8 Natural Health Beauty Tips

The number one natural beauty tip I can give you is to take yourhealth seriously. In Chinese medicine, we know that naturalexternal beauty is a reflection of inner health and well being.Often, the solution to external beauty problems is an internalone. 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, andother skin problems, hair loss, and premature graying of thehair. Some of this you may need to see a Chinese medicineherbalist for, but some of it you may be able to deal withyourself. I’m going to give you natural beauty tip after naturalbeauty 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, glowingeyes. Our oldest Chinese medicine classic (written between200-500 B.C.) states that “the essence of the internal organsascends to the eyes.” The Bible says something similar, “Youreyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide inwonder and belief, your body fills up with light.” Clear andglittering (shining) eyes indicate vitality of mind and essence.Dull, clouded eyes reflect a disturbed mind, and weakenedessence – this often happens in people with long term and deepemotional problems. How can you fix it? Well, first of all, if you have someemotional problems, work through it with a professional- eithera counselor, therapist, or someone within your religion. This isone part of getting to the clear, vibrant personality thatshines 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 (gouqi zi). Other herbs are black sesame seeds (hei zhi ma), andprivet fruit (nu zhen zi). Good foods for the eyes includeshepherd’s purse, undried raspberry (fu pen zi), and animalliver. Natural Beauty Tip #2 – Bags Under Your Eyes Bags under the eyesindicate Kidney-system (root energy) deficiency, bloodstagnation, or allergies. Respectively, the solutions are toincrease energy and minimize overwork; get more movement andcirculation; and find the allergy cause, eliminate it, and takeanti-allergenic herbs and foods. The Kidney-system energy is limited. If you overwork, have toomuch sex, or use more energy than your digestive system canproduce, you’ll dip into this limited energy fund. This can leadto more than circles under your eyes- you can end up withpremature aging and hair loss, impotence and infertility, andankle, knee, and lower back problems. If that’s your problem,try to practice moderation, eat better, and take supplementalherbs 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 darkblood in the menstruation; irregular menstruation; and hardspots in the abdomen. If you have this, try celery, rose, yellowsoybean, seaweed, mung bean, corn, eggplant, cucumber, andhemlock parsley (chuan xiong). For allergies, get both IgG and IgE done for both external (skintest) and food allergies (blood test). If you find somethingsubstantial, avoid it! For food and herbs, try garlic, freshginger, royal jelly, chicken, beef, chestnut, astragalus (huangqi), 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 (yiyi ren), and purple sage (dan shen). Avoid spicy foods, greasyfoods, and fried foods. Try some raw vegetables, too. Natural Beauty Tip #4 – Dry Skin Moistening herbs and foods aresoy, spinach, asparagus, millet, barley, salt, seaweed, apple,tangerine, pinenut, persimmon, peanut, pear, honey, oysters, andclams. A seaweed facial wrap would be nice, too! Natural Beauty Tip #5 – Eczema Try guava, clam, irish potato, heshou wu, wild chrysanthemum, mugwort, Job’s tears (yi yi ren),and asian dandelion (pu gong ying). Avoid spicy foods, greasyfoods, and fried foods. Natural Beauty Tip #6 - Psoriasis Try turnip root leaf, vinegar,grapefruit, black plum (wu mei), cloves (ding xian), and danggui (aka dong quai). Natural Beauty Tip #7 – Prematurely Graying Hair This can happenfor two reasons- either you have a root energy (Kidney system)deficiency (for more information and solutions, see the Kidneydeficiency information up under natural beauty tip #2), or youhave what is called ‘hot blood.’ The second one happens withbleeding, nosebleed, skin ulcers, and urinary difficulties. Forhot blood, take black soybean, processed dried persimmons,processed rehmannia (shu di huang), and dried rehmannia (shu dihuang). Natural Beauty Tip #8 – Premature Aging This is anotherKidney-system deficiency. Try walnut, chicken, duck, he shou wu, Chinese ginseng, deerantler velvet (the deers aren’t harmed! Lu rong), astragalus(huang qi), lycium fruit (gou qi zi), horny goat weed (yin yanghuo), caterpillar larva fungus (dong chong xia cao), and reddate (da zao). References: Sionneau & Gang. The Treatment of Disease in TCM:Volume 2. Lu. Chinese Herbs with Common Foods: Recipes forHealth and Healing. Pitchford. Healing With Whole Foods.Maciocia. The Foundations of Chinese Medicine.