Welcome to my first post on acne!
If you missed the intro to this series you can read it here. I need to start out by being very blunt with you. Healing acne does take work, sometimes even a lot of work, but if you heal the foundations you will be better off in a number of ways.
Where does acne come from?
Acne stems from your gut, hormones imbalances, and an overburden of toxins in your body. Basically, acne (and most other skin issues) is your body’s way of telling you that something inside is very wrong.
Let’s define the gut.
You may think that ‘gut’ refers to your stomach and the miles of intestines bunched up inside it. But when I say ‘gut,’ I’m including:
- The Liver: Processor of toxins, and aid in blood sugar control
- The Gallbladder: A major organ responsible for storing and accumulating bile, allowing you to thoroughly digest fat. Also shuttles toxins out of your body.
- The Stomach: An acid tank that breaks food down and neutralizes any pathogens.
- The Small Intestine: Where nutrients are absorbed into the body for use.
- The Large Intestine: Where waste is formed, vitamins are made, and excess water is recycled.
Wow! A lot goes into the word gut. So what does this have to do with acne? Remember, toxicity, inflammation, hormone deregulation, and vitamin deficiencies are all causes of acne. Any toxin you breathe, touch with your skin, or eat in your food is absorbed into your gastrointestinal tract (gut), where it is supposed to be properly removed out of the body by your liver (step one). The liver shuttles toxins to your gallbladder (step two), which releases it into your intestines (step three), where it then passes out of your body with your stool (step four).
If, however, your liver is busy producing insulin, and undertaking dangerously high levels of sugar in your blood, the toxins will be rejected by the liver, to be taken care of another time, and step one cannot be achieved. Now the toxins are stuck looking for a way out of your body, and your skin becomes a promising escape route.
If your gallbladder is unhealthy, and filled with stones or thick, vicious bile, then step two (toxins getting shuttled to your intestines with your bile), may not be successful. Even though you may not have gallbladder attacks, that doesn’t mean you are free of gallstones or thick, hard to remove bile. Unhealthy bile is formed when you eat hydrogenated oils (oils heated to high temperatures, that turn into rancid or trans fat), fried food, chips (even baked ones), doughnuts, etc. Sound like food you’ve eaten before?
Gallstones can be formed when thick bile starts to bunch up and calcify. They can also be caused when your body is trying to protect itself from parasites.
Assuming your liver is in good shape and your gallbladder is free from obstructions, then toxins have passed through these organs and ended up in your large intestines (step three). If you have healthy, frequent bowel movements and are not constipated (less than one bowel movement a day), then congratulations, you’ve completed step four, and toxins will pass out of your body successfully! However, if you have less than one bowel movement a day, you may need to do further evaluation. This is not a healthy situation for your body. Infrequent bowel movements are usually caused by your body holding onto food, trying to squeeze every last drop of nutrients out of it in order to keep your body functioning.
Maybe something is wrong with your digestion and you aren't breaking down these foods? Or maybe you are eating foods that are devoid of nutrients to start with? If toxins are not regularly taken out of your body with your bowel movements than they potentially are getting reabsorbed into your body making you more and more toxic, and are forced to exit your body through your skin in the form of acne.
What can you do to support digestion in order to absorb nutrients from your food and have healthy glowing skin from the inside out?
- Healthy digestion starts from north to south, meaning digestion starts in your brain where the whole process gets turned on. Therefore, eat calm and in a relaxed state so that your brain is able to get the process of digestion off to a good start.
2. Supplement with stomach acid. For many reasons it is easy to not have enough stomach acid to break down our food. Contrary to popular belief too little, not too much, stomach acid is the root cause of most acid reflux and acid related indigestion.
(because everyone has different levels of stomach acid and needs a different dose when supplementing with it I recommend you work with me or your holistic health care provider on this step)
3. Eat foods that support healthy bile flow. Beets, beet kvass (fermented beet juice) Lemon water, and unrefined coconut oil are all things that contribute to making good bile and keeping it free flowing.
4. Avoid foods that produce bad bile. Hydrogenated oils are foreign to the body and will do a lot more damage than just ruin the makeup of your bile.
5. Avoid toxic foods. Without going into all the gory details of how industrial farm raised animals have a different chemical makeup than organic sustainably grown animals, suffice it to say that as insignificant as it may seem choose meat from local, responsible growers over grocery store meat every time you can. One will help you get healthier in many ways and one will slowly make you sicker in many ways.
6. No matter what, even if your meat comes from the grocery store, look into getting good quality fats such as grass fed butter, pasture raised pork lard, free range grass fed organic chick, or duck fat.
7. Avoid spiking your blood sugar which robs your body of the nutrients it needs to detox and maintain healthy skin composition.
Come back next week to learn more about blood sugar and it’s effect on your skin
