Comfortable in your Skin?
Written by Southampton Acupuncturist, Sharon Bradbear
The weather is getting warmer and we are shedding our winter woollies and revealing our limbs to the sun, but do you feel confident to do this, or do you dread the summer due to a skin condition such as:
If you have an un-diagnosed skin conditions, check the links above to see if you have similar symptoms.
Skin conditions can be distressing for the sufferer, both mentally and physically.
Acupuncture can be very beneficial for all types of skin complaints such as these. It can treat the skin problem directly, plus the underlying symptoms causing these common skin complaints can be addressed. Acupuncture has been used for 1,000s of years and is ideal for those that prefer a non-chemical approach with minimal invasion.
How can Acupuncture help skin conditions?
A full health history will be taken in the comfort of our Southampton studio before your first Acupuncture treatment, and to start you will need a clearing treatment to ensure effectiveness going forward. More than one treatment will be needed with most people finding the benefit after 4/5 treatments. The Acupuncture practiced is in line with the principals of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Lifestyle advice will be given in order to help you manage your condition yourself at home. It is not really possible to separate issues with the skin from the overall health of the body, and those having acupuncture for all sorts of other reasons (arthritis, asthma, back pain, painful joints, sinus issues, digestive complaints etc etc) often find that they look better and their skin improves as a side effect of treatment. So when acupuncture is directed at the skin, the results are remarkable.
Your diet will have a big impact on your skin, so treating diseases of the skin should be from inside as well as topical treatment. If our interior is healthy and well balanced, our skin will reflect this. Acupuncture treatment therefore will address the underlying issues and not just the topical manifestation.
Case history 1
Male, 30s, had severe boils on face and upper back for 17 years. Two or 3 new boils would appear each week, and take around 3 weeks to disperse. They were large, and very painful through all stages.
After the first treatment – which was a clearing during the initial consultation – no new boils appeared. Three more treatments were given weekly; treatment was then stopped for 3 weeks due to a holiday. During this gap in treatment, one small boil appeared. Three treatments again, this time spaced out to fortnightly. So far the boils have not really returned. Frequency is now 2 maybe 3 boils in a year, much smaller and with no pain, and they disappear as fast as they arrive.
Case history 2
Male, late 70s, suddenly developed rosacea on top of head and face. The rosacea was red, lumpy, painful and with pus filled spots, mainly on top of head/forehead.
Straight after first treatment the pain disappeared and 2 or 3 days later the lumps and redness receded. After a course of 6 treatments the rosacea was no longer on the head or forehead, though there was still evidence of it on the upper cheek – unusually, the nose was not affected. What remained was not painful, red or had pus, and any lumps were difficult to see with the naked eye. There was from time to time a little bit of ‘flushed cheeks’ that is typical of the rosacea sufferer.
Treatment is now carried out 3 times a year with 3 or 4 treatments given each time. Lifestyle advice was given, including advice on skin care generally. The gentleman is now in his mid-80s and apart from the occasional cheek flush, is much more confident facing the world.
The 2 examples above serve to show how acupuncture can make life and its annoying health problems much more manageable, to the point that the sufferer can forget that they have the disease.
So if you would like to feel healthy and confident in your skin, book in for a course of Acupuncture at YOU Massage, Southampton and receive a concession for a course of treatments, plus expert lifestyle advice. Reach out to us for more info