How the GUT impacts your SKIN
the power of beauty from the inside out
I personally believe that good skin comes from within.
There is no doubt in my mind that your skin is a reflection of your internal health and that the food you eat and the lifestyle you lead play a role in the health of your skin. Great skincare of course plays a role, however the two work synergistically, rather than separately.
Whilst skincare can be fun and a beautiful daily self care ritual that impacts your skin and how you show up in the world, it’s only part of the equation. Great skincare is of little consequence over a mediocre diet.
This is an important conversation and one that will continue here, as how we feel about ourselves and how we present to the world impacts our experience within it and is an integral part of a life well lived.
To kick off, I wanted to share a conversation I listened to with Pernille Jensen, Naturopath and Founder of The Gut Co on Skin and Gut Health.
Note this is also a bit of a Gut Health 101, laying the foundations so to speak!The Gut Co began as an answer to Pernille’s clients needs and the desire to provide an easier, tastier solution to what was on offer. Products with less ingredients and more potency in order to help them meet the demands of daily living.
Even with a really balanced diet from predominantly organic food, our soil, (which is where a lot of the nutrients and minerals that plants provide us with come from), is depleted making it difficult for us to get what we need.
There’s also the added dilemma, that if your gut is not working optimally, you won’t absorb the nutrients, vitamins and minerals you need from the food you eat or the supplements you’re taking.
Pernille’s philosophy, to which I wholeheartedly relate, is ‘food first’, then other things such as vitamins and supplements follow.
Skin FoodThe body will do everything it needs with the nutrients from the food you eat first, taking care of ‘essential’ functions and your skin is last on the list. If your body isn’t getting enough nutrients to do everything else first, forget about the skin or any of the other ‘non-essential’ or ‘superficial’ functions such as hair and nails.
For Pernille, a healthy gut is the baseline. It doesn’t matter whether a client is presenting with skin issues, hormone imbalance, mental health issues or constipation, she believes that first you must balance the gut.
Treating the GutTreating the gut optimally is a two pronged approach in looking at both the gut lining/wall and the microbiome.
The Gut Lining/Wall
In his book, The Energy Paradox, Steven Gundry describes the role like this.
‘A strong gut wall allows authorized material, food molecules, microbial signals, and water across its border and into your circulatory system, but keeps out unwanted material that could launch your immune system into attack mode. In other words, it lets in nutrients that your cells will use as fuel (as well as for growing, repairing, and building (tissues)), while keeping out anything that triggers inflammation and fatigue. It’s an entry point and a protective barrier at once.’
Ensuring the gut lining has nice tight junctions that stop unwanted food and bacteria getting through and causing havoc is therefore paramount.
The Gut Microbiome
Your microbiome is a mix of good and bad bacteria that reside in the gut, helping you break down and extract energy from food, manufacture vitamins, build hormones, regulate mood via the production of serotonin and a raft of other functions which we won’t get into here. It’s worth noting, that the ratio of good vs. bad needs to be balanced, you don’t want to kill off the bad bacteria completely, as they also have a function.
How to get rid of bad bacteria?Bad bacteria thrive off sugar and processed foods, so the goal, is not to feed them.
How to support good bacteria?In order to support the good guys, you need to feed them pre-biotics like onion, garlic, leek, asparagus, globe artichoke and it’s important to try and have them daily, or supplement. Pernille’s approach is to supplement daily to ensure she always has a balanced ratio of good vs. bad bacteria.
As mentioned above, the good bacteria are the ones that digest your food, meaning you absorb more vitamins and minerals from your food, translating into more energy, better health, better skin, better hair and nails. The good bacteria also help nourish your gut lining.
Counteract Modern LivingSupporting your gut health isn’t something you do once and you’re set for life, it’s an ongoing process to counteract the toll of modern living and this hectic world we all live in. The main disrupters of a healthy gut being stress, alcohol, medications and processed foods, so unless you live in a cave untouched by our modern lifestyle, it’s important that you are proactive in maintaining balance.
Signs of a compromised gut Although there are a wide range of symptoms, some common ones are, constipation, bloating, diarrhea, gas/burping (either immediately after eating or a few hours later).
Some less common signs are brain fog, fatigue, muscle aches, headache and that general feeling of being unwell. (Note there can also be other reasons for these).
Easy changes to support your gut at home in weeding and seeding your gutRemove offending foods from your diet.
Pernille suggests keeping a food diary and noting what you eat and how it makes you feel, you’ll soon see a pattern of the offending foods, (some common ones are gluten, diary, onion, garlic). Once you’ve identified the offenders, remove them from your diet for a period of 4-6 weeks while you work on healing and sealing your gut. You can then reintroduce them one at a time, to see if you are still reacting to these foods.
Manage your stress. Whilst yoga and meditation are great for some, they don’t work for everyone, find your thing, it could be cooking, putting on your favourite songs or both!
Cut out processed foods.
Support your gut health either through food with pre + probiotics to support the microbiome and collagen, aloe vera and glutamine to support your gut lining or through products like The Gut Co’s FEED and REPAIR.
Fun fact, glutamine (found in REPAIR) helps with sugar cravings, so when that afternoon sugar craving hits, glutamine helps with the cravings by telling your brain, ‘you’re good, you’ve had sugar, you don’t need it now.’
NB: this is a general approach, please speak to your health care provider for any specific or serious concerns.
Afternoon Refresh
1 heaped teaspoon of repair, sparkling water
+ squeeze of lime.
great for beating sugar cravings
Let’s talk Collagen Firstly, the collagen found in REPAIR has the most research behind it. It also has the smallest molecular structure, (the smaller the weight or size of the molecule, the more absorbable it is), meaning it will be absorbed into the gut lining and not sit on top.
Like your skin, your gut lining is highly absorbable and just like with skin products, if the molecular structure of the collagen is too big, it won’t penetrate the barrier.
BreakoutsREPAIR is great if you are prone to breakouts as it’s a large source of zinc (it’s also a food source of zinc which means you’re body will recognise it and absorb it easier than synthetic vitamins). Zinc is an essential mineral which helps maintain the health of your skin due to its anti-inflammatory effects and is especially beneficial for inflammatory acne and related scarring.
REPAIR contains 10mg of zinc, which is actually 100% of your recommended daily intake, 200% of your recommended daily intake of vitamin c and lots of beta carotene which turns into vitamin a, all SKIN VITAMINS.
For more information on Pernille and The Gut Co, click here.
The Gut Co gut loving bliss ball recipe here.
NotesThis was part of a broader conversation with Kiri Yanchenko, founder of Amperna Skincare that was shared on Amperna’s IG live, so please do visit Amperna and take a listen if have any specific concerns, as my intention with this information is not to downplay more serious skin conditions like acne, eczema and rosacea that may require a more targeted approach, merely to share my view on a general approach to glowing skin.