- The Scourge of Teenagers

According to Ayurveda, acne, pimples and black heads are caused by aggravation of all the three doshas- primarily pitta. Pitta is increased by excessive alcohol, Smoking and caffeinated drinks, bad food habits such as eating white flour and white sugar products, greasy, fried and Spicy food together with stress, tension, polluted environment and excessive use of chemicals also aggravate pitta dosha. This aggravated dosha then erupts on the skin as acne and pimples.

Acne causes great deal of embarrassment to young people because it affects youngsters between the ages of twelve and twenty four. Beautiful pretly young girls lose their charm and appeal if they get affeicted with acne. Several branded products that promise to cure acne, pimples within weeks have flooded the market but how effective these are is a moot question.

As told earlier, bad food habits such as excessive consumption of fried, fatty starchy foods are the main cause. Chronic constipation is another cause. Constipation may cause the blood stream to be surcharged with toxic impurities which burst out of the skin as acne.

Ayurveda recommends drinking ? a cup of aloevera juice tarice daily and applying a paste of nut meg with water. Another advice is-Take 1 spoonful of isalgol daily before sleeping at night. Pimples disappear when ruffed with raw garlic several times a day. Even persistent forms of acne are healed with garlic. Apart from this external use, eating 3 pods of garlic once daily for a month, also helps, A mixture of coriander and mint juice, with a pinch of turmeric, applied to the face after thouroughly washing it, every night also helps.

All these remedies can be tried. But the primary action should be ? eating correct nutritional food, fruits and avoiding junk food.