Face Mapping: What Your Acne is Telling You

While your eyes may be the window to your soul, your skin is the window into your body. Believe it or not, the location and type of break out you’re dealing with can tell you a lot about how you can treat it.
The wonderful thing about Ayurvedic medicine is that it aims to fix the cause, not the effect. Instead of trying to cover up and quickly treat acne spots, holistic medicine says that the goal should be to cure rather than conceal.

Where are your breakouts located?

Upper Zone Acne: The forehead, eyebrows, and temples.
Cause: Typically stems from internal dryness: digestion issues, dehydration, and stress.
Treatment: Drink plenty of water to keep the skin plump and healthy rather than dull and bumpy. Do moderate exercise to reduce stress. Moisturize even if you are oily: moisture calms inflammation and will reduce acne on the forehead faster than drying products.
Middle Zone Acne:  The cheeks and nose.
Cause: Usually by problems with the liver, blood and respiratory systems. Breakouts in these areas are caused by dehydration, smoking, allergies, blood pressure, and dysfunctional livers.
Treatment: Drink water, quit smoking, and clean up your diet. Drinking alcohol, eating greasy food, or even a lot of dairy can stress the liver. Many try to treat this angry, inflamed acne with drying products which aggravates the skin further. Use gentle, hydrating products instead to calm redness and soothe irritated breakouts.
Lower Zone Acne: The jaw and chin
Cause:  Spots in this location are typically large, deep, painful, and full of liquid. These are the kind you can’t pop, and when you do, it’s a mess and they leave big scars. These kinds of break outs come from hormonal and reproductive issues. Most women find that cystic acne shows up just before or during their period and during times of stress. Diets that are carbohydrate, dairy, and sugar heavy can cause these break outs as well. You may be dealing with candida.
Treatment: The best way to balance your hormones levels is a clean, healthy diet full of nutrient rich fruits and vegetables, destress, and sleeeeep! Cut back on alcohol consumption and opt for water and tea to keep oil levels balanced and cleanse the body and skin from toxins. You would also be surprised at how much lack of sleep can show on your face, so get plenty of rest!
As a quick fix, I find that tea tree oil diluted in a non-comedgenic oil (like jojoba or argon) is an awesome balance of bacteria fighting and moisture to kill the bacteria and calm inflammation and redness.

Here are some more specific zones and treatments:
1. Forehead Breakouts
Your issue may be digestion and/or dehydration. I have the same issue. I notice a drastic difference in forehead breakouts when I’m drinking plenty of water and, well. . . regular. You could really benefit from getting a little more personal with your poops. You may benefit from taking probiotics, eating a healthier diet, and drinking your daily requirement of water.

2. Between the Eyebrows
Been drinking too much? Eating a lot of dairy or greasy fast food? This location is connected to your liver. Try cleaning up your diet and staying hydrated.


3. Temples and Eye Area
I’ve said it a million times, and I’ll say it again: drink water. Anything in this area is typically from dehydration.


4. The Nose
This is area connected to your blood and your heart. Check your blood pressure and maybe get your vitamin levels tested. Cut down on meat and sodium to lower cholesterol and detox the blood. The pores on your nose are larger than other areas of your face, so throw out any old makeup or switch to natural mineral makeup that won’t clog pores as badly. Remember to cleanse off makeup and dirt at night with a gentle cleanser or oil.


5. Cheeks
This area is connected to the respiratory system. If you suffer with allergies or smoke you might find that you break out more here. If not, then this could be a simple fix of changing your pillow case more often, cleaning your cell phone, and making sure you're cleansing all the makeup off your face at night. Also eating more alkaline foods like green veggies can balance the acidity (caffeine, meat, dairy, sugar) in your body.


6. Chin and Jawline
This is your hormone and stomach central. If you find your having digestive issues you might see the problem here. Hormonal acne is most common in women in their 20’s-30’s who have never had acne issues in the past. Getting plenty of sleep and de-stressing are very beneficial to curing this kind of acne (I had never had a cystic spot in my life until last semester of college—the most stressful semester yet—and I got at least one a month until the semester ended). Taking oral contraceptives can also create (or sometimes help) the cystic demons. Long cardio sessions can trigger this type of break out, so keep it to shorter, more intense workouts. Of course, eating very clean and healthy can help balance out hormones as well. As a quick fix, try the tea tree treatment I mentioned earlier as soon as you feel a cystic spot starting to form. It works every time for me!

I hope you all found something helpful and useful from this! Remember that I am not a doctor and that these are simply common guides. Many people have cured their acne through face mapping, including myself, so hopefully you will too!

xo,
Kaylee

(original face photo before I used Paint all over it courtesy of: [link])

Editor's note: Original post imported from personal blog that is no longer in use.

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