Lane Cove Acupuncture treats eczema, psoriasis, and rosacea with acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and dietary modification — addressing the root cause, not just the surface.
Book Your Appointment Call (02) 9427 5696In Chinese medicine, the skin is understood as the outermost expression of the body's internal state. The Lung governs the skin (Fei zhu pi mao), meaning that healthy Lung function, adequate Blood and Yin nourishment, and the absence of pathogenic factors in the Blood are prerequisites for healthy skin. When these are disrupted — by Heat, Dampness, Wind, Blood deficiency, or toxic accumulation — the skin suffers.
Patients from Lane Cove, Chatswood, Willoughby, Artarmon, and across the North Shore come to us with skin conditions that have been managed but not resolved by conventional dermatology — often involving repeated courses of topical steroids that suppress symptoms without addressing the underlying pattern. Chinese medicine approaches the skin differently: we ask why your immune system is reacting in this way, what internal imbalance is expressing itself through the skin, and how we can correct that imbalance from the inside out.
Damp-Heat is the most common pattern in acute and subacute eczema (atopic dermatitis). Heat drives the inflammation and itching; Dampness creates the oozing, weeping quality and the tendency for lesions to be thick and crusted. This pattern is often triggered or worsened by damp, humid weather; consumption of damp-generating foods (dairy, alcohol, greasy or sweet foods); and emotional stress.
Blood Heat is a common pattern in acute psoriasis (particularly guttate psoriasis), rosacea, and heat-type eczema. The Heat is in the Blood itself — often driven by emotional heat (anger, frustration, stress), constitutional Heat, or an acute illness triggering a flare. Treatment cools the Blood, clears Heat, and resolves toxicity.
This pattern underlies chronic eczema, psoriasis with heavy scaling, and dry, itchy skin in older patients or those who have been on long-term steroid therapy. Blood deficiency fails to nourish and moisten the skin, generating Wind (itching that moves around) and Dryness (scaling, cracking). Treatment nourishes Blood, moistens Dryness, and expels Wind.
When the Spleen is chronically deficient, it fails to transform fluids, generating Damp that accumulates in the skin. This pattern is common in children with chronic eczema and in adults with long-standing digestive issues alongside their skin condition. Addressing Spleen function is fundamental to resolving this pattern — which is why gut health is so intimately connected to skin health.
Modern research has increasingly validated what Chinese medicine has taught for centuries: the gut and skin are profoundly connected. Intestinal permeability ("leaky gut"), dysbiosis (imbalance of gut microbiome), and chronic gut inflammation all correlate with heightened skin reactivity and severity of eczema and psoriasis.
From a TCM perspective, this connection is explained through the Spleen's role in both digestion and skin nourishment. When Spleen function is impaired — generating Damp, failing to nourish Blood, and allowing pathogenic factors to accumulate — both the gut and skin suffer simultaneously. This is why effective treatment for chronic skin conditions almost always involves addressing digestive health as a co-primary objective.
Many of our North Shore patients with chronic eczema or psoriasis have concurrent digestive complaints — bloating, IBS, food sensitivities — that they may not have connected to their skin. When we address both systems simultaneously with acupuncture and herbal medicine, skin improvement is typically faster and more sustained than when treating the skin alone. See our gut health page for more detail.
Chinese herbal medicine has a long and sophisticated tradition of treating skin disease, and is often the primary treatment modality for chronic skin conditions — with acupuncture providing systemic support. Herbal formulas are prescribed both internally (orally) and, in some cases, as topical washes or creams.
Long Dan Xie Gan Tang — for Damp-Heat pattern with weeping, intensely itchy, inflamed eczema. Clears Liver-Gallbladder Damp-Heat. Used in acute phases.
Xiao Feng San (Eliminate Wind Powder) — the classical formula for Wind-Heat or Wind-Damp skin conditions. Disperses Wind, clears Heat, resolves Damp. Suitable for widespread, itchy, oozing or dry eczema; urticaria.
Si Wu Tang (Four Substance Decoction) combined with wind-dispersing herbs — for Blood deficiency with Wind-Dryness pattern: dry, scaling, itchy skin without active inflammation.
Liang Xue Xiao Feng San — for Blood Heat pattern in psoriasis and acute flares. Cools Blood, disperses Wind, clears Heat. Particularly useful in guttate and erythrodermic psoriasis.
Qing Bi Tang and Yu Ping Feng San — for rosacea with underlying Lung Heat and Qi deficiency, stabilising the surface Wei Qi that governs skin reactivity.
Dietary modification is an important part of TCM skin treatment. General principles are pattern-specific, but the following guidance applies to most inflammatory skin conditions:
HICAPS private health rebates processed on the day. Open Monday–Sunday, 9am–9pm. Serving Lane Cove, Chatswood, Artarmon, Willoughby, and all North Shore communities.
Eczema, psoriasis, and rosacea can be transformed with the right Chinese medicine approach. Book at Lane Cove Acupuncture and discover what treating the root cause can do.
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