Four Ways to Naturally Heal Acne

Image: prettyskin.info

Acne is an issue that a large majority of the population suffers from – not only do teens get acne, but many adults get acne as well! Sometimes people will go to the extremes of taking antibiotics to clear up their issue, or will subject their skin to harsh chemical soaps and creams which make the skin dependent on their use to maintain a clear face (and/or back) – when individuals stop using these products, it seems that their acne comes back full-force.

The real issue here is that the acne is caused by something internal, and individuals are trying to treat themselves externally (a completely backward process). To truly heal your skin, and find success in clearing acne, an individual must take a total-body healthy living approach. This includes changing diet, ensuring good digestion, exercising and maintaining proper skin care. Below I outline these aspects.

Diet
Eating a clean diet is crucial to maintaining clear, healthy skin. When you eat clean, your liver and kidneys are able to flush out toxins on a regular basis. All toxins that enter the body must first be broken down in the liver before they go to the rest of the body – when the liver breaks down these toxins, they are transformed into molecules that can go out in the blood and be filtered by the kidneys and removed in the urine.

When our kidneys and liver are not functioning optimally, this process gets backed up, so instead of secreting toxins through urine, our bodies resort to excreting toxins through other body parts like sweat (major cause of bad body odour) and especially our skin. Having a healthy functioning liver and kidneys will result in clearer skin and less (or no more) acne.

Foods that are highly acidic like processed foods, animal products, and refined sugar all lead to an acidic body environment which puts a lot of pressure not only on our liver and kidneys, but other body organs too! Consume a high alkaline diet, full with plenty of fruit, vegetables, and water (aim for 3-4L of water daily to flush toxins out of your body).

It is important to decrease your consumption of dairy and other animal products which are loaded with synthetic and naturally occurring hormones specific to those species (and NOT humans). Pregnant cows produce a protein which inhibits testosterone processing in our bodies – this means that individuals consuming a high amount of dairy products may also be loading themselves with an abundance of testosterone, throwing off hormones and thus resulting in facial issues. Many people have responded positively with better facial complexion once going off dairy (true of my own experience, and an account of many individuals I have spoken with, read about – online, in books, and friends/family).

Higher testosterone levels also make the sebaceous glands start to produce more sebum, which the bacteria in acne love to feed on.

Digestion
Improving digestion can help your skin tremendously! Start by learning to properly combine foods (you can learn all about that HERE) – properly combining foods means that your digestive system is not as stressed, and can digest one or two foods at a time without being over loaded with many different enzymes and nutrients. This will also ensure that you maintain healthy digestive flora, an important part of ensuring toxins are eliminated and not absorbed back into the bloodstream.

Exercise
How can exercise help acne? It can help tame your hormones (like testosterone) which cause excess sebum production. It also helps reduce stress and builds your immune system (which equates to better overall health). Stress is one of the main triggers in acne flare-ups – when we get stressed, a hormone called cortisol is released, and this thickens hair follicle linings which causes blackheads and whiteheads. If bacteria get trapped in this area, then large pimples will develop.

Reducing stress through exercise (and mindfulness meditation, yoga, breathing techniques) will allow proper blood flow and oxygen to the skin which are normally directed to vital organs in times during stress (and thus, when stressed, withdraws blood and oxygen from the skin). The skin, when stressed, then becomes starved of oxygen and blood and makes it more prone to acne bacteria (and will also make you look dull and lifeless).

Exercise helps pump the lymphatic system and circulatory system which helps flush out excess toxins – the less toxins we have in our body, the less our liver and kidneys need to work to filter them out.

Skin Care 
Proper skin care in times of blemished skin is incredibly important. If you are currently using chemical-based face washes and lotions, throw them out now – they are not helping! Over time, your skin will become dependent on these products and without them, your skin will flare up. You must simply ease yourself off these products, and instead stick to the natural route so that you can repair the natural pH of your skin and allow it to breathe again.

I would suggest minimizing your face washing to once in the morning, and once at night – simply wash off your face with warm water, and scrub with a little bit of sea salt (I use Himalayan sea salt to scrub my face at night – if you suffer from acne, use sea salt morning and night). Once you are done exfoliating with the sea salt, rinse off with cooler water, and pat dry your face. Next, rub in some natural oils on your face like jojoba oil or argan oil.

Remember, your skin might feel oily for the first couple weeks, but it is simply getting used to natural oil production and detoxing harsh chemical soaps and lotions – trust me, your face will look amazing in a month or two after using this routine, and sticking to a healthy diet and active lifestyle!

Source: Live Love Fruit

How to regrow ginger at home from scraps you bought at the grocery store

Used for thousands of years in the far east, ginger tastes amazing and heals throughout the body! Ginger has multiple natural healing properties including but not limited to:

Heartburn:  Tea infused with fresh ginger has been known to be an effective treatment for heartburn.

Ovarian cancer:  A study out of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that the powder of ginger can trigger apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in ovarian cancer cells.

Women's health:  Again, ginger tea to the rescue!  If you are suffering from menstrual cramps, male some tea infused with ginger and add a bit of brown sugar to find natural relief.

Learn more about health benefits of ginger that we have written about here: Health benefits of ginger

Growing ginger at home has multiple upsides, including it being fresher and organic, not to mention saves you money. How to regrow ginger from scraps: 

Plant a small chunk off of your piece of ginger in potting soil with the newest buds facing up. Ginger enjoys non-direct sunlight in a warm moist environment. Before long, it will begin to regrow shoots and roots. Once the plant is established and you’re ready to harvest, pull up the whole plant, including the roots. Remove a piece of the ginger, and re-plant it to repeat the growing process.

Here is a good video on replanting ginger:

How to Heal The Lungs Naturally

Our lungs are essential to life, so taking care of them is crucial, especially when bombarded with poor food choices, poor air quality and lack of exercise. The lungs come equipped with their own self-cleaning system (the cilia, which move bad stuff out of alveoli – air sacs – into the trachea), however, this system gets clogged up when making poor lifestyle choices. Constant congestion and coughing are signs that your lungs could use some help.

Image: \www.youtube.com

If you are ever feeling out of breath, have a consistent cough that won’t go away, spit up mucous or have repeated chest infections, then you may have un-diagnosed lung damage. Starting from the main cause, and healing from that perspective is your best bet in ensuring your lungs heal naturally – below are some of the top tips in healing your lungs!

Eat Lung Healthy Foods
Eating for lung health is one of the main steps to improve the condition of your lungs. Removing highly processed foods, and mucus causing foods (wheat and animal products), as well as refined sugar is the first step. The next step is to bombard your body with food that contains life and vitality!

These foods include things like watercress, apricots, citrus fruits, apples, broccoli and berries, all of which have been shown to improve the health of our lungs. Not only should you be consuming a large variety of fruit and vegetables, but you should also aim for drinking 3-4L of water, DAILY. Flushing out our system with plenty of fluids will dislodge chemicals from our cells, and help our cilia in becoming more fluid and helping them with getting rid of debris inside the lungs.

Get Moving
Exercise is incredibly important to keep your lungs strong and healthy (or to repair them from damage done by asthma or smoking for example). Exercise helps loosen mucus build-up, and aids cilia in pushing mucus up and out of the lungs.

When you exercise, your muscles need to work harder and thus every cell in your body uses more oxygen and produces more carbon dioxide. In order to compensate for this demand, your lungs need to work harder, and thus breathing increases from around 15 times a minute (resting state) to 40-60 times a minute (exercise state).

Exercise will help increase your lung capacity too – but so will breathing exercises. Combining exercise and breathing exercises together will help ensure your lungs remain in good health.

Avoid
Avoiding things like cigarettes (whether smoking them, or being around the smoke itself), heavily air polluted areas, chemical products, and checking your basement for radon poisoning are essential.

As we are all aware, cigarette smoke is incredibly damaging to the lungs – it damage your lungs’ natural cleaning and repair system and traps chemicals that cause cancer in the alveoli and bronchioles. It also permanently damages your alveoli, making it very hard to breathe.

Not only does cigarette smoke affect the lungs, but air pollution and chemical products (like paint, cleaners, fragrances, etc.) are toxic to our body’s natural system. All of these products slowly destroy the tiny hairs (cilia) which line your respiratory tract and which naturally aid in the pushing of debris out of the lungs. Damaging this repair system means that all the dirt, germs and chemicals stay inside your lungs, putting you at risk for developing chest infections, lung cancers and chronic cough.

Checking your basement for radon poisoning is also important. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas produced by the breakdown of uranium in the ground. It can leak into your house through cracks in the foundation of walls, especially of those buried in the ground (like the basement). In fact, radon is the main cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, and the second leading cause of disease after smoking.

Source: livelovefruit.com

Cinnamon and honey, super healing duo!

Both honey and cinnamon are, by their selves, helpful for natural healing.  Mix the two, and you may have some surprising benefits.

Try making some toast and spreading coconut oil over it, then sprinkle some cinnamon on it, and finally add some honey on top.  You can also make some hot tea and add both raw honey and cinnamon to it.  Cinnamon and honey also can be combined and worn as a mask to help with skin surface problems like pimples and acne.

Read some related posts:

The Health Benefits of Cinnamon & Honey

Unusual Uses For Raw Honey

Health benefits of cinnamon!

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