Treatments in Conventional Medicine and Their Limitations
Conventional medicine focuses on blocking sunlight and suppressing existing inflammation.
BM Korean Internal Medicine Clinic prioritizes immediate discontinuation of the culprit drug and emergency care under a Korean Medicine physician's diagnosis, while providing parallel treatment to mitigate steroid side effects and detoxify the body.
- Avoidance: Completely blocking sunlight exposure using sunscreens and long clothing.
- Symptomatic Drugs: Using steroid ointments/pills or antihistamines to temporarily calm itching and inflammation.
- Hardening Therapy: Artificially exposing skin to small amounts of UV light to adapt it, or using immunosuppressants (like Azathioprine) in severe cases.
[Limitations]
Avoiding sunlight completely for a lifetime is impossible and severely lowers quality of life.
Long-term steroid use thins the skin and dilates blood vessels, potentially weakening the skin barrier in the long run.
Moreover, drugs only mask symptoms and fail to raise the fundamental 'Threshold' of the skin’s hypersensitivity to sunlight.
BM's Integrative Solution: Strengthening Immune Barrier and Clearing Heat
BM Korean Internal Medicine Clinic does not just avoid the sun but creates a healthy skin environment that can withstand it.
- Cooling Blood and Clearing Heat (Cheongyeol-yanghyeol, 淸熱凉血): Using herbal formulas like Huanglian Jiedu Decoction (Hwangryunhaedok-tang) or Yin Qiao San (Eungyo-san) to cool down latent heat toxins in the blood and lower inflammatory sensitivity.
- Strengthening Defensive Qi (Wei Qi, 衛氣): Using Jade Windscreen Powder (Yupingfeng-san) to fortify the skin’s defense barrier, preventing deep penetration of UV rays.
- Detoxification: For photosensitivity caused by drugs or porphyria, formulas like Yinchenhao Tang (Injinho-tang) assist liver detoxification, expelling toxins through urine and sweat.
- Health Freedom Camp (Life Care): We guide patients towards an antioxidant-rich diet to reduce Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) damage from UV rays and cultivate lifestyle habits that boost skin resilience.
Evidence-Based Korean Medicine (Scientific Evidence)
Research confirms that oral intake of natural compounds and acupuncture treatment enhance skin resistance to UV rays and fundamentally inhibit photoaging and inflammation.
- Oral Polypodium leucotomos extract decreases ultraviolet-induced damage of human skin: Oral administration of Polypodium leucotomos extract significantly reduced UV-induced erythema and sunburn cells. Notably, it inhibited DNA damage (CPDs), a risk factor for genetic mutation, and preserved skin immune cells (Langerhans Cells), proving its clinical value as an 'Oral Sunscreen'.
- Middelkamp-Hup MA, Pathak MA, Parrado C, et al. Oral Polypodium leucotomos extract decreases ultraviolet-induced damage of human skin. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 2004;51(6):910-918. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2004.06.027
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- Green Tea Catechin Association with Ultraviolet Radiation-Induced Erythema: A meta-analysis on oral intake of green tea catechins showed a significant increase in Minimal Erythema Dose (MED) compared to placebo. This suggests that catechin intake serves as an effective 'Systemic Photoprotection' agent that enhances skin resistance to UV rays.
- Kapoor MP, Sugita M, Fukuzawa Y, Timm D, Ozeki M, Okubo T. Green Tea Catechin Association with Ultraviolet Radiation-Induced Erythema: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Molecules. 2021;26(12):3702. doi:10.3390/molecules26123702
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- The Effectiveness and Safety of Acupuncture for Patients with Chronic Urticaria: A systematic review of acupuncture for chronic urticaria, which shares mechanisms with solar urticaria, found that the acupuncture group had a higher total effective rate than the drug (antihistamine) group. Notably, the recurrence rate was significantly lower after treatment.
- Xie W, Xie H, Liu F, et al. Propranolol induces apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells through downregulation of CD147. British Journal of Dermatology. 2013;168(4):739-748. doi:10.1111/bjd.12193
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