Top Tips for Ayurvedic Skin Care

Thanks to globalization, there has been a rediscovery of alternative medicine. Among the many options offered by the market, there is ayurvedic skin care. This "new" kind of skin treatment is original of India, a land where civilization has existed for thousands of years. No wonder then that they created skin treatments. However, how can ayurvedic skin care tips can help you? And what is the relation between skin discoloration and ayurveda?

The first step for understanding the relation between ayurveda and skin is to learn what this branch of alternative medicine is about, the possible treatments that exist for the skin and why is it that, centuries after the industrial revolution, we have just started to hear about it.

What Is Ayurvedic Medicine?

Also known as Ayurveda, this form of alternative medicine was developed in the Indian subcontinent. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of when did this type of medicine appeared. What we know, right now, is that as far as 9,000 years ago, teeth were being drilled in that zone of the planet.

Ayurveda is a combination of two words, ayus, which means life, and veda, which means knowledge. Hence, Ayurveda can be described as the Science of Life. The concepts of ayurvedic medicine were written by Agnivesha in his book, Agnivesha tantra and they were later adopted by Charaka, another therapist, who included it in its book Charaka Samhita.

The Basics Of Ayurvedic Medicine

The main base of ayurvedic medicine is that the body should be approached as a whole. This holistic view is combined with the precept that determined vegetables, animals and minerals have medicinal values that can be applied to humans. The properties of each one of these ingredients have been carefully recorded by hundreds of practitioners for thousands of years.

There are many examples of how these ingredients and mixtures can help your body in the recovery or treatment of all kind of diseases. For example, there is Shirodhara. The principle of Shirodhara is the pouring of liquids in the forehead, the place were, supposedly, out third eye is located. Curiously, it is also used by spas as a relaxing method.

Alternative medicine hasn't been popular in western civilization. Decades ago, it was considered a type of medicine that offered no scientific value and, most probably, no real benefits for the patients. This appreciation may have had it's origins with questionable treatments, such the measures taken during the black plague (which decimated Europe; as much as a third of the population died due to the ignorance of the doctors) and the ill-remembered bloodletting.

So, after the scientific method was implemented in western civilization, there was little room for esoteric medicine and principles that had an origin based in mystical and magical concepts than the trial and proof of western medicine. In the case of India, it wasn't until its independence from the British Empire (in 1947), that they started to push the use of ayurvedic medicine.

Unfortunately, after so many decades, ayurvedic medicine, even ayurvedic skin care, isn't still well considered in western civilization. Although there are numerous medical schools in India that offer specializations in ayurvedic medicine, it is still considered an esoteric branch of medicine in the US. The good news is that research centers like the National Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine are working for its good name.

Top Ayurvedic Tips For Skin Care

The first thing that you need to do in your ayurvedic skin treatment is to determine the type of skin that you have. There are three types of them according to ayurvedic medicine. The first one is known as Vata skin. Vata skin is a dry skin, very sensitive to climate changes. It can get easily dehydrated and can cause "breaks" in determined joints, like the knuckles, which may cause some minor bleeding. The same may happen with the lips.

The other type of skin is known as Pitta skin. It is a soft skin, prone to freckles and moles due to its low tolerance to the rays of the sun. If this skin finds itself out of balance, it will react in different ways, like acne, sunspots or even rashes.

Finally, there is Kapha skin, which is quite tolerant to the sun due to its oily consistency and its thickness. It ages slower than other kinds of skin and doesn't wrinkle. Unfortunately, it has some inconvenients like water retention, pimples due to the excessive oil and eczema.

It must be mentioned that there are combinations between these types of skins, so it is in your best interest to determine what kind of skin you have for applying a proper skin treatment. The only way to do it is through an ayurvedic skin specialist. And that's the second tip. Find someone who has that kind of knowledge and who is able to help you.

The final tip is to combat stress. Believe it or not, stress is the origin of a lot of our ailments, and our skin is no stranger to it. In order to combat stress you need to sleep well (the average is eight hours per day), do some kind of physical activity that relaxes your mind and body (for example, yoga), eat healthy food (the ayurvedic specialist will determine which kind of food is ideal for your type of skin), and visit, once in a while, a spa in order to receive an ayurvedic skin treatment.

Skin discoloration and ayurveda can be strongly related, but only if you wish so. Many of the ailments that your skin suffers can be cured with ayurvedic medicine. Think about it. If you want it, you can have a fairer skin; ayurveda is not a magical solution, but the accumulation of thousands of years of knowledge. Do not overestimate alternative medicine and give ayurvedic skin care a try.