Skin Inflammation
One of the most common things we treat in clinic is ‘skin inflammation’, also known as acne, breakouts, congestion and redness. This also includes conditions like Rosacea, Peri-oral Dermatitis, Psoriasis and Eczema.
This blog is something really close to my heart, it took me years to gather this information accurately. Talking to naturopaths, doctors (some frustrating conversations), discussing with clients, research, and trial and error in clinic, I have summed up the most important parts that will hopefully help.
I could make this into a video, podcast, or ask people for payment to access this information, however, I believe it is so important to learn that I am sharing my knowledge at no cost. Not just for you as a consumer, but for others in the industry that will benefit from this knowledge too. This blog is about skin inflammation, irritation, acne and congestion including solutions and what to ask healthcare professionals for.
How do I get rid of acne? or How do I get rid of eczema?
The majority of the time, in my opinion, this is the result of these three things:
Gut health/leaky gut
Hormones/endocrine system imbalance
Using the wrong products on your skin (we dive into this deeper in our next blog)
Here is a brief overview of how to map your acne and inflammation:
Face mapping problem skin: this can often reflect what’s going on inside.
Jaw line = true hormonal imbalance
Cheeks = large intestine, digestive system
Middle of chin = digestive. Solution: add Selenium to diet (often issues going to the bathroom)
Neck = chlorine (Is your water chlorinated?) Fix Solution can be a water filter
Inch either side of the nose = Small intestine, digestive
Back and chest = hormonal imbalance, or for back not rinsing your hair product properly
Between the brows = Liver/too much alcohol
I know on the Gold Coast skin inflammation and acne is such a common concern. Small changes and steps you can take to help resolve some skin inflammation:
Gut health
This is important to remember with acne and skin irritation… If it is coming from your gut, you will NEVER be able to figure out the intolerance by ‘cutting foods out.’ For example, if you‘re intolerant to wheat, there are traces of wheat is nearly everything. If you read a bottle ‘traces of egg’ are in nearly everything. So eliminating foods is near impossible. This is why allergy testing is such an important thing to get done if you are having skin flare ups of any kind. Wherever you are in the world you should be able to locate a recognised allergy testing clinic and be tested through blood, or sometimes skin prick testing. If you cannot find one, reach out and I will help you find somewhere.
Leaky gut:
We have a lining of our gastrointestinal tract. If has a thick turf wall called Lactobacillus Acidopholus Bifitus bacterium, yes long name I know. It is a fancy name for a thick mucosa wall.
When this wall starts to break down, this is leaky gut.
It has 4 main functions:
Responsible for final breakdown of food
Responsible for absorption of food
This gut flora is responsible for protecting the blood against harmful pathogens
Nourishes the cells that line the gastro intestinal track, every 3-5 days these cells are remade
How causes leaky gut/breaks down this lining:
Contraceptive pill
Antibiotic s
Drugs
Cortisone
Ibuprofen
Neurophen/painkillers
How to heal it?
Three foods to make it worse… Hybridised wheat, dairy, refined sugar
If they aren’t responding after cutting these out? Exposure to mould (candida overgrowth), chemicals, or heavy metals? Take a strong probiotic!
Candid overgrowth: Acne or eczema… Candida is a stomach bacteria that can overgrow. Often people get acne or skin inflammatory responses from a serious overgrowth of candida. This can be detrimental to your overall health. It can make your skin angry, you can become tired and fatigued, hair loss, restless leg syndrome, crave sugary and salty foods and become bloated.
I recommend getting food allergy testing via a referral from your GP for your blood work and then seek advice from a naturopath with your results. I feel some doctors (not all) may suggest band aid medication rather go to the root cause for a solution to your intolerance or imbalance. I am in no way undermining GP’s but at least seek an opinion from a naturopath.
Stomach bacteria overgrowth is very common and I suggest a stool sample to test this. I highly recommend this if allergy or hormone blood work come back all normal. This is often missed and really important to check. A huge percentage of us have or will have gut bacteria over growths.
Suggestions to help Candida:
Coconut oil mouthwash
Acid stomach - apple cider vinegar (dilute with water when swallowing) or gargle for mouth candida
Probiotics
Avoid processed sugars
Once you find out the foods you’re intolerant to, find an amazing Naturopath in your area. I’m in Bundall/Benowa/Sorrento area on the Gold Coast, about 10 mins from Broadbeach and Surfer’s Paradise. Research local naturopaths and find the right one for you. They will suggest practitioner strength supplements to heal the gut after eating foods you’ve been intolerant to for however long.
These supplements will change your skin, gut health and your everyday health!
Any Naturopath in the Broadbeach or Ashmore area on the Gold Coast that stock ‘Metagenics’ on the Gold Coast should be amazing. Metagenics fixed my skin and gut, and actually helped me lose weight. They have a practitioner strength range, which is a higher strength and quality than anything you’ll find at the chemist warehouse.
Over prescribing antibiotics and the pill to ‘help skin’
We often blame bacteria for causing acne. We have good bacteria in the skin & we have bad bacteria. We want to kill the bad and keep the good. This helps our microbiome function at its best. Sometimes we have intense hormone changes (cortisol levels rise), intense stress, pregnancy, breast feeding, even traumatic events. Our cells replicate too fast. This creates inflammation, sticky oil, P.Acne oils are produced in our skin and pores.
This results in an overgrowth of bacteria. This is a feeding ground for more bacteria in the p & c acne oils. Now, would you address the ISSUE with the CAUSE….
Accutane (Roaccutane) Isotretinoin, Doxycycline…. These are all common medications to “treat” acne. Sadly in many countries these are being over prescribed to people who do not need them. Sometimes in extreme cases these medications change lives for the good which I love seeing.
I suggest a treatment plan combining your diet, topical skincare and hormones to address your skin issues. This is a suggestion for skin where you may not be at the stage of needing these medications and it is often given to people without addressing the internal root cause. Often the side effects aren’t being weighed up, or even discussed or disclosed to patients. I often hear this from clients… “oh wow my doctor didn’t mention that when I got this prescription”.
These medications take all of the good oils, and the bad oils out of the skins micro-biome. This leaves skin thin and dehydrated with scaring and highly sensitive to sun/sunburn. Often when you come off this medication the acne comes straight back or within months as the issue is internal. These medications are putting a plaster over the issue.
Foods that can cause inflammation that you thought weren’t bad
Heating foods vs. Congesting foods
Heating foods often relate to skin conditions such as Eczema, Psoriasis, Dermatitis, Peri Oral Dermatitis, and Rosacea
Congesting foods are things like pustular breakouts/whiteheads and blackheads (comedones), and texture that are often closed/squeezable blackheads.
Heating foods:
Caffeine, this is coffee and pre work out! Sadly pre work out and protein powder really doesn’t agree with a lot of people’s skin. Try a process of illumination with vegan protein powders. I understand when going to the gym this is important in growing muscle or sticking to a meal plan, so find one that may clear your skin inflammation/vegan options.
Alcohol (try opting for a cleaner choice of alcohol, eg. swap wine for a gin and soda water
Strawberries (sadly they cause inflammation especially in red/heat in rosacea skin types)
Oranges (acidic)
Chilli and paprika
Congesting foods:
Dairy (thickens mucus in our skin/oils/sebum) = a big cause of blackheads and thickening to our mucus/sebum, also massively aggravating for asthmatic people due to this thickening. Try lactose free options where you can.
Meat fats such as sausages, salami, bacon. Substitutes for bacon: Tegel does chicken rashers which taste exactly like bacon which 70% less fat. Or just opt for more lean cuts of meat and not as much processed fats.
External toxins causing Acne:
These are excluding topical factors such as using the wrong skin care product for your skin, not having clinical peels, not having facials, not changing pillows cases regularly, not removing makeup and fake tanning the face.
If you’re doing any of these things I would love to see you in the Skin Clinic here in the Gold Coast, just 5 minutes from Broadbeach, 10 minutes from Surfer’s Paradise.
Chlorine!! This is one of the worst toxins for your skin. I recommend the Brita water filter and if you’re serious about fixing your skin, which I’m sure you are if you are reading this, you can get shower filter heads.
I often hear people say ‘I’m so down about my skin I’d do anything to fix it… Except give up coffee.” Well my words to that are, your skin cannot bother you that much. If you are allergic to peanuts that would be fatal you wouldn’t continue to eat them, would you? So if you’ve tried everything and have acne in an area where chlorine can be an inflammatory, try a shower filter head.
Candida - Candida is a gut bacteria that can overgrow. Often people with serious overgrowth of Candida have acne, eczema or skin inflammatory responses. This is serious to your overall health. It can make your skin angry you can become tired and fatigued, lose hair, experience restless leg syndrome, crave sugary and salty foods and become bloated.
What causes a Candida overgrowth in the gut?
Lots of simple things in life:
Remember the time you went on anti-biotics for a cough or bladder infection? Anti biotics upset the micro biome of the gut. I recommend taking a practitioner/naturopath strength pro biotic to restore the micro-biome.
Eating a leftover takeaway in the fridge that has been there a day too long? It’s a smaller version of food poisoning; this can cause a bacterial gut overgrowth.
Too much processed foods – I am all about balance and don’t expect people to cut these out completely (I eat them on a weekly basis) but how much processed foods are you eating? I recommend eating a more whole food diet and less processed foods for improved health.
SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth) is an imbalance of the microorganisms in your gut
H.Pylori is the same as Candida, it’s an existing stomach bacteria that can often overgrow in an unhealthy gut. Leaky gut is often a symptom of this.
Inflammation in the body:
Natural reducing
High dose turmeric
Ginger, grate fine and pour in tea pot, ginger tea. Have regularly! Great for Nausea, tissue/joint inflammation like sore lower back, arthritic pain
Now that I’ve touched on gut health and how that relates to the skin, I want to talk about hormones. I would like to reiterate the importance of getting clinical treatments. Anyone who reads this I would like to offer $40 off any facial treatment. This can be used for an Aspect peel, Microneedling, Dermaplaning, a Signature Enzyme facial, or a Sonophoresis Vitamin infusion.
Hormones:
Blood work is helpful here, my Naturopath and I have found testing is often helpful.
Your thyroid plays a huge role in your hormones. The thyroid gland produces hormones that regulate the body's metabolic rate, growth and development. It plays a role in controlling heart, muscle and digestive function, brain development and bone maintenance. Its correct functioning depends on a good supply of iodine from your diet. So in order to understand how your thyroid is affecting the skin, ask for blood work testing for:
T4 (free)
TSH
T3 (free)
Important: Often TSH test (thyroid stimulating hormone) is free in a lot of countries, however in NZ you need to pay for T3 and T4. Please do this, as TSH is very general and often comes back normal. Even if your thyroid is not functioning correctly.
Hormones to get tested:
Oestrogen
Progesterone, along with testosterone
LH and FSH
Blood work to also ask for:
B12: Often doctors in New Zealand and Australia will say “if you’re only slightly outside of the normal range you don’t need to do anything about it.” I question this as why have a range if you’re slightly below nothing gets done. After trials and research the range is there for a reason, be mindful the advice you are given is not related to funding or cost cutting if they don’t deem you have a major concern. This can be a good time to ask questions about B12 injections as this applies to blood work that may come back abnormal.
HbA1c is a blood tst that is used to diagnose type 2 diabetes. Hemoglobin A1c is your average blood sugar (glucose) for the last 2-3 months
Sodium often used to test kidney function, dehydration
Potassium – used to monitor conditions such as kidney disease, high blood pressure and heart disease
Creatinine measures how well your kidneys are performing
eGFR is another blood test to measure how well your kidneys are working
The next few are often things done in general blood work:
Haemoglobin
Haematocrit
MCV
MCH
Platelets
WBC
Neutrophils
Lymphocytes
Monocytes
Eosinophils
Basophils
Now that I’ve touch on hormones, gut health and what to ask your health care professional for, in the next blog I will go into skincare at home, and skin treatments in clinic. I hope this internal information has helped you in some way, or will help to know what you should ask a Doctor for. I would love to chat further about your skin, acne or inflammation, Belle Amour Studio is located 10 Ashmore Road, Bundall, Gold Coast. We offer peels, microneedling, enzyme treatments to change the skin and see results. Or we can chat about your skin further with a consultation.