Acne and Gut Health

 Do you have acne prone skin?  Did you know that it is linked to your gut health?  Yes, the gut-skin axis is real and here’s why. 

The skin is your body’s largest organ.  It’s where your body can get rid of any toxins that are not passed out of the body through the bowels or the kidneys in poo and wee.  The gut and the skin keep the body in a stable state, protecting against any potential invasion of infections or other nasties.  The bowels and kidneys play their part in passing out these unwanted cells but if they are compromised in any way, the skin will suffer.  People who have gut health issues such as Inflammatory bowel disease tend to have skin problems too which shows how closely linked they are. 

In the gut, the microbiome helps to keep the intestinal barrier healthy, limiting by-products created by bacteria as well as undigested proteins and toxins.  This barrier stops them from getting into your blood stream and reaching the skin.  Around 70 per cent of your body’s immune cells live in the gut where they are influenced by the gut microbiome.

It’s normal for a little of this to leak but when it gets out of balance, such as when there is not enough good bacteria to balance out the harmful bacteria in our gut, and these bacteria by-products pass from the gut into the bloodstream.   On the skin, acne occurs when excess skin cells line the inside of a hair follicle, blocking sebum from being excreted. This allows bacteria to grow, eliciting an inflammatory response from your body’s immune system.  Then it can affect skin health and potentially trigger acne.  When the gut barrier is weakened, we call it Dysbiosis.  As well as skin problems, this imbalance can lead to inflammation and damage to the lining of the gut. 

Many inflammatory skin conditions have been directly linked to disruptions in gut microbes, including acne, Poor gut health is unlikely to be the sole cause of the development of acne but digestive issues are more common in those with acne.

So what can you do to improve your gut health and help your skin condition?  Homeopathy can help. 

There are over 70 remedies that can help, many of which have an affinity with the gut and digestive complaints and here are a few that I consider when treating skin complaints:

• Nux Vomica – Skin eruptions that are burning, or itchy, a tendency to have boils or abcesses. A good remedy for liver support and digestive complaints such as nausea and constipation.   
• Sepia – helps hormonal acne, tiredness, liver, constipation and nausea
• Pulsatilla – a good remedy for acne at puberty and for digestive issues worse for rich, fatty foods, can be tearful and clingy
• Thuja – shame of skin condition, wants to hide, oily skin, cystic acne, cutting pains in the stomach, flatulence and belching
• Silicea – Abcesses, cysts and pus, scarring of skin (keloids), suppressed perspiration, flatulence with slow digestion, vomiting, very thirsty, better for cold food and drink
• Kali Brom – good for teenagers, eruption of small, itchy, boils, bluish-red acne on face, pimples leave scars, persistent hiccups, intense thirst, vomiting.
• Sulphur – pimply eruptions, skin prone to break-outs, burning when scratched, itching from warmth. Acidity in the stomach, painless diarrhea, ‘never-all-gone’ Bored easily and often irritable.

I also prescribe a personal blend of Homeobotanicals to help the detox process and support your gut health while calming your skin and allowing the homeopathic remedies to work. 

There are other things to consider when seeking homeopathic help for skin issues such as lifestyle and whether the person has had treatment before with pharmaceutical drugs such as antibiotics which can disrupt the microbiota in the gut. 

If you have acne you can also do the following to improve things:

1. Eat right – think about food choices and make good ones, eg. try to reduce sugary and carb rich foods and replace with more fruit and vegetables, grass fed meat and organic dairy
2. Drink lots of water – many of us don’t drink enough to help our bodies expel toxins
3. Increase probiotics – take a supplement containing a blend of bacteria in as large an amount as you can find
4. Take a good quality zinc supplement which can help to reduce inflammation 
5. Green cleaning! – clean up your home and reduce the chemical load from cleaning and personal products.  Some of the ingredients in detergents and make up are pretty toxic
6. Include fermented foods in your diet – picked vegetables such as kimchi or sauerkraut, kombucha, keffir, raw vegetables
7. Increase the amount of fibre you consume – this will help you visit the loo for a poo more regularly. 

If you have any questions about any of this, please get in touch and we can discuss whether a homeopathic  approach is right for you.  Book a FREE 15 minute chat now!