Acupuncture for Skin Conditions in San Diego

Classical Chinese Medicine for Eczema, Psoriasis, Acne & Chronic Skin Issues

Your skin feels angry. You've tried creams, steroids, antihistamines, elimination diets, every skincare routine recommended online. The issues keep flaring up. The eczema is still irritated. The psoriasis spreads. The acne persists despite expensive treatments. The rosacea comes and goes unpredictably.

Dermatologists treat skin as if it's separate from the rest of your body. Suppress the inflammation with steroids. Kill bacteria (and damage digestion) with antibiotics. All just to manage superficial symptoms. But your skin keeps expressing the same issues because the root cause isn't being addressed.

Classical Chinese Medicine sees skin differently. Your skin isn't malfunctioning. It's showing you what's happening inside your body. Heat in your Blood. Dampness that can't be cleared. Wind that won't settle. Emotional imprints that have nowhere else to go. Immune patterns stuck creating chronic inflammation.

Gateway Acupuncture & Wellness treats skin conditions by addressing the internal patterns creating the external symptoms. Not suppressing what your skin is trying to express, but resolving the underlying imbalance so your skin can finally heal.

Why Your Skin Is Breaking Out

Skin conditions aren't random. The type, location, triggers, and pattern tell us exactly what's happening internally.

Heat in the Blood creates red, inflamed, itchy, burning skin conditions. This is the mechanism behind many cases of eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, and inflammatory acne. Your Blood is carrying Heat. That Heat needs to go somewhere. If the bowels and urine pathways are compromised, your skin becomes the next best outlet. The inflammation you see on your skin surface is Heat trying to escape through the largest organ of your body.

What creates Heat in the Blood? Prolonged stress (Liver constraint generating Heat), dietary factors (alcohol, spicy foods, sugar, chocolate, inflammation-triggering foods), unresolved emotions held in the blood vessels, or constitutional patterns where your body runs hot.

Dampness creates weepy, oozing, crusty skin conditions. Eczema that weeps clear fluid. Seborrheic dermatitis. Fungal infections. Acne with deep cystic lesions. This happens when your body tries to contend with the Heat by drawing in turbid dampness (undigested fluid metabolites) to quell inflammation. This can also happen when digestion is weak and unable to fully transform the food you eat into the good stuff you need, and eliminate the stuff you don’t. The Dampness can accumulate and seep out through your skin.

What weakens digestion? Overconsumption of dairy/sugar/greasy foods, living in damp climates, or constitutional digestive deficiency.

Wind creates skin conditions that flare up quickly, change location, appear and disappear unpredictably. Hives that show up without warning. Eczema that migrates. Itching that moves around your body. Wind is associated with allergic reactions, autoimmune flares, stress-triggered skin issues, and long term depletion of resources.

Autoimmune patterns create chronic skin conditions where your immune system is attacking your own tissue. Psoriasis, some forms of eczema, lupus-related skin manifestations. This is the body fighting latent pathogens or energetic states that have been held for years and are beginning to leak out from containment. The immune attack you see on your skin is actually your body trying to clean up what it's no longer successfully containing.

Emotional suppression shows up on your skin when emotions have nowhere else to go. Stress-triggered eczema. Psoriasis that flares during difficult life periods. Acne breakouts when you're anxious or overwhelmed. In Chinese medicine, emotions are stored in Blood. When emotions can't be processed, they create Heat and consume and stagnate the Blood, which manifests on your skin.

The Steroid Trap

If you have eczema or psoriasis, you've probably been prescribed topical steroids. They work initially. The inflammation decreases. The itching stops. Your skin looks better.

Then it stops working. Or the condition comes back worse when you stop using the steroid. Or you develop steroid-dependent skin that can't function without constant application.

Here's what's happening: Steroids suppress your Yang Qi (warming, protective, defensive Qi), your immune response, and force inflammation down. But they don't address why your skin is inflamed in the first place. The Heat in your Blood, the Dampness accumulating, the autoimmune pattern creating the flare - all of that is still there. The steroid is just muting the alarm.

Worse, long-term steroid use thins your skin, damages its protective barrier, and creates dependency. Your skin forgets how to regulate itself. When you try to stop, you get rebound inflammation that's often worse than the original condition.

Classical acupuncture addresses the root pattern creating the inflammation. When that resolves, your skin heals without needing steroids to suppress it.

Why Diet Changes Aren't Enough

You've probably tried elimination diets. Maybe you removed gluten, dairy, nightshades, sugar. Maybe you went full AIP or carnivore. Your skin might have improved somewhat, but the condition didn't fully resolve.

Diet matters. Certain foods do trigger inflammation, create Dampness, generate Heat. The right foods can support better digestion to create more Body Fluids and Blood. But diet alone often isn't enough because skin conditions have multiple contributing factors:

Your digestion might be too weak to handle foods properly. Even healthy foods can create Dampness if your Spleen (Spleen-Pancreas) can't transform them. We are not what we eat, we are what we digest.

Emotional holdings create skin issues regardless of diet. Stress, suppressed anger, unresolved grief - these create Heat in the Blood that may manifest on your skin even if you're eating well.

Autoimmune patterns need deeper treatment. If your body is fighting a latent pathogen or energetic state, changing your diet won't release that holding. You need to address the immune pattern directly.

Constitutional factors matter. Some people run hot constitutionally (more prone to Heat in Blood and depletion of Yin). Some have weak Spleen function (more prone to Dampness). Diet helps manage these patterns but doesn't change the underlying constitution.

Classical acupuncture treats the internal patterns that diet alone can't reach.

The Stress-Skin Connection

Almost everyone with chronic skin conditions notices they worsen with stress. But stress doesn't cause skin problems directly. Stress affects specific organ systems, and those systems create the skin manifestation.

Stress affects the Liver. The Liver governs smooth flow of Qi and Blood. When you're stressed, Liver Qi becomes constrained. Constraint generates Heat. Heat enters and consumes the Blood. Blood carries Heat to your skin. This is the mechanism behind stress-triggered eczema flares, psoriasis outbreaks, acne breakouts.

Stress affects digestion. When you're stressed, digestive function weakens (fight-or-flight diverts resources away from rest-and-digest). Weak digestion creates Dampness. Dampness accumulates and seeps through your skin as weepy eczema, cystic acne, or chronic fungal issues.

Stress depletes your protective Qi (Wei Qi). Wei Qi is what protects your skin from environmental factors, allergens, pathogens. When Wei Qi is depleted from chronic stress, your skin becomes hypersensitive, reactive, prone to allergic flares and environmental triggers.

Treating skin conditions means treating how stress affects these systems, not just managing the skin surface.

How Classical Acupuncture Treats Skin Conditions

We identify the specific internal pattern creating your skin issue and treat the root:

For Heat in the Blood (red, inflamed, bleeding, burning skin): We clear Heat directly from the Blood using Luo treatments. This releases the Heat that's been creating inflammation. We also treat the source of Heat - often Liver constraint from stress or emotional suppression. As Heat clears, the redness, burning, and inflammation decrease.

For Dampness (weepy, oozing, crusty skin): We strengthen Spleen function so your body can transform fluids properly instead of accumulating Dampness. We clear accumulated Dampness ideally through the bladder in the form of urine. As digestion improves and Dampness clears, the weeping, oozing, and cystic quality resolves.

For Wind (moving, changing, unpredictable skin issues): We expel Wind and stabilize Wei Qi. Wind is often related to long-term depletion of Fluids and Yin. We treat the channels that carry Wind and strengthen your body's defensive layer. Hives decrease, itching settles, the unpredictable nature of flares stabilizes.

For autoimmune skin conditions (psoriasis, some eczema): We use Divergent Channel treatments to address the latent pathogens or energetic states your immune system is fighting. This is the same approach we use for other autoimmune conditions. As the underlying pattern resolves, the immune attack on your skin decreases.

For stress-triggered skin issues: We treat the mindset and belief system identifying with the stress. We address Liver constraint and emotional holdings in the blood vessels. Using Luo Channel treatments, we release suppressed emotions that are creating Heat and stagnation. As emotional patterns clear, perception of stress and its triggered flares decrease significantly.

For chronic constitutional skin weakness: We strengthen Wei Qi (your skin's protective layer), nourish Blood to improve skin quality, and rebuild the constitutional factors that make you prone to skin issues. This is long-term foundational work that aims to reduce recurrence.

What Treatment Looks Like

Skin conditions often require a phased approach because we're addressing both acute inflammation and underlying patterns:

Phase 1: Reduce acute inflammation

Initial focus is clearing Heat from the Blood, reducing itching and redness, stopping active flares. Many patients notice visible improvement in the first few treatments as inflammation decreases.

Phase 2: Address root patterns

As acute symptoms settle, we treat the underlying cause. Strengthening Spleen if Dampness is the issue. Treating Liver constraint if stress is the trigger. Releasing emotional holdings if suppressed emotions are driving flares. Using Divergent Channels if it's autoimmune.

Phase 3: Rebuild and prevent

Constitutional work to strengthen skin integrity, improve Wei Qi, nourish Blood, reduce likelihood of recurrence. This is when patients report their skin is actually healthy, not just "not flaring."

Treatment includes acupuncture, often Luo treatments to clear Heat from Blood, sometimes moxa to strengthen Spleen and transform Dampness, and dietary guidance specific to your pattern.

What Changes Look Like

Skin healing creates visible shifts that often surprise patients:

Itching decreases first. The desperate, can't-stop-scratching quality lessens. You can go hours without thinking about your skin. Sleep improves because you're not waking up scratching.

Inflammation reduces. The angry redness calms. Burning sensation decreases. Hot, inflamed patches cool down. Your skin looks less irritated even before it fully clears.

Flares become less frequent. Instead of constant breakouts, you get periods of clear skin. The time between flares extends. Weekly flares become monthly, then occasional.

Severity decreases. When flares do occur, they're milder. A patch that would have covered half your arm is now a small spot. Acne that was cystic and painful becomes surface-level.

Triggers lose their power. Stress used to guarantee a flare. Now you can handle stress without your skin exploding. Foods that triggered reactions become tolerable again. Environmental factors (weather, allergens) don't control your skin anymore.

Steroid needs decrease. If you were using topical steroids, you need them less frequently, then not at all. Your skin learns to regulate itself without suppression.

Skin quality improves. Not just "not broken out" but actually healthy. Texture improves. Color normalizes. Your skin barrier strengthens. People comment that your skin looks good, not just better.

Most patients begin to notice improvements in itching and inflammation within 4-5 weeks of treatment. Visible clearing typically takes 6-12 weeks. Complete resolution of chronic skin conditions and rebuilding healthy skin usually requires 3-6 months, but the changes are lasting.

What Patients Are Saying

"I came to see Diego for eczema on my hands and arms for 15 years. Steroids worked temporarily but made it worse long-term. After working with Diego, my skin cleared tremendously. I also learned what foods were connected to the irritation, which was a big help.”
— Rebecca M., Mission Hills

"The psoriasis covered my elbows and scalp. I tried every biologic medication available. Diego explained the autoimmune pattern and treated that. My skin is 90% clear now."
— Michael T., Hillcrest

"I brought my teenage son in for treatment because I wanted to try one last thing before going on Accutane. After a few weeks and along with some lifestyle changes his skin is much clearer and his confidence is back. I can tell that he is overall healthier, not just less acne prone."
— Jennifer K., North Park

Who This Approach Serves

Classical acupuncture for skin conditions is particularly effective for people who:

• Have chronic eczema, psoriasis, acne, or rosacea that won't fully resolve

• Notice skin conditions worsen with stress or emotional upset

• Have tried steroids, antibiotics, or biologics with limited lasting results

• Experience steroid-dependent skin or rebound flares when stopping medication

• Have autoimmune-related skin conditions

• Want to address root causes rather than just suppress inflammation

• Notice skin issues alongside digestive problems, stress, or hormonal changes

• Are willing to commit to treatment that rebuilds skin health, not just manages flares

Your First Visit: What to Expect

Initial Patient Intake & Treatment (80 minutes | $225)

Your first session includes:

• Comprehensive skin history including when it started, what triggers flares, what you've tried, medications used, and dietary factors

• Classical diagnostic assessment using pulse reading and tongue diagnosis to identify internal patterns (Heat, Dampness, Wind, Blood deficiency)

• Discussion of stress levels, digestion, emotional patterns, and other factors contributing to skin issues

• Personalized treatment plan addressing your unique skin pattern (not a generic protocol, but treatment specific to what's creating your skin condition)

• First acupuncture treatment

Follow-Up Treatments (55 minutes | $180)

Most patients begin with weekly sessions. The first phase focuses on clearing acute inflammation and Heat. The second phase addresses underlying patterns (digestive weakness, Liver constraint, autoimmune patterns). As skin clears and stabilizes, we space sessions out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can acupuncture cure my eczema/psoriasis/acne?

Classical acupuncture can greatly improve and at times even resolve the internal pattern driving your skin condition. Many patients have achieved satisfactory clearing and lasting results. However, this requires addressing root causes, which takes time, consistent treatment, and commitment to healing. It's not a quick fix, but the results are lasting compared to topical treatments.

How long does it take to see results?

Results are proportional to compliance. Most patients notice reduction in itching and inflammation within 4-5 weeks. Visible clearing typically takes 6-12 weeks of weekly treatment. Complete resolution of chronic skin conditions usually requires 3-6 months. Long-standing or severe cases may take longer or require greater intervention.

Can I continue my medications while doing acupuncture?

Yes. Continue prescribed medications unless your doctor advises otherwise. As your skin improves, we often coordinate with your dermatologist to reduce medications gradually. Never stop steroids or immunosuppressants abruptly without medical supervision.

Will my skin get worse before it gets better?

Sometimes. When your body rehydrates and improves its resources it may push lingering accumulated pathology out through your skin temporarily. This is usually brief (a few days) and indicates the treatment is working. We prepare you for this and adjust treatment if needed.

What about dietary changes?

We provide dietary guidance specific to your pattern (foods to reduce Heat, avoid Dampness, support Spleen function). Diet is important but works best alongside acupuncture that addresses the internal patterns. Diet alone often isn't enough for chronic skin conditions.

Do you take insurance?

We operate as a cash-pay practice but provide detailed superbills that you can submit to your insurance company for possible reimbursement. Some insurance plans cover acupuncture for chronic skin conditions.

Ready to Begin?

Schedule your initial consultation to explore how Classical Acupuncture can clear your chronic skin condition.

Complimentary Consultation: 15 minutes
Initial Intake & Treatment: 80 minutes | $225
Follow-Up Treatments: 55 minutes | $180