Can a Castor Oil Pack Help Your Acne?
Castor oil packs are a great tool to help support your whole body and I regularly recommend castor oil packs to my clients for a variety of reasons, including stubborn acne. Between the support it gives with detoxification, inflammation, and your digestion, castor oil packs are an easy way to support your acne prone skin.
Disclaimer: the information provided in this blog post is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat. Make sure you contact your doctor if you think you have a medical problem.
In this blog post we’ll cover:
What is castor oil?
What is a castor oil pack?
Who should do castor oil pack?
How to do you make a castor oil pack?
What is castor oil?
Castor oil is derived from the castor bean (Ricinus communis). When used topically, castor oil has been shown to have many benefits including pain, inflammation, swelling, constipation, gas, bloating, and hair growth.
We’ll get into how castor oil can be helpful for all of these things below!
What are castor oil packs?
To make a castor oil pack, you use castor oil added to an organic flannel cloth and place it on specific areas of your body, most commonly on your liver. You can add a heat source for this castor oil pack to help drive in the benefits of castor oil.
Who should do castor oil packs?
Almost anyone can do a castor oil pack! Doing a castor oil pack can be a great way to support conditions like the ones listed below.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
Constipation
Acne
Bloating, gas
Period pain
PMS
PCOS
Menopause
Endometriosis
Uterine fibroids
Insomnia
Arthritis and joint pain
Castor oil packs are not recommended in pregnancy.
The Liver
One common root cause of acne I see is often the lack of detoxification. Detoxification slows down and then the toxin build up shows up as various symptoms.
Symptoms of poor detoxification:
Acne
Itchy, dry scalp
Eczema
PMS
Fatigue
Dark circles under your eyes
Headaches
Digestive symptoms like bloating and constipation
Emotions like anger can stem from the liver
We all naturally detox, but with the overload of toxins we are exposed to daily and other factors that impact detoxification (like being on birth control for years), sometimes your liver needs a little bit of TLC.
To jumpstart detoxification in a gentle way, you can start using castor oil packs. Studies have shown that castor oil packs help support glutathione levels, which is why castor oil packs are a great way to help in the overall detoxification processes. Glutathione is your body’s major antioxidant and helps your liver process these toxins. If you’re body is overwhelmed with toxins, glutathione can become depleted fast, causing a back up in your liver and producing some of the symptoms listed above.
Your liver processes your hormones like estrogen and when the liver is constantly bombarded with toxins from the environment, this can cause a back up of estrogen in the body, commonly called estrogen dominance. High estrogen can bring on symptoms like period pain, heavy periods, PMS, fibrocystic breasts (breast pain). High estrogen can also trigger more acne. Wearing a castor oil pack during the luteal phase (the second phase of your cycle) can help support your liver in processing estrogen, reducing those pesky symptoms including acne.
Pro tip - you can apply a castor oil pack to the liver to help prevent a hang over after a night out drinking with friends!
Your Digestion
Your gut has a big influence on your skin. If you have dysbiosis (an imbalance of gut bacteria), then this can trigger breakouts on the skin. Your gut microbiome is an important part of your health. Certain microbes like Candida and H.pylori have been connected to acne.
Castor oil isn’t going to get rid of those microbes, it’s important to work with a provider that knows how to address the dysbiosis.
Castor oil packs can help to reduce inflammation in the gut that’s present from dysbiosis. It’s also a great tool for constipation.
A castor oil pack can help to coordinate the movements of the smooth muscles in your digestive system. These muscles help get everything moving through. Studies have shown that castor oil packs help make bowel movements smoother, limiting the straining in a bowel movement, and people also express that they feel like they had a complete bowel movement.
To help support constipation, you can apply your castor oil pack to your liver, keep it on overnight and in the morning, expect a smooth bowel movement.
If you’re someone who feels as though you’re always bloated at the end of the day, using a castor oil pack can help to reduce bloating and gas, making you feel a little less uncomfortable at night.
Another amazing thing about castor oil packs is that studies have shown absorption of nutrients from the digestive tract is enhanced when using a castor oil pack. I love to recommend taking night-time supplements while wearing a castor oil pack to increase nutrient absorption!
How do you do a castor oil pack?
Doing a castor oil pack is pretty simple, I’ve listed out the directions below!
Directions:
Apply your castor oil to a wool flannel.
Place the castor oil pack over your liver with an old towel or tshirt on top.
Add a heat source like a heating pad.
Leave the castor oil pack on for 60 minutes or wear overnight.
Disclaimer: be careful with castor oil because it easily stains. You may want to wear an old tshirt and shorts when doing a castor oil pack.
It’s important to purchase castor oil that’s in a dark glass bottle. Since castor oil is an excellent carrier oil, the potential of plastic chemicals being absorbed into it is high if it’s in a plastic bottle. Even BPA-free plastics contain chemicals that can be detrimental to the hormonal, nervous, and immune systems. Exactly what you don’t want when you’re trying to support your hormones and liver!
Make sure to check out my online dispensary, Fullscript where I have a Detox Bundle that contains castor oil and a pack. This bundle also contains fiber and glutathione to help boost detoxification to help you clear up your skin.
Talk soon!
xx Dr. Alyssa
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