Your skin is your body’s largest organ. As a protective covering for your other organs and body parts, your skin takes a huge beating on a daily basis: sun damage, cuts, bumps, bruises, burns, frostbite, allergic reactions, infections (from bacterias, viruses, and funguses), and chemical damage are just a few of the ways your skin is affected by the things around you. The skin may be a protective covering for the body, but it is still an organ and needs its own protections.
Every day you do what you can to keep your skin healthy and glowing. You use all-natural skin care products–even makeup–to ensure that the toxins in many skin care products don’t get absorbed through your skin and wreak havoc throughout your body. But still, you often get eczema, acne, folliculitis, and other rashes. You also occasionally get cuts that need healing and infections that need curing.
Are there any all-natural treatments to help with these types of skin problems? The good news is that there are many natural treatments and you should be able to find relief for almost any skin condition that afflicts you:
Homeopathic Creams and Ointments
In the past, topical steroid creams have been prescribed to treat a variety of skin conditions such as allergic reactions, eczema, and folliculitis, but warnings surrounding topical steroids are concerning: thinning skin, easy bruising, enlarged blood vessels, permanent stretch marks, Cushing’s syndrome, topical steroid addiction, and steroid folliculitis from long-term use.
It’s ironic that “steroid folliculitis” is a side effect of the long-term usage of topical steroid creams. Traditionally, they have been used to treat folliculitis, yet topical steroid creams also cause it! Luckily, there are all-natural, homeopathic creams to treat these kinds of conditions without resorting to strong medications with dangerous side effects that actually cause what they should be curing.
Instead of using a topical steroid cream for folliculitis, a homeopathic folliculitis ointment is available to take away the inflammation, itchiness, and infection. There are several other types of creams and ointments for a wide variety of conditions. These homeopathic creams and ointments are easy to use and very effective.
Essential Oils
Essential oils are the lifeblood of plants. Throughout history, they have been used to relieve and heal all types of ailments. They are particularly beneficial when dealing with skin ailments since they have powerful antioxidant and antibacterial properties. These are the top five essential oils for skin care:
Lavender Essential Oil: used to repair skin, heal scars, reduce oily skin, and for skin conditions such as, acne, psoriasis, and stretch marks.
Helichrysum Essential Oil: used for skin problems such as eczema, scar tissue, and psoriasis.
Myrrh Essential Oil: used for skin conditions such as eczema and for fungal infections such as ringworm.
German Chamomile Essential: used on skin problems such as eczema, acne, and scar tissue.
Tea Tree Essential Oil: used for skin conditions such as acne and for fungal infections such as ringworm.
Essential oils are great natural alternatives to chemical-based anti-inflammatories such as topical steroid creams. It’s important, though, to be careful with the quality of the oils you purchase–most department store oils and cheap brands have fillers and won’t have the same beneficial properties as 100% pure, therapeutic grade oils. In fact, these lower grade oils can actually be dangerous and make conditions worse. This inconsistency in quality is the biggest drawback to essential oils.
LED Light Therapy
LED light therapy is an all-natural solution for better skin that many individuals are now embracing. The light-emitting diode (LED) light emits infrared lights at varying wavelengths along the color spectrum. The heat radiating from the light is believed to have different skin-benefitting properties depending on its particular color or wavelength.
During LED light therapy, light waves are sent deep into the skin where they trigger intracellular reactions. Red lights are used to smooth fine lines and wrinkles, although they also tend to target oil glands and reduce inflammation which are common causes acne; blue lights are used to improve and prevent acne through killing acne-causing bacteria. Blue light therapy has been used to successfully treat cystic acne, a condition often requiring dangerous antibiotic treatments such as accutane. Amber lights are effective in treating the redness from conditions such as rosacea by flushing wastes from the skin.
These all-natural treatments take about fifteen minutes to complete. Treatments are necessary every one to two weeks until the skin condition improves. After that, monthly maintenance is often required. The biggest drawback to light therapy treatments is the cost: $150-$300 per treatment in an office. There are, however, in home light therapy masks you can purchase and smaller, handheld units to save you money.
It’s important to be choosy when it comes to your skin. Choosing an all-natural approach to treating skin ailments is the best choice you can make if you care about your skin and your overall health. Whether you choose to use a tried-and-true homeopathic cream or ointment, experiment with essential oils, or look into LED light therapy, you’ll be happy you chose a natural route to better skin.
