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Expand your menu safely with ASCP's Advanced Esthetics Insurance at ascpskincare.com/aei 79 PUTTING THE ELEMENTS TOGETHER It's important to understand how these elements work both inside and outside the body to understand the foundation of what Ayurveda teaches. Unfortunately, Ayurveda today hasn't been viewed and used from this foundation. The way Ayurveda works is understanding what an individual's baseline constitution is (the unique ratio of these five elements), then understanding what has come out of balance. From that point, the Ayurvedic practitioner can treat the root cause, and the root cause always comes down to an imbalance of these ratios (moving away from our baseline constitution). Ayurveda is not a symptomatic treatment nor an overnight miracle. Using Ayurveda properly is understanding you're in a marathon, not a sprint. In the Ayurvedic framework, no two humans are alike, no two imbalances are alike, and no two treatment protocols are alike. We must dig deeper to understand what is happening. WORKING ON THE SKIN FROM INSIDE OUT Ayurvedic principles indicate that all imbalances, pathologies, and diseases start in the gastrointestinal tract, and this is true especially for healthy skin. In Ayurveda, skin is deeply connected to two specific tissue systems—lymph and blood. The health of both is determined by what nutrition is put into the body and how it's digested. Understanding these philosophies of Ayurveda can help you in sharing the proper information with your clients who may be interested. If digestion is weak, Ayurveda states the necessary nutrition needed for the lymph and blood will be poor or inadequate, causing various issues in the skin. In Ayurveda, weak digestion is categorized in terms of symptoms such as gas, bloating, indigestion, heartburn, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), lethargy, a thick white/green/yellowish coating on the tongue, loose stools, or a tendency toward constipation. Healthy digestion is seen as feeling vibrant and energetic after eating meals, passing at least one solid bowel movement daily, and having a pink and clear tongue. When looking at the health of the skin, Ayurveda teaches us to first think about nutrition and digestion. While it's likely out of your scope of practice to suggest dietary changes to your clients, understanding Ayurveda's approach to skin can help you guide clients to a specialist, like a registered dietitian who is familiar with food science as well as Ayurveda. They may recommend eliminating processed foods to start clearing up the skin. They may also recommend increasing the client's intake of vegetables; bitter, leafy greens (like kale, arugula, chard, and collard greens), and hydrating vegetables (like cucumber, zucchini, and celery) can do wonders for our lymph and blood.