How do we assess the effectiveness of our own skin to help our body cleanse?
This is what our consultants do when they see your skin for the first time: they will look at whether your skin is healthy or has problems. A healthy skin is usually clear, has an even tone, not dry, has enough elasticity and is breakouts free.
And on the contrary, a problem skin can differ in the level of excessive oil, may have spots, pigmentation and various types of breakouts, including empyesis (pustulosis) (accumulation of pus at the top of a breakout spot).
The latter may indicate that your skin is in the process of aiding your gut to get rid of the mucus (mucilage). Mucus in the gut gets absorbed through the gut walls into the blood and due to its density may struggle to come out through the sweat and sebaceous glands in the skin. Then it gets stuck there, inviting pathogenic bacteria to set in, leading to pustules on that site.
Such breakouts are also called active acne. When you have active acne, our skin consultant will not be able to perform a deep cleansing facial treatment with steam and extraction to eliminate the risk of spreading of the infection. You may be better off having a prescribed facial with the use of electrical equipment, such as high frequency or ultrasound to zap the active bacteria or a HL Advanced Facial with the use of professional A-Nox products to help the skin unblock its elimination passages and calm the acne down.
Your skin therapist may also mention a few foods that are helpful to include or exclude from your diet in order to help your gut to perform its elimination function better and to take some load of this function off your skin, that would inevitably result in improvement of your skin condition.
Breakouts without pus in them are often linked to the fact that your skin is trying to eliminate toxins and waste that your liver did not cope to get rid of. Anyhow, the presence of such breakouts is a sign that your skin is performing its eliminating function, and after all, it is a good thing!
Another important factor that is worth looking at is the ability of your body to sweat and the amount of sweat under certain circumstances. Some people sweat a lot when they exercise and when it is hot outside. Some individuals generally sweat less, while others hardly sweat at all. Sweating is one of the important indicators of general health and of the ability of the body to cleanse.
Body waste is usually eliminated through the sebaceous glands that can sometimes lead to breakouts with pus (active acne), while water soluble toxins get eliminated through the sweat glands. Unpleasant sweat odour is often linked to the eliminated through skin toxins originated in the gut as a result of opportunistic pathogenic microflora often activated in the process of digestion of animal proteins. The fact that we sweat is good news as it is a sign of the ability of our skin to act as part of our excretion system. The more sweat your body is able to release, the more effective its cleansing function is.
To find out more about your own skin, please, book your consultation and/or a facial treatment with one of our skin therapists.