Your gut microbiome has been proven to have a profound effect on the health of the entire body, from brain function, weight, skin, immunity, digestion and mood.
Up to 80% of our immune system resides in the gut and up to 75% of our serotonin (the hormone that contributes towards feelings of wellbeing and happiness) is produced there, however many of us aren’t optimising our gut health.
If you ever experience digestive issues like bloating, diarrhea, constipation and IBS, you’re not alone. It’s estimated that there are 70 million Americans currently living with these symptoms.
As reiterated by Mental Health America, taking care of your gut and subsequently your gut-brain axis starts with a balanced and nutritious diet: prebiotic food (that feeds your gut bacteria) such as asparagus, bananas, berries and mangos, and probiotic food (that contains live bacteria) like apple cider vinegar, yoghurt, kimchi and kombucha.
So it’s no surprise that beautiful, glowing skin and good health do begin in your gut.
So before you think about rushing out to get the latest miracle cream for your skin, why not invest your time and money into improving your digestive health?
Looking after your gut will allow you to simplify your skincare routine, help you achieve a smooth, balanced and glowing complexion – and make you feel better too.
Lets look at how your gut health and skin health are linked?
Inside your gut, there are millions of ‘microbial cells’ – bacteria, viruses, and yeasts. There are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ microbial cells – the good keep you healthy and fight off the bad, which are those that cause disease and illness.
These cells play an important role in digesting food and keeping you healthy. Interestingly, there are more of these microbial cells than there are human cells.
Sometimes, though, there can be an imbalance in your gut microbiome. An imbalance means that there are too many bad bacterial cells or not enough good bacterial cells.
Stress, a poor diet, and antibiotic usage can all lead to an imbalance. When the balance of bacteria in your gut is out of whack, there can be inflammation in the body – and that’s where the link to skin health occurs.
The gut-skin connection
Gut health doesn’t cause bad skin as such. Rather, researchers suspect that the imbalance in gut bacteria contributes to the development of skin conditions like acne and even eczema. Both acne and eczema are inflammatory skin conditions, and inflammation occurs when the immune system is fighting against bad bacteria.
Restoring the balance of bacteria in the gut could, therefore, have positive benefits for the skin, with emerging research suggesting probiotics may help to address problem skin.
If you think about a garden, our gut is like the soil. The soil needs the right nutrient levels and bacterial balance to support the plants and for them to be strong, their leaves robust and their flowers to blossom. For our skin to be strong, lustrous and radiant, we also need the right bacterial and nutrient balance in our gut.
So we know that the gut is where 70% of our immune system lives. It’s also where we metabolise hormones, where we make nutrients and neurotransmitters, create detoxifying enzymes and neutralise pathogens. All of these processes can profoundly affect us if not in balance or working properly.
From our clinic, we’ve seen first hand how when hormones are out of balance, they can wreak havoc on complexion and overall health and wellbeing. If we’re not getting enough nutrients or digesting our food properly due to poor gut health, our skin won’t receive the nutrition it needs to support it. This affects skin elasticity and collagen production and will manifest in dull, lacklustre skin with poor tone. Similarly, if we are not detoxifying properly, the skin – as the body’s largest elimination organ – will suffer.
To achieve a healthy gut, we need to support good bacteria in our digestive system. Bacteria pretty much run the show! The gut is home to trillions of microbes that outnumber the body’s cells by 10 to 1.
We co-exist with about 500–1000 different species of bacteria. Not so glamorous, I know, but just think of those good bacteria as your skin and body’s very best helpers. More and more studies are showing how the nature of that bacteria can affect our health, our skin, and the way we feel.
In 2008, Italian researchers proposed that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, also known as SIBO, is more prevalent in acne sufferers than it is in people without acne.
But while there’s a growing body of evidence linking gut health to skin health, the concept isn’t new. In 1930, dermatologists John H. Stokes and Donald M. Pillsbury suggested that mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression could alter the gut flora which results in the inflammation that causes skin conditions such as acne.
Some earlier research from 2001, which studied 114 people with acne, suggested probiotic usage could help acne to clear up faster.
Studies also show that people who have a healthier gut microbiota may have a healthier fatty acid profile in their skin, meaning their skin is more moisturised, hydrated and protected.
Studies show that our gut bacteria can also influence our mood, weight, blood sugar levels and our body’s ability to fight infections.
An abundance of bad bacteria can contribute significantly to skin problems, from acne, rosacea, premature ageing of the skin, lacklustre skin and poor energy levels amongst other health and beauty issues. Studies show that where there is gut inflammation, there will be skin inflammation.
What can we do to ENSURE THAT THE GOOD BACTERIA stays on top?
Unfortunately, beneficial gut bacteria is not a big fan of many of the lifestyle factors that are synonymous with modern living. Stress, processed food, antibiotics, alcohol, cigarettes, sugar and pollution can all compromise good bacteria and feed the pathogenic bacteria.
Guess what? We all have our own unique bacterial gut print! So where does our bacterial pattern originate? Our bacterial pattern is mostly established in the first three weeks of life, but the good news is that if it didn’t go so well and the beneficial bacteria lost out, we can help alter this pattern with changes to lifestyle and diet.
- Eat wholefoods: Eating well encourages the growth of good bacteria. Try to go the low HI approach – opt for low human intervention foods. That means eating plenty of whole foods that are provided by nature, not foods that are tainted by human hands or processed in a lab.
- De-stress: Yoga, meditation, walking, loving and being kind to yourself all help encourage beneficial flora. They are not big fans of stress.
- Probiotics: The proven strains of good bacteria include Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species. You can find them in yoghurts and probiotic drinks but be careful that those products are not also full of gut-depleting sugar. Probiotic supplements can be helpful but I am also a big fan of consuming lacto-fermented foods to get natural viable bacteria into the belly.
- Lacto-fermented foods: Have you ever wondered why women from Eastern Europe and Asia have radiant skin? The answer may lie in sauerkraut, kefir, kimchi and miso. These are lacto-fermented foods. The lacto-fermentation process (different to other fermentation processes such as alcohol fermentation) creates a broad range of beneficial bacteria. The proliferation of lactobacilli in lacto-fermented vegetables, such as sauerkraut for example, predigests the cabbage making digestion easier and nutrients more available for the body to utilise. The process also creates good bacteria that helps to re-colonise the gut. Studies show that consuming lacto-fermented foods can influence both mood and acne by reducing systemic inflammation, and probiotics can help eliminate disease-promoting pathogenic bacteria in the gut.
Feeling a bit down about your skin? The gut is where we make neurotransmitters so the health of our gut can affect the way we feel too! This is why doctors refer to it as our second brain. So balancing our gut will help give us vitality and positivity to help us feel better about our skin and health without any special treatments.
