Acne Treatment: Treat Inflammation from Inside Out

Acne is not one condition. The cystic lump along the jaw that turns up with the cycle is not the same problem as the small congested bumps across the forehead, and treating them the same way is why so many people cycle through products without much changing.

Chinese medicine reads acne by where it sits and what it looks like. Heat in the Lung tends to show on the nose and around the mouth. Damp and heat in the Stomach and Spleen shows across the cheeks. Liver qi that is not moving — stress, short sleep, the week before a period — shows along the jaw and chin. The face mapping is not decoration. It changes which herbs go into the formula.

Cystic acne in particular is not a surface problem, which is why scrubbing and drying it out tends to make it angrier. It sits deep, it is driven by inflammation and hormones, and it scars. That is the kind we spend the most time on.

Below are the articles we have written on acne — the herbal teas we actually use, how to read acne by where it appears on the face, and the acupuncture points worth starting with for cystic acne on the temples.