Significance of Diet and Home Remedies in Dermatological Conditions

Skin is the mirror of the body. Any internal disorder usually manifests firsts at the level of the skin. Hense one has to pay most care to maintain proper skin care. One of the modality for healthy skin is to eat the right food for proper and normal skin. Certain diets over a pariod a of years in out practice have been very useful for certain disorders.

General Aids:

• Excess intake of improper food must be controlled, better if avoided totally.
• Since teenage is the time when food temptation cannot be resisted, diversions like exercise, sports and games must be encouraged. This will have an added benefit as exercise is of great help in the treatment of acne.
• Quick lime rich in calcium improves overall resistance to infection.
• ‘Neem’(Azadirachta indica) water is taken routinely as a medicine by some to protect the body against infection.
• Onion decoction or garlic soup is popular to build up body resistance against infection.
• A small piece of ‘Chireta’ (Swerata chirata) boiled in water, a teaspoonful of’Ajwan’(Bishop’s seed) and few cardamoms, this decoction taken on empty stomach in the morning, daily for a fortnight, is very useful to improve resistance and prevent boils.
• ‘Jaljira’(decoction of cumin seeds), coconut water, carrot seeds infusion, barley water etc. are some of the common beverages that  by causing increased urination help in cooling the system.
• Lemon juice is natures most powerful antiseptic. Use it externally on sores, corn and dandruff.
• For clearing the complexion, use cucumber juice with water. Place the slice of cucumber over the face where needed.
• In general 16 ounces of prune juice, 1-gallon apple juice each day for 3 days also helps to clear the complexion.
• For rough skin eat silicon rich foods such as oats and wheat bran, Eat oatmeal and rub face and arms with oat water. Wheat bran makes the skin smooth. Make a thin paste of wheat bran and apply to face, neck and arms.
• For scars rub cocoa butter on the scar. It has to be done consistently, 2 times a day
• Slice of pumpkin if rubbed on the face, hands and feet remove black pathches, freckle and brighten the complexion.
• Raw turmeric if taken daily in the morning gives brightness to the complexion and makes it soft and smooth.
• A lemon-milk preparation is employed for whitening and softening the skin, hands and face.
• Raw papaya fruit if applied as cosmic removes freckles, black spots and makes the skin smooth and delicate.

Some Hints for a Clear skin and to improve the Complexion:

• A special skin cleaning powder is a mixture of green gram, Bengal gram and fenugreek seeds. Equal proportions of green gram and Bengal gram with a fistful of fenugreek seeds is powered and preserved. When needed the powder is mixed with plain water or starch water.

• White radish and carrot juice not only give a plenty of vitamin A but also act as a diuretic, flushing out toxins from the body.
• Curd is the most ideal to message the skin as it tones up dry and oily skin. The mildly acidic lactic acid in curd acts as an antiseptic and astringent and the cream in the curd soothing to the skin,
• A glass if limejuice has enough vitamin C to meet the daily requirement of this particular vitamin.
• Cut a lime into two. Take one half and gently massage the face. Squeeze the other half into a cup of water and drink it with a crystal of rock salt. Do it everyday for six to eight weeks to see a remarkable improvement in the appearance of your skin. This helps to remove the greasiness of the skin and lighten color.
• For blackheads make a fine paste of turmeric rhizome with a few mustard seeds, this paste is touched on the blackheads and left overnight. In the morning the face is washed clean with gram flour. The blackheads soften and fall off.
• Following are some of the hints to helps the complexion glow with health

-A tablespoon of honey either alone or with limejuice daily helps to improve the skin color.

-Be liberal in your fluid intake.

-Carrot, lime, cucumber, onion, fenugreek and coconuts improve skin nutrition; Take them in plenty and as far as possible fresh, in any convenient combination to enhance skin color.

-One ‘Amla’(gooseberry) daily helps to improve the skin color.

-For active young people a bit of fresh butter daily in the morning is one of the best prescriptions for a healthy smooth skin.

Alergic Dermatoses(Urticaria, Allergic and Atopic Eczema):

The single factor eliminative diet and a diet diary are two useful measures. In the former we start the patient on the one foodstuff, like boiled rice and sugar. It is rarely that a patient is sensitive to both rice and milk. If the allergy is due to dietetic factors, the disease should be controlled with the diet alone. After the disease has been controlled on boiled milk or rice, every three days, one more foodstuff is added, starting with essential ones like wheat (chapattis and bread), fats (butter and ghee), mutton, eggs, peas, carrots, bananas, Potatoes, lentils, till either an allergic attacks develops, meaning that the patient is sensitive to the last added foodstuff, or the normal diet is reached. Usually patients are sensitive to protein diets or vegetables and fruits, or to the synthetic chemicals used for preserving foods; starch fats and minerals make poor allergens.

Allergies (Urticatria):

• Five drops of castor oil in half of any fruit or vegetable or even plain water can be taken on empty stomach. This is very beneficial for allergies of the intestinal tract, skin and nasal passages.
• Fresh juice like carrot juice; carrot juice with beet and cucumber juice are useful in the treatment of allergies.
• The patient should take two teaspoons of turmeric powder micxed with a cup of water daily. This is very valuable in urticaria.
• Aboit 7gm of meant and 25gm of brown sugar should be boiled together in 17ml of water and drunk. This relieves the itchinb.
• Foods which should be eliminated from the diet are tea, coffee, cola drinks, chocolates, sugar and its products, refined cereals, meat, fish, chicken, tobacco, milk, cheese, butter, salted pickled foods and foods containing any chemical additives, preservatives and flavourings.
• Five drops of castor oil added to half a cup of any furit or vegetale juice, or plain water, and taken on empty stomach early in the morning, is beficial for allergies of the skin.
• One or two bananas a day are useful for those who are allergetic to certain foods and who constantly suffer from skin rashes.
• To reduce severe itching, apply ice on the effected part.
• The herb rauwolfia is beneficial in relieving itching in urticaria. One gram of powdered root can be taken with a cup of water daily.
• An equal quantity of alum and red ocher should be ground together and the powder rubbed on the weals.

Boils:

• A thorough cleansing of the system is essential for the treatment of boils. An exclusive diet of fresh juicy fruits with proper regulation of the bowels helps to a great extent.
• The use of garlic or onion has proved very effective. The juice of garlic and onion may be applied externally to the boils to help ripen them and also to break them and evacuate the pus.
• Half a cup of fresh juise of bitter gourd, mixed with teaspoon of limejuice should be taken sip by sip, on an empty stomach daily for fer days in treating this condition.
• Betel leaf is valuable remedy for boils. A leaf is gently warmed till it gets softened, Ir is then coated with a layer of castor oil. The oiled leaf should be spread over the inflamed part. It should be replaced every few hour’s. After a few applications the boil will will rapture, draining all the purulent matter. The application can be made at night and removed in the morning.
• The seeds of black cumin gorund in water and made into a paste can be applied to the boils with beneficial results.
• The application of turmeric powder to the boils speeds up the healing process.
• Worm moist compresses applied three to four times a day over the tender area helps to ripen the boil and helps in its easy drainage.

Chronic Erythroderma, Pemphigus and Leprosy:

• Extra proteins and minerals shoud be added to the diet to keep up one’s body strenth and make up for the loss of these from the skin in the form of scales and serum, particularly so in the first two dermatoses.

Corns and Collosities:

• A paste made by grinding 3-4 liquorices sticks and mixing it with sesame oil of mustard oil will prove very effective if applied over the effected aria.
• A slice of fresh lemon tied over the hardened skin overnight is a valuable remedy for corns.
• The application of papaya juice over the corn is also helpful.
• The milky juice of green figs is beneficial for corns of long duration.
• A paste made of chalk and water applied over the affected area is also helpful.
• A light diet containing of vitamins and minerals in the form of fruits and vegetables is recommended.
• Great white cabbage. Add hot water so that it is comfortable to your feet. Soak it in for 10-20 minutes.
• Soak your feet in warm water for about 15 minutes. Then cut a small piece of lemon peel and place the inside of it against the corn, tying it on. and let it stay there all night. Do this for three nights and the corn should lift out.

Dandruff:

• Use of fenugreek (methi) seeds is one of the most important remedies in the treatment of dandruff. Two tablespoons of these seeds are soaked overnight in the water and ground into a fine paste with curds the next morning. This paste is applied all over the scalp nut (aritha) or “shikakai” powder.
• The use of a teaspoon of fresh limejuice for the last rinse while washing the hair is another useful remedy.
• Massage hit oil mixed with ceder vinegar in hot water over the scalp. Leave it over night and rinse off with an egg shampoo the next morning.
• Put a few drops of limejuice in coconut oil and massage your hair with it to get rid of dandruff.
• Tops and roots of beets should be boiled in water and this water should be massaged in to the scalp with the fingertips every night. While beets is the best for treating dandruff.
• The use of curds kept over 2-3 days, limejuice, cider vinegar and ‘Amla’ (Embilica officinalis) juice also helps to disperse dandruff.
• Boil a handful of willow leaves. Strain and wash your hair and scalp in it. Pit a little concoction aside and dampen the scalp a little everyday.

Disseminated and Acute Eczema:

• Restricted salt and light diet. In endogenous eczema and urticaria bland vegetatian diet with restricted tea. Coffe and alcohol (Sattvic is helpful). It should be continued for at least 4-12 weeks.

Eczima:

• Musk lemon should be taken three times a day for at least forty days. The juice of the fruit is also useful for local application in acute and chronic cases of eczema.
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