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Thursday, September 09, 2004

If I Were a Doctor...

I would be a dermatologist. Why, you ask? Good question, I reply. The skin is the boundary. It divides the self from the outside world, and in so doing, defines the limit of the being. (Not ‘limit’ as in limitation, but as in boundary.) The skin is also how we interact with the outside world; it’s what others see of us (can’t see the liver!) and it’s the organ through which we feel, touch, and interact with our environment and the other beings in it. We assert through our skin and the skin, in turn, protects us. It should be healthy. It demands health.

3 Comments:

Blogger kStyle said...

You poor thing. That sounds so painful.

In TCM, the skin is governed by the Lungs (which pair with the Lagre Intestine). Here are some things that are great for the lung and might? may? help your skin:

Spicy (pungent) foods--unless your diet is already too hot
White vegetables, like cauliflower. Lotus root is especially good for the LU.
Deep breathing, yoga
Steam--steam out in the shower, put your face over a steamy bowl. Steam steam steam.

12:02 PM  
Blogger Eric said...

I recently had a new flare-up of acne after several years of no problems with it. (My adolescence was horrible; I still have scars, literal and figurative.) The bright spot here is that I found a new dermatologist on whom I have a small crush. So I look forward to my appointments at least.

She gave me some stuff that's done the trick, but you're right, Lah, that in general it's "Here's a different cream, here's a different pill."

Mine's pretty, though, so I'll take whatever she gives me.

2:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

One day my father told me that he would never want to be a dermatologist (he went to med school, but ended up more a research scientist in pharmacogenetics). I was pretty puzzled by this, because having gone to a dermatologist for a while it seemed like you made a lot of money from giving people whatever was the cream and/or pill of the month after a few minutes of consultation. His reasoning was that it was one of the saddest kind of doctors to be because of how prevalent skin cancer is these days (this was 10 to 12 years ago I guess, yikes). From his experience, other than acne cases, dermatologists lost more patients to cancer than just about any other typical kind of doctor.
-Ben

4:30 PM  

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