Have you spent your life staring at the faces of others who have been seemingly blessed with the clearest, most radiant skin you could ever hope to have? Perhaps you’ve had a lifelong battle with eczema or rosacea, or maybe the breakouts from your teenage years are overstaying their welcome. You feel like you’ve tried absolutely everything; exhausted every skincare aisle in every pharmacist, and thrown in the kitchen sink, just for good measure.
But something you might have never considered is the close relationship between your gut health and your skin. It might sound crazy, but it’s true. It turns out that the food you eat has a significant impact on your skin. Now, you might consider your lifestyle healthy, but have you ever really considered how the food you’re gorging on affects your microbiome, and then how that, in turn, will affect your complexion?
Gut Health Basics
In case you aren’t already familiar with your gut and what makes it tick, here are some of the basics. Try not to think of your gut as just a series of pipes; think of it as its own ecosystem. Your microbiome is a bustling community, filled with trillions of helpful microbes that help you digest your food and support your immune system by fending off potentially harmful pathogens.
They require food of their own to perform to the best of their ability, so your diet can either give them the tools they need for the job, or sap away their energy and dial up the difficulty of their workload.
The Link Between Your Gut and Your Skin
But how does your skin factor into all of this? The gut-skin axis is a bidirectional communication network that connects your gut and your skin. This means that your gut health influences your skin health and vice versa. This happens via your immune system, neurotransmitters, and metabolites.
To many of you out there, this will come across as either brand new scientific research or the ramblings of your crystal-collecting, aura-reading aunt. But in actual fact, the gut-skin axis was first proposed almost 100 years ago. Dermatologists John H. Stokes and Donald M. Pillsbury were the first to suggest a link between gut changes and skin inflammation, and even back then, they recommended probiotics to help reduce symptoms.
How Your Skin Reacts to Your Gut
So now you might be asking yourself: if your gut isn’t as healthy as it should be, how might that affect your skin health?
Eczema
If you’re suffering from eczema, it’ll be worth your while to look at ways to reduce inflammation within your gut, like eating less sugar and processed foods. Dysbiosis (an imbalanced gut microbiome) and chronic inflammation have been known to manifest in the form of eczema flare-ups.
Acne
If your skin is breaking out – specifically on your forehead, cheeks, and jawline – you might just be witnessing a cry for help from your microbiome. These areas are heavily linked to your gut health, so if you make some positive changes to your diet, you’ll likely see improvements within a matter of days.
Rosacea
The gut-skin axis also connects rosacea with gut health, like eczema, because of dysbiosis, but also SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), which can cause inflammation and trigger immune responses that cause redness and sensitivity – particularly on the face.
How To Improve Your Gut Health to Have Clearer Skin
Fortunately, your gut is highly flexible. The smallest changes to your diet can lead to the biggest improvements for both your microbiome and your skin.
Embracing fibre-rich foods will give your helpful microbes more fuel and help rebalance your microbiome as a whole, replacing harmful bacteria and toxins with good bacteria that are raring to get stuck in. In addition, upping your fibre intake can ease diabetic symptoms by improving blood sugar control and managing weight.
Adding probiotics, such as kimchi and sauerkraut, to your diet will further diversify your microbiome. Kefir is a probiotic source that also contains anti-inflammatory compounds, which can diffuse inflammation, while also feeding your gut’s good bacteria. If you’re not sure where to buy kefir, sauerkraut, or some of these other foods, they should be available in most supermarkets or online.
It would do you no harm to focus on eating more whole foods, as they contain more nutrients that’ll support your immune system and gut health. Cut down on processed foods that are higher in saturated fats and sugar, as these food groups are common causes of inflammation.
Closing Thoughts
Having healthy skin can be more complicated than just trying out a few different moisturisers. Your gut and your skin undoubtedly share a deep connection; what you put in your mouth is bound to have some form of effect on your complexion. So why not make sure that these effects are as positive as possible? Think of it as a two birds; one stone approach. Maybe you can take care of both your skin and your gut – by taking care of your gut.
Comments are closed.