Acne breakouts are not the same from one area of the face to the next. While stubborn pimples and blemishes can be difficult, what your acne means has more to do with internal health than most realize. There’s a connection between how the skin appears visually and imbalances and poorly functioning systems within the body. Known as face mapping, the idea is that each area of the face is prone to breaking out links to a specific organ or system. When the system is out of balance, the effects show on the skin, all of which can be diagnosed with a simple-to-use acne face map. Face mapping works similarly to tongue diagnosis: the color, shape, texture, ridges, and even coating on the tongue are indicators of the overall health of different organs.
Understanding the root cause of your breakouts can help you find the right products and treatments to treat your acne. Here, we dive head-first into face mapping, how it works, and why it may be the secret to stopping your skin from breaking out.
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What is Acne Face Mapping?
If you want to understand what the cause of your acne may be, you’ll want to implement an acne face map. This relatively easy technique makes it simple to get to the root cause of persistent breakouts and put your skin on the path to clear.
Using an acne face map date back to Ayurvedic teachings and Chinese medicine. It examines the skin on the face and correlates it to what is occurring within the body. The idea of face mapping is nothing new; before the advent of blood tests and modern-day scans, the only way to understand how the skin was evidence of an imbalance within the body was through face mapping.
Face mapping connects breakouts in a specific area, like the neck, forehead, or jawline, for example, to an imbalance within the body, either in an organ or an imbalance. While reading your skin as an acne face map is a reliable way of determining what is likely the cause of your acne and what your acne means, face mapping can look different on different people. It’s essential to consider that the same types of pimples can look different on other people, and their causes may vary, too. It’s also important to note that breakouts can give clues to acne triggers and imbalances but are not the end-all-be-all answer.
If you break out in the same spots repeatedly, using face mapping to determine the triggers causing your acne can help you get one step closer to the root of the problem. Still, a personalized approach to tackling acne breakouts is always best. It’s also important not to gloss over the type of acne you see on any one area of the face since the severity of your breakouts may have more to do with a hormonal imbalance, diet, stress, and even genetics than just where they appear.
How to Read the Acne Face Map
The acne face map solution is a good way to identify what causes acne, but to use face mapping effectively, it’s critical to know what each mapped area represents.
The Eyebrow Area
What it means: Breakouts above and within the eyebrows may indicate an imbalance in the liver or gallbladder, often due to a poor diet.
How to treat it: Cut out junk food and overly processed foods and incorporate more whole foods into your diet.
The Forehead and Hairline
What it means: Acne on the forehead is usually symptomatic of digestive imbalance, poor digestion, or even irritable bowel syndrome.
How to treat it: Keeping the body free of toxins by regularly drinking water is one way to help improve the digestive system and flush out toxins. Trade in carbonated sugary drinks for water and fresh-pressed juice and limit your caffeine intake. You can also switch to oil-free and non-comedogenic hair products, which are less likely to clog the pores in the area. Also, wash up into the hairline and always wash the hairline after using your haircare products.
The Nose
What it means: In face mapping, acne on the nose directly reflects the current state of the heart and lungs. Congested pores on the nose, which can instigate blackheads, may also be related to high blood pressure and vitamin B levels.
How to treat it: Incorporating more heart-healthy foods into your diet, like fruits, green vegetables, and healthy fats like nuts and avocado, can help. If low vitamin B levels are the culprit, add a vitamin B supplement to compensate.
The Cheeks
What it means: Persistent breakouts on the left side of the cheek differ from those on the right. Breakouts on the left cheek are connected to the liver or bacteria buildup on the skin. On the right cheek, they are associated more closely with the lungs and an intolerance to sugar.
How to treat it: To quell pimples on the left cheek, incorporate more cooling foods like cucumber and watermelon into your diet to help detoxify the liver. For blemishes on the right cheeks, try practicing mindful breathing to strengthen the lungs and cutting down, or better yet out, refined sugar. Easy-to-follow skincare habits, like regularly washing your face to eliminate acne-causing bacteria, and treating the skin with salicylic acid can also help.
Around the Mouth
What it means: Stubborn pimples around the mouth are likely linked to a poor diet and poorly functioning intestines and liver.
How to treat it: Simple diet changes, like cutting out fried and processed foods and replacing them with fiber-rich vegetables and fruits, can help.
The Chin and Jawline
What it means: Breakouts on the chin may be an explicit result of a hormonal imbalance, which stress can instigate. Pimples on the chin and along the jawline are symptomatic of hormonal acne, which happens more in adults and can cause breakouts around the time of menstruation.
How to treat it: Naturally rebalancing the hormone levels with a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids may help, but so can a prescription of spironolactone, which helps limit high testosterone levels, which are linked to breakouts.
