill them.
Although it is true that antibiotics kill probiotics, a probiotic supplement can replenish the probiotics faster than the antibiotic can kill them. This way, the good bugs can overrun the bad bugs (because antibiotics make your gut vulnerable to a hostile takeover if not replenished with good bugs).
I advise patients with lowered immune systems or any signs of GI stress to take probiotics.
Purchasing Probiotics
The source of your probiotics is very important. Buy them from a supplier that is good about making sure the probiotics did not get too hot or cold during shipment. (They should be shipped in temperature-controlled environments during the hot and freezing seasons.) Remember, probiotics are living organisms. If they get too hot or cold, they will die and not help you. We are able to sell our probiotics at a low cost because we save on shipping by shipping our probiotics in the spring and fall when we do not have to worry about the bottles being exposed to extreme temperatures, and do not have to pay for AC shipments.
I recommend purchasing supplements with at least seven different species of probiotics. If the supplement just has one type of probiotic, it is less likely to help you because you need a variety of species in your intestine. The most common type of probiotic in a pill is acidophilus, which is found in yogurt; so if you eat yogurt, this is the least likely good bug you will be deficient in.
Choose a probiotic supplement with an enteric coating; this coating helps protect the good bugs from the stomach’s digestive juices, which kill bugs (otherwise we would get food poisoning with every meal).
I take my probiotic with food so the bugs have plenty of food to eat and are buffered from the digestive juices they have to pass through to get to the lower GI.
I take probiotics every day because when I don’t, my skin tends to break out in acne. I would rather have too many good bugs than not enough. I’ll just poop out the excess. For me, it’s worth the small cost to keep my intestines and skin healthy.
COLOSTRUM POWDER FOR skin HEALTH
- Colostrum-LD® is the only substance clinically proven to heal and prevent Leaky Gut Syndrome.
- Most physicians agree that Leaky Gut Syndrome is a primary cause of chronic disease
- Leak Gut Syndrome can cause acne
- The LD Difference: Colostrum-LD remains biologically active at the cellular level with maximal effectiveness (up to 4X more effective than regular colostrum).
- Colostrum-LD is the only colostrum certified to contain a minimum of 25-30% Immunoglobulins, 1.5% Lactoferrin, 1.5% Growth Factors and 4.5-5% PRPs (colostrum’s most powerful bioactive component).
Available at Drummond Chiropractic
Click Here to Learn More about colostrum and how it can help your gut health
Foods to avoid if you suffer from acne
Coffee and chocolate
I speak now from personal experience. Coffee and chocolate mimic estrogen. So when I eat chocolate (even the good pure organic dark chocolate) or drink coffee, four days later, may face, chest or back will develop a boil. I have others that have agreed, taking chocolate and coffee out of their diet improved their acne significantly. Try it. Give it a good month, as it takes time to clear out of your system.
The good news is after menopause, you are less prone to hormone caused acne as your hormones are low, so eating chocolate or coffee is not enough to cause acne at this stage of life.
Sugar
Sugar feeds the bad bugs and increases inflammation of the body, which also makes for inflammatory acne. Plus, sugar is not good for your general health anyways. Avoid sugar.
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Drummond Chiropractic, LLC
#1 Chiropractor
More than just neck and back specialists, but wellness experts
565 N Walnut St
Bloomington, IN 47404
(812) 336 - 2423