How Your Gut Impacts Your Skin

Some of you may or may not know but I have a long standing career in colon hydrotherapy, the cleaning of your bowl and care of your gut health. Now whilst you may think the gut and skin are two completely unrelated parts of the body, you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s something I am extremely passionate about, and something I take very seriously. After my mums passing to Cancer in 2012, I wanted to look into ways in which the disease could be prevented. My research ignited a passion that I didn’t even know I had, it makes sense now as I love biology and working out how things tick.
The body is a miraculous thing, it’s time we understood how it works better.

Whilst many skin conditions are rooted at someone’s genetics, imbalances in the gut causing inflammation and bacterial over growths also affect our skin, either contributing or causing many skin issues.

The gut is known as our “second brain,” and often communicates with us through the skin. An imbalanced gut microbiome can cause flares in skin conditions including; acne, eczema, rosacea, and psoriasis.

If you feel like your skincare and skin treatments are working but your skin is still problematic at times, its worth considering looking at your gut health, it could be the final piece of the puzzle to bring everything together and help your skincare and treatments work to it’s full potential.

Addressing your gut health may significantly improve acne, rosacea, eczema and psoriasis symptoms by lowering inflammation and immune responses. By reducing these inflammatory triggers you will also, reduce inflammatory ageing, which speeds up the rate in which your skin and body ages.

Consider making dietary changes, adding a probiotic, and looking at holistic health options.

Remember a happy gut = happy skin

It can be daunting when trying to change bad habits that have lasted your entire life time. So, start small, these small steps are where I start all my patients.

1. Firstly, ditch sugar, I mean altogether it’s one of the most damaging foods we consume. You’ll be amazed at how you feel after a few weeks, once you’ve got over the sugar withdrawal. If struggling, first switch to honey and then wean off the honey. Sweeteners are a big no no also; you are just putting more chemicals in your body.
2. Switch dairy for alternatives, dairy is pumped full of hormones and highly inflammatory. Unbalancing your hormones causes a cascade of issues and one of the primary triggers in any oil related skin condition such as acne, rosacea and psoriasis. Your gut also doesn’t like dairy at all, sticking to the side walls, increasing internal inflammation. Your bowl struggles to then function correctly, absorbing nutrition and processing waste.
3. White carbs are like cement for the gut, making it hard to move waste down the bowel effecting natural bowel movement and causing a cascade of inflammation and bloating. White carbs cause an inflammatory insulin spike as they are essentially quick releasing carbs turning into sugar when processed in the body. Opt for brown carbs and keep them low, the carbs you really want to be consuming are your vegetable carbs.
4. Unfortunately, we don’t consume enough nutrition through what we eat so we need a little help. Work slowly towards eating 10 different fruit and veg a day and supplement with these essential cell stimulating vitamins and minerals:
   Vitamins A, C, D, Zinc and Omegas 3 & 6. I love Vitamin B also, but it can make some skin conditions worse so I’m selective with who should take this and in what doses. Always seek advice from your GP before starting any supplement, especially if taking medication.
5. To start healing your gut take digestive enzymes and probiotics. Start with a low dose building up gradually. Your body will take time to respond, and it can cause some changes in bowel movements as your body is trying to reset itself so be patient.
   It’s important to note that just like the skin, results start to show at 4 months and progress month by month. Ideally allow 1-2 years of consistent use of these good habits to see the full benefit. It’s not an overnight fix. It’s a lifestyle change and an essential part of your self-care. After all, poor internal health and bad skin leaves us feeling low and not at our best. It’s time we start taking care of ourselves better.

#bossyourskin
Danielle