Get a healthy glow. Purify your skin from the inside out.

Quick, raise your hand if you know the body's largest organ. If you said your brain, OK, maybe you can claim that, but for the rest of us, the skin will win.

Not only is it big, but its condition reflects the health of the body you have cleverly hidden there underneath it. Sure, you want your skin to look pretty, but remember, it is the barrier between you and the hostile world outside you, so it's pretty darn important to keep your skin strong and healthy.

From a natural healing point of view, skin issues begin at the cellular level. Skin conditions are given different names and express themselves in different ways in individual people, but in natural healing, they are looked at as a toxicity problem and are treated more or less the same.

Ayurveda says that the skin has six layers, and these layers are located not only superficially but extend to the deeper levels of the body, so a ‘skin' disease is not just ‘skin-deep'. In fact, inflamed skin is called "that which comes out from the inner part to the outer part."

Incorrect diet and lifestyle are the main causes for funky skin. Engaging in a diet or lifestyle that is against your constitution creates an imbalance in the bodily energies, which leads to contamination of the body tissues, leading inevitably to skin diseases. In Ayurvedic terms, the prime dosha involved is pitta. Hot, spicy, fried, oily and greasy foods, overexposure to heat and sunlight, drinking too much tea or coffee, alcohol consumption and smoking can aggravate pitta and bring on that Saturday night date pimple.

To give the pimple the boot, herbal medicine focuses on reducing inflammation in the skin, healing the tissue of the skin and eliminating the source of the irritating toxins through the liver, kidneys, and large intestine.

Green vegetables help as they have cooling energy, which is even cooler when they are used raw. Sounds good on paper, but, sadly, it seems like eating green vegetables has gone the way of the turn signal.

Rose flowers are popular medicine in the Middle East and India for reducing pitta and soothing inflamed skin.

I live in Oregon, and one of the best skin herbs in the world grows in my back yard. You're welcome to come over for a visit, but the tea shelf of your health food store is closer. Still, don't take my word for it, ask any herbalist. 

Dandelion is a feisty, bitter herb, but, hey, it's nothing personal. Bitter herbs just want to get their little herby hands on some inflammation and tell it who's boss. It's also a detoxifying herb, especially for conditions involving heat, and it especially likes to detoxify your lymph system.

Natural skin care offers you the chance to see herbal medicine at its best. And no short cuts. Be patient-the long-term approach really works. With a consistent approach, your skin will thank you for it. Purify your skin with a few cups of cleansing tea each day, sit back and wait for the compliments.

Let us know how your skin program is going, and share your successes. Have questions? Just ask!