Ayurvedic and Holistic Skin Care

Ayurvedic skin care is derived from medicinal practices that began over 5,000 years ago. Ayurvedic medicine and healing practices are based on Indian philosophical, psychological, conventional, and medicinal understandings. Ayurvedic approach to skin care is holistic and considers the mind, body, and spirit together. Ayurveda practices the belief that there are three basic principles (or humors) born out of five basic elements that exist in nature. These principles are known as Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. These principles are believed to work together in harmony to make up the entire body.

Ayurveda advises to modify one’s diet, exercise, lifestyle and supplements according to one’s constitution of these three humors. All our health and skin problems are affected by (and in many cases even caused by) our behavior. “Undigested” emotions, tension, and stress - which create hormonal imbalance and weaken immunity - are leading factors of bodily toxins-and therefore of skin disease. For example, psoriasis is exacerbated by worries and anxiety; acne rosacea, by anger and frustration; eczema, by a variety of stresses, depending upon the person’s constitution; and cystic acne, by depression, “holding on” to upsets, and emotional attachments in general.
Other significant factors in skin disorders include the overconsumption of refined, devitalized, canned, and processed foods, sugar, sweets, chocolate, fatty and fried foods, salt, seafood, and red meat; low digestive fire and poor elimination (constipation); a lifestyle and habits that imbalance the doshas; hormonal changes; hereditary factors; lack of exercise and rest; and improper external cleansing and skin care.

One of Ayurveda’s fundamental concepts is that health and disease are holistic, that means, whatever happens in one part of the body happens to the whole body. There are no isolated health problems, as modern medicine prefers to believe. Any physical or psychological imbalance creates an imbalance in the whole body-mind unit. Right now, you might not have any significant complaints. Your complexion may not appear especially dehydrated, for example, but you may have dry, cracked lips. Although this condition certainly is not life-shattering, if you take the appropriate simple steps to eliminate this minor symptom, you will automatically take care of all related future symptoms.

On the other hand, if you ignore early warning signs and continue to do things that aggravate your negative skin conditions, eventually you will see the progression of symptoms as the toxins begin to accumulate and circulate to vulnerable tissues and organs. In the case of dry lips, for example, symptoms may progress to include dry cracked feet, brittle nails, dry scalp, split ends, dandruff, and premature wrinkles. If toxins continue to build up in the body because of imbalance, this could lead to cellular breakdown and larger disorders such as psoriasis or dry eczema-which in severe form can be very difficult to heal.