Apparently, my liver hates me and is totally jacked up. Or, at least, that's what Doc K told me yesterday when I had him do some acupuncture to get rid of my sun rash. Although the picture isn't the greatest, you can see quite a bit of the rash circling my neck.
Every spring/summer for the last 8 or 9 years I have developed a rash the first few times I go out in the sun. Although I can't pinpoint the exact cause of it, I believe the timing of my annual sun rash corresponds with when I was on major anti-inflammatory meds for what the docs though was carpal tunnel. Come to find out after one year of taking massive quantities of prescription and over the counter anti-inflammatory drugs (including a short run of Vioxx, which was soon after taken off the market... I didn't last very long on it because I noticed I got one of the red alert side effects which I won't relive for you hear, but I'm pretty sure it caused internal bleeding) that I did not have carpal tunnel thanks to going to a chiropractor who took xrays and noticed that neck from in between my shoulder blades and up was practically at a forty-five degree angle. Go figure right where the misalignment started was where the nerves that run down to you hands are. Isn't it amazing that "traditional" doctors just want to pump you full of drugs to manage the symptoms but don't really think to look in to the true cause of the problem? During that time I had one doctor actually tell me to a get a second opinion because he couldn't understand why I was in so much pain... especially since the cortisone shot he gave me didn't work. Long story short, a chiropractor saved my liver and internal organs from what was sure to be further damage from a never-ending amount of harsh prescription meds to manage the pain.
But I digress. The first year I noticed a rash from the sun during the spring was the year after I spent all of that time on heavy meds. And while I'm not on the heavy meds anymore (though, I was, until recent years, still taking lots of other prescription meds for allergies and whatnot) my health has not been the same since that time period. Digestive issues, rashes from everything, increasing food sensitivities, etc. Anyway, it was the sun rash that started first and has continued every year since. After about six or seven days of sun exposure the rashes stop and I just tan like most other people, but getting through that time period- which you have to break up and allow the rashes to heal in between each exposure- is near impossible because the itching is so intense and putting any sort of product on it to stop the itching causes the hives to turn in to boils and get worse. The only remedy was let it dry out and take lots of Benedryl.
However, when I started doing acupuncture last June I noticed something really amazing. My first session of acupuncture I had a rash on my hand that I had gotten from sun exposure while driving in my car for a long trip about five days prior. I also had a rash on my leg that refused to heal from sun exposure a full year beforehand (yup, that's how bad it had gotten for me). About two hours after my acupuncture session I noticed the sun rash on my hand had completely cleared, and the inflammation on the year old sun rash on my leg had gone down! After years of trying every medicine under the sun (haha :) ) and nothing clearing up my rashes one session of acupuncture was all it took to get my skin to start healing.
Naturally, upon getting my first rash this season I made sure to get some acupuncture yesterday. Doc took one look at my tongue and said something along the lines of "holy stagnation!" I can't remember exactly what it was, but I laughed. First, he confirmed what I suspected, things in my system have been stagnating again lately, and second that the rashes were a result of some of this. He explained that the rash was actually a result of my liver not functioning properly. The stagnation in my liver and other organs causing the body to not be able to react appropriately to even natural stimuli and as a result I get a rash instead of a normal suntan or sunburn. I paraphrase here of course, but you get the idea. Makes sense. The liver is the largest and most important organ in the body for processing anything your body is exposed to: food, sun, etc. So Doc hit some acupuncture points to stimulate my liver and wholla the rash cooled down and started to go away. As I expected it didn't go away completely, but it did calm down and start to clear on my hands and arms.
Being the baby that I am and hating being itchy, I did take some Benedryl last night to calm things down even more. The inflammation has gone away though I can still feel some small bumps under the surface. Hopefully I can sneak in another acupuncture treatment today and finish clearing everything up. I'm also planning starting up the Ebi-pro footbaths again. My body is in need of detoxing again, so it's time to refocus and get my act together again.
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