1. Skin Identity
Culturally, youthful smooth skin is idealized, and wrinkled, stretch-marked skin is reviled. Advertisements for ways to fix our skin sink into us as an everyday lotion, promising to soothe our anxiety as well as our skin. With beautiful skin we are told we will be more likeable, attractive, successful. When there’s anything unusual happening with our skin, the unconscious cultural narrative says we are bad, unlikeable, unworthy failures. As a teenager, I had such severe cystic acne that people would come up to me to ask if I had been in a disfiguring accident. Hormonal imbalances were aggravated by diet, social and emotional issues, and a long history of antibiotic use. My doctors offered no answers but plenty of drugs.
For years looking in the mirror, I saw myself through the warped lens of the beauty industry, and I tried to wash my face clean. It was a game changer to consider nourishing my skin, to stop peeling it away with retinol, and to see myself beyond the manufactured illusions of beauty culture and advertising. It would take another ten years, digestive distress, internal searching, and help from my herbal teacher, Robin Rose Bennett, to put me on a pharmaceutical free path. After a few months of taking herbal infusions with my already clean, green diet, my skin improved. I had started a new dynamic with the plants and myself. I was dealing with emotions differently, allowing myself to feel, being more present in my body. Getting off hormonal birth control and syncing my herbal infusions with the cycles of the moon gave me a sense of rhythm and connection with the physical world that allowed me to be more embodied.
2. Skin Detective Work
Herbal practitioners often act as detectives. Symptoms express one way but many times have their cause elsewhere. The skin, our largest organ, is an incredible source of clues. Face reading is an invaluable diagnostic tool.1 Margi Flint’s fabulous book2 offers diagrams and maps linking conditions and organ expression with skin marks, textures, colors, irritations, etc. Flint’s “Observing Indications of Three”3, the idea that to draw a conclusion there must be three different confirming manifestations, is a good guideline for objective witnessing.
With climate crisis environmental change, none escape the web, and the effects show in the skin. With record rain in NYC, I am more easily dehydrated and quicker to retain water. The quality of my skin prompts me to adjust fluid intake, healthy fats, salt, potassium, and diuretics in order to more consciously adapt. For example, despite the wetness, I did not get the water excess brown marks between my fingers that I usually see in spring, because I had increased my consumption of diuretic dandelion root and circulatory ginger root in late winter. Developing the references points within the ecosystem of one’s body begins to develop a language of how to adapt with environmental change, flowing despite stressors.
3. A Few Skin Allies
Tonic Herbs
Tonic herbs in Ayurveda and the Wise Woman tradition nourish tissues and organs and have a building quality. Ayurvedic tonic herbs are mostly polysaccharide-rich plants, neutral or sweet in taste, gentle, nerve soothing, and often demulcent such as licorice, marshmallow, shatavari, slippery elm, Irish moss, Solomon’s seal and flaxseed.4 The Wise Woman definition of tonics is broader, referring both to the way of using the plant, generally for long periods of time without contraindication, and to the nutritive supportive aspect. Wise Woman tonics include many daily nourishers such as oat, plantain, nettle, raspberry, violet, dandelion, burdock, and seaweed.5
Oat, Avena sativa
Oat is a favorite daily tonic, restorative and grounding. Oat builds bones and increases flexibility in the joints.6 It blends well, balancing strong flavors and gently moistening astringents. Consuming oats in food and infusion aids skin health by nourishing with minerals, moistening tissues through demulcent action, and balancing the nervous and endocrine systems.7 Oats ease hemorrhoids, varicose veins, eczema and skin irritations.8 Milky oat tops, best preserved as tincture, are “the greatest nervous system trophorestorative,” and are useful for nervous exhaustion, agitation, oversensitivity, hyperreactivity, and drug withdrawal.9 Oat in Ayurveda is a rasayana, a rejuvenative tonic,10 a cooling nervine and antispasmodic.11 For Avena sativa benefits, use plenty of oats as: food (rolled oats, steel cut oats, oat flour, oat milk), infusion, tincture, bath, scrub, sitz baths, and washes.
Plantain, Plantago major
Sometimes called white man’s foot because plantain grew in places colonizers disturbed, plantain draws, cools and soothes. A few years ago, plantain was my ally for a spider bite on my neck. I took burdock, plantain, and echinacea tinctures to stimulate my immune system and move venom out of my body faster.12 After using a fresh plantain poultice for two days, the redness and swelling stabilized. Within a week there was noticeable reduction of inflammation.
Abundant plantain is often overlooked. It is nature’s band-aid, an effective aid for bruising, wounds, itches, bites, skin irritations, eczema, psoriasis, hemorrhoids, cuts, burns, and rashes.13 The astringent and mucilaginous aspects balance each other, making plantain appropriate for many tissue states. As a urinary system tonic, diuretic, and small intestine nourisher,14 plantain helps digest and eliminate on multiple levels, which in turn supports clarity of the skin. Leaves are used in pot greens and infusions, and seeds are used for fiber and laxative bulk. Robin Rose Bennett says plantain, “uplifts the heart by connecting it with the joy and abundance of simple treasures that are underfoot.”15
Alteratives
Movement is essential for optimal skin. Alteratives are deep movers which create tissue state change via metabolism or elimination.16 Some examples are: burdock, red clover, nettle, dandelion, yellow dock, and poke root.
Burdock Root, Arctium lappa
A member of the sunflower family, bringing the force of water and earth, persistent and stubborn, burdock root gets the job done. Moving water through the body, cooling burdock eases skin diseases, boils, carbuncles, fevers, inflammations, and fluid retention,17 eases abscesses, pimples, acne, chronic rashes, eczema, cysts, infected wounds, burns, itchy skin, leg ulcers, frequent fever blisters and cold sores, herpes outbreaks, tumors.18 Burdock root moves “chemicals, heavy metals, and unwanted by-products of metabolic processes”19 in a way that can create a strong elimination purification effect: gas, diarrhea, increased bowel movements. Taking burdock root in small amounts over a long time is the most gentle and comfortable way for most to use burdock according to my clinical experience. Burdock root contains the nearly 45 percent prebiotic inulin,20 which creates an inviting gut environment for beneficial bacteria to grow. The health of the intestinal and digestive systems supports the health and clarity of the skin. I use burdock root tincture for bites and skin rashes, and the root in infusion, and food: broth, vegetable dishes, vinegar.
Red Clover Blossoms, Trifolium pretense
Red clover is sweet, salty, cool, nutrient- and protein-rich, antispasmodic, expectorant, alterative.21 Alteratives purify blood, help heal sores, boils, and tumors, aid liver processes, have anti-inflammatory and vulnerary properties, and help fight infections and parasites.22 Red clover nourishes the hormones with phytoestrogens,23 helping clear skin inflammations and acne. Red clover is an ally in fighting skin cancer24 and has antitumor properties.25 When used for long term skin stress, red clover helps restore yin fluids.26 Try red clover in tincture, infusion, and food: salads, frittatas, breads, baked goods, nutritive infusion. Contraindications: do not mix with medicine changed by the liver, birth control pills, estrogens,27 or blood thinners like Warfarin since red clover contains blood-thinning coumarins.28
Nervines support and nourish the nervous system, calming, steadying, and reducing anxiety. Gabor Maté draws the connection between the skin and the nervous system having evolved from the ectoderm tissue. Like the membranes of our cells, the body’s membrane – the skin – has an intelligence connected to the nervous system, to sensory perception, to the exchange of substances with the environment, to the response and decision-making so necessary for survival and adaptation.29 Human skin separates individual from environment and allows better response to and communication with the environment, just as within the body, cell membranes serve a parallel function on a micro level. Skin is much more than the outer layer of our individual boundary or the subdermal layers. Skin has important connections to the nervous system, and the overall functioning of the nervous system gives a view into an organism’s adaptability, which can then also show in the skin. Adaptogens for nervous system health that also support the skin are holy basil, astragalus, licorice, schisandra, and shatavari.30 Other skin supporting nervines include St. John’s wort, rose, oat, linden, and lavender.
St John’s Wort, Hypericum perforatum
Also called St. Joan’s wort, this solstice-blooming, yellow-flowered plant with tiny holes in its leaves lets the light through. It is bitter, spicy, warming, antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory, astringent, vulnery.
As a nervine it was historically used for “nervous griefs,” nerve pain, damage or numbness, seasonal affective disorder, burns, bites, and puncture wounds.31 It is antiviral for herpes and shingles.32 St. John’s wort is always in my travel and kitchen first-aid kit for burns, muscle aches, and wound care. I use St. John’s wort most often as a tincture or external oil, sometimes in infusion blends, and more rarely in food. Note: may make one more photo-sensitive. Check contraindications. Do not use St. John’s wort while taking the birth control pill or SSRIs, as it can cause cross reactions and reduce these prescriptions’ effectiveness.33
Rose, Rosa species
Rose helps the self to accept and surrender. Better self-knowledge makes seeing other perspectives easier, so use rose to stay heart-centered where differing opinions may be expressed. The taste ranges on a spectrum of astringent, spicy, sweet, floral. Rose nourishes the skin and the capillaries below it, increasing circulation.34 Rose’s antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties make rose a good skin ally. Rose nourishes the reproductive systems, and this hormonal balancing aids the skin.35 Nourishing the liver and the circulatory system has beneficial aspects for the skin. Rose can be both warming and cooling, astringent and toning, balancing temperature and moisture levels. Rose is used in many forms: rosewater, hydrosol, tincture, tea, salve, poultice, and in desserts, salads, vinegar, and honey. As a chef, I keep tincture ready for quick burn care.
4. Diet for Nourished Skin
To keep the skin clear, keep the channels of elimination flowing. Help the liver function with ease by reducing exposure to chemicals in food, body care and cleaning products. If it’s good enough to eat, it’s good enough to put on your body. Organic standards are changing, so while organic has in the past represented a better standard of chemical exposure, you should stay educated, and make sure you know from where and what soil your food comes. Get to know your farmers by shopping at farmer’s markets. Grow your own food if you can. Bacterial exposure to dirt is key for a healthy immune system, microbiome, and the skin. The scientific and medical understanding of the beneficial role of bacteria to human health is expanding.36
Know what creates inflammation in your own body: not enough water, quality of water, irritant foods such as dairy, wheat, eggs, gluten, chemical exposure, pollutants, stress, not enough sleep, undigested emotions, bad quality oils, pesticide heavy foods, etc. Note that a skin reaction to irritant foods may be a primary reaction as a direct allergy/intolerance, or a secondary reaction to stagnation in an organ system or a decline in the overall microbiome health. Eat inulin-rich foods like burdock and dandelion roots to feed the good bacteria of the microbiome. Eat fermented and probiotic foods like pickles, sauerkraut,37 beet kvass.38 There can be a range of reactions in the skin, digestion, body and mood that takes patient observation to witness.
Eat enough protein to keep blood sugar levels steady. Eating sugar is a quick way to drain the body of minerals and vitality, which shows up in the skin. Eating a whole foods seasonal diet, rich in greens, beans, vegetables and fruits of many colors, fiber, and good quality fats and proteins will help the functioning of the skin as an organ. Micro-algaes, like spirulina and chlorella, optimize cellular functioning, repair and renewal.39 Chlorella and seaweeds bind heavy metals and provide radiation protection.40 Omega-3 and GLA fatty acid-rich foods, like flax, salmon, fish oil, evening primrose, and sesame seeds, support healthy fat metabolism and the skin.41
Switch out harsh cleaners for vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, small amounts of essential oils, castile soap. Use natural oils for moisturizing and lubrication, like olive, almond, jojoba, sesame, coconut oil, etc. Use clay to draw out skin impurities. Practice gentle dry-skin brushing to stimulate the lymph.
Most of all, develop more awareness through skin. Is it: dry or moist, sensitive or tough, erupting or clear? A witnessing perspective can help one understand the cause of skin changes that may be occurring because of diet, environment, or internal factors. What works now may be different than what used to work and what will work. To more objectively witness oneself and others, through time, physical changes, and human forgetfulness, it’s helpful to take notes.
5. Rewriting the Narrative of the Self, the Skin We’re In
Skin is a vulnerable, strong, adaptable system that allows flow in different directions, helps us find our place in the world, helps us go deep within. Skin is also a language of boundaries: how we are separate beings, and yet, we all relate to the experience of being in this mortal skin. It is important to exfoliate cultural constructs and debris, to see what is under our own skin. Skin is not only a physical diagnostic tool, but a container for identity and relationship. As a practitioner, I often see stress and held trauma manifest through organ systems, including the skin.
6. Conclusion
One time in the hospital for another question without an answer, I was stunned by my nurse’s glowing skin. When I complimented her, I saw a processing look, one I now recognize of one who has come through something and out the other side. I have no doubt that nurse had her own story of beyond skin-deep transformation. I recognized my transformation one day when I looked in the mirror and saw my own radiant skin. The spiral path to clear skin was messy, non-linear, and included nourishing infusions, eating seasonal whole foods, making lifestyle balance choices, and inviting flow through movement and bodywork.
The lines and wrinkles are moments mapping change, not to be shamefully hidden under foundation, but lifelines to the stories that make us whole. Developing a practice of being receptive to the information our bodies provide is a life-long awareness. The more we practice conversations with our bodies, seeing our bodies, our mini-ecosystems, held within the larger ecosystem, the more we can also embody our unity as living beings on the planet. In understanding our small selves better, it’s easier to see ourselves connected within the whole, one of many in relationship to the sacred web of life.
References
1. Flint, Margi. The Practicing Herbalist (2010). Marblehead, Massachusetts: EarthSong Press, p.
139.
2. Flint, Margi. The Practicing Herbalist (2010). Marblehead, Massachusetts: EarthSong Press.
3. Flint, Margi. The Practicing Herbalist (2010). Marblehead, Massachusetts: EarthSong Press,
p.127.
4. Frawley, David & Lad, Vasant (2001). Twin Lakes, Wisconsin: Lotus Press, pp. 71-72.
5. Weed, Susun (1989). Wise Woman Herbal: Healing Wise. Woodstock, New York: Ash Tree
Publishing.
6. Bennett, Robin Rose (2014). The Gift of Healing Herbs. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic
Books, p. 173.
7. Weed, Susun (1989). Wise Woman Herbal: Healing Wise. Woodstock, New York: Ash Tree
Publishing, p. 200.
8. Edwards, Gail Faith (2000). Opening Our Wild Hearts to the Healing Herbs. Woodstock, New
York: Ash Tree Publishing, pp.149-150.
9. Winston, David & Maimes, Steven (2007). Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress
Relief. Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press, p. 209.
10. Frawley, David & Lad, Vasant (2001). Twin Lakes, Wisconsin: Lotus Press, p. 73.
11. Frawley, David & Lad, Vasant (2001). Twin Lakes, Wisconsin: Lotus Press, p. 69.
12. Tierra, Michael (1988). Planetary Herbology. Twin Lakes, Wisconsin: Lotus Press, p. 220.
13. Edwards, Gail Faith (2000). Opening Our Wild Hearts to the Healing Herbs. Woodstock, New
York: Ash Tree Publishing, p.155.
14. Tierra, Michael (1988). Planetary Herbology. Twin Lakes, Wisconsin: Lotus Press, p. 220.
15. Bennett, Robin Rose (2014). The Gift of Healing Herbs. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic
Books, p. 282.
16. Wood, Matthew (2004). Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification. Berkeley,
California: North Atlantic Books, p. 222.
17. Tierra, Michael (1988). Planetary Herbology. Twin Lakes, Wisconsin: Lotus Press, p. 193.
18. Weed, Susun (1989). Wise Woman Herbal: Healing Wise. Woodstock, New York: Ash Tree
Publishing, p.96.
19. Edwards, Gail Faith (2000). Opening Our Wild Hearts to the Healing Herbs. Woodstock, New
York: Ash Tree Publishing, p. 77.
20. Tierra, Michael (1988). Planetary Herbology. Twin Lakes, Wisconsin: Lotus Press, p. 193.
21. Edwards, Gail Faith (2000). Opening Our Wild Hearts to the Healing Herbs. Woodstock, New
York: Ash Tree Publishing, p. 157.
22. Frawley, David & Lad, Vasant (2001). Twin Lakes, Wisconsin: Lotus Press, p. 49.
23. Edwards, Gail Faith (2000). Opening Our Wild Hearts to the Healing Herbs. Woodstock, New
York: Ash Tree Publishing, p. 157.
24. Retrieved from: https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-308/red-clover.
25. Tierra, Michael (1988). Planetary Herbology. Twin Lakes, Wisconsin: Lotus Press, p. 192.
26. Pitchford, Paul (2002). Healing with Whole Foods. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, p.
442.
27. Retrieved from: https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-308/red-clover.
28. Tierra, Michael (1988). Planetary Herbology. Twin Lakes, Wisconsin: Lotus Press, p. 191.
29. Maté, Gabor (2003). When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection.
Hoboken, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, p. 227.
30. Winston, David & Maimes, Steven (2007). Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress
Relief. Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press, p. 112-113.
31. Winston, David & Maimes, Steven (2007). Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress
Relief. Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press, p. 219.
32. Bennett, Robin Rose (2014). The Gift of Healing Herbs. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic
Books, p. 200.
33. Retrieved from: https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-329/st-johns-wort.
34. Bennett, Robin Rose (2014). The Gift of Healing Herbs. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic
Books, p. 298.
35. Edwards, Gail Faith (2000). Opening Our Wild Hearts to the Healing Herbs. Woodstock, New
York: Ash Tree Publishing, p. 162.
36. Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-019-0469-4?fbclid=IwAR3LAuP8VpSeZzp2PExYJ3DPr4pnx3deyml_XTtv9UP_qDmZ0C4mk_Z_Pr0).
Retrieved from: https://edyong.me/i-contain-multitudes.
Retrieved from:
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/how-the-dirt-cure-can-make-for-healthier-families.
Retrieved from:
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/exploring-remote-villages-for-clues-to-the-human-microbiome/.
37. Katz, Sandor Ellix (2012). The Art of Fermentation. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing.
38. Fallon, Sally. Nourishing Traditions (2001). Washington D.C.: New Trends Publishing.
39. Pitchford, Paul (2002). Healing with Whole Foods. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, p.
233.
40. Pitchford, Paul (2002). Healing with Whole Foods. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, p.
232.
41. Pitchford, Paul (2002). Healing with Whole Foods. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, p.
441.