Face Mapping: The Liver and Between the Brows

In our third article about face mapping, we’re talking about the space between your brows.

Here’s where so many of us have suffered that embarrassing pimple that shows up smack in the middle of our eyebrows.

We’ve experienced days in school where we were sure everyone was staring at it right between our eyes. We felt like we might as well have targets painted on our faces.

If you haven’t gone through this embarrassment since high school, count yourself lucky. Many people continue to suffer from acne in adulthood. How discouraging when that infamous spot shows up one a day there is a wedding to attend, or right before a fancy dinner party!

It’s time to banish this particular nuisance from your face for good.

Face Mapping Helps Us Determine The Potential Cause of Acne

Face mapping started as a Chinese traditional medicine practice called “face reading,” in which doctors, scholars, and other professionals studied the face to gain clues as to a person’s personality, health, and fortune.

Your Skin Is a Reflection of Your Health

Today, in the Western world, we have adopted the idea that skin problems on the face can reflect and give us clues about our health, overall. We now understand that the skin’s condition is not only a reflection of how we care for it, but how we care for our entire bodies. Diet, exercise, and stress relief all play a part in how the skin reacts.

So what might be going on in your system that causes that unsightly pimple? Let’s find out.

Acne Between the Brows Linked to a Stressed Liver

In traditional Chinese medicine, the area between the brows is linked by energy channels to the liver.

That means if the reason for you to have acne, redness, flakiness, or excess oil between the brows, it could be related to a stressed liver.

What Does Your Liver Do in The Digestive System?

The liver is the largest solid organ and the largest gland in the body. It’s considered part of the digestive system because it’s responsible for:

• Producing chemicals for digestion, for protein synthesis, and for detoxifying your system,
• Subtracting and flushing out waste from the foods and beverages you consume, and from the oxygen you breathe.

Liver Responsibilities for Your Body

To give you a better idea, here are just a few things that the liver does on a daily basis:

• Removes toxicity from the body
• Produces bile, which helps the small intestine break down and absorb fats, cholesterol, and some nutrients.
• Helps create “coagulants”—those things that help blood to clot
• Helps metabolize carbohydrates, after which it stores glycogen (from carbohydrates) to release as energy when needed
• Stores vitamins and minerals to use as “back-up” when needed
• Breaks down proteins so they’re more easily digestible
• Filters and removes compounds from the blood, including hormones, alcohol, and drugs or medications

And that’s only some of its tasks. You can see that it’s a very busy organ, and that it has a big role to play in digesting and metabolizing our food and drink.

That means if we overindulge in fatty, greasy foods that are harder to digest, or in alcohol, which requires the liver to work harder to filter it out, we could be stressing the liver to some degree, and that can show up between our eyebrows.

What Type of Liver Issues Am I Facing?

Traditional Chinese medicine says that if you are seeing skin problems in this area, it could indicate some serious liver issues. These may include:

•    Hepatitis
•    Jaundice
•    Fatty liver disease
•    Liver stress

These are the more serious illnesses, though, which are rare. More typically, your centralized pimple is related to the following.

Liver and Digestion Problems

In fact, some practitioners call this the “wine and dine” area. Do any of these sound familiar?

•    Drinking too much alcohol
•    Indulging in high-fat, greasy foods
•    Eating too late the night before
•    Eating too much dairy (if you have trouble digesting it)
     note that for many individuals, dairy is linked to acne
•    Too much stress
•    Toxic buildup related to excess food consumption, too little water, or exposure to polluted environments

Can Stress Affect Your Liver?

Some face-mapping practitioners also connect this area to emotional difficulties that could be related to stress. In 2015, for example, researchers found that suffering from anxiety or depression could carry an increased risk of death from liver disease.

The possible connection between psychological distress and liver disease isn’t well studied or understood, but we already know that stress affects other bodily organs, like the heart, and new research like the study above suggests that the liver may be similarly affected.

What Causes A Stressed Liver?

Possible emotional causes of skin issues between the brows include:

•    Anger & frustration (particularly suppressed anger)
•    Irritability
•    Bitterness and resentment
•    Strong feelings of stress

If you’re suffering from constant redness, flaking, or acne breakout between the brows, for example, it may be a reflection of what you’re going through in life right now, and how you’re handling it.

How to Get Rid of Pimples and Redness Between Eyebrows

Considering the potential causes of skin problems in this area, we have some potential solutions for you. Try them out and let us know how they work.

1. Alcohol: Avoid alcoholic drinks at night, and don’t overindulge.
2. Late-night munchies: Avoid late-night snacking—drink water or tea instead.
3. Greasy foods: Avoid greasy, fatty foods, and cut back on dairy foods (or eliminate them altogether for a while).
4. Water: Drink more water (add a squeeze of lemon to help with detox).
5. Exercise: Get more exercise—it helps increase circulation and dissipates stress.
6. Pollution: Reduce your exposure to airborne chemicals—any that you inhale must be eventually processed by the liver.
7. Stress: Incorporate a stress-relieving activity into your day—something like meditation, yoga, tai chi, art therapy, daily walks, time with a pet, etc.
8. Suppressed emotions: If you suspect you may be suppressing emotions (a deep line between the brows may indicate repressed angry emotions, for example), consider journaling to get your feelings out, or talk to a good friend or counselor.
9. Cool it down: Eat more cooling foods like melons, cucumbers, and gourds.
10. Supplements: Support a healthy liver with more garlic and onions, beetroot, apples, artichokes, and supplements like milk thistle, dandelion, and licorice.

If you would like to learn more on face mapping and the different parts of the face that are connected to different organs in the body, read our whole series:

Face Mapping: An Introduction

Face Mapping: What Your Pimples Are Trying To Tell You

Face Mapping: The Digestive System and Your Forehead

Face Mapping: the Respiratory System and Your Cheeks

Face Mapping: Heart, Blood Pressure and Your Nose