Apple Cider Vinegar for Skin Health!

One thing you should definitely have in your paleolithic arsenal is apple cider vinegar, or ACV!  It is inexpensive, in fact, you can make your own, and also widely available  in stores.  The flagship brand is Bragg’s Apple Cider vinegar, but lately other brands have appeared on the market.  Just make sure you get the unfiltered ACV, not the standard clear version- you want it cloudy on the bottom of the bottle!

I have been recommending you consume ACV daily, in your Paleo Green Smoothie as outlined in my books, and also at www.paleojay.com  In fact, Hippocrates himself recommended ACV back in ancient Greece over 2000 years ago!  It is wonderful for digestion, fighting candida, (which is yeast overgrowth in the body), and even lowers blood pressure as well as helping normalized blood sugar for those with diabetes or pre-diabetes.  Also, it is a wonderful probiotic, since it is loaded with beneficial microbes. It does more than this as well, but today I want to focus on using it on your skin, something that is less widely known.

Just like coconut oil, you should keep ACV in your bathroom as well as in your kitchen!  My daily routine goes like this: after my shower, I take a small spray bottle of ACV that I keep right in the bathtub.  After toweling off, I spray small amounts on my skin and hands, rubbing the ACV over my skin from head to toe.  If you find it a bit too acidic (I’m well used to it, and find it bracing), just dilute it with water in the bottle. 

It is a wonderful skin toner, and if you have problems with acne, this will probably fix it.  It also fights redness of the face, wrinkles, age spots- the list goes on and on.  IN fact, any sort of skin condition, from eczema to poison ivy!  Really!  I get poison ivy almost yearly; I am very susceptible to it, and live on a wooded property.  Also, I get insect bites out on my land.  (I spend most of my days outdoors). 

By just following my ACV skin care regimen, my itching is cut short, nipped in the bud in fact.  If I have been exposed to poison ivy or sumac, just by putting the ACV on each morning following my shower, it is cut off at the pass!  The acidity neutralizes and kills any small “invasions” of bugs or plant toxins, and I have been sterilized and protected.  The ACV is loaded with good bacteria, and repopulating them on my skin can only help my micro biome- beneficial microbes are on our skin as well as in our guts.  It is helpful to think of our body as being a “battle field”, where good and bad bacteria are constantly fighting to either help us or hurt us.  ACV is like bringing in fresh good guy troops on a regular basis, while simultaneously killing off loads of the bad guys with acidity!

And if you ever do get a really bad case of poison ivy, or a really itchy bug bite?  Spray with ACV, and then top it off with baking soda, which is another thing you should have in your bathroom.  Really, this combination will kill the itch, and actually start to dry up even badly weeping types of infections.  But usually, the ACV will be enough, used prophylactically on a regular basis, after your shower. 

So, you have followed my advice, and coated your skin with ACV!  Good job.  Now, coat on top of that with coconut oil.  You can consider yourself now to be “washed and waxed”; clean and sterilized, feeling energized within (if you’ve already drunk your Paleo Green Smoothie!), and without).  The coconut oil is even an effective, non-chemical sun screen as well as being a wonderful moisturizer.

That reminds me: I plan to wash and wax my old truck today.  I’ve already done myself!

Check out this episode!