Herbs For Acne..

In a book written by William L. Fischer called Hidden Secrets of Super Perfect Health at Any Age, we can learn how to do herbal footbaths.

In chapter 10, The F-M Circulizer System, Fischer discusses the use of an herbal footbath and how herbs in a footbath can improve your skin and help you eliminate acne.

This book was written in 1986 and Fischer claims herbal footbaths have been in use overseas since 1946!

Now, you can do either a footbath or a hand bath. Once you prepare a container with hot water you can put your feet or hands into it and get the same results.

When you use a heated footbath, veins in your feet start to expand. Over a period of 15-20 minute, the warm water affects your entire vascular (blood) system and you get improved blood circulation.

By adding an herbal infusion into the hot water in the footbath, minerals and other phytochemicals from the herbs enter the soles of your feet and into your blood stream.

This means that you can introduce herbal phytochemicals into your blood stream using the footbath. During your footbath, these herbal chemicals quickly circulated throughout your body and get to work neutralizing acid, killing bacteria, and improving your skin circulation.

Here is an herbal combination you can use. This herbal combination was taken and modified slightly from a book written by Daniel B. Mowrey, Ph.D., called The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine, 1986. Mowrey says,

"This (herbal) blend attacks external skin disorders from within, purifying the blood, carrying away waste, reinforcing the blood's ability to ward off infectious agents." 

The herbal combination to use is,

* Dandelion root - purifies blood and improves liver function
* Yellow dock root - purifies blood, helps liver, is anti-bacterial
* Sarsparilla root - has antibiotic action, promotes waste elimination through urine and sweating
* Echinacea - increases immunity and promotes skin healing
* Licorice - protects the liver so that it can detoxify the blood better
* Kelp - provide minerals and vitamins and binds heavy metal that are bad for health
* Chaparral - is anti-microbial making effective against acne.
* Fresh Garlic - cut up a few cubes of garlic and place them into the hot water.. garlic has antibacterial properties

Buy one ounce of each herb and mix them together.

Here's how to do the herbal footbath..

* Place 2-3 tablespoons of herbal mix into 1 ½ cups of water.
* Boil the water with herbs - use only a glass, porcelain, or stainless steel container.
* After water starts to boil, pull the container off the stove.
* Let tea sit for 15-30 minutes. The longer the tea sits the stronger the tea and its effects.
* Prepare your foot spa with water.
* Strain the tea to remove leaves and roots.
* Pour tea and the cut garlic into the foot spa.
* Place your feet or hands in the hot water for 15 - 30 minutes.

The footbath is a convenient way to bypass your digestive system and get more nutrients into your body. Try it.. you'll like it! 

Vitamin B For Skin..

Pantothenic Acid As An Acne Treatment - How It Works

Pantothenic acid, also known as vitamin B5, is commonly supplemented in large doses to reduce oil production and help rid your skin of acne. It works like Accutane, in the sense that it reduces oil production. Pantothenic acid, however, works by helping your body to metabolize the fats in your body that later turn into sebum. Accutane actually shrinks the oil glands to block the oil from coming through to your face. Since pantothenic acid addresses the underlying problem, it is, in fact, the more efficient solution.

Let's get into the details of how exactly pantothenic acid works. During your natural metabolism process, your body breaks down fats. When your body lacks enough coenzyme-A, not all of these fats can be broken down, and your body has to get rid of them some how, so they are ejected through your oil glands on your skin in the form of sebum (oil). By creating more coenzyme-A, these extra fats can be broken down with the rest, and oil production will be greatly reduced.

Coenzyme-A is made up of three things: Cysteine, ATP and Pantothenic Acid. Your body takes care of cysteine and ATP by producing it by itself, so vitamin B5 is the only thing that you have to take in through food. By supplementing with pantothenic acid, more coenzyme-A is producted, fats are broken down better, and less oil ends up on your skin. Without too much oil on your face, when a pore gets clogged, the p. acnes bacteria will have nothing to feed upon and can't thrive to cause acne in the first place.

Considering that pantothenic acid works for more than 90% of the people who take it, it' can be considered a very effective medication. Since it's all natural and water soluble, it's much safer than Accutane, which only works for 70%-80% of the people who take it. It's also more efficient than Accutane, because it eliminates the problem, instead of covering it up by shrinking the glands and trapping the fats inside the body.

Supplementing with Pantothenic Acid

In order to address a pantothenic acid deficiency, you have to take large amounts of it, up to around 12 grams or so. Not everyone has to take quite that much though, so the recommended dosage is as follows: Start out with around 4 grams per day. Always divide the doses into 4 times per day, spreading them out as much as possible. To prevent stomach irritation, the only known side effect of pantothenic acid, try to take it with food or at least a glass of water.

If the 4 grams doesn't work for you, slowly ramp it up until you start to see results, stopping at around 12 grams. When you find a dose that seems to be working for you, stay with it for about two months straight, continuing to divide the doses so that you are splitting the dose into 4 parts. After those two months or so, you should be able to slack back on it until you start seeing negative results to find out how much you will need to continue to take as a "maintenance dose".

The only thing to watch out for is that pantothenic acid can deplete your body of other B vitamins, so a B-50 complex should be taken with it. Some say you should also take Zinc with it, that part is optional.

Since pantothenic acid has to be taken in large doses to see results, that means you can forget trying to get enough by eating foods high in it, or through a multivitamin or B vitamin complex. You can even forget about taking pantothenic acid pills, since that means you would have to take 20+ pills every day. There's only really one reasonable way to take the amount of B5 you will need to treat acne, which is pantothenic acid powder.

Pantothenic acid pills can't be found in most stores, much less the powder form of it. Some health food stores might have it, and you might be able to talk to someone at the store and have them order it for you, though it's usually marked up quite a bit. The easiest and cheapest way to get pantothenic acid powder is to just order it online. A Google search will uncover many websites, such as Amazon.com, which sell pantothenic acid powder at a great price.

As always though, do your homework when it comes to taking ANY supplements and talk to your doctor before starting any regimen. Happy Skin Healing! :)

Fish Oil For Flawless Skin!

If you want to control acne breakouts, you need to supplement your diet with fish oils which contain omega-3 and omega-6 oils. These fish oils also contains EPA and DHA fatty acids which are necessary for creating prostaglandins.

Normally, enzymes in your body break down omega-6 into DGLA, AA, EPA and DHA fatty acids.

Dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid (DGLA)

Arachidonic Acid (AA)

Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA)

Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA)

These four fatty acids eventually change into prostaglandins. What are prostaglandins? Prostaglandins are chemical hormones that come from omega-3 and omega-6 oils and that help regulate every function in your cells and organs. Prostaglandins also keep androgen hormones in control so that excess sebum is not produce in the hair follicle, which results in acne.

This is the reason why Essential Fatty Acids - Omega-3 and Omega-6 - are critical nutrients for perfect skin health.

However, eating plenty of foods with essential fatty acids may not be enough to ensure that you produce enough EPA and DHA, which produce the essential prostaglandins. It is critical for acne and more importantly -  for your health that you get enough EPA and DHA in your cells and organs so they can produce the required prostaglandins. To increase the prostaglandins in your cell walls, it becomes necessary for you to take a fish supplement, which contains both EPA and DHA.

Of course eating salmon, halibut, and mackerel twice a week will be added bonus in providing your body with more EPA and DHA.

Here's an example of what to use daily:

Spectrum Essentials puts out an excellent product called Omega-3 Norwegian Fish Oil. Two capsules contain..

EPA - 360mg
DHA - 240mg
Omega-3 - 892mg
Stearic, Lauric, Palmitic Acids - 508mg

Using the Omega-3 Norwegian Fish Oil is critical in getting relief from acne, so take two capsules per meal.

When your body creates prostaglandins, it creates good prostaglandin and bad prostaglandin.

Here's how to encourage the production of good prostaglandins.

·Maintain a ratio of two times more omega-6 than omega-3 in your diet.
·Eating too much omega-6 can lead to producing excess bad prostaglandins.
·Take a multi-vitamin and minerals with your meals to provide the essential nutrients that break down the essential fatty acids into prostaglandins.
·Reduce the amount of meat, saturated fat, dairy, and eggs you eat to reduce the production of AA, which blocks the activities of the good prostaglandins.
·Eat cold water fish at least twice a week to provide extra EPA and DHA to your diet.

Last but not least, include at least 20% of your diet calories as good fats - omega oils and fish oil. This is essential for controlling the excess activity of your hormones and reducing the inflammation of your acne.