Humans are funny creatures. We can be brought to a state of total insecurity and completely lose our self-confidence when we have a break out. Many of us struggle to possess healthy, blemish free skin using countless skin care products, smearing an array of fruit and vegetables on our faces because we’re told it will clear our skin for good or almost erasing our face completely with treatments such as dermabrasions and chemical peels at the beauty salon. But is half of these things we do even worth the money or heartache?
Skin issues can arise for quite a few reasons and although every ‘body’ is different, I’ve gained great success in my clinic when dealing with skin conditions by treating the cause of the dilemma.
Here are my top 5 tips for healthy, glowing skin:
1. Gut health = healthy skin
Believe it or not your skin is a reflection of your inner health, particularly your gut. The gut is the seat of health and if it’s not functioning properly, nothing is. Ever heard the expression “If mumma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy”? Well that is basically true about the gut.
Ensuring a healthy gut flora with scientifically validated probiotics, eliminating foods which cause you symptoms (such as dairy or gluten), and lowering your intake of junk foods, refined sugar and alcohol will improve the environment in your gut and therefore encourage healthy microflora to flourish.
2. Diet is important for healthy skin
As a nutritionist I know all too well how our diet can effect every aspect of our health, skin included. The main points to remember are:
- Drink plenty of water
- Eat a diet rich in healthy fats such as avocado, fatty fish, nuts, seeds, flaxseed, coconut and olive oils, tahini, use butter instead of margarine and get your hands on a good fish oil supplement.
- Make sure you’re eating a tonne of vegetables! Especially the green leafy variety. By a tonne, I mean at least 5 serves a day.
- Lower your intake of refined sugars and alcohol.
- Sometimes dairy and gluten can effect peoples skin health. Not everyone reacts to these foods but it doesn’t hurt to eliminate them from your diet for 2-3 weeks just to see if it helps.
3. Stress less princess!
Stress is such a jerk! It really does cause so much trouble and so many health complaints can be attributed to stress. Have you ever had just an awful week at work and you’ve been so crippled with stress and you wake up and BOOM, there is a massive pimple staring back at you in the mirror? Unfortunately stress is unavoidable in life, however we can put practices in place to lower our stress load. Take time out for you, read a book, reduce stressors in your life (eliminate toxic people from your life, toxic situations, let go!), get addicted to chamomile and passionflower herbal tea, get into yoga or meditation. Whatever works. Stress is the enemy and must be shown who is boss.
4. Your liver and hormones
Did you know that your liver actually metabolises hormones the same way that it does alcohol? Your body needs to eliminate excess hormones (such as oestrogen) so that you’re not overloaded and a harmonious balance is maintained. When you think about it, your liver is a pretty hard worker and I know that here in Australia we tend to give our poor old liver a little too much work to do due to excessive alcohol consumption. Too much strain on our liver means lowered processing of excessive hormones. When we have a hormonal imbalance a myriad of undesirable symptoms can occur; infertility, mood swings, weight gain and yep, you guessed it – skin health issues.
What can we do? Give your liver a break. In Australia we have an annual event called “dry July”. People give up alcohol for a whole month to raise money for a charity. Why not create your own little dry July and detoxify your body a little?
5. Nutritional deficiencies and skin health
There are certain nutrients, which the body uses to maintain skin health and in many studies these particular nutrients have been found to be low in people with acne and other health issues.
- Vitamins A & E – these are both fat soluble vitamins which many of us are deficient in. They can be found in nuts, avocado, broccoli, sweet potato, carrots, dark green leafy veggies, fish and liver.
- Zinc – Another nutrient not many of us get in ample amounts. Zinc is responsible for wound healing, skin integrity and gut health and is found in foods such as oysters, nuts and seeds (especially pumpkin seeds).
- Vitamin D – Technically speaking, this is a hormone. Vitamin D has shown in many clinical trials to be beneficial for skin conditions such as acne, psoriasis and eczema. We actually produce vitamin D in our skin when it comes in contact with the sun so it really does make sense that it is essential for skin health.
Achieving healthy skin is not an overnight task. Being healthy is a lifestyle, not a diet or a fad. Many of us want the benefits but are too willing to take a magic pill, which gives us nothing but false hopes and disappointment instead of modifying our diet and lifestyle habits. Put yourself on a little 2 to 4 week healthy skin kick-start and see where it takes you.
Yours in health,
