As early as thousands of years ago, the people of the Chinese Royal court received Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) beauty treatments for many years to improve and maintain their beauty. Beauty care in TCM is based on several theories and methods. Generally, TCM believes that true beauty comes from the inside out.
Your Skin Mirrors Your Body’s Condition
Your skin color is reflecting the current state of health of your body. For instance, many people have problems with acne. Who does not know the feeling of waking up on an important day and to see a large pimple on their face? According to TCM, the spot where acne forms often indicates the place where the problem lies.
Each spot has a different meaning of imbalance in your body:
- Forehead: indicates you have a heated heart. Often observed in people with lack of sleep or stay up too late/all night.
- Area around the nose: indicates you have heated stomach and lungs. Often observed in people that have a poor digestive function.
- Left cheek: indicates you have a liver imbalance. This is often relation to people that suffer from mood swings and has problems with liver detoxification.
- Right cheek: indicates there are lung function disorders. Often occurs to people that are sensitive and have problems with their respiratory system.
- Area around the lips: indicates you have disorder in the large intestine and digestive system. Often occurs to people that quickly suffer from diarrhea or have constipation issues.
- Chin: indicates there are problems with your reproductive organs. Often occurs to people that are facing a lot of pressure and stress or have endocrine disorders.
Instead of relying on antibiotics or other strong medicine, get your facial skin examined by our TCM doctor who can determine which of your body organs aren’t functioning very well.
How Does TCM Help with Beauty?
The TCM doctor will firstly consider your whole body constitution and determine what symptoms are already there. By doing a thorough examination, the TCM doctor can then prescribe you a customized treatment course. Treatments are aimed to eliminate body imperfections and enhance the beauty of the skin, hair, and face by regulating organs, meridians, and the movement of Qi and blood. Such treatments include acupuncture, Chinese medicine herbs, cupping, gua sha, moxibustion, particular diets, herbal masks, and medicated baths.
Depending on the body type and personal preferences, the doctor can provide appropriate treatments for 1-3 months (e.g., acupuncture) and prescribe herbs to help with the skin condition. For instance, some common body types suffering from skin conditions such as acne are:
- Heated lung and stomach body type (肺胃熱盛型)
- Fire stagnation body type (肝鬱化火型)
- Yin deficiency body type (陰虛內熱型)
- Qi stagnation body type (氣滯血瘀型)
- Phlegm resistance body type (痰濕內阻型)
[Get to know your body type with our online body type test]
Acupuncture is a common treatment method to improve the skin’s condition. It can reduce wrinkles, eliminate fine lines, lift sagging skin and improve your skin color and texture. The treatment increases your blood flow, which leads to an improved distribution of oxygen and nutrients, and thereby, stimulates regeneration. Simultaneously, it lowers the level of inflammation in your body and supports your immune system. You may choose the receive the treatment solely on the face or receive a full body beauty treatment. It has been reported that many celebrities prefer to have a weekly 20 minute acupuncture session over other expensive beauty treatments.
Chinese herbal teas can be prescribed to boost your beauty from the inside out. These herbal teas will help you fight the aging process and give you that amazing glow. The effect of the tea is to assist your body’s self-healing capabilities, and therefore, provides a preventive and proactive approach to enhancing your beauty. Try to make these beauty teas at home. After a long and exhausting day, your body needs this treat to relax and rebalance itself. (Note: Please consult with a registered Chinese medicine doctor which herbal tea is appropriate for your body type to drink)
Soothing and 活血養顏 herbal tea for fire stagnation body type
Ingredients: Chrysanthenmum 5g, Prunella 3g, Rose 6g, Moutan 3g, Red dates 3 pieces
Mix the ingredients together into a teapot and add hot boiling water. Let the ingredients blend in for 10 minutes and enjoy your soothing and 活血養顏 herbal tea while it is hot
Detoxifying herbal tea for heated lung and stomach body type
Ingrediens: Dandelion 6g, Honeysuckle 6g, Raw licorice 5g
Mix the ingredients together into a teapot and add hot boiling water. Let the ingredients blend in for 10 minutes and enjoy your nourishing and relaxing beauty tea.
Effect: detoxification
Nourishing and Relaxing herbal beauty tea
Ingredients: 10 Rose buds (玫瑰花), 10 Goji berries (枸杞子), 5 slices of Tangerine peel (陳皮絲), and 5 pieces of Chinese liquorice (炙甘草).
Mix the ingredients together into a teapot and add hot boiling water. Let the ingredients blend in for 10 minutes and enjoy your nourishing and relaxing beauty tea.
What Can You Already Do Yourself?
- Maintain 8 hours of sleep and give yourself a break from stress. Lack of rest affects your body in many ways. The most apparent are those awful eye bags. With enough sleep, you are much more alert and able to cope with stress.
- Do not skip your breakfast. By skipping your breakfast, you will harm your digestive system which needs to function well in order to transform food into Qi and Blood. With good, clean, and clear Qi and Blood, your eyes will shine brighter and your hair and skin will become more radiant.
- Cook your own meals with quality ingredients. You are what you eat, and therefore, manage what you put into your system to get that great Qi and Blood.
- Less snacking, more exercising. If you do want a snack, have some nuts or fruits.
- Movement and exercising will promote the circulation of Qi and Blood and will also eliminate Dampness of your body. According to the TCM perspective, Dampness causes obesity and many other illnesses. If you do not prefer to do heavy exercising, we recommend you to do yoga or Qi Gong instead.
What can TCM do?
- Anti-aging of skin
- Acne or pigmentation
- Dull complexions
- Weight loss
- Hair growth
What are the benefits of TCM?
- All-natural tailored treatment to your specific body type.
- Effectively treating the cause of the problem with lasting effects for months.
- Mild treatments and lack of side-effects.
- Lower costs compared to other treatments.
Grace Yu
info@orientalhealth.com.hk